 |
Created by Morning Star
Directed by Hongou Mitsuru (of Shamanic Princess, Crayon Shin-chan)
Production: Sunrise |
|
—by Ivevei Upatkoon
A redneck gun-for-hire and his mechanical whiz-kid partner take up a
bodyguard job, only to find that they are in for more than they bargained
for when their client "acquires" a special item that some very well-armed
and angry people are determined to retrieve.
Sounds like a typical slam-bang space action anime?
Well, OUTLAW STAR
has that too, but it also has a large amount of tongue-in-cheek humor,
characters that are just a little different, and nicely detailed
art. This series began airing at the beginning of this year and it
looks to be slated for a regular twenty-six episode run. It is one of those
late-night anime shows, but viewers looking for suggestive or
hyper-violent material should look elsewhere.
OUTLAW STAR is wholesome fun
entertainment.
That said, don't you go hitting the "back" button on your browser
there! What is most refreshing about this show amidst the virtual
flood of cheap thrill anime that has been saturating the market is the
way the protagonist, Jeen Starwind, has been portrayed. Jeen is a
tough sharpshooter with an eye for women. However, even though he
eventually picks up, albeit involuntarily, three women into his ragtag
band of space outlaws, they do not fall head over heels for him, nor
does he try incessantly to bed them. A smile here, a little flirting
there, but otherwise Jeen is a perfect gentleman. Or rather he is as
much as one could be with scars crisscrossing his face and body and
all the maturity of a reckless, hick teenager.
|
|
|
 |
|
The story begins when Jeen and his sidekick, Jim, are hired by a
pirate, Hilda, to guard her as she obtains the necessary item to
activate a hidden ship. To Jeen and Jim's surprise the "item" turns
out to be a lovely girl—an android—named Melfeena, who
is the only one who can interface with the ship Jeen eventually
renames Outlaw Star. Throughout this adventure, they are
pursued by pirates, although whether the pirates' objective is
Melfeena or the Outlaw Star has not been made clear yet. To complicate
things and add a little angst into the series, Jeen has space phobia,
a result of being bundled into an ejection pod by his father as a
child and then shot into space as the lone survivor of a pirate
attack. Along the way, Jeen and co. run into Eisha, a cat-like alien
of the Kataar-Kataar Empire with monstrous physical strength and an
equally monstrous appetite. Eisha takes this encounter rather
unhappily (and rightly so!), and haunts Jeen as he travels from space
station to space station. Unfortunately, the only way she can pay her
way is to work as a waitress! Later, Jeen also meets up with a female
assassin who can cut through buildings with a wooden sword!
The art is usually quite good, characterized by fine lines
and more detail
than usually seen in TV anime. The opening has especially impressive
animation, with a catchy hard-driving song reminiscent of heavy metal that
fits the atmosphere very well. It starts off serious, but switches halfway
to humorous scenes of Jeen shaving and checking his teeth or running as
explosions detonate behind him. Personally, I think this opening is the
best part of the show, really. I do, however, have a problem with the
character designs, or rather, the consistency. For some episodes, the
characters look as if they have been vertically squashed, leading me to
wish for a widescreen television.
In addition, fans of LODOSS or MACROSS
PLUS will be pleased to know that Arai Akino performs the closing
song in her trademark wonderfully soft style. The images from the
ending are still a mystery, probably to be unveiled when we learn more
about the secret behind the Outlaw Star and Melfeena's
origin. Aside from this, however, I did not find the rest of the music
outstanding enough to make a note of.
One more thing I really liked was the Outlaw Star itself. It
has little mechanical arms that can grapple or hold guns, and when it
goes up against other pirate ships, which also have arms, it becomes a
hilarious wrestling match between otherwise stately weapons of war. In
addition, the main computer of the Outlaw Star speaks through
little robots about the size of a soda can. What makes it really funny
is that they have faces and move along rails strung throughout the
ship! It is this dichotomy between the serious and the wacky that
makes OUTLAW STAR such a fun anime to watch.
It certainly is not the
plot, which took off with a bang at the beginning but has been
dragging lately.
In conclusion, OUTLAW STAR is a fun
anime, a little light on substance but
with enough action and lots of humor to make it worth a watch. It does not
leave a deep impression, but I know I will continue to follow it.
 |
|
