A pseudo-space western based in the distant future, Outlaw Star is definitely
in a league of its own. It switches often between all-out comedy to serious
action-adventure-drama. It focuses its story around a 20yr old outlaw named
Gene Starwind and his 11yr old sidekick, Jim Hawking. The two run a bounty-
hunting operation on an Earth-like planet until they take a job from a beautiful
young woman. They find what she has sent them out for and things take many turns
for the worse.
What do they find? A beautiful young bio-android trapped in a suitcase. Her
name is Melfina and she has no idea why she exists. So, what do they do? What
self-respecting outlaw would do, of course! Go out and find the treasure of
all treasures, the Galactic Leyline! That should give them all the riches that
they desire, and answer Melfina's question.
Along the way they pick up a number of characters. A highly skilled female assassin
by the name of Suzuka, and another young woman, a woman from the feline alien race,
the Ctarl Ctarl, named Aisha, and the wisecracking spaceship, the Outlaw Star itself,
with it's kickass computer, Gilliam, who gets along perfectly with good ol' Jim.
The series runs for 26 episodes, which could amount for a great and fabulous story.
Sadly, this is not the case for this batch of outlaws.
Okay, so they're off to find the Galactic Leyline. On the way, they have to
avoid bounty hunters, the MacDougall Brothers (evil coupla dudes) and the Kei
Pirates. Sounds like it could get good, right? Well, it could... but it falls
short.
After this big-ass space race, which was great to watch, the show slows down
and decides to fall into a huge gap of filler-episodes. I'm not saying that
these fillers aren't fun and all, cause they are, but they don't push the story
forward at all... and if they do, it's by almost immeasurably small increments.
The show is fun, yeah. It's funny, sometimes downright hilarious. But its
fault falls directly in the shoes of the story. While the show should be speeding
at high-velocity speeds, never letting the viewer go, it slows down in the middle.
The characters stop on some planet and put up shop as a bounty hunter type of
service (ie: they'll do almost any kind of job so long as it pays). The show flounders
like a fish flopping on the shore after a hurricane at that point, not really knowing
where it wants to go. The excuse is that they really don't know how to find the
Galactic Leyline, and they need the money anyways, but that doesn't fly after about
two or three episodes.
Again, this may just be me making a moutain out of a grain of sand, but it bothered
me to some degree. It leaves viewers floundering (laughing, but floundering) as
the series tries to find direction. And when it does, it's out of an unfortunate
bunch of coincidences and too-convenient meetings. The series gives itself a
total of six episodes to FINALLY get a lead on how to find the Leyline, find the
Leyline, and finish things off. Six episodes. This means it ends in a hurry,
and a rushed ending does not a happy otaku make, especially in my case.
And as for the animation, while it's quite good at parts, it in no way breaks
any new ground. Really nice to look at, but it's really nothing stand-out in
the wake of a lot of the other anime out there.
Final sum of things? Quite simple. While Outlaw Star may be a fun piece of
anime, it left me feeling somewhat cheated. Expect another Outlaw Star series,
for certain, cause it leaves itself open for a sequel definitely. I just hope
that it's just as funny as this one, without all the floundering that it experiences
in this first one.
Okay, HERE's the final sum: It's funny, it's got interesting characters with
some nice intricacies (though we don't see nearly enough of Suzuka), and it's
got somewhat of an interesting plot to it, but the plot is all but abandoned
right in the middle of the series as the writers seem to try to figure out what
to do with it.
If you don't mind that, then by all means check it out. It's funny enough to
make the series worth your while.