Shelf Life

Soup Days

The series features three main players—sullen teenage girl Mirai, her cheery younger brother Yuuki, and a magnificent, selfless woman named Mari who serves as both their travel partner and surrogate mother as they all try to find their way home after a giant earthquake hits Tokyo. While Yuuki and Mari are both shining examples of how bolstering optimism and determination can be in the face of a crisis, the best character arc is that of Mirai, who starts the series as your typical, angry-at-the-world, aimless teenager. She hates her family (in that rebellious kind of way that many teens “hate” their families at that age), and she's quick to blame everyone else around her for the things that happen to her. Through her journey, though, she not only develops into a much more caring person, but comes to learn how to appreciate the loved ones in her life. It's a standard arc, but one that's deeply moving, and works well with the emotional hurricane that is this series.

Within its eleven episode run, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 managed to make me simultaneously cherish and loathe humanity. We see the full spectrum of what humans are capable of—the selflessness of people like Mari, the tirelessness of medical professionals and volunteers, the ingenuity of engineers who've devoted their careers to designing rescue robots, and, unfortunately, the total awfulness of what seems like almost everybody else. For every scene of Mari helping a mother or child in need, there seem to be four more scenes of people being selfish jerks, be it snapping at lost children who are standing in the way, or people who can't be bothered to apologize for their harmful actions. The series is as much a celebration of humans as it is a damning indictment, and yet the overall message is an uplifting one—no matter what, the people you love, and who love you, are this world's greatest treasure.

Be warned, though, that few viewers will make it through Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 with dry eyes. Whether it's tender or tragic scenes along the way, or a cruel ending that will dismay you, the series puts you through the emotional wringer. Blessedly, for all its sadness, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 does a good job of staying away from being disaster porn. Even though the show is riddled with endless scenes of aftershocks and buildings falling down, we rarely see humans directly involved. The implications are obvious enough—there is no need to actually show bodies being crushed or mangled, and I appreciate the series for not going there.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is not light entertainment, in that the subject material isn't exactly going to fill your day with sunshine. The story itself is very straightforward, and the surprise ending takes a liiiiiiiitle too long to reveal itself from the point in which viewers have already figured it out, but it's very much worth watching. It's not necessarily groundbreaking, but the journey that Mirai, Yuuki, and Mari embark on is well-written and delicately balanced, and one that I feel glad to have witnessed.[TOP]

I'm not quite sure what the thought process was. “We only have one good story left, so let's not blow our loads too early,” might have been one something that was mentioned at a writers' meeting at one point. Because what the first couple of story arcs are, are basically just a reminder that yes, there is indeed a ship called the Bentenmaru, and that indeed it has a crew, and that it is still captained by a normal everyday high school gal, with normal everyday high school pals. There's an arc where the girls from the yacht club help Marika do some pirating, which is cute and charming, but because viewers are aware that the series can do better, these episodes slog in comparison. There's another episode where the girls from the yacht club are invited back onto the ship to help Marika do some spring cleaning, but she loses her ID ring in the process. Some ominous music is played, but in the end, it's an innocent fake out. Another story involves the Bentenmaru crew coming down with some illness, but that too is resolved trivially and happily, despite the buildup.

Where this season really shines is the last several episodes, in the pirate hunting arc. Some bad guys have been going around, taking out pirate ships. In order to retaliate, Marika has called all her brethren pirates to arms to form a coalition. It's a little goofy—getting everyone to the round table involves an old timey pirate song and a legendary chef—but it's also a really good time. It's nice to see Marika in such a position of authority, and the characters that are ushered in are a delightfully eccentric lot. The scenes that result, too, are filled with exciting battles, epic strategy sessions, and everything you'd except from a show that touts space pirates. These are the episodes that make the entire season worth watching, and it's a nice reward after trudging through some of the earlier, more mundane stories.

Overall, Bodacious Space Pirates has been a delight to watch—even if some of the middle episodes have been slow. It's really two-fold—firstly, Marika is one of my favorite anime heroines of recent past. She's plucky and optimistic, like many anime heroines, but also smart as a whip and completely competent. She takes the time to weigh the consequences of every action, and it's a fresh departure from some of the more clichéd wunderkind child leaders that typically dot the anime landscape. Secondly, despite the flashy graphics and computer animation, Bodacious Space Pirates has an old school feel to it, despite some of its decidedly futuristic twists (like the “yacht” club and the projection technology). It's not the most exciting of science fiction properties, but it will likely appeal to young adults and older viewers.[TOP]