Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Treasure Satellite.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 31, 2012

The Walt Disney Company has weathered a number of creative peaks and valleys in its long and storied life, and just giving a cursory glance to its list of in house animated features is like riding a virtual roller coaster of incredible highs followed by some appalling lows. It’s not hard to argue that Disney’s first five “full length” (a somewhat arbitrary term) animated features, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi, are all undisputed masterpieces, but then Disney seemed to be at least slightly slacking in such lesser (which is not to say unenjoyable) fare like Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, Fun and Fancy Free and Melody Time, a series of relatively unambitious features that rounded out Disney’s forties canon. The fifties were generally kinder to Disney, though its output was much diminished due to Walt’s newfound flirtation with television and live action feature films. The sixties were kind of a holding period for the studio in terms of animation at least, with some marginally charming films that still struggled to recapture the magic and artistry of earlier Disney works. The seventies and, for the most part, eighties seemed to continue this lethargic spiral, with a number of “okay” animated features being released, none of which can objectively be listed at the top of the Disney oeuvre, even if those who grew up with them probably have a fond place in their hearts for various projects. But after The Little Mermaid came out in 1989, Disney seemed to embark on a new Golden Era of animation excellence, churning out one commanding masterpiece after another. That glow had diminished somewhat by the early 2000s, when another film by Mermaid’s creative team of John Musker and Ron Clements opened to largely positive reviews but absolutely deadly box office: Treasure Planet . Treasure Island had of course been Disney’s first all live action film and had been a substantial hit when it was released in 1950, so revisiting the property in animated form, and set in a kind of bizarre future that combined both high tech and retro in one fell swoop, probably seemed like a good idea. But somehow the idea of pirates in outer space just didn’t gel very well for whatever reason and the film was one of Disney’s most devastating disappointments, at least from a box office perspective. Which brings us to Bodacious Space Pirates.

Satelight is a Japanese animation studio that may not exactly have Disney’s lustrous reputation, but which has in fact put out a number of very highly regarded anime through the years, including contributing to Hellsing Ultimate: Collection Volumes 1- 4 and Guin Saga. And while Bodacious Space Pirates is (like many anime) culled from a pre-existing light novel series (which kind of humorously bears the slightly different name Miniskirt Space Pirates), some might wonder why at least some creative heads at Satelight didn’t pause for a moment to question the viability of combining pirates with outer space, considering that such a vaunted studio as Disney couldn’t make it work. However, Bodacious Space Pirates turns out to be in its own way a sort of “Disneyfied” roller coaster ride in microcosm, with some pretty turgid lows finally offset by an increasing number of highs.

It may in fact be nothing more than coincidence, but there are a number of parallels between Treasure Planet and Bodacious Space Pirates. Much like Jim Hawkins, Bodacious Space Pirates’s lead character is a young person, albeit a female named Mariko Kato, who lives with her widowed mother. And much like Hawkins’ pub in Treasure Planet, Mariko works in an eating establishment and wears a maid’s outfit that is more than a little reminiscent of Mrs. Hawkins’ attire in the Disney film. On a stylistic level, the two pieces also share one salient similarity: Treasure Planet was acclaimed at the time of its release for its then revolutionary combination of 3D computer generated animations with more traditional 2D hand drawn imagery, and though that’s a much more common occurrence nowadays, Bodacious Space Pirates also makes use of a similar blend.

This first volume of Bodacious Space Pirates gets us to around the halfway mark through the series’ 26 episodes, and so a certain amount of slack should probably be accorded the show until everything’s been seen, but my initial impression of the series is that it’s kind of middling at times, despite some very fun characters and an interesting enough setup. Part of the problem with this first half is there is simply a lot of exposition to be gotten through, especially in the first handful or so of episodes, and the writers (and even the voice actors) don’t seem particularly enthused about getting through it. Even some of the most salient plot points—like Marika’s deceased father having been a famous space pirate—are just kind of tossed off with a really odd nonchalance, as if they don’t really matter.

The other thing that partially hobbles this first set of episodes is the sheer number of characters the viewer needs to navigate as they begin to wend their way through various storylines. Marika doesn’t just end up commanding her father’s former ship, she also works in the pub-like restaurant and also belongs to her school’s Yacht Club, with a gaggle (maybe even a gaggle and a half) of characters in each location.

However, taken as a whole, things improve quite a bit once the “necessary introductions” are out of the way and the main story arc kicks into place. There’s nothing incredibly exciting or innovative about Bodacious Space Pirates, but it’s often quite enjoyable and in a rather surprising move, especially considering its title, it really has little to no fan service (other than just a few “miniskirt” shots). While a lot of the series works within a fairly traditional shōjo or moe atmosphere, with attendant battle and science fiction elements bursting into view from time to time, the relationships between the characters becomes the main focus rather quickly and is usually interesting enough to overcome the more cliché ridden aspects of the series. The second half of this series will ultimately tell the tale as to whether pirates and spacecraft can indeed coexist successfully.

Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bodacious Space Pirates is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is now the second Sentai anime release in a row (after Penguindrum: Collection 1) that has featured an interlaced presentation, and while Penguindrum featured a largely stellar video presentation, Bodacious Space Pirates does offer at least a few more obviously noticeable defects, chief among them persistent banding which crops up in many of the outer space scenes as well as in fades and segues between segments. Otherwise, though, there aren't any egregious combing artifacts on display, and the series looks rather nicely vivid and sharp. Colors are bright, bold and really well saturated and line detail is stable and consistent. Character designs are especially winning throughout this first set of episodes, with well delineated characteristics that help to identify the vast supporting cast.

Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Bodacious Space Pirates features lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mixes in both Japanese and English, and as with so many anime releases of late, there's a noticeable difference in amplitude and general aggressiveness between the two, with the English having noticeably louder low end and more present sound effects. Otherwise, both of these tracks offer excellent fidelity, with good to excellent voice work, and rather wide dynamic range. This is another series that probably could have benefited from a surround mix, especially when the pirate ships are zooming through space, but these relatively narrow stereo mixes do fine on their own merits.

Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Clean Opening Animation (1080i; 1:32)


• Clean Closing Animation (1080i; 1:32)

Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Bodacious Space Pirates has a number of winning elements, including Marika, her mother, the crew of the Bentenmaru, the members of the Yacht Club and various other pirates and supporting cast members (as stated above, there are a lot of cast members in this show). The story is awfully slow going to begin with, muddled by having too many of these characters just kind of thrust at the viewer with little or no context, and without a really compelling story driving them along. But by the time Marika takes the helm of the Bentenmaru while she's simultaneously attempting to work and be a student, things improve quite a bit and the rest of this first arc, while often pretty formulaic, is also quite enjoyable. This is a really beautiful looking anime in any case, and despite some niggling qualms with the high definition transfer, this release comes Recommended.