At this passed animeland wasabi, I had forgotten my roomkey one morning and decided to hit up the video rooms to kill some time. While being familiar with the majority of the shows currently airing I hadn’t really given one much of a chance. That show was Mouretsu Space Pirates, Miniskirt Pirates or possibly better known as Bodacious Space Pirates. I was really caught off guard by this show, previously I had only given it a one episode but I found once I returned from the con I quickly caught up to the current episode.
Mouretsu Pirates is about a high school girl named Marika, who lives on a planet where space travel is normal. She is living out her ordinary life, balancing school with work when suddenly she learns about the death of her father… who recently passed away due to food poisoning and happened to be a prominent captain of the pirate ship Bentenmaru — which had a legal licence to pirate a letter of marque. There is a catch though… In order to continue legal operation the next captain must be a direct descendant of the previous and our main protagonist, Marika, is the only one that can do it.
In Summary:
Moretsu Pirates had a slow and cliché start — initially puting me off by the opening and just didn’t really seem to grab me by episode one. It wasn’t till after I was essentially forced to watch episode two and three that I started to see the space opera in the story. It manages to get away from a lot of the expected moeblob and fan service and set the classy bar just a bit higher. Its animated by Satelight, who brought us Gurren Lagann, Kiddy Girl -AND, Escaflowne: The Movie, and Cowboy Bebop — and it also has a light novel backing its’ content. I would recommend this series to people who enjoy a scifi-space setting and a story that is light on fan service and seems to almost recreate the feel of some old, classic series (Space Battleship Yamato and Galaxy Express 999 come to mind).
[spoiler title=”Promo Video”]
[media url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyiCfV8E6Ts” width=”600″ height=”400″ jwplayer=”controlbar=bottom”][/spoiler]
[spoiler title=”OP:「猛烈宇宙交響曲・第七楽章「無限の愛」”][media url=”http://www.animeroot.com/media/animereview/Winter2012/MoeretsuPirates/Mouretsu_Pirates_OP.mp4″ width=”600″ height=”400″ jwplayer=”controlbar=bottom”][/spoiler]
[spoiler title=”ED: 「LOST CHILD」”][media url=”http://www.animeroot.com/media/animereview/Winter2012/MoeretsuPirates/Mouretsu_Pirates_ED.mp4″ width=”600″ height=”400″ jwplayer=”controlbar=bottom”][/spoiler]
For those interested the series can be viewed Here on crunchyroll. Don’t forget that they also offer a Premium Membership that gives access to HD (720 and 1080p), mobile device and a one-hour after airing turn around time.
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