Outlaw Star

Episode 15-16

It's kind of strange that we're over halfway through Outlaw Star without a dedicated villain, huh? Sure, there's the MacDougals hanging out somewhere in the ether, but despite kicking off the story with Gene and co stealing a spaceship from notorious pirates, most of the conflict has had little to do with that, instead focusing on the crew's attempts to run a business and afford space parking. It's not a bad approach, but that thread's been hanging there for a while and finally somebody decided to pull it, dumping seven new enemies into the crew's lap. We've only met one in earnest so far, but darn if he doesn't leave an impression. The Anten Seven are some classic bad guy boss fights waiting to happen. In classic Shonen fashion they're a wide array of silhouettes and styles all united under the banner of being super good at murder, and “Shimi” makes for a great introduction to them. Part of that is just because he's a cool character and one of the few genuine threats Gene's faced so far, but largely it's thanks to the effect his arrival has on Gene himself.

Gene spends most episodes in what I call Action Hero mode: he's skilled, effective, and generally faces any threat with a smooth confidence you can only find in the heightened reality of a cowboy film. This can be fun, and certainly adds to the Western-inspired flair of Outlaw Star's setting, but I personally prefer when we can see the vulnerable, human sides of our heroes to make their eventual face-off with danger have more impact. That aspect comes back in full force when Shimi challenges Gene to a scheduled duel, leaving our hero with 24 hours to contemplate his mortality rather than acting in the moment, and the result is a sober, melancholy examination of him under genuine pressure. It gets seriously ugly at points too, when Gene starts venting his fear by purposefully insulting Melfina before catching himself way too late. It's a raw, rather uncomfortable moment of weakness that unfortunately doesn't get picked up again once the fighting starts. It's certainly nice that the rest of the crew show up to back up their captain, and the twist at the end of Leilong faking his own death is pretty clever, but with little resolution to Gene's emotional arc through the episode it honestly feels a little anticlimactic.

But enough of that; now the crew has to go help Space Ahab find a sunken treasure and arm wrestle sea monsters! That may sound like a jarring move after introducing a whole team of assassins out for Gene's head, but that's only because it is. Still, the story itself is some FINE Entertainment even if it feels like it should maybe have been switched with episode 15 in the broadcast order. The grizzled, nameless outlaw who hires the crew for his doomed treasure hunt is a fun personality for everyone to bounce off, always one step ahead of them and dangling a carrot in front of their noses to bring them along, but he also ends up highlighting one of my simmering frustrations with the show. His story is ultimately one of throwing himself endlessly towards vengeance and reclaiming the past, and it's a suitably sad one, but it feels like there's very little impact from it. In a more purely episodic story I'd expect that, but Outlaw Star has seen fit to preserve some level of continuity through its run, yet hasn't done much to develop our characters outside of isolated moments. They've changed locations, professions, and even allegiances, but there's little daylight between Gene, Jim, or Melfina between episodes 2 and 16. I'm left asking questions that the show seemingly has no interest in answer. How does Melfina feel about Gene's borderline assault before his duel? How does Gene think about his own anxieties after he barely survives fighting Leilong? He and the old man were in the same profession; did Gene take away any lessons from seeing his story play out? If so, what were they? All we get are a few lines at the end of each episode that are frankly noncommittal before we move on like nothing happened.

In general I think that's my biggest issue with these episodes. They're solidly constructed entertainment but neither feels like they have any lasting consequences once they're done. Outside of introducing the Anten Seven there's the impression I could skip these episodes and miss nothing–which is fine when an episode's a comedy of errors about a psychic cactus selling ice cream, but sucks the wind out of more serious character drama. Maybe I'm asking too much from the show when it's only ever promised to be an action pastiche, but I would really like to see Outlaw Star commit to itself the way it's shown it can in isolated bursts.

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Outlaw Star is currently streaming on Funimation and Hulu.