Forum - View topicLeyline Retrospective: an Outlaw Star review.
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Gatherum
 Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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Sue me for being about eleven years late on this, not to mention long beaten to the punch. But everyone needs a hobby and maybe I just feel myself good enough with words to write something like this once in a while. I just got done watching this, so I feel I should write about it while it's fresh in my mind.
Yeah, I'll admit it: this series holds a special place in my heart. It was an immensely fun, Star Wars-like space opera gem that was part of one of many beloved lineups during the good ol' days when Toonami was pretty much the greatest block on television (and frankly, I have a feeling that it holds that honour even in death, despite the fact that its shows had to be edited for their timeslots). Though not nearly as expansive as Star Wars, nor as popular or charming as its most obvious contemporary, Cowboy Bebop, it is still a sweet ride of similarly galactic and cowboyish proportions that incorporates everything from gunslinging to strange alien races to incantations and wizardry to some of the most unique space battles I've ever seen, if a bit awkwardly paced and not quite given a run suitable to carry all of its good ideas. The protagonist is Gene Starwind, in the beginning not necessarily an outlaw yet, nor even owning a ship of his own, but seemingly skilled enough to fit the bill. He is accompanied by his boy genius partner, James "Jim" Hawking, an apparent masta hacka with managerial tendencies that surpass many grown men and women. After a short barfight between the former and a known murderer that Gene easily bests, the both of them are contacted by a seemingly kind woman in need of some expensive equipment as well as a bodyguard. Despite their suspicions, they take the job, only be attacked by pirates and for the woman to reveal herself to be the infamous outlaw, "Hot Ice" Hilda. Evading the pirates temporarily, she leads them to a farmland building where she has hidden a large pressurised case. When opened, they are surprised to find a biological android in cryostatis named Melfina. Her crises in regard to her identity and raison d'etre, connection to a legendary region of space called the Galactic Leyline, and her status as the navigational control module (in the nude, of course) for their eponymous ship forms the major plotline and motivation for their subsequent journey. For the sake of keeping the spoilers to a minimum, I'll keep it simple and say that they pass many locales in space and many different types of people, from homoerotic businessmen, to malevolent outlaws in the form of the MacDougall brothers, to onslaughts of deadly groups from the various Chinese pirate guilds, but also two other unlikely companions in the high-class assassin "Twilight" Suzuka and the loud, obnoxious, and imposingly strong Ctarl-Ctarl, Aisha Clanclan. The show's format is an interestingly gratifying one, each episode, sans the last, beginning with a prologue narrated with warm expertise by the fatherly voice of John Billingslea, known for his role as Jet in Cowboy Bebop, touching upon the series' lore involving in-universe characters, organisations, and technologies. It's a nice touch that allows the series to have an expansive background without requiring that said background interfere with the plot at large, which is carried satisfactorily by its characters, all varied in personality and, quite impressively, with a few minor exceptions, none of them seem unnecessary. Some roles are, of course, larger than others, and some could have been expanded, but altogether, it is a relatively solid lineup. Gene is a suitably carefree and do-things-as-you-go kind of guy with a simple, yet alarmingly effective fighting style, contrasting with Jim, who is constantly annoyed with his attitude, favouring a more preparatory approach. Melfina has an interestingly profound charm that I can't quite put my finger on, suffice to say that she walks a respectable line between contentment and despair: she'll go through her tearful monologues about being unable to recall her purpose and will need to seek comfort from Gene or someone else in the crew, but she does not fall into the detestable monotony of being the sort of hopeless water faucet and instead, puts all of that aside when there is a job to be done or a battle to get through. Suzuka remains as composed as she is supposed to be through most of the series and Aisha is proud and confident, if tactless and a bit annoying at times. She could probably be seen as the show's representative for the neko kawaii desu of the space adventure, and I'll admit that even I, shamefully enough, found it kinda cute. <_< The English dub is professionally well done enough to the point that, when I tried to watch it subbed, I just couldn't make it, and switched back to the old English that I knew and loved halfway through the first episode. That said, it has its quirks, with some characters displaying some awkwardly abrupt shifts in emotional delivery here and there (damn Ctarl-Ctarl, I swear), which might be a problem with the source. All of this coming from a guy who could be counted within those endless hordes of otaku/weeaboo that prefer seiyu over those evil English dub tracks. What I did hear of the Japanese voice-overs was aight.  The soundtrack doesn't have any standout numbers, save perhaps for its battle theme and Melfina's tune (not exactly grammy material, but very well adapted for English), but it's a cool, late-90's/early 00's collection of short tracks that suits each scene just fine.
While its scale is appreciable and lore comprehensive, however, the show does exhibit some issues with pacing, apparent through its whole run, but becoming more of a problem as it reaches its endgame and begins to display a few loose ends, none of which are plot holes, per se, but nevertheless noticeable lapses in background or execution. Melfina's growing relationship with Harry MacDougall doesn't quite satisfy the sceptic in me when I remember his violent, bipolar tendencies toward her, Suzuka's true motivations for joining the crew are revealed far too late (and rather cheaply as well), and the origins of the partnership between Gene and Jim are never explained. The last nine episodes feel altogether very rushed, and though they do a great job of tying up the central plot, it leaves some things to the imagination that perhaps shouldn't have been. That said, its partially-episodic format in its latter half might have been an unwise choice, where those episodes probably should have been used to expand on these and other plot elements. The fights suffer the same treatment as well, especially during the last "arc," even though they exhibit some impressively fluid animation, at least for a show of Outlaw Star's time. Even casual character movements can be pretty damned smooth, right down to the blinking. It is also not the best idea to incorporate your obvious fanservice and/or comedic relief episodes into the integral storyline. I feel that such undermines the serious mysticism that you do have going on. I would say that the show could have done with about nine or so more episodes, so that it had adequate time to more effectively draw out the action scenes and complete its character development. Despite that though, it's a solid series with consistent art, fluid animation, and an interesting premise that feels neither overblown or underblown, and some of the things it does leave to the viewer's imagination only add to series' cosmic mystery. Even with its drawbacks, nothing about it feels truly disappointing. A high recommendation for adventure or space opera fans. I give Outlaw Star, by Takehiko Itō, a 7/10. (When excluding nostalgia factor, which would probably elevate it to an 8/10 for me, but let's be fair, right? )
Last edited by Gatherum on Sun Mar 18, 2012 12:59 am; edited 3 times in total |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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I gave Outlaw Star a 7/10 as well. It's really daft and silly, but also very entertaining.
