Put simply, this show is great, harrowing and so much fun to watch! From the beautiful late 90s visuals/artstyle that I absolutely adore, to its exciting combat, and the batch of unique characters that come and go throughout the series. This show hits so many right notes for me personally. What drew me to Outlaw Star initially was a combination of the character designs/artstyle and the fluidity of the animation. After seeing the gruesome battle in episode 1 at the bar between Gene Starwind and some ruffian, I just knew I had to watch the whole thing. And from that moment on, the entire show becomes a rollercoaster that never slows down. It is not uncommon to get introduced to a character one minute and the next they’re either dead, or just up and leaves never to be seen again. With that said, what is the best aspect of this show? The worst?
To answer that question, we have to address the elephant in the room. Despite how goofy the grappler arms of the XGP (the ship they steal and use to fight/explore the galaxy) may look, I think they’re a unique concept that many dislike about the show but I enjoy. There are certain episodes where the arm grapplers are essential to the plot as well. Anyways, this is by no means a mecha show (in my eyes at least) but aside from the grappler arms of the XGP, and the AI of the XGP Gilliam II, the other ship designs were my least favorite aspect of the show. Which is odd because I consider the character designs, set designs, and backgrounds to be one of if not my favorite aspects of the show.
Speaking of characters, in our main cast you have Gene Starwind who’s a self-proclaimed Outlaw, a smuggler of sorts who makes it apparent throughout that he’s not a criminal, but just someone trying to get by while making as much cash and a name for himself as he can. Then there’s his sidekick Jim Hawking. Who’s younger, shorter, smarter, and more ill tempered than his companion Gene. These two make a great team, though I found their constant bickering to be annoying at times. I had to realize that them having realistic unpleasant banter made their relationship more believable, so it’s a double edged sword for me. Between the two, I preferred Gene Starwind, since I have a soft spot for overly confident, yet clumsy and faulted badasses. I couldn’t imagine myself enjoying the show as much as I would have if it weren’t for his charisma. Next we have the side characters Melfina, a bio-android who serves as the key to finding the “treasure” we hear about throughout the show. She eternally struggles with her identity and what purpose she serves until meeting Gene and co. Her soft-spoken nature was a breath of fresh air in this cast of boisterous badasses, she quickly became my favorite. There’s Aisha, a Ctarl-Ctarl which is a tiger/human hybrid of sorts who is physically the strongest of the crew but probably also the most impulsive and lacks the most critical thinking. At first I absolutely abhorred her, but after she dropped her “maybe I’m a villain, maybe I’m not schtick” and joined the crew officially, she became my second favorite character behind Melfina. I grew to like her comedy the most out of all the ‘humor’ from this show. More on that later. And lastly, there’s “Twilight” Suzuka who is conceptually the coolest character in my opinion. But she’s easily the most underutilized character and least necessary addition to the cast. Her fights are so lame, and she sits out for most of the episodes anyways, she’s hardly integral to the story and despite being fabled as this altruistic badass, we hardly see her fight and we never even find out if she likes Gene or not which doesn’t even matter since Gene is already taken by Melfina by the end. Sorry about the rant but I just don’t get the point of her character, she seems the most out of place. Which sucks cause I think she could have contributed more if the writer(s) wanted her to.
The plot is an interesting case, because it starts off rather ambiguously and consistently keeps you guessing as to why the space pirates, mac doogal bros, and everyone in between is trying to steal Melfina and find this Leyline treasure. But towards the end, I’d say within the last three episodes it wraps things up very adroitly, maybe a little too abruptly. Which perplexed me since they took so much time expanding on the characters (aside from Suzuka), the world building, and even the ship lore that they didn’t make the conclusion to the story as epic as I felt it needed to be. I don’t count this as a strike against the show though, just a small nitpick I have due to the perception I have of this show being larger than life.
This show’s strengths are within the characters, many of whom you want to spend more time with but disappear as soon as they’re introduced. Namely the cat girl(not Aisha) who I won’t go further in depth but I’ll just say that her episode left me jaw stricken. As well as its animation, artstyle, world building, and action. The faults lie within its odd pacing at times, sometimes a really heavy and dramatic episode will be followed by a silly, quirky, or lewd based episode which is grating at times, but I’ll admit that it does help make each episode feel like its own unique adventure. The comedy was hit or miss for me, while only a few moments made me laugh out loud, I found the humor and banter between the characters to be endearing and fun to watch and think about afterwards. The more slapstick based humor escapes me, but I have to admit that the moments with Aisha really started growing on me after a while and her on screen appearances always gave me a good chuckle. That said, my favorite episodes are the cat assassin episode, and the prison one. My least favorite being the bomb rat episode, and Zomba episode because they felt like filler. And although I liked the fanservice episode for obvious reasons, I think that it had the least funny humor since most of it relies on slapstick.
Despite some flaws, this show transpires me to a world that’s as exciting as can be, moving at a rate that’s as equal to its excitement level. The characters, designs, action, backgrounds, aesthetic, use of colors, and plot all make this one hell of a show and a great time. Also, I’m glad to report that this show has a very satisfying conclusion. I feel very content after finishing it, a very rare feeling I get after finishing a great anime I might add.
