Outlaw Star DVD Collection -1 (1998)
Animation Production: Sunrise
Released by: Bandai Entertainment
Official Website: Outlaw Star DVD Collection - 1
Episodes: 1-9
By Keith "JC" Hayward

Introduction

By the year 1998 I was thoroughly immersed in my sick and twisted addiction to anime. Thanks to a friend in college who had been in the advanced stages of addiction long before meeting my friends and I, he hooked us up with quite the smorgish board of a wide variety of shows and moview from fantasy, to super martial arts to immortal titles such as Ninja Scroll and Battle Angel Alita. I was further hooked up with even more anime by my local video store which had practically every single anime ever released in America.

Having pretty much seen the best in all the genres available to me, I found that I just wasn’t getting what I wanted out of the space adventure anime available at the time. They were either too strictly military and “realistic” or inexplicably featuring an all girl casts in skimpy outfits. While I’m all for a good kickass military anime and/or girl power (in skimpy costumes), there were still no space heroes out there for me.

Then began what has been called the Trigun Space Western Era as three unforgettable series hit the scene: Cowboy Bebop, Trigun and Outlaw Star.

In one shot, I was hit by not one awesome space cowboy saga, but three! Cowboy Bebop set the standard for practically any anime that came after it. Trigun garnered an incredible fan following, and Outlaw Star brought in the rear, covering all the epic space adventure an anime universe could possibly hold.

Outlaw Star is anime to the core. Space cowboys, space samurai, space ninjas, space catgirls and pretty much any and every other glorious cliché is here… in space, but done against an expansive galactic backdrop full of action, adventure and more than enough room for just about anything you could possibly imagine. The Outlaw Star has just enough definition to give it its own distinct look and feel, but leaves so much open to the imagination that literally any and every kind adventure could take place within its universe.

The perfect anime for the perfect time, I scooped up this DVD and was blasted to a galaxy far, far away and fought alongside Gene Starwind and the crew of the Outlaw Star full throttle to the end of the universe and back. Saying my journey to the Galactic Leyline was a “trip” would be an understatement.

Story

"Gene Starwind is a man with a past. Working as a part time mercenary, bounty hunter, and bodyguard. Piloting an experimental ship, Gene and his crew must uncover the secret behind the Outlaw Star and their mysterious crew member, Melfina, before the Pirates Guild and the mystic Tao priests catch up to them."-- Bandai's Outlaw Star Webpage

Review

Outlaw Star is the hands down greatest galactic adventure space anime I’ve ever seen. Now I said galactic, because while it’s Space Western brothers, Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, sport superior and more artistic storytelling, Outlaw Star manages to throw its main characters all across the galaxy and put them up against practically any and everything the imagination can come up with. Giant robots, energy beings, wizards, bounty hunters and even a deadly little girl! No expense is spared in this saga and no local left unturned.

Take all the amazing space action and adventure of Tenchi Muyo! and replace the obnoxious asexual twerp with a badass, gun-slinging, womanizing, anime equivalent of Han Solo; and that sums up the look and feel of Outlaw Star. Not only can this main character handle himself in a fight, but with a smirk and a good one-liner he also gets the girls! The hero I speak of is the swashbuckling pilot of the titular starship, the Outlaw Star, Gene Starwind, a cocky loud mouth with an ironic fear of space flight. Backing him up is a colorful cast of outlaws who join him on a quest to find the Galactic Leyline, a mystical power source, which holds the secrets of the entire universe. The roster of bounty hunters include Melfina a quiet girl with a hidden past that happens to be the main drive system of the Outlaw Star; Gene’s longtime partner in crime, Jim Hawkins; a rogue catgirl space pirate named Ayesha Clan Clan; and rounding out the team is a wandering space samurai and assassin known as Twilight Suzuka. Together they take to the stars with their prototype starship, each seeking their own dreams, aspirations and answers to the universe that they all hope to find at the Galactic Leyline.

The action choreography ranges from chaotic space battles that come off looking like dueling bolts of lightening to gunslinging battles where ten thousand blaster bolts fill the air to Street Fighter-like super martial artist duels. No battle is grounded in realism as bullets are often dodged, fists and swords sling bolts of energy and even the starships get in their own unique style of fighting as the best of the best starships are equipped with “grapplers”, mechanical arm extensions that wield giant axes and machine guns. Like I’ve alluded to, if there were a fantastic anime future where all anime universes intersected, the galaxy of Outlaw Star would be it.

The animation’s on par with most anime you see on television in America, such as Trigun or Tenchi and some episodes put it slightly ahead of the curve. You won’t see much in the way of the crisp smooth, almost cream like colors and animation you get out of Japan nowadays, but you easily get your dollar’s worth as Sunrise pushes what they can do to the limit with every episode and goes the extra distance when the action really heats up. The animation isn’t absolutely the best of the best compared to today’s standards, but compared to what’s released here in America even after a couple years, Outlaw Star still holds its own.

I’m no audio-phile, but what I got out of my surround sound system was adequate. Soundtrack is appropriately orchestrally space epic in almost a classic sense, sometimes injected with a little western sounding tune here or there. The voice actors for both the American and Japanese tracks are excellent, so if you’re one who prefers either or, you’ll not be disappointed.

DVD Extras

First thing about this anime DVD is that it’s a collection, so with the $29.95 price you’re getting a whopping 9 episodes! Considering you usually pay $19.95 for maybe three to four episodes, you’re getting more than twice your dosage for about ten bucks less than you’d usually pay, which I find to be an excellent value that I wish we could see on more DVD releases.

Episodes in this first collection include:

Episode 1 - Outlaw World
Episode 2 - Star of Desire
Episode 3 - Into Burning Space
Episode 4 - When the Hot Ice Melts
Episode 5 - Beast Girl, Ready to Pounce
Episode 6 - Beautiful Assassin
Episode 7 - Creeping Evil
Episode 8 - Forced Departure
Episode 9 - A Journey of Adventure...Huh?

In addition you also get a couple trailers, one of them in particular being a vintage Toonami trailer for the television blockbuster Gundam Wing. As a Toonami fan, that’s a pretty sweet bonus, I only wish it had included the Toonami Outlaw Star promo as well.

Final Thoughts

Outlaw Star is a fantastic and fun as hell anime experience. It has very accessible characters, its action is always done full throttle, and it all connects together to bring across a truly grand galactic adventure. If you’re at all a Star Wars, space adventure, or western fan this is definitely a series you’ll want to check out.

Video Promo

Toonami Digital Arsenal: Outlaw Star (highly recommended!!!)

Keith "JC" Hayward