Kinda sad really, but dammit its a One-Hit Wonder that can't really be replicated. And sadly Japan did Try to capitalize on its moderate success,...with Angel Links. A Boring as fuck, rushed product of an anime that's a spin-off to Outlaw Star and a failure. It really did not work.
Going by what I've researched, if Angel Links wasn't made there's a good chance we'd have got a second season of Outlaw Star instead. (I could sperg out and go into detail on that, but I don't want to write an essay.) Having said that, I find it hard to hate on Angel Links too bad because it was handled by the original creator (Takehiko Ito) of Outlaw Star. Ironically, the much better anime, Outlaw Star, didn't receive a lot of input from Ito. In the end though, it's a canonical part of Outlaw Star's universe and shouldn't be ignored outright. (I know, it _is_ pretty boring.) If only its soundtrack was handled by Kow Otani.
@John Williams Maybe you're thinking of the typical length of modern anime. Modern anime is usually 13 episodes in length. Previously it was usually around 26 episodes. Outlaw Star's original broadcast was 24 episodes. "Hot Springs Planet Tenrei" and "Demon of the Water Planet" were added as DVD bonuses. No second season sadly! But there almost was. Bringing back characters like Shimi or introducing a new ship were cool ideas.
Literally my favorite anime ever. I hate that we have countless videos analyzing DBZ but trying to find a video essay on Outlaw Star is like searching for the Galactic Leyline. Thank you for making this.
Man, my brothers and I loved Outlaw Star. I've been rewatching episodes here on RUclips, and I honestly forgot how much this series influenced me. While Dragon Ball Z had a major influence on me, I find myself trying to create stories and games that reflect my love for Outlaw Star over DBZ, and that's because there's something special about Outlaw Star. It feels gritty. Also, I *swear* I remember seeing that hot springs episode on Toonami. I remember feeling confused, because when they aired the series again, it suddenly wasn't there. It got to the point that I felt that the episode was a figment of my imagination. I was happy to find out years later that I wasn't just imagining things.
I found the entire GTO anime at eb games for like 10 dollars back in the day. I never woulda checked something like that out otherwise, a real blessing from the lord of thrift. I need to follow up on the manga someday
I was a HUGE fan of Outlaw Star. Even more than Trigun or Cowboy Bebop. This was the series that got my 23yo son hooked on anime, and he still steaks VERY highly of it.
I'm so glad someone else remembers this anime it holds a special place in my hart cause it was the only anime my dad would watch with me those where the good days
I feel like nobody makes this connection but I always thought this anime was quite literally an anime adaptation of Treasure Island with a space western setting. I mean one of the main characters of OLS shares the same name as the main character of Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins. They’re searching for a treasure in a place that’s hard to find but widely fought over. Oh and... pirates...
Aisha was voiced by Lenore Zann who also voiced Rouge in the original X-men cartoon. It's also a shame Bob Buchholz never got any other starring roles because he has a really distinctive voice.
I think I can wholeheartedly say, in the Fall of 2000, at the impressionable age of 13, to have THIS and Gundam Wing, and Steve Blum as TOM on the evening block of Toonami, was truly EPIC.
Felt like rewatching this essay since I just started firefly lol xD Anyway these days outlaw star is at least on hulu for anyone who happens across this comment!
This is one of my fave animes 2. Its definitely an easier rewatch than cowboy bebop. As much as I like that show it needs more emotional energy to get through. Thanks for doing a video outlaw star. Love it
An underappreciated anime that deserves better recognition. I like the space western aspects of this sci-fi series. Well worth a watch for character study. 😊
I have SUCH good memories of watching Outlaw Star along with DBZ and Gundam Wing on Toonami back in the day. Kou Ootani also composed the music for Gundam Wing, which is fun because if you listen to the 2 OSTs back to back, it's so incredibly obvious that they have the same musical language; it's instantly recognizable that they shared a composer. I might be due for a rewatch. I have DBZ on bluray and Gundam Wing on DVD, I wish I could get my hands on Outlaw Star in physical media too.
I wish I could say I didn’t quote Harry as much as I do. I had an enormous crush on Mel as a kid, and still have a soft spot for her, to the extent of being ecstatic when I met a cosplayer of her after years of going to cons and at least 15 years after first seeing the show. It kills me that “Nothing good can ever come from hanging out with normal people” is one of my favorite quotes, knowing that he punches her immediately after saying it.
