The Satelight anime studio has announced at its Tokyo International Anime Fair booth on Thursday that it is working on a Mōretsu Pirates television anime for 2011. As announced last year, the anime was originally inspired and named after Yuichi Sasamoto's Mini-Skirt Uchū Kaizoku (Mini-Skirt [Space] Pirates) space-opera adventure novels. Sasamoto had previously written the novel inspiration for the Ariel video anime, screenplays for the Dirty Pair video anime series, and The Venus Wars anime film.

Akiman is responsible for the original character designs for the animation, and Starchild Records is handling the music. Tatsuo Sato (Stellvia, Shigofumi: Letters from the Departed, Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars) is directing and supervising the scripts.

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.

Image Mōretsu Pirates Production Committee

Update: Akiman is the pen name of Akira Yasuda (CAPCOM games, Turn A Gundam). Thanks, Sam Murai.