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Bodacious Space Pirates has a solid ending for a season, and a lousy ending for a series.
At the start of the final story for this season in episode 22 I was worried that the show would turn out to have one short story too many, and one novella too few. This was particularly the case when the revelations of the last couple of episodes significantly expanded the world building, and the possible stage for Marika to stand on in the next season.
Her development as a Captain and tactician is coming along nicely, and she does pull off some nice moves in the finale. Granted many of those depend on trusting her ship and her crew, but that’s what I’d expect to see anyway.
One problem pointed out by a housemate is that this show is perhaps over edited. There are too many things that just happen and are accepted with little to no justification, or explanation. I’m wondering if the explanations exist in the light novels [1] but were removed in the adaptation process. This does leave me occasionally wondering why something happened.
It would be interesting to see how removing one story (e.g. the yacht race) and fleshing out the remaining stories would have affected the plotting/pacing of the series. I think it would have improved this season, but I’m open to debate.
The finale itself contains some nice work, and some suitably big bangs. However the ending is really at the same level as the endings to the previous short stories, and the time wasted on a “Where are they now?” epilogue is only forgivable if it turns into a “Where will they be next season?” epilogue. One amusing side note on the epilogue is that any Marika/Chiaki shippers out there in fanfic land are having a field day right now. :)
It does look like that there will be a movie coming [2], but this really needs a second season.
Overall though Bodacious Space Pirates is a fun series to watch from start to end, better than it has any right to be, that just happens to be incomplete right now.
Related articles
- Bodacious Space Pirates (2012): First Thoughts (piratesobg.wordpress.com)
- Bodacious Space Pirates (2012): Second Thoughts (piratesobg.wordpress.com)
I will add one note to this post: Bodacious Space Pirates is highly rewatchable. I’ve been sick recently and enjoyed a second runthrough as distraction.
Also for those finding this post with a “second season” search criteria?
I would like a second season as much as you would, but there isn’t any sign of it at present.
First character designs for the movie are available here: http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2012/12/21/bodacious-space-pirates-feature-film-set-for-winter-2014
I hope it is a sequel rather than a recap or insert, but from those character designs it is hard to tell.
I think that it should continue with another season by telling us what will happen in Marika’s future. That should be what the possible next season should be about. And is Ironbeard really her father or not? I kinda of realized that he was actually looking forward to seeing her for some reason. Maybe it was my intuition that he saved the Bentenmaru from destruction when it was fighting the Grand Cross.
I agree that there should be a second season, however all we’re going to get is the movie. :(
Ironbeard is definitely Marika’s father, that’s why Ririka joined his ship.
I don’t think Ironbeard was involved in the fight against the Grand Cross in the season finale, that was all the normal pirates.