Forum - View topicREVIEW: Bodacious Space Pirates Blu-Ray 2
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5507 Location: Iscandar |
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Spot on review. I liked the premise of Bodacious Space Pirates, but to me it never quite delivered. While it is true that in the last arc the series finally went into spoiler[real pirating], to me it was too late to bump this series from a Descent to a Good rating.
I am also glad to hear that this Sentai release has good video quality and includes a competent dub. All the criticism about the Sentai release of Penguindrum was depressing me. |
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Animerican14
 Posts: 963 Location: Saint Louis, MO |
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Looking at the technical specs and Chris Beveridge's grading of Penguindrum and both sets of Bodacious Space Pirates, it seems that the video quality of BSP has actually been rated slightly worse, with the former getting an A and the latter getting an A-. Both series are also getting only 1080i masters on BD. So Sentai has either somehow improved its BD authoring or that Chris & Key aren't being as anal or picky about the video quality as some are. From my personal standpoint, it was only a cg transformation sequence or two in Penguindrum that didn't seem to be as good as it ought to have for 1080i, but other than that, I was fine with Sentai's video. There will probably as much "improvement" in the video from set 1 to set 2 for Penguindrum as there was for set 1 to set 2 for BSP. As for the dub, well, I won't be surprised if Penguindrum's English track roughly follows the same trajectory of "improvement" as BSP's, especially when considering the gains made in the first set's latter episodes. |
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boredandlazy
Posts: 189 |
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Good series. Let down in the second half by a couple of things I've 'discussed' before ad nauseum, but really improves with the scale of the action in the last few episodes.
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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The improvements towards the end just aren't enough to save to recommend the series unless you're desperate for an anime that's set in space. Then you'd have probably seen it regardless.
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FLEABttn
 Posts: 106 Location: ABQ |
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This. I was hoping for Nadesico meets Outlaw Star. Instead I got high school schenanians in space. I was not pleased. Zzzzzzz. |
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Cerceaux
 Posts: 180 Location: Earth |
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I actually enjoyed the quarantine arc a lot. The lowest point in the series for me (so far, as I'm only on episode 23 or so) was the couple episodes of cyber-warfare boredom at the beginning. I think the lighthearted comedy was fun without getting too stupid, and like many others I appreciate the way the show avoids cheap fanservice.
Anyway, thanks to the review I'm now looking forward to the remaining episodes more than ever (finally more Chiaki among other things). Despite a slow start, the show has really grown on me. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18456 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Fair warning that Chiaki is more purely a side character than a central one for the final arc. She has frequent appearances but isn't really at the core of events.
And as with the first half, I'll point out that I like this series more than what the grades reflect here; this half would also be an A- if I was just grading on personal entertainment value. It will at least make my annual (if not my semiannual), rewatch cycle and I'd absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in sci fi that isn't just a pure action series. |
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Echo_City
Posts: 1236 |
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+1. If it couldn't be a more "serious and dramatic" space adventure series like those series, or even heavily involve actual space piracy, then I was hoping that it could at least be like a Mai-Otome sort of show (especially considering the main character). Instead it was most like K-On...in space. I was sold on this show being close to "hard science fiction", but the "science" in this was about as in-depth or as often mentioned in the series as was the "musicianship" in K-On. Cute young girls doing cute things for cuteness' sake, as this show in essence was, didn't enthrall me. If they'd focused more on the fanservice-y bodysuits, however, I would have been much more for this show. Of course, that was mostly what I meant by the show being more like Mai-Otome (Otome did have a vastly superior "plot", which I would have appreciated seeing the likes of in BSP, but as a straight male in touch with his Y chromosome, I've got to set my priorities properly   )
I've of course bought this as I believe that the dub vastly improves the show, but I can't say that it improved it sufficiently such that I'd consider rewatching this any time soon. Key, I'm sorry to say, I just don't see the greatness that you seemingly did in this title. |
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
 Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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Key wrote:
