Anime: Mouretsu Pirates

Review
Moretsu Pirates, named Bodacius Space Pirates in the US, is a mindless, uncommitted show about teenage girls being some sort of space pirates in the distant future, where said pirates are far from being what we know today and what we learned from Pirates of Caribbean.

Considering the comical feeling of the show's premise and also taking into account the western name of the show, you will probably expect it to be some sort of parody, a lame comedy, or some crazy mind-twisting show about space, spaceships, fire fighting, and lots of pirate "ARRR!" and other grunts. Moretsu Pirates, however, is far from that.

The tale starts as Marika Kato's father dies from food poisoning and she must inherit his position as the captain of the Bentenmaru, a pirate spaceship of ancient tradition. Marika never met her father, she never even knew about his job until such point, but her skills and dreams ultimately puts her on track of becoming a pirate...

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1. ...or something like that
   Yarr... nasty criminals who kill, loot, kidnap, and sail freely in the seas are something entirely different here. In this alternate future, space pirates changed their behavior and modus operandi to survive the annexation of the Tau system to the Galatic Empire, or so it is said by the tale. Instead of being criminals, they are now more like a circus troupe that stage assaults in luxury cruisers and entertain the passengers with swordfighting, shootouts and exquisite costumes.
   
   It's not exactly funny, but also not that lame
   Marika certainly shines in the show with her genki attitude and adaptation to the various events. When she's onscreen the lame pirate acts become fun, enjoyable, and sometimes you can even laugh for a bit. The essence of Moretsu Pirates, however, is that of a late 90's show, where a mixture of genres flows through the course of the twenty six episodes in stand-alone episodes or small combos of two-to-four episodes where the events can vary from mysterious search for a lost spaceship to carefree airship races.
   
   The cast does help even with all the girls
   Basically, there's a LOT of girls here. It's an all-girl highschool, Marika is joined by Chiaki in the duo that will fill most of the screentime, and even amongst the standard pirates there are some women. The pirates themselves, however, are interesting people with cartoonistic personalities and charismatic behaviors and voice-acting. Some of them get a bit more of focus, but overall they all act as support actors for Marika's stand-alone show. The highschool, tough, is a bit overused at many points, trashing good momentum in the pirate's actions and even devastating the rare moments when the atmosphere gets more serious.
   
   The end gets interesting
   As in the late 90's formulae, Moretsu Pirates goes around and around for about twenty episodes, showing random events here and there, sometimes linking a string of episodes to a greater purpose, but never truly moving on with a single solid objective. Things start to change after that, as the setting plays a larger role to put the said pirates of the world to the test and Marika as a pivotal point in the future of their kind. This inspired plot, however, is only partially explored, as the show ends with no conclusion in sight.
   
   It's a decent work for Satelight
   Animation studio Satelight rarely does something truly good. Moretsu Pirates is just average when comparing to most of its season, but does stand above the typical standard from the studio. The CG elements barely mix with the artwork, there is a lot inconsistent frames and deformed faces here and then, and the animation itself is never truly explored beyond the CG parts. There is, however, a good deal of personality to the characters, the colors manage to be sober and not ridiculous, and the demand for action is never truly an issue. Sadly, however, the sound direction doesn't contribute to enhance the visual experience and the whole pack together feels a bit dull most of the time.
   

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Comments
Moretsu Pirate was something like a guilty pleasure for me. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but it also disappointed me at many turns. There is a good deal of funny moments, but they are mixed with so much nonsense and cliches that it is hard to savor in the good parts for long.

Those looking for a good, carefree, time filler though, may find Moretsu Pirates an interesting watch. If you, however, are in the mood to watch something serious or laugh uncontrollably... well, better search for something else.

