#BodaciousSpacePirates ep12: this is where babies come from (no not really). #anime

Leisurely.  That’s pretty much how this episode came across to me.  The word deceptive also comes to mind.  All the intensity and build is well scripted, but when we finally get to the end of this episode.  The end of this arc. Does the show deliver, or are we left holding something we weren’t expecting?

DonKangolJones’ Images of the Week: March 23rd (Because after Dark Souls I need something to make me feel better.)

Off my ass again to do another images of the week post.  My excuse for the delay this time?  Mass Effect 3 and getting my curb stomped by Dark Souls over and over… and over …and over again.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m making progress, but you can’t play that game without suffering, despair… and a healthy dose of spontaneously cursing because you screwed up, or the game screw you.  So when all is lost, I completely shut down the PS3 & boot up the anime.  Games nowadays have a way of telling you you’ve been playing for too long.  They tell you you need to stop and get out of the house.  You don’t need that with Dark Souls.  Granted you haven’t spiked your controller, you’ll walk away on your own, eventually.  But enough about that.  Anime and  manga, that’s all I’m concerned about right now.  Here are my usual, but hardly consistently weekly anymore, images of the week!

BodaciousSpacePirates ep11: after all this, this ghost ship better have some damn answers.

The Bentenmaru has squeezed itself (literally) into the best possible position right now.  Though what they do from here is anyone’s guess.

Marika starts this episode with a tough question.  What the hell do you do now?  The Serenity navy is out in force and waiting for both the Bentenmaru and the ghost ship.  And Marika decides to take the direct approach.  Which turns out to be a little more dangerous than what anyone was expecting.

#BodaciousSpacePirates ep10: the race for the ghost ship is officially on! #anime

Marika is starting to scare me.  You can see the pirate captain transformation happening right before your eyes.  It’s pretty awesome actually.

I was caught a little off-guard this episode because I’m a bit behind on the show right now.  Sorry, got Mass Effect 3 the other week and I was completely pre-occupied until now.  So you’ll have to forgive me if when I started this episode I was completely confused to see Chiaki rocking the Bentenmaru captain’s uniform and calling herself Marika.  I had forgotten that there was a planned deception to make the world think that Princess Serenity was with the yacht club and that the Bentenmaru was up to its usual amount of piracy.

Bodacious Space Pirates ep9: you sure the name of this series shouldn’t be The Bodacious Yacht Club?

I will be quite honest here.  I wasn’t completely paying attention during certain parts of the episode.  But I think I got the main points down.  Those main points are that Marika’s in charge, the ghost ship is big and prehistoric as hell, Chiaki is back and the yacht club is again confirmed to be shady as hell.  Did I miss anything?  Yeah, some knockdown, drag out, calamitous action!  What happened guys?!

#BodaciousSpacePirates ep8: finally! Things are starting to get crazy. #anime

I have been a very patient man with this show. I applauded the show’s attention to detail, its atmosphere and interesting characters. But even I was beginning to wonder when this show was gonna get wild and crazy.  It hasn’t happened yet, but it looks like the training wheels are quickly coming off.  A estranged princess and her infighting nation seem to be a good place to start.

Bodacious Space Pirates ep7: there are times when “playing” pirate isn’t enough.

Like when you have a real diplomatic issue on your hand.  Or when your life is on the line.  Or when you have someone you’re trying to make respect you.

It looks like reality has hit hard for Marika.  I don’t have a clue why a pirate ship would ever send their captain on a recon missue in a little dinky space ship, perhaps that should have been the tip off that the opening sequence was a dream.  That and it looked like she was seriously dead to rights.

#BodaciousSpacePirates ep6: Paperwork, Plays & Pirates. That was a pretty entertaining training mission. #anime

Marika’s getting a crash course pirate captaining (real word?), and it looks like she’s gonna experience some burn out until Chiaki gets drafted onto to the Bentenmaru for some training of her own. And I that’s when things get fun.

It was nice to get a little primer, and some background on the pirate world.  I still don’t get exactly what the point of all this is.  It seems almost like a legalize drugs sort of situation. Where the “Letter of Marque” is used as pressure release valve to keep the piracy under control.

I also found it interesting to see Marika and Chiaki interact together again.  It seems like Chiaki accepts her when she’s excelling at her piracy duties, but she can’t stand her when the “ditsy” little girl comes back out.  It’s like she pushes Marika away because she doesn’t know how to deal with her. That said, they’re still fast friends. I suspect we’ll get to see both of them again in captain’s uniforms with matching responsibilities when they next meet. An exciting thought, hopefully they’ll still be allies as well.

As for Marika’s first mission… uh, I suppose to best way to explain it is “mock piracy successfull”.  Clearly pirates are so rare and obscure in this universe that they’re viewed by a portion of the public like rumor, urban legend, or novelty. I think I need more of the universe explained to me to clearly understand it, but for now the episode has done an admirable job of inching further forward into the world of space pirates.

– Posted using MobyPicture.com

Check-in Station: Bodacious Space Pirates eps1-5 (expectations are the cockblockers of storytelling)

Expectations are a burden.  Expectations are a challenge.  And often expectations are a check someone else has written in your name.  There’s a reason why I ignore or almost immediately forget most previews for shows (besides the fact that I have a rather bad short-term memory).  It’s because I don’t feel like being weighed down by the expectations I have put on the show.  In the case of shows like Symphogear and Kill Me Baby, when you don’t have expectations the shows tend to impress you in very trivial ways.  You’re often merely happy when the show makes you smile, or you enjoy a mere aspect of a series when you think it’s mostly sh*t.  Bodacious Space Pirates is being weighed down right now by its name, and the expectations that come with it.  Now it’s just a matter of whether the show allows those expectations to drag it down, like so much dead and useless weight; or if the show launches itself, as if those expectations are merely teasers of something even greater.  There’s no good enough for this show it seems.

DonKangolJones’ Images of the Week: January 30th (chill out man, enjoy the ride!)

After a week off to right a little for We Remember Love, I get to come back to my hobby of summing up what I’ve watched in blog format.  I got to enjoy a pivotal moment in a manga I’ve been following for near a decade.  I discovered a comedy that has made me laugh in harder in two episodes than anything else I can remember watching in a long while, maybe since Fumoffu.  And I witnessed the end of an “age” of anime.  So then, here are the my images of the week!