'another doesn't care about anyone but herself' If you're referring to spoiler[the Navigator]. She lied to Marika about what had happened to her in order to keep Marika from getting stressed out over what had happened. Even though what *really* happened is that she was captured and probably would've been killed if a certain someone hadn't saved her. So, I don't think that she cares only for herself or she wouldn't have bothered lying about it, IMO. And yeah, another member of the bridge crew sure cleans up nicely... I didn't even recognize her. One of the things I would've liked to see stressed more is the actual size of the ship's crew. Most of the time, we only see the bridge crew; it's rare we are shown much of the rest of the ship's crew, and that can lead people to underestimate just how many people Marika is in charge of as the Captain. And finally, if the whole series had been close to what the last arc showed in quality, I would probably have rated this as a very solid 8, almost a 9. As it is, the middle arcs were... less than impressive, though not bad, as Key said. I wish the show continued on after the introduction of a larger sea having impinged upon the local space shown for most of the series. But, I guess that's probably not going to happen. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18456 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Yes, but I would point out that Luca's described that way by Misa, spoiler[who used that as the basis for figuring out that Luca had been replaced by an android - i.e., Misa got suspicious when the Luca android showed concern about anyone else.]
Yeah, I didn't think to mention that, but that bothered me, too. When Marika's undergoing her training we see various flunky crew members, and they pop up a few other times (as escorts during the sojourn through the Golden Ghost Ship, when spoiler[Quartz Christie first shows up in the pirate conference room], and in a couple of "prep the Bentenmaru for battle" scenes), but that's about it. |
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belvadeer
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Do they go into any details regarding Schnitzer's past?
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18456 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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No, they never say anything about Schnitzer, beyond implying that he must still have enough human in him to be subject to the sickness that fells the rest of the crew.
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4158 |
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For me, I enjoyed the replacement pirate and dingy race more than the first half of the series {watching it on demand rather than the internet so they're just rapping things up this week}. I didn't see it as "cute girls doing cute things" but rather it's showing off the fact that it's the adults who were playing dress up in the first half.
The fact the girls pulled it off while dressed up in animal outfits and standard cosplay made it all the better; It's not "just for show" but a matter of showmanship. I'd enjoy it more if Marika kicked out the old and filled the Bentenmaru with her own crew. Especially Ai, she's good. And Chiaki, isn't she like one of those characters you get in straegy RPGs that you use in order to level your weak units? What surprises me the most about her character is the fact she keeps coming back; She has her own ship, life, story, she doesn't belong here. Anyway, the biggest complaint is the show wasn't what everyone wanted. Some people wanted more pirates and pirate like acts {in the first half thread, I said I wanted more romantized pirate story elements. Actual piracy isn't usually one of them} I would have liked more school life shenanigans. For the simple fact the girls are a hell of a lot more interesting than the crew. |
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Echo_City
Posts: 1236 |
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I would have preferred that the crew be interesting and be in the limelight while the irksome moeblobs were in supporting roles but that would have required the crew to exist for reasons beyond enabling the thin premise that allows for cute girl antics...in space. Perhaps if they had fleshed out the whole space setup that would have been enough to further my enjoyment of the series, but they did not. I seem to recall the "science", the "tactics" and the "technical detail" of this show being lauded as they were advanced to a degree that could have only been possible if the show were based on a erstwhile long lost manuscript penned jointly by the brilliant minds of Sagan and Asimov, with a forward by Von Braun while also featuring Patton and Rommel as military advisers. Instead I found the show to simply throw out buzzwords & flash cryptic images on the screen, going no further "in depth" than that for the "science" and the "tactics" were, well, not something that one would hope to find taught at a competent military academy. So, I ask, why did you, the Internet, conspire to troll innocent anime fans such as myself by telling us that this show was astounding when it was nothing more than average, at best? |
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belvadeer
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Wow, pure weak sauce. |
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