More reviews at damageup.com.

a few preliminary notes:
So i've always been a little critical of writing a review before the anime is finished but apparently this is just a 'preview', so thats OK! :razz:
Also this series really makes my bunny hop so I just couldn't hold back. :lol: Will update this as progress neccessitates. Current status: ep. 2

Story
After a fairly arduous period of space exploration and settlement, humanity seems to finally have achieved a state of maturity and prosperity as an interstellar civilization. Armed conflict between the center and the developing colonies seems to have been a (expected) part of that process, but is now in the past. The central conceit of the story seems to be the fact that the colonies used privateers as part of their strategies during those conflicts and at least some of the letters of marque that legalized those privateers/pirates are still in circulation and mean a lot of power, money and values of other kinds for those who hold them.
The main character, high school girl Marika, inherits one from her father, whom she never knew, and thus is given the choice of becoming the new captain of an eclectic crew of non-conformists, square pegs and scoundrels aboard her Fathers old ship, the legendary Bentenmaru. Marika doesn't stand alone in this, as she is a member of her all-girls high school's Yacht Club - a serious club that instructs its members in real astronaut skills and full-on shiphandling. All in all, a collection of very competent young space cadets. It can be expected that they will be ready for the challenges they'll be facing once they fall in with the pirate crowd.

This one makes me smile! :smile: I mean a real broad, happy, joyful kind of smile! A large part of that is the fact that this story seems to be set in a universe where pain and suffering never go down all the way to the source of your strength. Your heart, if you want to be maudlin' about it. Without being portrayed in an unrealistic or overdrawn sort of way at all, all the characters so far seem to have an air of inner strength and competence, in regard to what they are doing, about them that is very appealing and unusual. Compare with almost any other anime where the main character starts out helpless, confused, frightened, apathetic, wrong-headed or stupid, only to become a normally intelligent person by the end of the story (if you're lucky). Our Marika, however, is a friendly, optimistic, honest girl and suprisingly competent in some fairly complex matters right from start. That is how it should be done. I take no pleasure from watching an allegedly normal guy behaving with subnormal intelligence only to slowly 'develop' into a normal person. That is not character development, that's a crime. This doesn't mean that there is no challenge, or any tough decisions for the main character in Mouretsu to deal with and hence no suspense for the viewer. True, a thiller this ain't, at the moment, but you can treat your characters this kindly - make them really strong and confident - and still test them to destruction in entertaining ways. But this reviewer finds it incredibly uplifting to watch a story about characters who seem to believe in their hearts that there is always a way to solve or deal with a problem and who then set out energeticaly to find those ways when a problem presents itself.That is how I would explain the general atmosphere of this show.

The plot - to get a bit more concrete - has yet to solidfy. So its hard to say more about that then my short synopsis above already did. But even with the pace not very fast yet these first 2 episodes have been very entertaining through their development of the characters and of the universe they inhabit. A lot of detail has gone into this production and the love shows: There seems to be a huge cast of nicely designed and easily distinguishable characters on that pirate ship - just watch the opening! There are a lot of excellent examples of the advanced technology they use inserted seemlessly all through this world and the CG created spaceships and space scenes seem charming and exciting. While you do recognize the shift from CG to normal animation it doesn't seem disruptive to me. Last but not least, the producers of this anime never seem to take the usual grating shortcuts with the story that are so pervasive in alot of shows. An example: a scene in the first episode is designed to show what an excellent shiphandler Marika already is. She is shown piloting a computer simulated entry vehicle from orbit to the ground and using clever maneouvers, that i take for the most part to be rather realistic ones, to bring her vehicle down in record time and without using too much fuel. While I'm not trying to suggest that Mouretsu is reinventing the wheel in any way, I know that I have watched lots of shows that would have sacrificed the realistic, clever details in this scene and just have their hero pilot his vehicle with the magic power of 'guts' and hang the pysics. And this approach is so pervasive in Mouretu that it actually becomes hard to isolate particular instances of it.
Now, you might critcize that high school girls who spend a lot of time in micro-gravity still wear mini skirts but I would suggest that that is a superficial thing and that it's actually much more important that these girls all know that it's the mark of a good captain to always personaly preflight his ship before lighting of the engines. They know that only idiots just jump in and blast off.

