(L) Mouretsu Pirates

[DangerMouse]

Awesome, still looking forward to this! Finally an airdate

But January? Glad it's relatively soon but I hope that doesn't mean it'll only be a short 12/13 eps after this long wait, that'd be a bit of a letdown, I'm hoping for something in the 26 ep range so it can be a bigger adventure story and also since space scifi is so rare these days.

[justpassingby]

Nice. And I never thought that the word "Bodacious" will be used for an anime title

And the casts are

Katou Marika: Komatsu Mikako
Chiaki Kurihara: Kanazawa Hana
Endou Mami: Omigawa Chiaki (Marika's friend that work together at Lamp)
Glewell Serenity: Tomatsu Haruka
Katou Ririka: Kaida Yuko
Misa Grandwood: Itou Shizuka
Cain McDougal: Matsukaze Masaya
Hyakume: Fujiwara Keiji
Courier: Horie Yui
Schnitzer: Miyaki Kenta
Ruka: Mizuhara Kaoru
Sandaime: Matsuoka Yoshitsugu
Narration: Koyama Rikiya

Recently bought another work by Sasamoto Yuuichi, "星のダンスを見においで"
(Let's go and see the Star Dance). The opening scene is quite similar to Miniskirt Space Pirates, where ships are coming out to/from Galaxy Corridor

[Bonta Kun]

Originally Posted by justpassingby

Nice. And I never thought that the word "Bodacious" will be used for an anime title

And the casts are

Katou Marika: Komatsu Mikako
Chiaki Kurihara: Kanazawa Hana
Endou Mami: Omigawa Chiaki (Marika's friend that work together at Lamp)
Glewell Serenity: Tomatsu Haruka
Katou Ririka: Kaida Yuko
Misa Grandwood: Itou Shizuka
Cain McDougal: Matsukaze Masaya
Hyakume: Fujiwara Keiji
Courier: Horie Yui
Schnitzer: Miyaki Kenta
Ruka: Mizuhara Kaoru
Sandaime: Matsuoka Yoshitsugu
Narration: Koyama Rikiya

Recently bought another work by Sasamoto Yuuichi, "星のダンスを見においで"
(Let's go and see the Star Dance). The opening scene is quite similar to Miniskirt Space Pirates, where ships are coming out to/from Galaxy Corridor

That's a pretty great VA line up, looking forward to this much more now.

The New Year couldn't come quicker!

[justpassingby]

There is going to be a Pre-Air Event on December 11th at Ikejiri Oohashi 2.5D (Ticket 1000Yen). Director and casts will be attending, and new PV and details about theme songs will be revealed. And according to the official site, there is a possibility for the casts to change. Source

Edit:

With the announced casts are the same, here are the new ones, (official site updated as October 21st)

Spoiler for additional casts:

Grunhilde Serenity: Kanemoto Hisako
Jenny Dolittle: Satou Rina
Rin Lambretta: Hikasa Youko
Belinda Percy: Mimori Suzuko
Astor Alhanko: Yasuno Kiyono
Izumi Yunomoto: Uchida Maaya
Kobayashi Wakako (?):Nomura Kanako
April Lambert: Tatsumi Yuiko
Lily Bell: Satou Minami
Uchida Maki: Akaki Chinatsu
Ursula Abramov: Nishi Asuka
Sasha Staples (?): Takamori Natsumi
Yotoff Schiffsydow: Ono Atsuji
Ai Hoshimiya: Ayano Ai
Yayoi Yoshitomi: Nanjyou Yoshino
Natalia Glennorth: Ise Mariya
Shou: Yasumoto Hiroki

Spoiler:

Jenny is the 3rd year student and the president of the Space Yacht Club, while Rin (2nd year) is the VP. They are supposed to be in love with each other

All the above spellings are my take. The official one will probably be different :P
Novel vol 7 will be on sale November 18th

Edit: According to someone who reviewed vol 6 at amazon jp, the person claimed to be of 60 years old. So yeah, the show is supposed to be less in the fanservice department, but the story may not be for everyone. Was LOGH was for everyone?