Apparently, Aisha’s voice actress is Lenore Zann, who voiced Rogue in X-Men: The Animated Series, and would go on to voice ROLL.EXE in the English dub of Megaman NT Warrior.
Outlaw star didn't get noticed because of scheduling in the West and the fact that everyone who worked on it wasn't established in their careers yet so no one was looking out for it.
That episode where they fought the pirate and Jim is heartbroken because he got stood up but doesn't realize he just killed his 1st love and that's the reason she never came to meet him... it breaks my heart, too. Every. Single. Time.
>dub, "Eat Your Hamburgers, Apollo" Anyway, I'll definitely give this series a go considering I loved Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, thanks for introducing me to it. I don't care much if its a sub or a dub, but I definitely hate any kind of censorship especially done by toonami so i'll watch the original.
Aisha was voiced by Lenore Zann who voiced Rouge in the original x-men animated series but also did roll in megaman nt warrior but she was a Canadian parliament member and was a voting member losing in 2021 to a conservative. She’s currently back as rogue in the upcoming x-men animated series reboot. She has been doing rogue her entire career and did other voices too.
This was one my favorite shows and I enjoyed how fleshed out the universe was. Perhaps it’s good thing it isn’t as widely known so it can avoid a fate like the live action GitS movie or most Netflix adaptations.
I started watching cowboy bebop and kept waiting for that cool red ship with arms I always saw on toonami previews to show up. Guess this video explains a few things...
Fun fact; For reasons I never quite thought about, I never watched Cowboy Bebop as a kid. I do however have an outlaw star dvd box set just looking at me rignt now
Forgotten? Not a chance. I’ve got the ship along with figures of Gene and Mel in my merch collection. This show was one of the ones that made me the fan I am. And it’s the only one of the 3 (OLS, Zoids, and Tenchi) that I can still rewatch and say it’s still just as good. I loved Tenchi as a kid, and I have a massive Zoid collection, but those shows haven’t aged well, particularly the dubs.
Toonami totally shafted this cartton and never even gave it a shot. They took it off air as soon the series did its first run. It had the coolest aesthetic out of any anime to this day. Best character design. Bangin theme song. Plus this show introduced me into Taoism.... ill always be grateful to it
Rewatching my DVDs again for the first time in a decade and the series holds up. True, it's not Cowboy Bebop but it doesn't need to be. It has its own unique identity that's impossible to mistake or forget. From the grappler ships and caster guns to the quirky characters and locations, the show has a distinct worldbuilding going on. It can be mentioned in the same breath with the likes of Trigun and Bebop without feeling like a third wheel because it's good, too.
In my personal top 20 favorite anime. Outlaw Star, which i earn to this day in DVD, was phenomenal. I loved those days of Outlaw Star, Trigun and Cowboy Bebop.... Great video. Outlaw Star rewatchability is soooo damn good, for me. And Trigun is top top also.
I'm fans of both. They're both good. lol. I get enjoyment out of both of them. They're both masterpieces. Cowboy Bebop is more stylistic and genre bending. Outlaw Star is more of an odyssey.
I have all 3 DVD collections from Outlaw Star... and OS definitely drew heavily from it's "sister anime" 'Angel Links', even sharing the same Universe. I was surprised you didn't mention it. Oddly enough, I also love Firefly/Serenity and never drew the parallels to it until I watched this video. Per the writer's other works (Angel Links)(Ito Takehiko): "The Galactic Leyline is a data repository that contains the known universe's knowledge in the Toward Stars Era" -- Great video!!!
Yeah I too am a big fan of outlaw star fell in love with it in the very very beginning. I also have the Blu-ray of the series. I Trigun and cowboy Bebop. Now I do think outlaw star has a small loyal fan base for the series and some have been clamoring for a second season but both of those productions didn’t get off the ground in Japan and were canceled.