I hope this show continues as enjoyably as it started and I will be back to update this preview sooner or later.

Once upon a time there was this cool anime called Space Pirate Captain Harlock, and was about this serious manly rebel who gets fed up with the way Earth turned into a fruitless life of working and consuming (being overrun by hostile aliens every year had something to do with). So he decides to board this super cool scull-themed spaceship and roam the universe, free to go anywhere he pleases, a place without joyless capitalists, merciless bureaucrats, and military jerks. Occasionally, he returns to save his homeland from all sorts of cosmic threats that want to take over his old joint. He was such a cool guy.

Fast-forward three decades and everything is different. Serious manly protagonists no longer sell and apparently the majority of the (actual) buyers prefer spineless boys and dumb cute girls. As a result we get Bodacious Space Pirates, (BSP) a show about your average cute schoolgirl, who one day learns that she inherited by her father a pirate crew. Hm, doesn’t the premise remind you of something? Ah but yes, it is the same as Hitman Reborn but instead of mafia and dumb boys this is about pirates and dumb girls. And they are both equally silly since they both have absolutely nothing to do with actual mafia or piracy; it is just a random shallow excuse to get the show going.

Although the atmosphere and plot of Harlock were slow, grim and depressing, you could still appreciate the social criticism of the modern way of life and Harlock himself was never fooling around. It was naive and was oozing idealism but at least it had an identity and was trying to have a message. In a similar manner, One Piece is also about this funny pirate crew roaming around the world, looking for adventure while occasionally fighting all sorts of tyrants. It also had an identity and a message. BSP on the other hand doesn’t try to do anything more than making a parody of the whole piracy thing; the “bodacious” word in the title is just a troll. To put it bluntly NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS SHOW. It is storyless space moe and the only reason I mentioned the other anime is only because there is nothing to fill this review with regarding the Moecious Space Lolis.

I have no problems with the production values, they just look nice for the time they were made and the sci-fi touches offer something interesting to pay attention to. They are otherwise not amazing and the lolis wear miniskirts despite trying to come off as pirates. There isn’t any in-your-face fan service but trying to establish characters through fetishes is still fan service and it’s still trashing characterization and character respect.

There were many who got be mesmerized by the show’s attention to sci-fi details. It tried a lot to portrait a futuristic society where technology of that time is put to use and its presentation appears to be far more technical than in a usual space show. Meaning, they show how they steer a ship with more ways than just pressing a few buttons. Other than that though the whole thing is still far from realistic and this whole fascination to sci-fi portrayal is just useless fluff. You can easily find lots of things that make no sense such as the female spacesuits being skin-tight and have boobs hanging out too much (Boobacious Space Pirates, lol) while male suits are bulky and don’t reveal any body features. Plus you see no method to keep them floating in vacuum or security for not drifting away while outside the spaceship. They also seem to prefer spending a whole minute in pressing buttons and making a holographic arrow to appear on an empty seat for you to sit on, instead of just pointing you to where you can sit. And let’s not disregard how they all wear miniskirts in space; that male trainer of theirs must constantly have a boner with so much pantsu flash. Not that the girls seem to care in the least though; the show is also called Miniskirt Pirates after all. Don’t think it’s weird when the heroine appears dressed as a pirate while still wearing a tiny skirt… In fact, don’t think at all.

Our heroine Marika is a heroine with potential that was unfortunately thrown in a most dull setting. He charm is simply impossible to shine because everything goes too rosy for her. She never chose her role or goal in life; it was FORCED on her. And she is not learning anything on her own either; everything is spoon-fed to her through space school lessons. She also works in a maid café, so she ends up being memorable only as a combo of schoolgirl/maid/pirate fetish.

Besides her there is also a bunch of pirates who … are just there. And then some other cute girls used as background decoration and pervert-bait. And that’s all I have to say about the characters. Seriously, that’s it, what did you expect me to write about? People who don’t do anything? There are so many of them, none of which managed to be anything more than eccentrically dressed actors. The pirates don’t even look a bit vicious; when Marika is in her pirate uniform you almost expect her to yell “trick or treat”.

