Bodacious Space
Pirates
Plot Summary: Marika is a first year high school student
living on a planet known as Uminoakeboshi. One day she finds out that her
recently deceased father was once the captain of the space pirate ship called
the “Bentenmaru”. More importantly, the only one to inherit the captain’s title
has to be a direct descendant—meaning that Marika is next in line to become the
captain of the ship.
The show started off as one of the standouts of the winter
2012 anime season, right behind the continuing Chihayafuru. But it was outshined right off the bat by some amazing
shows in this spring 2012 season (namely Kids
on the Slope, tsuritama, Lupin III, and Space Brothers).
The initial concept would turn off a lot of people (I mean,
really, a high school girl becomes the captain of a space pirate ship?
Really?). But it takes off from there to pace itself rather well compared to
every other show that does this. It isn’t until about episode 5 or 6 that she
decides to become the captain, and even longer than that to actually start
doing piracy. But piracy is some showcase where they’re hired to entertain,
something that’s finally brought up in the final couple episodes.
The thing that this show did well compared to other shows
then is its pacing. It let Marika decide and settle in to the role of the pirate
captain rather than just have her immediately join the crew and be the prodigy
that she so rightly deserves to be (she doesn’t deserve that). Instead, Marika
mulls on becoming a captain and doesn’t do so well in her first few outings as
a captain, having only done anything related to space in her school’s yacht
club. It’s only when Kana Hanazawa shows up (aka Chiaki) that she really starts
to get a grip on how to do this pirate thing.
The character moments in this show were definitely its
strong point, as it lacked much in the way of plot beyond “Let’s do some
piracy!” Marika’s growth and the friendship between her and Chiaki and her
fellow yacht club members are what drive this show to be good. Its “plot”
leaves a lot to be desired as the royal princess running to the pirate captain
and the pirate/bounty hunter/what the hell was she trying to destroy pirate
ships for not really being pirates left me wanting this to be more like Cowboy Bebop with episodic things
throughout the series rather than trying to do arcs like it’s some sort of
shonen manga.
But there isn’t really one big thing that I have wrong with
this series. It’s just a series of little things that are really more nitpicking
at how it could have been better rather than any glaring errors in the show
itself (like in Kids on the Slope or Upotte!!). It just didn’t live up to the
potential that it had and, while I enjoyed watching it week after week, I didn’t
look forward to it like I do Space
Brothers or Hunter x Hunter.
Overall, it’s a show that’s definitely good for the modest
anime fan, but not really great for a newcomer to be shown. It doesn’t live up
to the potential that shows like Cowboy
Bebop and Space Brothers have,
and they’re both relatively similar in basic, basic plot (aka, they’re both
about space things). I’d give it a solid 7/10, but it’s pushing it to go much
higher. Although I could make a good argument for an 8/10.
Kids on the Slope
Plot Summary: Summer 1966: Kaoru Nishimi has moved to live
with relatives in Kyūshū. He’s been an aloof honor student his whole life, but
that starts changing when he meets Sentarō Kawabuchi, the school’s notorious
bad boy. Through him, he learns the appeal of jazz and forms his first real
friendships.
Kids on the Slope
went out in true Watanabe fashion: With an ambiguous ending leaving it open for
a whole bunch of possibilities for these characters and what the future holds
for them. At the end of Cowboy Bebop,
Spike’s own life is left in the air and Ed is god knows where. At the end of Samurai Champloo, Mugen, Jin, and Fuu
head their separate ways after helping Fuu find the samurai who smells of
sunflowers. And now, Kids on the Slope
ends with Kaoru, Ritsuko, and Sentaro back together again after eight years
apart. Yurika even makes an appearance, now six months pregnant with Jun’s
child.
This show had a lot of ups and downs (more ups than downs in
my opinion, but still not the show it’s touted as by everyone on the internet),
but in the end, it did not disappoint. I’ll maintain that Space Brothers is the superior of the two, but Kids on the Slope does not fall far behind. It’s a touching coming
of age tale about Kaoru and moving through life, love, and music.