I just finished watching through all twenty-six episodes in a day. It's one of the few anime shows I can return to without cringing constantly. Escaflowne is up there for me too. Harry was my favorite character, by far, growing up, but as I've matured, that honor goes to the elder MacDougall. Hands down John Snyder's most nuanced, natural performance in an anime, and he's got a lot of 'em. Speaking of the performances, though--Christ, what a cast, and what an amazing job they did! Steve Staley's Harry is remarkably flexible, yet consistent. Lenore Zann (Aisha) is a scene stealer. Brianne Siddall as Jim is utterly believable. Ezra Weisz nails the gentle camp of Fred Luo. The stately Milton James makes Gwen Khan a cool, brainy winner. And who can forget Gilliam's iconic delivery, courtesy of Peter Spellos? You know, a big reason I still come back to this show IS the dub. Even the friends of mine who generally prefer Japanese voice work prefer Outlaw Star's English dub. It's so expressive and organic, with a few exceptions.
I never really considered Outlaw Star to be a Space "Western" just like I never really considered Trigun to be a "Space" Western. Though it did spark my love of "Hobo's in Space", or people who do random jobs while trying to survive with a spaceship and a dream (Firefly and Cowboy Bebop were already mentioned, but I also add Farscape, Vandred, and Lost Universe to the general "Hobo's in Space" list.... Probably more). This is definitely one of those shows that I generally don't go back and watch the whole series, but pick certain episodes depending on my mood. I do tend to not ever watch the last 3 episodes (really the last 4 since it is rare I watch the hot springs episode) and I also skip some of the others like Beast Girl Ready to Pounce, Advanced Guard from Another World, and the set of episodes between Suzu joining and the space race.
Of these three I would only really call trigun a western. Bebob is film noire to its core, and outlaw star is some weird amalgam of pulp fiction tropes best exemplified by 80s scifi tabletop rpgs like battletech and shadowrun.
If anything ripped off anything, Cowboy Bebop ripped off Outlaw Star. Except it didn't. But Outlaw Star didn't rip off Cowboy Bebop either because it was originally conceived before Bebop was even on the drawing board. That's why comparisons sometimes irk me, particularly when Cowboy Bebop is called Outlaw Star's "big brother". The two don't really share _that_ much in common. One of the worst examples of this comparison was an official Outlaw Star box set saying: "Made in the tradition of Cowboy Bebop" (Oh dear.) Outlaw Star has a more linear plot with only a few filler episodes, whereas Cowboy Bebop is a hijinks anime with a _lot_ being filler. Lenore Zann (Aisha's VA) is cool, but I think Emilie Brown's work on Melfina is overlooked and frankly underrated. Hell, I even got to work with her on an Outlaw Star video, and nearly twenty years later she still has it! Regarding antagonists, in the first half of the anime, the MacDougall brothers are presented as the antagonists because they killed Gene's father (of course, Ron did this) and Hilda. The Galactic Leyline is secondary, because in Gene's mind it's still not much more than a fishy story. Even Hilda commented on how she didn't believe anything she hadn't seen. (Oddly enough, in the manga she's obsessed with the Galactic Leyline and its treasure.) Then when shit gets real and the Anten Seven are sent by the Tempa Empire to assassinate Gene, the focus is more or less switched to the Leyline, with the Anten Seven and Hazanko becoming the antagonists. Just a little fun fact, originally Outlaw Star's title did not come from the ship at all! That was changed almost entirely for the anime. I'd explain what it means in the manga but that's a huge spoiler. I know you've only read the first volume, but we're not far off finishing its entire translation. I find Outlaw Star special partially because it has a lot of lore, and much of it is unknown to western audiences, which I suppose makes it more exciting to find and translate. With other sci-fi series, oftentimes everything is already documented.
Outlaw star is amazing! I love the combination of scifi, western and fantasy. I notice that tv shows and movies rip off anime and manga a lot, paying little or no respect to any series ripping off aspects or complete stories... I feel like concepts used in anime from our media are almost always acknowledged and even praised by anime creators. Great video nice to know i am not only outlaw fanboy. I owned it aswell but lended it to a friend that damaged my cds... (cowboy bebop aswell)
I have to agree. Of all the anime I’ve watched Outlaw Star still sticks in the back of my mind. I remember watching it on Cartoon Network many years ago. I’ll go years without thinking of it then I’m like “oh man I miss that !”
Easily the greatest anime that never got the recognition it deserved
Kinda sad really, but dammit its a One-Hit Wonder that can't really be replicated. And sadly Japan did Try to capitalize on its moderate success,...with Angel Links. A Boring as fuck, rushed product of an anime that's a spin-off to Outlaw Star and a failure. It really did not work.
Facts!
