Heads up folks, we’re returning at last to the starry skies of Bodacious Space Pirates. Last episode saw our heroine Marika seem to finally catch the space-faring bug, as her first space walk introduced her to the incredible grandeur and mystery of space. At the same time, Kane has been both testing and reinforcing her leadership abilities, while Chiaki seems to be slowly warming up to her chipper new classmate. But perhaps most importantly, episode three also demonstrated Bodacious Space Pirates’ satisfyingly thorough approach to conveying the mechanics of space travel itself, which seems like an excellent choice for a show centered on the dynamics of a ship’s bridge. I wasn’t really expecting such grounded, hard scifi storytelling from a show called “Bodacious Space Pirates,” but I’m happy to see it, and intrigued to find out how the show’s realistic and farcical elements continue to interact. Let’s get back into space!
Episode 4
“The Final Battle is at Midnight.” Well, that escalated quickly
This opening monologue fuses the show’s pragmatic mechanical instructions and thematic aims, as a discussion of how your physical orientation works in space is paired with lines like “confronted by the vastness of space, you may be disoriented by how small you are.” Nice to see the show so quickly acknowledge that up and down are meaningless concepts in space; a lot of scifi stories essentially treat space like a two-dimensional sea, where strategies are designed as if ships are engaging in traditional naval battles
Ooh, their ship looks lovely with all of its solar sails out. The CG is holding up quite well
The ship’s mast and solar sails also do a fine job of evoking the look and feel of a classic seafaring ship transposed to space. It’s an interesting balance the show is seeking; hard scifi is fascinated with the grounded, realistic mechanics of future technology, but in order to evoke the emotional sensation of “pirates at sea,” you must respect the audience’s emotional expectations of what a ship should look like. It’s a balance that Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! also explored in the context of spaceships; creating inventive new ships is fun, but your designs should respect what resonates as inherently “ship-like” to a general audience, if you want that audience to actually parse your design as a ship. In Bodacious Space Pirates’ case, a balance between grounded mechanics and audience resonance is achieved by having the visual design evoke the classic image of a ship with white sails unfurled, even though the “sails” in this case are actually solar panels
That, of course, reflects an even more general rule of visual storytelling: good character or background designs should provide a strong emotional impression of their subject. Visual design can be incredibly powerful narrative shorthand
The team navigator discovered three ships that didn’t respond to their hail, including the Bentenmaru. We’re quickly establishing Marika’s classmates as skilled crewmates in their own right
It looks like Misa may be taking the role of ship’s doctor
Ooh, lovely fiddle music as the ship takes a dramatic turn. That compliments their intended “retro adventure serial” tone quite nicely
I like how the show takes a moment to acknowledge the team switching over to the bare-bones night shift. One of the things that’s often missed in stories about space travel is that space travel, like sea travel, takes a long time. Long stretches of dead space between their destinations is a quality both share, thus emphasizing it furthers both the show’s hard scifi and naval fantasy aims
Somewhat clumsier inclusion of a full explanation for what a transponder does. A show this invested in the nitty-gritty mechanics of space travel isn’t going to be able to gracefully weave all of them in, though. I often praise shows for their ability to naturally integrate exposition, but some stories are just built on too many assumed pieces of information to really manage it – like Hunter x Hunter, which demands a persistent narrator to clarify its maddeningly complex conflicts
“Maybe mysterious aliens have attacked, destroying my home planet?” Marika is pretty great
Breaks in connection with the local broadcasting points imply their ship is being jammed
Once again, Marika makes confident decisions and then acts decisively. As Chiaki asks her if she’s willing to accept the responsibility of picking a fight with an entire crew on board, Marika answers by beginning her preparations before Chiaki is finished speaking
Marika and Chiaki continue to evoke that classic Kirk-Spock dynamic. Marika thinks up a bold and ridiculous plan, Chiaki sighs and offers some key adjustments that keep them from losing their heads
Is it any surprise that Kirk-Spock shipping was one of fandom’s first obsessions? Dynamics that make for well-balanced team leaders also make for great romance
The pair discover a ghost ship! GHOST SHIP EPISODE
Chiaki asks Kane if he’s seen a ghost ship, to which he responds “who can say?” Great, excellent teaching, Kane
“Pirate ships are listed in the phonebook?” I like that Marika and Chiaki are already monitoring Kane’s own broadcasts. Good instincts – just because he’s their teacher doesn’t mean he’s on their side
They’re really building up the mystery of the Bentenmaru itself; we don’t even get to hear the voice of whoever Kane is talking to. I suppose it makes sense to build up the reveal of Marika’s great inheritance, so we can be impressed alongside her when it finally arrives
The club president is unfazed by learning that a ship is likely tailing them. These are some extremely powerful high schoolers
The president already knows about Marika’s legacy. “I’m looking forward to being able to see some space piracy around here.” Apparently they’re all crazy
“Because of some stuff with her family, Marika is being pursued by bad people.” “Marika, what did you do?” Fantastic. I love this show’s style of deadpan; nobody is ever particularly fazed by the sudden intrusion of space piracy
The other clubmates oohing and ahhing as Marika plots their defense is also great. An excellent peanut gallery here
There’s a point to that too, though. Even without trying, Marika is a naturally inspiring speaker and leader
Marika has devised a plan where they’ll create a duplicate of the Odette II’s electronic systems, and allow the enemy to think they’ve won by hacking the dummy system
Lynn is apparently their tech specialist. Kinda fun how the mechanics of a ship’s bridge crew creates its own balanced party dynamics, in the same way that adventures or heists need balanced parties
The president’s name is Jenny Dolittle, and she’s apparently a rich heir with an arranged marriage waiting for her. If her little five-pointed ability chart is anything to go by, she’s good at everything
And Lynn is a hacker, of course. They really are building their own version of a heist crew
It seems like Kane is intentionally holding back from interfering in either a positive or negative way, which makes sense. This is Marika’s test – if she needs help to pass it, she hasn’t really passed
These holographic displays the bridge uses for reading information are handing for conveying information in a way that doesn’t disrupt the dramatic staging of a scene. You can have two characters carry on a conversation with floating text in between them, thereby illustrating that information without dedicating the whole screen to it
Lynn sets to work hijacking the enemy’s antenna transmitter
And Done
At last, the crew is preparing for their first battle! In characteristic Space Pirates fashion, we spent basically this whole episode verifying the existence of the enemy, and then working out a plan for their actual engagement. In spite of this show’s bombastic title, this episode mostly served as a rigorous reaffirmation of this show’s hard scifi bonafides, where individual acts of heroism are far less important than diligent planning, teamwork, and understanding the mechanical intricacies of your spacecraft and software. At the same time, this episode was able to tap into an appeal much like the “crew-gathering” segment of a heist narrative, where we learned that teammates like Lynn and Jenny are actually key, distinct assets bringing their own skills to the bridge. Bodacious Space Pirates has been a slow-burning narrative so far, but having carefully established so many of the core mechanics of space travel and electronic warfare, I’m eager to see the team at last assume their battle stations!
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