- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: Japanese & English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz/24-bit)
- Subtitles: English
- Subtitles Color: Yellow/White
- Region: A (Region-Locked)
- Rating: TV-14
- Discs: 2 (2 x Blu-ray)
- Digital Copies: N/A
- Run Time: 325 Mins.
- Studio: Sentai Filmworks
- Blu-ray Release Date: March 5, 2013
- List Price: $69.98
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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Series
[Rating:4/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Series
[Rating:4/5]
The second collection of Bodacious Space Pirates (ミニスカ宇宙海賊(パイレーツ) continues the adventures of Kato Marika – whom we first met in collection 1 – the high school girl pirate and her crew aboard the Bentenmaru. As Marika continues to learn what it means to be a legitimate pirate bearing the Letters of Marque, she slowly asserts herself, gaining more experience and authority with the help of her friend, the pirate daughter Chiaki-chan. This half of the series, episodes 14-26, Marika must venture out with the Bentenmaru without her usual crew after they are all isolated in an military hospital with a rare, flu-like illness. Relying on the aid of her friends from her school’s yacht club, she takes on a pirating job so as not to lose her Letters of Marque. It goes so successfully that the makeshift crew decide to take on an even tougher task, to rescue the former head of the yacht club, Jenny Dolittle, from a forced marriage. But Jenny is from one of the most powerful families in space and going up against them puts pressure on the Bentenmaru’s insurance company. The second half of collection 2 brings even bigger challenges for Marika, her friends, and the crew, as a new threat that his going after all the pirate ships emerges.
Fun, adventure-filled, fast-paced, and humorous, Bodacious Space Pirates gets better in this second collection with new thrills, some yuri elements introduced, and a broadening of the entire space pirate landscape. The main characters remain charming as ever, especially Marika, Chiaki, and Gruier Serenity.
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
The 1080i/60 AVC encodement has some issues with softness and motion artifacts, plus color banding. One can also spot some aliasing, particularly in the 3D CGI animation. There is also a veiled appearance to the overall image that is likely an artistic choice, but given the other issues, it just makes the overall presentation that much more lackluster.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Japanese and English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz/24-bit) stereo soundtracks are provided. Little difference exists between the two and they both offer clear dialogue with reasonable dynamics and stereo separation. The audio is a little tweaked on the high end, but not intolerably so. I do have to mention, however, the continuing issue with Sentai’s subtitles for those who prefer to listen to the original Japanese-language track. Not only do they still do no more than mimic the English dub’s translation rather than provide true, literal translations of the Japanese script (I’m certainly not fluent in Japanese, but I’ve been watching anime long enough that I have picked up a few words and phrases here and there. I can definitely tell when the English subtitles aren’t lining up with what is being said), but the editing is atrocious. Sentai continues to have some of the worst grammar I have seen for any of the anime studios when it comes to their subtitles. Typos, words missing, misspellings, the issues go on and on. It has gotten to the point where, although I continue to prefer the Japanese voice actors most of the time, when it comes to the Sentai releases, I just try to stick it out with the English track, since the translations are so poorly done anyway.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
There’s nothing much here, only clean opening and closing animations, additional Sentai Filmworks trailers, and English disc credits.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3.5/5]
This being my first time through this series, including collection 1, I enjoyed it, I must say. It’s nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking to be sure, but it is lighthearted fun with an oddball mixture of sci-fi and adventure. The characters grow on you, the animation is good, and you get a real vested interested in the ongoing adventures of the heroine. What more can one ask for?
Additional Screen Captures
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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Series
[Rating:4/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
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