Outlaw Star is a space-western anime that follows cocky protagonist, Gene Starwind, and his ragtag crew aboard their mysterious and powerful ship, the Outlaw Star.  The plot begins with Gene and his business partner Jim Hawking, an 11-year-old genius, and their work for hire business Starwind and Hawking enterprises.  But when an outlaw by the name of Hilda hires them as bodyguards, they are thrown into the center of a fiasco that leaves their client dead and them the inheritors of a highly sought after ship, the XGP and its bio-android navigator Melfina.  The three find themselves the targets of a host of new enemies including pirates, police, and even an alien empire.  They race to find clues that will answer the many questions they have.  The main one seeming to be, what is the Galactic Leyline?  Along the way, they meet an alien cat-girl, Aisha, and an assassin, “twilight” Suzuka, who joins them, but for their own reasons.

Outlaw Star has a couple of laughs, a couple sad moments, and in one episode a couple of naked chicks in a hot spring (classic anime moments of perversion);
However it does not captivate the audience as great anime tends to do.  It is not lacking in interesting plots but it seems every episode is entirely too detailed to the point of irritation.  For example in one episode when detained by a private military company, Gene mocked the guards by ordering them to bring him lunch.  The rest of his group followed along, placing orders in detail.  By the time they were done, the joke stopped being funny and was just annoying.

To its defense, Outlaw Star has very few filler episodes, as every episode seems to include at least one element of plot progression.  Without spoiling anything for you let me just say that the “get to the point” feeling must have been expressed to the producers because the last few episodes have a melee of happenings one after the other.  Also Genes’ Caster gun, a gun with magical powers, gets more and more impressive every incident he uses it throughout the series.  I have to admit despite a rather weird ending I did not hate Outlaw Star.

Now I have heard unbased criticism of Outlaw Star being a rip off Cowboy Bebop, even though Bebop came out a year later.  However, besides it being a space western I just do not see it.  The same company does make it but that is about it.  You can call Outlaw Star many things, but plagiaristic is not one.  So should you watch Outlaw Star?  Sure, provided you enjoy space westerns.  I don’t, but still managed to enjoy this enough to finish it.  Check it out right here on Animezor.com