Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. How’s everyone doing today? For me, the mood is a little restrained due to the currently overcast weather, but that won’t matter soon, as there ain’t no clouds in SPACE! Wait, are there clouds in space? Don’t quote me on that, I don’t actually know anything about science or the natural world. Regardless, we are indeed piercing the firmament and jetting into the vast beyond, as we check out a fresh episode of Bodacious Space Pirates.

When last we left off, Marika had almost made a serious mess of things by misplacing her captain ring. In her attempts to carry the weight of both the Bentenmaru and the yacht club on her shoulders, Marika swiftly exhausted herself, leading to dangerously sloppy behavior. Fortunately, her reliable princesses were there to save her, returning her ring while rightfully demanding she let her companions share her burdens. Marika is clearly a powerful space warrior, but even she can’t handle all these responsibilities alone; fortunately, from the yacht club through the Bentenmaru crew through Serenity’s royals and beyond, she’s established a remarkable network of allies to stand beside her.

With inter-act responsibilities resolved, it’s presumably time to embark on Bodacious Space Pirates’ final adventure. I’m eager to see what shenanigans our heroes get up to, so let’s dispense with the preamble, and set out for the stars!

Episode 20

Our opening scrawl features a reprise of Puppyhat getting excited about the existence of their new dinghy, which I have to agree was the most crucial moment of our preceding episode

Sometimes a character’s brilliance is reflected in the variable shades of their personality, or the acuity with which their author captures the weight of lived experience in their behavior. And sometimes it’s simply “small girl plus goofy hat”

Establishing pans across Marika’s high school seem to further affirm what I suspected last episode – this is clearly a school designed for the children of society’s elites, with its architecture evoking the grandiosity of an old and distinguished university

Marika arrives at the clubroom to be greeted with an advertisement for “The 19th Nebula Cup.” AW SHIT WE’RE DOING A SPACE RACING TOURNAMENT ARC WOOOO

Ah, I see, they’re going to use the dinghies for the race. So there was actually a narrative reason to touch back on Puppyhat

Man, her ascent sure had been meteoric, huh? Even though she wasn’t actually in the original yacht club crew, she swiftly became their lead pilot, and is now even getting her own arc. I guess that’s the power of a good hat for you

It turns out she’s the only one who’s actually flown a dinghy before

And then Kane pops up, and oh my god what is he wearing. His ensemble features a loose tracksuit, ridiculous shades, and an actual wooden sword – it’s like he’s trying to simultaneously dress as the coach from three different training montages

Did he… did he wax his eyebrows to make them pointier? Kane, what are you doing

He’s renewed his teaching permit, and is now officially their PE teacher

Kane immediately sets to work torturing his charges with the simulator. “This is a recreation of the strongest typhoon ever recorded, Francisco II!” I’d almost forgotten how fun Kane is in student advisor mode, this is going to be a good arc

Also, kudos to Masaya Matsukaze for that excellent rolling of the R in “Francisco”

I was joking earlier, but the more lingering shots they spend on her, the more it seems like this is actually Puppyhat’s own personal arc. I suppose Marika’s roster was in need of an ace fighter pilot

Apparently, their academy was suspended from the Nebula Cup for five years due to interference and reckless behavior

As always, Bodacious Space Pirates’ ship designs are on point. The race organizers’ flagship seems to be designed as a cross between a sailboat and a crossbow

“Will we be able to handle them in our current state? Those demons at Hakuoh Academy…” Jesus, what did Hakuoh’s students do five years ago? That’s far too recent of an incident for it to be Marika’s mom’s fault, but I’d otherwise consider her the top suspect

Beautiful lakeside backgrounds show off this production’s excellent color design as we return to Sea of the Morningstar. I almost wish this show were able to spend more time on land, since its backgrounds are always so excellent – but of course, their very excellence is to some degree a result of the production only needing so many of them, since it otherwise sticks to ship interiors or starry backdrops. Every demand for additional art resources is a further strain on any production’s overall quality level, and every production must find its own answer to the question of “how many designs can we produce while maintaining a quality level we’re comfortable with”

This episode is absolutely spoiling us with goofy Puppyhat animation, like this sequence of her freaking out after Marika pokes her with a can of coffee. Bodacious Space Pirates clearly understands its own appeal

Puppyhat doesn’t consider all this additional labor “working hard,” because she loves what she’s doing. She’s looking more and more like genuine Bentenmaru material!

Apparently some outside agents are pursuing the Katos, which a roomful of serious-looking men all agree might “disrupt our truce regarding Kato Marika.” I wonder what Marika would make of her increasing centrality to interstellar politics

For as long as she attends Hakuoh Academy, Marika is protected in the same way all of the academy’s high-profile attendees must be. But once she graduates, she’ll have to protect her stake in the universe herself

Seeing Puppyhat’s fervor for yacht maintenance briefly makes Marika second-guess her own goals, before remembering that she’s done all this because she was determined to go into space. Marika’s personality makes for a somewhat odd match with these more pensive or reflective episodes – her self-confidence is one of her strongest features, so she tends to resolve any internal doubts within about five seconds

The Bentenmaru has been hired to run security… on the 19th Nebula Cup. It’s all coming together!

After the break, we jump back in with Kane having dragged the whole yacht club to the beach

“Why are we here, Sensei?” “Don’t call me Sensei, call me Coach!” Yep, he’s getting way too into this

Kane announces they’ll be windsurfing to decide who competes in the Nebula Cup, which frankly seems like a terrible choice. What small portion of related skills are carried between windsurfing and piloting a spacecraft?

“In a tournament, the important thing is not your skills, but the endurance and concentration to use them!” That is wrong and also stupid. Goddamnit Kane, your Rocky roleplay is going to get these kids killed

“This has nothing to do with dinghies!” “We only used these a little in our marine activities class, and the first years haven’t even taken that!” The class boils over with very reasonable complaints, which Kane of course ignores

Grunhilde notices her sister drowning and just sails right on by. “That’s right, Gruier can’t swim. Don’t worry sister, I’ll avenge you!” This is a very good episode

Oh my god, Kane’s gonna have the Bentenmaru buzz the beach and stir up the waves into a frenzy. The yacht club must have some really robust safety wavers

Even worse, it fires some kind of compressed air cannon. Of course, given the yacht club is the yacht club, this only fires up our insane competitors

And the winners are in! Natalia, Grunhilde, and Puppyhat secure their spots in the tournament

And Done

Ah, what a fun choice for our final arc! A big sailing tournament that combines both the yacht club and the Bentenmaru crew sounds better than anything I could have hoped for, and will likely facilitate the most action-packed set of episodes so far. In fact, we’re already seeing that bear out, as this episode was easily one of the production’s most exciting and visually generous installments. Additionally, returning Kane to his role as club advisor also made this one of the funniest episodes so far, while also providing plenty of opportunities for the yacht club members to express their weird selves. A top notch episode of Bodacious Space Pirates, and a supremely encouraging introduction to our final act!

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