n previous installments of Outlaw Star, self-centered jerk Gene Starwind and his overworked child partner Jim
Hawking lucked into ownership of a powerful prototype spaceship, operated
by a enigmatic android woman named Melfina. They also somehow incurred the
enmity of the powerful Kei Pirates and a pair of treacherous privateers
called the MacDougall brothers. As the series continues, the Kei send a
series of assassins after Gene and Jim, who start to wonder who Melfina
really is, why she and their newfound ship, the Outlaw Star, were
created, and why so many people want them all dead. The answer has
something to do with a place called the Galactic Leyline, the location and
purpose of which has been lost to history.
Gene once promised Melfina that he'd help fill in her missing memories
of who she is and where she came from, but he doesn't seem particularly
inclined to carry through. While he occasionally shows feelings for
Melfina--jealousy, bitterness and offhanded possessiveness being the most
common ones--he's also determinedly dedicated to his own comfort. As his
odd-job company continues to teeter on the brink of bankruptcy, largely
due to his conviction that most jobs just aren't important enough or exciting
enough to be worth his time, Gene spends his time drinking, leching,
charging into fights, and sulking when things don't go his way.
Eventually, aggressive hanger-on Aisha Clan-Clan, a loudmouthed cat-girl, convinces
him that the Leyline is the source of vast wealth, while an unscrupulous
scientist holds Melfina's personality hostage, demanding Gene acquire
specific information about the Leyline's location. Revelations about his
ship's nature and pressure from all sides finally push Gene into action,
and he, Melfina, Jim, Aisha and detached assassin "Twilight" Suzuka start
a serious quest to find the mysterious site.
Meanwhile, some terrorist thieves try to destroy the Outlaw Star
for their own purposes, Kei pirate lord Hazanko sets out to find the
Leyline for himself, and one of the MacDougalls decides he's in love with
Melfina and needs to kill her friends to get rid of the competition. If
that wasn't enough distraction, various people want to hire the Outlaw
Star for jobs ranging from retrieving a sunken treasure on a water
planet guarded by demon fish to finding out why a certain ice-cream vendor
is so successful.
Making the political palatable
The Cartoon Network is set to start airing an edited version of
Outlaw Star on Monday, Jan. 15, which is going to be an curious
exercise in political correctness. As a drooling, lecherous boozehound who
makes crude jokes at everyone else's expense, Gene is going to have to
undergo some significant rewrites to be deemed acceptable for American
afternoon TV. ("Beaver, beaver, beaver!" he promises rapturously in the
bumper for episode 23, in which the Outlaw Star visits "Hot Springs
Planet Tenrei," the female cast gets naked, and Gene goes on a quest for
dirty pictures of a self-styled goddess to please her lust-stricken
colleagues. Bandai says that episode, which was too difficult to edit
acceptably, won't be aired at all; contrary to Internet rumors, however,
the other 25 episodes are slotted to run in the afternoon Toonami
block.)
The series won't quite be the same without its insistently obnoxious
star in full force, but it's hard to say whether that's good or bad. While
Gene's often utterly appalling, his persistently self-serving attitude is
one of the most consistently intriguing things about this otherwise uneven
future-cowboys-in-space drama. It all comes to a head in episode 15 when,
faced with a life-threatening duel that might require advance preparation,
Gene instead gets drunk, pushes everyone away, gropes Melfina and all but
accuses her of frigidity when she pulls back, and eventually just decides
to cheat. His fear, frustration and inability to face himself or his
problems make him a uniquely blemished antihero--and prove his
thoughtless, selfish crudity is more than a skin-deep protective veil. It's a pity when
the writers soften him up for the requisite happy ending--he's more
interesting, if more frustrating, as one of anime's most thoughtless,
least apologetic reprobates.
Unfortunately, as Gene's odd personality develops, his antagonists
become less developed to compensate. The incomprehensibly powerful
monsters of the early episodes give way to a collection of kitschy but useless
mannerisms-on-legs that talk a good game but don't even manage to put up a
decent fight. This is a series worth mining for nuggets--isolated great
fights, moments of high comedy, diverse and unusual characters and,
ultimately, a strong sense of unique personality. But Outlaw Star
never quite gets all its strengths in a single basket.