The only ones besides her I can say a few things about are the two lesbians. They are a bit memorable because… um… they are lesbians; the end. And that gives them ten times more characterization than everybody else, so you get the idea of how dull the cast is. Because this is a show about pirates who aren’t really pirates but a freaking theatre troupe. Seriously, they are called pirates only in name since they are not living a free and lawless life (like normal pirates do). They are working for and paid by governments to do all sorts of illegal activities but this does not make them privateers either. They are not ordered by one government to loot and plunder areas on another government because THERE ARE NO OTHER GOVERNMENTS; everything is just one big happy world order. So how can pirates exist if the government pays them to do robberies? Well, it’s not in order to kill, rape, and destroy enemy installations (it would be a fun show if they were) but instead all they do is take up staged missions, ordered by the VICTIMS, who see the whole show as entertainment and who even get a refund for whatever they lose. Thus it is done just to keep the masses happy with cheap thrills and in practice nobody is actually hurt. For that reason, there is practically no conflict in the whole show besides simple dull missions where nothing of importance ever happens. In one word BOOORING!

So wait a second, what is this show about if not about its main attraction (you know, pirates)? Well, basically, it’s about the same thing all moe slice of life schoolgirls are about for decades now. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! There are a few grains of a plot scattered somewhere in there but the pace is so slow and the missions so dull you wouldn’t care even if they weren’t there at all. Supposed it’s about Marika finding the courage to command her own pirate crew and supposed she first learns how to steer a yacht in space and supposed she takes up important missions and supposed she is looking for her father or something. And all this time you are just wondering WHERE THE HELL IS THE PIRATE ACTION? Nowhere; there isn’t enough suspense to fill an ant’s belly. Just imagine that after each mission we get the girls working as maids and eating cake. Instead of, I don’t know, trying to heal their wounds, split the loot or mourn for their casualties; now that would be somewhat interesting.

Towards the end it gets a bit more action-based, as there is this shit that destroys pirate ships for real, and Marika’s long lost dad appears but nobody recognises him because he wears a mask. Yeah, I guess his voice and behaviour don’t matter at all to the people who knew him for decades. But once again the whole thing plays out as dull as possible and doesn’t miss the chance to show the lolis smiling while eating cake five minutes after they were almost killed.

The lack of excitement and actual piracy is bound to alienate most viewers, but there are still those who will stick around for the possible comedy or dark and violent turnaround later on. Well let me spare you the pain; you won’t get any of that. In its initial episodes the show seemed to be building up towards something amazing and had a huge positive image by most in the fandom. Some loved the miniskirt girls, some were amazed with the sci-fi touches, some expected pirate action, and some expected a mysterious and complicating social commentary regarding the future uses of piracy through cyber terrorism. After 7 episodes though, the interest died out almost entirely since the miniskirts can’t keep you interested for more than a couple of hours, the sci-fi touches became more scarce and weren’t that elaborate anymore, there was no pirate action and there was no social commentary after all. It was just a dull show where nothing happens. Of course you can still watch it for the cute girls if you belong to those who don’t care about story or themes and just watch for the lulz, which is the prime reason moe sells so much in Japan, the country where working is the same as hard labor for life at some penal colony.

That aside, it is nothing but a silly light comedy with dumb cute girls in mini skirts pretending to be vicious pirates and doing silly simplistic adventures with zero action or excitement. Which is not funny at all. It is a desolate wasteland of a toned down in fanservice adventure that doesn’t excel at anything. The girls aren’t particularly hot or interesting; they are defined by generic traits and have zero backdrop stories or personalities. The design work brings nothing eye-catchy to the table. Genericness, ho! The ultimate mainstream show, you could say. Easy going for everyone to watch after a hard day, but eventually no more than background noise that gets forgotten as soon as the next moe show pops up.