08.05
“Work for? I don’t work for anyone, I’m just having fun!”
– The Doctor, Nightmare of Eden (1979)
Well, hello there. I’m The Eclectic Dude, a guy from the AR forums and have been an anime blogger for the past 2 years, well 2 years ago this month. I have taken a look at various anime, be it OVA, movie or full TV series, both good, bad and just plain bizarre-what-is-this-I-don’t-even.
In celebration of 2 years of being in the anime blogosphere, I am posting a review here on the main AR page as opposed to my own blog page (found in Other Cool Blogs). I am also taking a page from Avaitor’s similar review on The Weekenders (which as an aside, good review dude, I remember that show fondly) which in turn is similar in format to the Criterion Collection’s set of reviews as previously mentioned in Avaitor’s review.
So, moving onto the subject of this special review: Bodacious Space Pirates! Or Miniskirt Space Pirates if you go by the original Japanese but whatever. This light novel adaptation from last year tells the story of Marika Kato, a young high school girl living in the far future who is roped into the life of being a space pirate after learning about her father dying and her mother, Ririka being associated with some of her father’s friends/crewmates. Of course, this isn’t like space pirates (like that lost Bob Holmes story) or romantizied pirates like in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series. No, they operate akin to hired mercenaries, doing missions for entertainment or legal matters. Nevertheless, Marika decides to go with it and in the process explore the galaxy and have fun with space piracy as well.
Now, I found out about this show back in January 2012 when it first came out. I like the first few episodes, but then I got caught up in life matters. Then, word got to me that this was coming over to the US the following year, with a dub no less, and I was pumped. I bought the series shortly after both parts came out in April, and I have enjoyed it immensely since then. Overall, it is a very fun and entertaining series with a surprising amount of depth to characters and storytelling, in addition to the 3 reasons below.
So, here is the meat of this article sandwich:
Reason 1: Interesting cast of characters
Bodacious Space Pirates has perhaps one of the widely used and diverse cast of characters for a series this long. Marika Kato is the kind of female MC I like: strong-headed, determined and very likeable and sympathetic, as well as ‘a character that is female instead of being a female character’; well that and she looks real fine as a space pirate. Chiaki Kurihara and the Bentenmaru crew have just enough dimensionality to make them interesting, even if some of them don’t get a whole lot of exposure.
I’ll also admit that the Yacht Club might be nothing more than your typical sport club schoolgirls, but there is a certain charm to them. A few of them even get their moment to shine (Ai-chan and the Nebula Cup). Well, that and the canon yuri couple (Lynn x Jenny) make a good couple and are a good example of portraying lesbian characters in anime: Be evident but subtle about it. Overall, this show does a better job at handling a big character roster better than Bleach in its 300+ episode run. Take that!
Reason 2: Extrapolation of seafaring/pirate adventure into a futuristic sci-fi show or “My Past is My Future”
I shall use the second arc, involving the Serenity Princesses and the ‘ghost ship’ as an example for how this concept works well in this show and also I feel this story arc uses this concept to the best of its ability. To summarize, after Marika gets her letter of marque so she can captain the Bentenmaru and goes on a few missions (mostly entertaining luxury cruise ships) ends picking up Gruier Serenity as a stowaway. She has come aboard to tell the Bentenmaru crew about the legendary ‘Golden Ghost Ship’. So essentially it is a pirate treasure hunt. But, it is filled with concepts like ‘The Space Ark’ and ‘Fantasy Kingdom in Space’ that makes it interesting. That, and the story arc is great fun as well. Tatsuo Sato’s direction and writing (same guy who directed Nadesico just over a decade ago) is in fine form here, as he seems both telling a story and yet at the same time he’s genre savvy so it keeps things refreshing. The duel between Marika and Kane in episode 6 is a highlight of this. Of course, the visuals help to reinforce this point, for instance when the Golden Ghost Ship emerges from subspace; its extraordinary given the low budget and obvious CG work, which is still consistent throughout.
Reason 3: The English Dub
Now, while Bodacious Space Pirates is perfectly serviceable in the original Japanese, its English dub is an outstanding and commendable effort by Sentai Filmworks. Christopher Ayres and Josh Grelle handled the ADR Directing and Scriptwriting respectively. I find that Chris Ayres is probably the better of the main two ADR Directors for Sentai (Steve Foster being the other), and the dub fro this series shows this immensely. Granted on the surface, the dub comes across as a typical Sentai Filmworks, with a mix of former ADV actors/actresses (Luci Christain, Monica Rial, Shelly Calene-Black, Chris Patton, Hilary Haag, etc) along with rookie/new talent (Emily Neves, Shannon Emerick, Margaret McDonald, Mike Yager, etc) to round it all out. But, to thanks to consistent to very great performances and tight adaptative writing elevate this dub over some of the other Sentai dubs. Then again, considering the other titles Sentai has released/acquired this year isn’t saying much.