FUCKING A!
Going by what I've researched, if Angel Links wasn't made there's a good chance we'd have got a second season of Outlaw Star instead. (I could sperg out and go into detail on that, but I don't want to write an essay.) Having said that, I find it hard to hate on Angel Links too bad because it was handled by the original creator (Takehiko Ito) of Outlaw Star. Ironically, the much better anime, Outlaw Star, didn't receive a lot of input from Ito. In the end though, it's a canonical part of Outlaw Star's universe and shouldn't be ignored outright. (I know, it _is_ pretty boring.) If only its soundtrack was handled by Kow Otani.
@John Williams Maybe you're thinking of the typical length of modern anime. Modern anime is usually 13 episodes in length. Previously it was usually around 26 episodes. Outlaw Star's original broadcast was 24 episodes. "Hot Springs Planet Tenrei" and "Demon of the Water Planet" were added as DVD bonuses. No second season sadly! But there almost was. Bringing back characters like Shimi or introducing a new ship were cool ideas.
Literally my favorite anime ever. I hate that we have countless videos analyzing DBZ but trying to find a video essay on Outlaw Star is like searching for the Galactic Leyline. Thank you for making this.
This anime deserved a sequel.
A proper sequal at that!
It was going to get an OVA called Sword od Wind but it got scrapped. 😭
Live action adaptation by whoever did those ruroni kenshin films
No it doesn't
Nope. It was perfect.
Man, my brothers and I loved Outlaw Star. I've been rewatching episodes here on RUclips, and I honestly forgot how much this series influenced me.
While Dragon Ball Z had a major influence on me, I find myself trying to create stories and games that reflect my love for Outlaw Star over DBZ, and that's because there's something special about Outlaw Star.
It feels gritty.
Also, I *swear* I remember seeing that hot springs episode on Toonami. I remember feeling confused, because when they aired the series again, it suddenly wasn't there. It got to the point that I felt that the episode was a figment of my imagination. I was happy to find out years later that I wasn't just imagining things.
Gun that uses magic shells, personal force fields, Tao magic. That's enough for this to stay in my top 3 forever.
Ill always be grateful for this cartoon for starting my fascination with Taoism
I like how the design of everything was Chinese instead of standard american
Outlaw star was always my favorite
Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop, Yu Yu Hakusho, and GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) are my favorites since I started watching Anime when I was 13 in 2002.
I found the entire GTO anime at eb games for like 10 dollars back in the day. I never woulda checked something like that out otherwise, a real blessing from the lord of thrift. I need to follow up on the manga someday
The voice actress for Aisha is Rouge from the original X-men
I was a HUGE fan of Outlaw Star. Even more than Trigun or Cowboy Bebop. This was the series that got my 23yo son hooked on anime, and he still steaks VERY highly of it.
It's on Hulu right now. Thank the anime Lords
one of the greatest anime ever made.
This was better than Trigun or Cowboy Beebop to me growing up.
I'm so glad someone else remembers this anime it holds a special place in my hart cause it was the only anime my dad would watch with me those where the good days
Loved it, underrated. Love firefly. Never saw the connection! Mindblown
This show is so underrated loved it in the Toonami block and Adult Swim run.
I bought the Blu-Ray a couple years ago pretty much on the strength of the old Broken Dreams Toonami promo. I was very pleased.
Crazy how no one else talks about outlaw star.
Holy shit! Firefly makes more sense now.
I feel like nobody makes this connection but I always thought this anime was quite literally an anime adaptation of Treasure Island with a space western setting.
I mean one of the main characters of OLS shares the same name as the main character of Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins. They’re searching for a treasure in a place that’s hard to find but widely fought over. Oh and... pirates...
Aisha was voiced by Lenore Zann who also voiced Rouge in the original X-men cartoon.
It's also a shame Bob Buchholz never got any other starring roles because he has a really distinctive voice.
This show was my childhood it help me become who i am today it will always be close to my heart
Outlaw Star is on Hulu!! I'm so happyyyyy
This kinda reminds me about how everyone forgot about Ronin Warriors. I loved that show.
I like this guy's energy, happy yet falling asleep.
update: outlaw star is now on hulu. i just finished it and then i found this video!
definately a underated gem
This is truly a forgotten gem
Damn I can't wait to watch this I seen 2 videos in the last day about this show
Every friend i ever introduced to outlaw star instantly fell in love with the show
I think I can wholeheartedly say, in the Fall of 2000, at the impressionable age of 13, to have THIS and Gundam Wing, and Steve Blum as TOM on the evening block of Toonami, was truly EPIC.