[justpassingby]

There was a special message (short interview) from Sasamoto regarding the anime Source

- Sasamoto anticipation is bigger than anxiety regarding this anime
- The author didn't involve in the selection of seiyuu. He let Satou (director) to do as he likes, but in return "Please make it an interesting story"

Spoiler:

though in the 1st novel, there is a description of Marika's voice, which it changed from "baritone to a lively, lisping soprano". This happened when Marika announced the arrival of Bentenmaru to hijack the luxury ship, Princess Apricot, through the PA system
there are several original characters for the anime, noticeably Kobayashi Wakako (this is from Sasamoto's twitter

- When asked about the concept and theme of Miniskirt Space Pirates, he originally intended to write "A decent Space Story", but if "A decent Space Story" alone, it will become too hard and no one will follow. "Put in high school girl and let them wear pirates suit, and it became soft and reader will be able to follow （笑） (lol)"
- Look forward to the anime

Edit:

Spoiler:

Rin Lambretta:
At the start of the story, she was a 2nd year student and the Vice President of Space Yacht Club. After Jenny left, she became the President. During middle school, she hold a criminal record of cracking/hacking. She is in charge of Odette II Electrical weaponry

Jenny Dolittle
President of Space Yacht Club. After graduate, she was forced into a marriage by her family. On the wedding day, while wearing the wedding dress, she escaped in a Reconnaissance Aircraft to Bentenmaru. She later enrolled into a Space University

[Midonin]

January, eh? My pirate-mania should be winding down around that time, but this'll help keep it wound for a few months more.

[justpassingby]

Kawamori Shouji of Macross, Eureka 7, 0083 etc fame did the design for Odette II. At first, it only has 3-parts sails, before it increased to six, and ended with nine. He enjoyed designing it link

I think he refers to Odette II's solar sails, which loosely resemble IKAROS's solar sail

Spoiler for IKAROS:

[Triple_R]

Just now checking up on upcoming Winter 2011 shows.

This will be either extremely good, or a fun mess. Hard to imagine how the fusion of miniskirts, space action, and pirates, could create anything else.

So I'm definitely looking forward to it.

[MisaoFan]

I always think that Angela is doing opening theme. I just hope that my dream for this will become true !

[ykf566]

Is there a male protagonist or anything equivalent?

Dark Wing mentioned it's not harem which is surprising, but given its seemingly large female cast i'm still abit skeptical. Would be nice if there was some yuri in it too.

[MisaoFan]

Originally Posted by ykf566

Is there a male protagonist or anything equivalent?

Dark Wing mentioned it's not harem which is surprising, but given its seemingly large female cast i'm still abit skeptical. Would be nice if there was some yuri in it too.

There's not male protagonist in this series.

[justpassingby]

Sasamoto always uses female character as the MC. Though there are instances such as 裏山の宇宙船 and 妖精作戦 where there are male MCs, but the female MCs are more important
If one is to pick which male has more page-times in the MouPai novels, it will be Cain McDougal

Spoiler:

He even "dueled to the death" with Marika in vol 1 prologue

The main site background images has been updated for quite a time, in case no one notices. Aside from the main casts, I couldn't determine which girl is who, well except probably the first two from the right (Jennie, Rin) and the last one (that would be Mami)

Spoiler:

So we already know Odette II and Bentenmaru. Looking forward to Barbarossa (Chiaki's father's ship) For a ship that means "Red Beard" in Italian, how did the captain ended up as "Black Beard" . Sure bring back the memories of Siegfried from LOGH ;_;

Spoiler:

Barbarossa saved Odette II at the end of vol 1 where Jenny was at the captain seat while Marika was in charge of Communication.
there is an alien in Black Beard's crew that survived the War for Independence 100+ years ago where the Original Seven were sanctioned by the Galactic Empire and given the privateers licenses

Originally Posted by ykf566

Would be nice if there was some yuri in it too.

Spoiler for Vol 3 pg 248:

Well, a page before the picture here, both Jenny and Rin did kissed lip to lip with passion, which frozen Marika who came in late to the bridge

[Tyabann]

I love space anime, and this is the only one we've had since, what, Gurren Lagann?