If this show had one major downfall, it was that it was only
12 episodes. It would have served this show the justice it properly deserves to
be 24 or 26 episodes so it doesn’t have the awkward time skips with the constrained
episode count. But if the show had any strong suit, it was, of course, the
music beautifully composed by Yoko Kanno. The soundtrack could easily outshine Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo’s ambient music.
I believe that this show could have easily been just as
strong (and maybe more interesting) if it wove in flashbacks of the previous 11
½ episodes and have a 12 episode series of everything that happens after they
meet at the end of the episode—something like what Space Brothers is doing now. But alas, it skipped through time
willy nilly and had a lot of downfalls because it just hit the plot points and
skipped over some important stuff.
I haven’t read the manga of this, so I can’t compare, but
this could very well be Shinichiro Watanabe’s weakest work yet. It’s most
definitely the weakest I’ve seen, but I’ve only seen Cowboy Bebop and Samurai
Champloo.
Overall, I would suggest this to someone new to anime, but
unfamiliar with slice-of-life anime. There are other shows that are on the list
above it, but we’d certainly get there.
Lupin III: The Woman
Called Fujiko Mine
Plot Summary: Many people are falling prey to a suspicious
new religion. Lupin III infiltrates this group, hoping to steal the treasure
their leader keeps hidden. There he lays eyes on the beautiful, bewitching
woman who has the leader enthralled. This is the story of how fashionable
female thief Fujiko Mine first met Lupin III, the greatest thief of his
generation.
I can’t say I’ve seen a whole bunch of Lupin III stuff. Basically, it’s just been what was on TV back in
the late ‘90s and early 2000s. But I have heard that the franchise kind of
dropped itself into a hole after years and years of mediocre movies that wasn’t
really true to what Lupin really is.
And, again from what I’ve heard, this series has come back to what Lupin really is.
The series began with Lupin and company all separated and,
of course, it focuses on the seductress Fujiko Mine. Lupin headlines the first
episode while Jigen and Goemon headline the second and third episodes
respectively. From here on out, it’s little of Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon
compared to Fujiko. Another twist compared to recent films and series is that
Zenigata is back to a competent detective that’s just outwitted by Lupin rather
than being an idiot himself.
That said, I really enjoyed this series. In the early going,
I thought it was a lot stronger with its one-off stories rather than the
overarching plot of Fujiko having a screwed up childhood with owls. And that’s
really saying something, considering I usually hate one-off episodes of TV. I
think I would have a lot of fun with the franchise if it was at all available
to buy, but alas. From just this series, I’m really interested in watching more
of it, which I think is a testament to how good this is.
The strongest point was the character building that it had
to do. Fans of the old series got to revisit these old characters in a new
light with fresh beginnings. Newcomers to the franchise didn’t have to have any
previous knowledge of the characters and could enjoy this as a stand-alone
series. And it wasn’t like it was bad, it’s what kept me interested in those
early going episodes that were very episodic compared to the rest of the
series. In my opinion, this is one of the best ways to set up a show in general
if it’s formatted like this (with the main characters being more recurring and
with Fujiko headlining it).
The worst, or maybe most awkward part, was that Fujiko was…well,
she was Fujiko. She wasn’t afraid to show off her body (all her body) and that
can immediately turn off some fans. But in this series, it’s really in her
character not to care and if that’s all you’re complaining about in a series, I’ll
take it.
Overall, I really enjoyed this series. By the end, it easily
outshined tsuritama (they were pretty
even in my mind based on the first few episodes) and may very well outshine Kids on the Slope in my mind. It showed
how it could be amazing in the first few episodes and did fall off quite a bit
from that potential, but it still didn’t disappoint. Could it have been better?
Yes. Was it still worth of an 8 or even 9 out of 10? Yes.
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