Dude props for finding that parallel I dig both of those shows. Outlaw Star on Toonami was dope!
agreed! hands down my fav anime
Felt like rewatching this essay since I just started firefly lol xD
Anyway these days outlaw star is at least on hulu for anyone who happens across this comment!
My music is heavily inspired by this show. Fuck with me.
Amazing video my friend. You summed up how great this show was to me as a teen. Thank you.
This is one of my fave animes 2. Its definitely an easier rewatch than cowboy bebop. As much as I like that show it needs more emotional energy to get through. Thanks for doing a video outlaw star. Love it
An underappreciated anime that deserves better recognition. I like the space western aspects of this sci-fi series. Well worth a watch for character study. 😊
I have SUCH good memories of watching Outlaw Star along with DBZ and Gundam Wing on Toonami back in the day. Kou Ootani also composed the music for Gundam Wing, which is fun because if you listen to the 2 OSTs back to back, it's so incredibly obvious that they have the same musical language; it's instantly recognizable that they shared a composer.
I might be due for a rewatch. I have DBZ on bluray and Gundam Wing on DVD, I wish I could get my hands on Outlaw Star in physical media too.
That opening song gives me chills man! Best anime ever !!!!
I wish I could say I didn’t quote Harry as much as I do. I had an enormous crush on Mel as a kid, and still have a soft spot for her, to the extent of being ecstatic when I met a cosplayer of her after years of going to cons and at least 15 years after first seeing the show.
It kills me that “Nothing good can ever come from hanging out with normal people” is one of my favorite quotes, knowing that he punches her immediately after saying it.
@The Trooth you did such an awesome job! Our childhoods were the same with outlaw star.
One for the old heads and never forget space pirate wizards !
That's the best comparision of firefly and Outlaw Star I've ever seen.
Apparently, Aisha’s voice actress is Lenore Zann, who voiced Rogue in X-Men: The Animated Series, and would go on to voice ROLL.EXE in the English dub of Megaman NT Warrior.
Outlaw star didn't get noticed because of scheduling in the West and the fact that everyone who worked on it wasn't established in their careers yet so no one was looking out for it.
That episode where they fought the pirate and Jim is heartbroken because he got stood up but doesn't realize he just killed his 1st love and that's the reason she never came to meet him... it breaks my heart, too. Every. Single. Time.
>dub, "Eat Your Hamburgers, Apollo"
Anyway, I'll definitely give this series a go considering I loved Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, thanks for introducing me to it.
I don't care much if its a sub or a dub, but I definitely hate any kind of censorship especially done by toonami so i'll watch the original.
Great video. This anime is top 10 in my book
Really miss this show.
Aisha was voiced by Lenore Zann who voiced Rouge in the original x-men animated series but also did roll in megaman nt warrior but she was a Canadian parliament member and was a voting member losing in 2021 to a conservative. She’s currently back as rogue in the upcoming x-men animated series reboot. She has been doing rogue her entire career and did other voices too.
I just remembered I saw this as a kid and didn't realized which show it was until toonami showed it again this year.
My favourite Anime Series ever!
🤘😎🤘
"Believe in yourself create your own destiny don't fear failure!"
This was one my favorite shows and I enjoyed how fleshed out the universe was. Perhaps it’s good thing it isn’t as widely known so it can avoid a fate like the live action GitS movie or most Netflix adaptations.
I started watching cowboy bebop and kept waiting for that cool red ship with arms I always saw on toonami previews to show up. Guess this video explains a few things...
Still my favorite show of all time over any other show just had the best elements
Outlaw is such a good anime
It's on Hulu! And I watched this growing up too!
I have all episodes downloaded on my playstation and a external hard drive
I found this on blu ray today. Thanks for a great video. I'm enjoying the series so far.
Fun fact; For reasons I never quite thought about, I never watched Cowboy Bebop as a kid. I do however have an outlaw star dvd box set just looking at me rignt now
Aisha's VA is also Rogue from X-MEN (Original & '97).