Looking forward to this one.

[justpassingby]

^ I think there are space anime post TTGL like Space Cake, Cobra, etc. But not many of them took place in Tau Ceti like Mouretsu Pirates. Those who familiar with Asimov's Foundation novels and Wing Commander games would probably remember that location

[Dark Wing]

Originally Posted by ykf566

Is there a male protagonist or anything equivalent?

Dark Wing mentioned it's not harem which is surprising, but given its seemingly large female cast i'm still abit skeptical. Would be nice if there was some yuri in it too.

Nope no male leads at all...Also an all female cast does not always equal harem. The summery from ANN posted on the top of the second page in this thread even tells you what story is about. A young girl who inherits her dads space ship.

Originally Posted by ANN

The story centers around a spirited high school girl named Marika. She keeps herself busy with the space yacht club and her part-time job at a high-class retro café. One day, two men suddenly appear and claim to be subordinates of her dead father. They demand that she assume command of the space pirate ship Benten Maru. A privateer ship's compact was made during a war of independence a century ago, and according to that compact, the ship must be inherited by the captain's next direct descendant. Marika finds herself embarking on a new life as a space pirate.

[ykf566]

Originally Posted by Dark Wing

Nope no male leads at all...Also an all female cast does not always equal harem. The summery from ANN posted on the top of the second page in this thread even tells you what story is about. A young girl who inherits her dads space ship.

Well if there was a male lead, given its seemingly large female cast it most likely would have been harem, which was why i asked. Pleasantly surprised its not, and just that alone has me interested

[justpassingby]

The director, Satou Tatsuo had experiences in directing anime with female MC/large female casts and involving space/mecha. I personally recommend Uchuu no Stellvia and Nadesico.

In fact, he is the chief director for Rinne no Lagrange scheduled for January next year

Edit

Spoiler for Vol 7:

Title: Miniskirt Space Pirates 7: The Pallid Skull Star

The Empire Information Unit requested Marika and Bentemaru to infiltrate and investigate Skull Star, the pirate hideout at the frontier. Is the Information Unit's intention is to exterminate them, or the vast treasure that they possess....?

Edit II
Washio Naohiro (Link 1, Link 2) is in charge of designing Bentenmaru. He said he is a novice (yeah right :P), and he hoped with the Mouretsu Pirates anime, the fans for SF will increase
Washio also did novel illustrations for Japanese and Japanese-translated English SF novels

Edit III
vol 7 is delayed to November 25th

Edit IV:
I just noticed the Skull with a Biwa sign at Benten Maru's hull. The 丸 "Maru" can be used as a suffix to ship's name Link, so the ship name is to honor the goddess Benten . The seven crews + Princess Gleewell probably refers to the goddess' eight hands, with Marika as the head :P

Edit V
Newtype. Here hoping someone will deliver HQ version

[Stevie_Nix]

All the talk about it not possibly being a harem series due to the lack of a male lead ignores the the fact that only guys can have one.

Either way I am really glad it doesn't look its going to be a harem series but a SciFi action one. Though if we do get some Yuri I'll be happy.

[Stevie_Nix]

Originally Posted by DangerMouse

Awesome, still looking forward to this! Finally an airdate

But January? Glad it's relatively soon but I hope that doesn't mean it'll only be a short 12/13 eps after this long wait, that'd be a bit of a letdown, I'm hoping for something in the 26 ep range so it can be a bigger adventure story and also since space scifi is so rare these days.

I wonder, if this is being based off of light novels, maybe 12/13 might be a natural break point. I do agree I would hope it goes longer. Or at the very least it is successful that there will be sequels to cover later novels.

Speaking of which, I wonder why space SciFi anime series has become rare these days? I can't remember one, at least one that is not mostly a mecha series, off hand for the last 4-5 years. Nanoha is partly space SciFi, but its mostly a magical girl/mecha series hybrid.

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by Stevie_Nix

Speaking of which, I wonder why space SciFi anime series has become rare these days?

They don't sell. Same reason we don't have fantasy adventure anime anymore in spite of the number of ongoing manga under that genre.