James Review -- Bodacious Space Pirates: Abyss of Hyperspace: Volume 2

This week I decided to review the second volume of Bodacious Space Pirates: Abyss of Hyperspace. 

It opens up exactly where the first volume ended. Chiaki has arrived at Marika’s house to find it in ruins after an attack. Fortunately, the only person home at the time was Ririka, Marika’s mother and an infamous pirate and one-woman army in her own right. Ririka explains to Chiaki that Marika is probably at the home of Princess Gruier Serenity. 

The story then cuts to a brief scene with Marika discussing the mission to rescue Kanata with the mission’s sponsor. Things then move to the Bentenmaru where many of the crew members are attempting to determine who was behind the recent attack launched on them. They confirm that the vessels were warships belonging to the navy they claimed to belong to, but that the ships in question were supposed to be in their manufacturer’s shipyards being examined after three years of service. 

The story then shifts to Kanata discussing his feelings for his father with the two Serenity princesses and they explain the nature of their own births. Meanwhile, the café where Marika works part time finds a restraint from a major franchise opening nearby and threatening their business. And, soon, a spyware program is found deep inside the local computer networks. Eventually, it is realized that the malware was installed by the company which made the security software the computers were using. This leads to the revelation that the seemingly disparate forces hindering the Bentenmaru and her crew are actually all branches of the Yggdrasil Group, a massive conglomerate with thousands of corporations under its control. 

After discovering a hidden message, the Bentenmaru sails to a comet where they find both the ship of Kanata’s father and an experimental hyperspace submersible. But the forces of Yggdrasil are closing in and even with surprise reinforcements from Chiaki, her father, and the Yacht club at Marika’s school,the Bentenmaru is still outnumbered as it fights to cover Kanata who must now decide what to do with the legacy he has been left if he can reach it safely…

I give this volume 7.5 out of 10. The story was interesting but I feel that the side plot involving the café and its new rival added nothing to the story and was just a waste of pages to make the book longer. Also, the final battle was somewhat underwhelming to me and I don’t like the design of the experimental submersible very much, and feel that it makes little sense for use in space. Still overall I had a lot of fun with it and I hope more stories in the setting get released in English soon.