Two of my earliest crushes are the same woman. 😍
Forgotten? Not a chance. I’ve got the ship along with figures of Gene and Mel in my merch collection. This show was one of the ones that made me the fan I am. And it’s the only one of the 3 (OLS, Zoids, and Tenchi) that I can still rewatch and say it’s still just as good.
I loved Tenchi as a kid, and I have a massive Zoid collection, but those shows haven’t aged well, particularly the dubs.
Firefly has the same starting point but let's face it space magic it's why I like Star is better space magic. It has the best space magic.
In Spain Cartoon Network project this anime on the "toonami" space with Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Jack.
Good chilhood.
People always forget outlaw star. I have heard it called a dumbed down cowboy bebop. I love it but of the three , trigun i my personal fav
Currently watching it on Prime - must say I'm impressed 😎
I loved this show. So damn much
Absolutely love outlaw stat
Toonami totally shafted this cartton and never even gave it a shot. They took it off air as soon the series did its first run.
It had the coolest aesthetic out of any anime to this day. Best character design. Bangin theme song. Plus this show introduced me into Taoism.... ill always be grateful to it
Rewatching my DVDs again for the first time in a decade and the series holds up. True, it's not Cowboy Bebop but it doesn't need to be. It has its own unique identity that's impossible to mistake or forget. From the grappler ships and caster guns to the quirky characters and locations, the show has a distinct worldbuilding going on. It can be mentioned in the same breath with the likes of Trigun and Bebop without feeling like a third wheel because it's good, too.
I like this more than cb and tg.
Outlaw Star one of the greatest anime of all time and 10 times better the Cowboy Bebop & Trigun!!!
I loved Outlaw Star. It’s in my top 5 anime of all time
"I guess just come over to my place and watch it" lol hell yeah dude.
In my personal top 20 favorite anime. Outlaw Star, which i earn to this day in DVD, was phenomenal. I loved those days of Outlaw Star, Trigun and Cowboy Bebop.... Great video. Outlaw Star rewatchability is soooo damn good, for me. And Trigun is top top also.
To add to funny coincidences.
This anime is Treasure Planet years before treasure planet(treasure island in space)
You just not going to mention the beauty of the Japanese end theme?
I'm fans of both. They're both good. lol. I get enjoyment out of both of them. They're both masterpieces. Cowboy Bebop is more stylistic and genre bending. Outlaw Star is more of an odyssey.
It will be my next show to watch, Just got done watching paranoia agent so im a little burnt out from the craziness but ya, looks good.
same feelings man, same feelings....
And now i know why i liked firefly so much lmao...
Pa gu wa sun fa , pa gu wa sun fa , PA GU WA SUN FA!!
I have all 3 DVD collections from Outlaw Star... and OS definitely drew heavily from it's "sister anime" 'Angel Links', even sharing the same Universe. I was surprised you didn't mention it. Oddly enough, I also love Firefly/Serenity and never drew the parallels to it until I watched this video. Per the writer's other works (Angel Links)(Ito Takehiko): "The Galactic Leyline is a data repository that contains the known universe's knowledge in the Toward Stars Era" -- Great video!!!
I think we shared the same opinions when they were going on.
Outlaw star is an amazing 90's anime series. 😀👍
Yeah I too am a big fan of outlaw star fell in love with it in the very very beginning. I also have the Blu-ray of the series. I Trigun and cowboy Bebop. Now I do think outlaw star has a small loyal fan base for the series and some have been clamoring for a second season but both of those productions didn’t get off the ground in Japan and were canceled.
I just finished watching through all twenty-six episodes in a day. It's one of the few anime shows I can return to without cringing constantly. Escaflowne is up there for me too. Harry was my favorite character, by far, growing up, but as I've matured, that honor goes to the elder MacDougall. Hands down John Snyder's most nuanced, natural performance in an anime, and he's got a lot of 'em. Speaking of the performances, though--Christ, what a cast, and what an amazing job they did! Steve Staley's Harry is remarkably flexible, yet consistent. Lenore Zann (Aisha) is a scene stealer. Brianne Siddall as Jim is utterly believable. Ezra Weisz nails the gentle camp of Fred Luo. The stately Milton James makes Gwen Khan a cool, brainy winner. And who can forget Gilliam's iconic delivery, courtesy of Peter Spellos? You know, a big reason I still come back to this show IS the dub. Even the friends of mine who generally prefer Japanese voice work prefer Outlaw Star's English dub. It's so expressive and organic, with a few exceptions.
