Bodacious Space Pirates

Summary: >

Marika is an average girl on a frontier planet attending school. Her carefree life changes dramatically when she learns her father was the captain of a pirate ship. As his only child, Marika will inherit the position. Marika is only vaguely familiar with pirates, but this is a good opportunity to venture into space. Trying to balance a life between pirate captain and school girl will be tough. Who ever heard of legal pirates anyway?

Thoughts: >

I guess between the camps of Cyber Ninja vs Space Pirates, I'd go with the pirates; particularly the Bodacious ones. They say "don't judge a book by it's cover" but there's many things not to judge this one by. An anime with "bodacious" in the title, with hot pink logo complete with heart accent. Or the schoolgirl pirate concept. However Bodacious Space Pirates is better than expected, and nothing like the vapid fan service overload I'd guess it was. It doesn't approach any kind of awesomeness, but is quite strong all the same.

Despite the outward indicators of stupidity, the show is smartly constructed. For instance "electronic warfare" is a major factor in space battles, where computers fend of hacking attacks and compensate for bad data sent to their sensors. The idea that pirates are more like freelancers, is plausible. There is also the quirky job of "pirate shows", where rich cruse ships hire pirates to "rob them" for a thrilling show. It's not an especially brainy concept, and very "anime" with the setup, but the sci-fi mostly works.

As the protagonist, Marika is a likable heroin with a well rounded personality. She's easy going and a bit spaced out, but not annoying. Although tossed into her new role out of the blue, she's determined to follow her path and see things through. As for everyone else, Marika's mom and her rival Chiaki fair well, but everyone else is just there.

Bodacious Space Pirates does have a problem with pacing, and some parts seriously drag. Even with the leisurly pace, it never felt like things were going too slow, however by the end I felt more should have happend in 26 episodes.

Worth checking out? Sure. Don't let the weird title dissuade you. It's on the tame side of anime, but overall solid enough to give a shot.

Screen Caps: >