Heya folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. I’m currently feeling sick as a dog, having spent most of last night coughing and sniveling in the throes of my first winter cold. Fortunately, today we’ve got a sunny, energetic new project to explore, which will hopefully help me put my own bodily dysfunctions out of mind: Bodacious Space Pirates.

Bodacious Space Pirates’ premiere powered through the first part of Marika Kato’s call to adventure efficiently and with a great deal of charm, as she rapidly discovered that space pirates exist, her mother actually was one, and her father’s death has left her as the improbable heir to a legal pirate ship. In narrative terms, Marika’s story seems to echo old adventure serials, along with a healthy dash of school drama tropes, like the mysterious transfer student. In aesthetic terms, the show is quite pretty on the whole, with solid CG and fairly expressive characters. I’ll be interested in seeing if that unique visual sequence while Marika was having her history explained is a persistent trick, but on the whole, I’m ready for whatever this charming show offers. Let’s get to it!

Episode 2

“My Power, the Power of a Pirate.” This show’s tone kinda feels like if Love Live! were a show about creating a School Pirate Group instead of a School Idol Group

Apparently Sea of the Morningstar was one of the first planets humanity colonized

I suppose if the problem of interstellar travel hasn’t been “solved” yet, then the existence of pirates makes sense. It would be difficult to effectively police planets that it takes hundreds of years to reach

I wonder if this show will have an OP switch halfway through. Now that I have a bit more context on the show, it’s clear this OP reveals very little – it’s mostly just “embarking on a journey” imagery

Color work remains excellent. Even just the various distinct yellows of the buildings around Mamika feel rich and lively

Chiaki held onto her parfait during their escape, lol

Marika is pretty slow to recognize the significance of her situation. I can’t tell whether she’s intentionally trying to cling to normalcy, or just kind of oblivious

“Don’t you have work?” “If you say your daughter’s been caught in the middle of a gunfight, usually they let you go home early”

Marika says she was most surprised to learn her dad was alive, and only died recently – and more importantly, surprised that it didn’t make her feel anything. A very human reaction; the whole space pirate thing is just too far from her experience for her to feel real

Ririka doesn’t have much of an answer for why she was a pirate – mostly just “I was born in space,” and “you probably wouldn’t understand.” They’re paving over some pretty important dramatic variables here with feel-good “you’ll understand one day” nonsense

I guess I’m just not sure yet if this show wants to be a genuine character drama or just a farce. If it wants me to actually care about its characters, it’s going to need to stop being so vague about the conditions of their lives, and the roots of their feelings. If it wants to be a farce, it’s going to have to up its joke density

At least the backgrounds are all gorgeous! This episode is really making the most of the slowly setting sun, conveying a beautiful range of sunset colors falling on all the scenery

Beautiful shot of what looks like a spaceship graveyard

Ririka’s trunk is full of guns, which she says “the police and military let slide.” Again, this is farcical, but not really that funny

“Do you know why pirates boarding ships take guns with them?” “To fight?” “No, to impress.” Oh, I like this. If we’re actually diving into the philosophy of pirates, I’ll be very entertained

Ririka draws a line between police or military, who fight under orders, and pirates, who must choose for themselves when to pull the trigger

I feel like this might just be a subgenre that doesn’t quite work for me; I also bounced off Princess Principal, and what I like about Girls und Panzer has basically nothing to do with the cast’s emotional problems. I think I have difficulty engaging with played-straight character arcs in the context of utterly farcical worlds

Kane is now the club advisor of the yachting club, apparently

Dear lord, this school’s “yachting” ship is kickass

The yachting club is a convenient way to make sure all of Marika’s friends are already pirating-ready

I appreciate how this ship’s interior actually looks like it was designed for zero gravity movement. A lot of anime spaceships tend to look more like seafaring vessels than space traveling ships, which can bleed into other elements of their design and storytelling. I love Legend of the Galactic Heroes dearly, but all of its battles clearly assume space is a flat plane

I’m glad Marika is beginning to push back against all the absurd coincidences around her, starting with Kane becoming adviser. A little skepticism on her part would go a long way towards giving me something to believe in in this world

I often talk about how shows about a given subject tend to prioritize the perspective of an outsider, since that allows for natural exposition as that character is integrated into the narrative. This is another reason an outsider’s perspective is so important – they can create a sense of normalcy, giving the audience a neutral perspective to align with even in a farcical world

Their bridge is extremely pink

I also like how carefully they’re going through this ship’s startup operations. This is exactly the kind of grounding stuff I was hoping for, emphasizing the genuine danger of space travel, and the complex means we use to conquer space. Large-scale worldbuilding is too nebulous to create much of a sense of reality; grounded sequences like this do far more work in bringing a world to life

Kane and Chiaki seem to have some history

Apparently both their practice ship and the Bentenmaru are part of the “Original Seven” pirate ships

Chiaki is protecting the ship from various spam and virus attacks. Some things never change

A very charming sequence, as Marika actually helps Chiaki narrow down the source of an electronic attack

“We must teach them a lesson, or else they’ll do it again!” I kinda love how Marika clearly possesses this half high school student, half pirate queen personality. It’s already clear she’s a proud and very direct person, and that she understands the genuine importance of symbolic gestures. Leadership is in large part about “presenting strength”

“Make the best decision you can. And believe in it!” Exactly

And Done

Huh! That was a pretty interesting episode, and definitely not the episode I was expecting. I figured we’d be barreling off into space pretty much immediately, but it seems like this show’s first act will actually take place on Marika’s home planet, as they gather together the full Bentenmaru crew.

There were parts of this episode that worked for me, and also significant parts that didn’t. The weakest material for me focused on Marika’s relationship with her mother, which felt too absurd to really earn its sentimental tone. Ririka just feels like a completely unbelievable person in pretty much every aspect, so it was hard to engage with her material. On the other hand, the second half of this episode was much stronger, and did a great job of both adding solidity to this show’s world, as well as fleshing out the dynamic between Marika and Chiaki. The two of them have something approaching that classic Kirk-Spock dynamic, making the further exploration of their relationship feel like this episode’s most effective hook. I’m not totally sold by what I’ve seen so far, but I’m certainly intrigued.

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