It's on Hulu now incase you're looking to recommend still
I never really considered Outlaw Star to be a Space "Western" just like I never really considered Trigun to be a "Space" Western. Though it did spark my love of "Hobo's in Space", or people who do random jobs while trying to survive with a spaceship and a dream (Firefly and Cowboy Bebop were already mentioned, but I also add Farscape, Vandred, and Lost Universe to the general "Hobo's in Space" list.... Probably more).
This is definitely one of those shows that I generally don't go back and watch the whole series, but pick certain episodes depending on my mood. I do tend to not ever watch the last 3 episodes (really the last 4 since it is rare I watch the hot springs episode) and I also skip some of the others like Beast Girl Ready to Pounce, Advanced Guard from Another World, and the set of episodes between Suzu joining and the space race.
Farscape is amazing
Of these three I would only really call trigun a western. Bebob is film noire to its core, and outlaw star is some weird amalgam of pulp fiction tropes best exemplified by 80s scifi tabletop rpgs like battletech and shadowrun.
DVD.com (formerly Netflix) USED to have the whole series, but now are down to just the first two disks.
It's on hulu now just finished it honestly cowboy bebop is great but I love outlaw star more Trigun was borin
I’m in a scavenger hunt to find an anime I watched by accident as a kid. This one wasn’t it, but I will definitely be checking it out!
If anything ripped off anything, Cowboy Bebop ripped off Outlaw Star. Except it didn't. But Outlaw Star didn't rip off Cowboy Bebop either because it was originally conceived before Bebop was even on the drawing board. That's why comparisons sometimes irk me, particularly when Cowboy Bebop is called Outlaw Star's "big brother". The two don't really share _that_ much in common. One of the worst examples of this comparison was an official Outlaw Star box set saying: "Made in the tradition of Cowboy Bebop" (Oh dear.) Outlaw Star has a more linear plot with only a few filler episodes, whereas Cowboy Bebop is a hijinks anime with a _lot_ being filler.
Lenore Zann (Aisha's VA) is cool, but I think Emilie Brown's work on Melfina is overlooked and frankly underrated. Hell, I even got to work with her on an Outlaw Star video, and nearly twenty years later she still has it!
Regarding antagonists, in the first half of the anime, the MacDougall brothers are presented as the antagonists because they killed Gene's father (of course, Ron did this) and Hilda. The Galactic Leyline is secondary, because in Gene's mind it's still not much more than a fishy story. Even Hilda commented on how she didn't believe anything she hadn't seen. (Oddly enough, in the manga she's obsessed with the Galactic Leyline and its treasure.) Then when shit gets real and the Anten Seven are sent by the Tempa Empire to assassinate Gene, the focus is more or less switched to the Leyline, with the Anten Seven and Hazanko becoming the antagonists.
Just a little fun fact, originally Outlaw Star's title did not come from the ship at all! That was changed almost entirely for the anime. I'd explain what it means in the manga but that's a huge spoiler. I know you've only read the first volume, but we're not far off finishing its entire translation.
I find Outlaw Star special partially because it has a lot of lore, and much of it is unknown to western audiences, which I suppose makes it more exciting to find and translate. With other sci-fi series, oftentimes everything is already documented.
Gene is that one guy, jim is that one kid, and aisha is rogue from the 90s x-men cartoon.
I will say I did have a good time from the beginning. And then it got weird when they find the Galactic Layline.
Outlaw star is amazing! I love the combination of scifi, western and fantasy. I notice that tv shows and movies rip off anime and manga a lot, paying little or no respect to any series ripping off aspects or complete stories...
I feel like concepts used in anime from our media are almost always acknowledged and even praised by anime creators.
Great video nice to know i am not only outlaw fanboy.
I owned it aswell but lended it to a friend that damaged my cds... (cowboy bebop aswell)
Pm your address down for some outlaw and chill anytime XD
I remember when I first saw the scene at 16:21. That fight was perfectly crafted with that chilling harmonica. Ive been trying to find the name of it
Thank you for telling me about this
I have to agree. Of all the anime I’ve watched Outlaw Star still sticks in the back of my mind. I remember watching it on Cartoon Network many years ago. I’ll go years without thinking of it then I’m like “oh man I miss that !”