Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 2 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 5, 2013

A lot of anime exploit fan service even when the shows themselves don’t actually require it, so one would naturally assume that a series called Bodacious Space Pirates would be awash in jiggling bosoms, panty shots and other tricks of this particular trade. In fact this series has resolutely little fan service, and so those who are drawn to its intimating title might be at least a little disappointed in this relatively chaste fare. Others who couldn’t care less whether or not there is any fan service might still be a bit disappointed by this series, for while it boasts a solid enough premise (one rather frightfully close to a distaff version of Disney’s Treasure Planet, as was discussed in the Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 1 Blu-ray review), the series has a tendency to cram a lot of information and characters into each and every episode, which in the early going at least creates some seriously lethargic elements. The first half of the series which was presented in the first Blu-ray collection got noticeably more streamlined and therefore more effective about halfway through its set of episodes, and the good news is for the most part this second half of the series continues that momentum. There’s something to be said for getting introductions out of the way and proceeding straight to the action, and that’s largely what’s in store in this second arc of episodes. Of course, anyone coming into this second half without having already gone through the requisite introductions is probably going to be at least a little confused, but this set of episodes has decidedly fewer of the slow feeling episodes that were a bit of a hindrance to this show—well, taking flight.

The first half of the series had some fairly interesting developments when our heroine, Marika Kato, had finally taken command of her deceased father’s pirate ship, the Bentenmaru. In fact the final arc of episodes in this first half had a nicely done story involving a “ghost ship” of sorts that also had a (perhaps unintentional) little swipe at inherited royal titles. The second half of the series starts off a bit after this adventure, but unfortunately the series goes off on a slight tangent right out of the gate when a shipment of live animals ends up infecting Marika’s crew, leading her to have to recruit new members. What, more characters? No—the show ends up porting over Marika’s Yacht Club cronies to fill the positions.

This in turn leads to a domino effect of sorts over the next episodes as the new yacht club members aren’t exactly up to speed on helping to pilot a spaceship. This includes out and out mistakes which of course lead to various consequences, but all of these shenanigans help to highlight one of Bodacious Space Pirates’s none too subtle yet still salient lessons, namely that friendship can overcome virtually any obstacle. The show repeatedly returns to this motif, with Marika learning over (and over) that standing by one’s friends is at least as important as eking out a supposed “victory”.

There are a number of small arcs that intervene in the middle grouping of episodes. Some of these have decent enough ideas behind them, as in one that kind of promotes some nascent feminism when a friend of Marika’s finds out she’s being married off to deprive her of any intrinsic power (and an inheritance), but others are kind of “one offs” that are enjoyable enough on their own merits but do little to advance the overall plot or indeed even help to develop character, as in a rather sitcom-esque episode where the crew gets locked out of the bridge when Marika makes yet another unintended error.

Things improve dramatically in the final grouping of episodes when a real villain finally enters the picture. The interesting thing is the villain appears to have been vanquished, at least initially, but then reappears in an even deadlier form as the series winds towards it denouement. Also very well handled in this arc is a return to the very “ghost ship” storyline that started out this set of episodes. There’s also a kind of ironic subtext throughout this arc where Marika and her crew are fighting to sustain the pirate life against formidable outside forces. The irony of course is that in Bodacious Space Pirates’s formulation, the pirates are the good guys (or gals, as the case may be) and the outside forces are the villains.

The series continues to offer some very nice animation (though I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed by this second half’s quality in comparison to the first half). The character designs are quite distinctive and the series does a really nice job of combining an “old fashioned” pirate ethos with a futuristic approach that is aided and abetted by some well done melding of 2D and 3D elements. This second half does have its requisite battles which provide a little visual (and aural) bombast, but Bodacious Space Pirates is perhaps surprisingly a smaller scale series that focuses on one girl finding herself in a new role and surrounding herself with loyal allies to help them all thrive in unexpected circumstances. It’s not a new idea or even one which is handled with any great sense of innovation in this series, but it’s still one which bears some occasionally tasty fruit as this series goes where no woman has ever gone before.

Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 2 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. There's no denying that Bodacious Space Pirates is often an extremely handsome production, with artfully blended 2D and 3D elements and some beautifully robust and well variegated colors. This second half of the series continues the first half's nicely sharp and clear imagery, but I personally felt there were a couple of niggling concerns that didn't afflict the first half quite so much. Chief among these were some odd "lighting" effects that almost looked like pushed contrast, which often cast a sort of milky haze on the imagery, robbing the blacks of their power. This also tends to make some of these sequences look at least a little soft, especially when compared to the bulk of the series. As with the first half of the series, there's some prevalent banding on display, especially in segues and fades.

Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 2 follows the first collection's offering of DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mixes in both English and Japanese. As with the first volume, there's a somewhat more aggressive mix apparent in the English track, though oddly it isn't quite as aggressive a difference as was noticeable in the first half of the series. Fidelity is excellent on both of these tracks, with clear dialogue, score and effects. Some of the battle scenes probably would have benefited from a surround mix, but what's here suffices quite well and provides a surprising amount of dynamic range.

Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

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


• Clean Closing Animation (1080p; 3:04) actually contains two closing sequences.


• Trailers for other Sentai Filmworks Releases

Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 2 has both good and bad points, with the good probably outweighing the bad. The series has already gotten the most troublesome elements out of the way by the time this second half kicks off, and so this second half benefits from having relatively well established characters and a plot that's already in full swing. However, there's also an awful lot of tangential filler that tends to surface in any given episode, a recurrent issue with this series that at times hobbles it and keeps the story from moving forward with much momentum. The last three or four episodes really pull everything together pretty well, however, with some nice "call backs" to earlier episodes and a rousing battle finale. There's nothing really very innovative about any of this, but Bodacious Space Pirates is an above average series that manages to deliver a fair amount of entertainment value along with some very nice visuals. This Blu-ray is pretty slight in the supplements department, but the video and audio are excellent. Recommended.