As to what you said about the fluid animation, Sunrise is kind of famous (especially amongst Japanese fans) for their better-than-average and consistently-good animation. |
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EricDent
 Posts: 997 Location: Georgetown, TX |
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Nice review!
Not sure if you are interested in watching the quasi-sequel/spin-off Angel Links... BTW I have heard several people mention the show Firefly as an obvious "omage" to Outlaw Star. Personally I have never seen Firefly, so I can't comment. Also just in case you did not know, the dub actress for Aisha Clan-Clan was also the voice of Rogue in the '90s X-Men cartoon, she is apparently some sort of senator in Australia now. |
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Gatherum
Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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I do not plan to see Angel Links, at least not any time in the near future. From what I have read, it is an obvious fanservice and frankly, I'd be far more interested in either a continuation of the original Outlaw Star, or a remake thereof. Honestly, I'd say it's due for one.
Never heard of Firefly. Really now? Maybe she can usurp all the retards over there.
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zawa113
 Posts: 7360 |
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What? How can this be! Yes, I most highly recommend Firefly for all Outlaw Star fans, the Science Channel seems to air it all the time on the basis that they have almost nothing else to air most of the time and it should be floating around Hulu too (last I checked). And it's just a damn good show. That said, the fanbase can be a bit annoying because they are fairly rabid on how Fox axed the show before the first season was over. Yes, they are right to be mad at Fox as Firefly was massively screwed by the network (even creating a trope specifically called "The Firefly Effect", but jeez, this happened in like 2002! "Church of Firefly" people can be a bit....crazed... Oddly the show seems to be doing pretty well, both in re-runs and DVD sales, but since it's not animated and the actors are all probably doing other stuff, I don't see it reviving (like Family Guy and Futurama did), though there are comic books that I recommend for fans. You just know they were gonna do something more with Shepherd in the show but it got axed, there is a comic book for him though. And there is a movie that was made a few years later (called "Serenity" because despite axing the show, Fox must've had the rights to the name still, the bastards) that was pretty well received (except for a few spoilerific parts which caused fans to rage) which is as close to a conclusion as you can get for Firefly. So yeah, all Outlaw Star fans, go watch Firefly! |
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ArsenicSteel
 Posts: 2370 |
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I don't know about obvious homage but the space-western motif feels close or Outlaw Star and River Tam is found almost just like Melfina. However, there's no aliens, magic and space combat is almost nonexistent. I agree with classicalzawa. If you like Outlaw Star then try Firefly. |
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Gatherum
Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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I'll take a look at it when I get out of my current anime craze.
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Gatherum
Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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So who else thinks Outlaw Star should be remade?
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dirkusbirkus
 Posts: 699 Location: Manchester, UK |
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I'm not a huge fan of remakes. I prefer things to act as 'postcards' from a bygone era of anime production. I'd prefer its legacy to serve as inspiration for newer series (and I'm sure there have been a few series since then inspired by Outlaw Star). It obviously does something right in its current form, it may be a case here of it it ain't broke, don't fix it.
It's far from perfect but I think that's part of its charm. |
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Gatherum
Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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Be that as it may, I do feel that it could do for a remake in order to update its picture quality and perhaps even remedy some of the issues I mentioned. It doesn't need to replace the original, and in fact, I think that would be something that would supplement it.
Of course, that line of thought is entirely wishful, and there is no guarantee that they wouldn't screw it up. If it were successful enough, perhaps the author would be inclined to make some kind of second season, at least considering that he ended it in such a way that it could be continued. But then, I'm not as enthusiastic about that idea; I'd certainly watch it and I might even enjoy it, but it wouldn't have some of the conflicts in it that made the original so worthy of my time. |
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TitanXL
 Posts: 4036 |
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I don't see the need for a remake. It's not even that old, and it's aged pretty well. I think it represents 90s anime pretty well, especially the art style. And it already has a sequel series.
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Gatherum
Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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Angel Links is not a sequel, but a spin-off. As far as I am aware, it features none of the main characters from its predecessor, nor does it share with it any of its themes. Frankly, the only connection the two have is a common setting and that may be in name only. |
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ailblentyn
 Posts: 1688 Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney |
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My memory is spotty, but I seem to recall an interview with Whedon where he dismissed the rumour that that he had been influenced by "some anime", and gave no indication that he was a fan of anime in general or Outlaw Star in particular. My impression was that the similarity was just coincidence, though I'd be interested if someone could dig up documentation.
My own opinion about Firefly is that Fox showed uncanny (and probably unintentional) good taste in cutting it off exactly as they did. Some of the shows that aired are really good fun, but among those that didn't are some really shocking stinkers. ("Heart of Gold", anyone?) I put Firefly in the class of shows where the creators came up with a wonderful, wonderful world... and then couldn't think of anything worthwhile to do with it. (See Kamichu for an anime example, in my opinion!) |
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