History Manga / OutlawStar

''Outlaw Star'' is a manga by Takehito Ito, which was serialized in ''[[Magazine/ShonenJump Ultra Jump]]'' from 1996 to 1999. It received an anime adaptation in 1998 by Creator/{{Sunrise}}'s as part of their ''Toward Stars'' universe.

Based on a manga by Takehito Ito, the first show in Creator/{{Sunrise}}'s ''Toward Stars'' universe, ''Outlaw Star'' is an old-fashioned SpaceOpera writ large.

* TheFellowshipHasEnded: Subverted. [[spoiler: the finale seems to go this way: Gene, Jim, and Melfina remain together as the Outlaw Star’s crew, Aisha stays on Sentinel-3 as a spaceport stewardess, and Suzuka leaves to continue her solo assassin career. But in TheStinger, it turns out Aisha and Suzuka both had second thoughts about leaving — they hitched a ride to catch up with the others on the Outlaw Star and the series ends with them affirming their place on the crew.]]
* FiveManBand: The crew of the Outlaw Star consist of captain Gene, who's good with guns; Suzuka, an [[MysteriousMercenaryPursuer anachronistic assassin]] who's skilled with swords; Aisha, an aggressive ProudWarriorRaceGirl who gets stronger by [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent transforming into a giant cat]]; Jim, Gene's precocious young business partner and [[HollywoodHacking genius hacker]]; and Melfina, the navigator who tries to make everyone get along.
* ForgottenSuperweapon: The Caster pistol. {{Justified|Trope}} by the difficulty of getting ammunition, which requires rituals known to maybe '''three''' people in the galaxy.

%%* HandCannon: Gene describes Duuz's blaster like this.

* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: At one point, Hazanko's boss, the Tendo King, sends a guy to check on what Hazanko is up to. When the agent discovers that Hazanko is intending to betray their master, he angrily confronts Hazanko about it before making his report, and then refuses Hazanko's offer of a bribe to keep quiet. [[TooDumbToLive He does this on Hazanko's ship while surrounded by Hazanko's personal group of assassins.]]

* NemesisWeapon: Gene Starwind uses a "caster", essentially a gun that shoots spells. The type of weapon is not unique but very rare and considered antiquated despite its considerable power. In the last episode, his rival Ronald [=MacDougal=] uses a staff caster. The two casters completely cancel out.

* ScrewDestiny

* TooAwesomeToUse: Gene's Caster- because it's an ancient, no longer used weapon, ammo for it is insanely hard to find so Gene has to save it for emergencies. Unfortunately, thanks to fighting foes who are extremely powerful Tao sorcerers whose magic makes them immune to conventional weapons, Gene is forced to rely on it far more often than he'd like.

* FantasticFirearms: Gene Starwind and Ron MacDougal wield MagiTek caster guns, which fire spells contained in shells. Unfortunately ammo is rare and expensive and the three most powerful shells drain the wielder's life force when fired. The casters themselves resemble a bulbous pistol (Gene's) and a priest's staff (Ron's), and have glowing turbines that give off a lightshow when fired to give the viewer the idea that these aren't using gunpowder to fire.

* OffModel: As mentioned in the "Animation Bump" entry. Since there were seven teams of animators[[note]] Creator/StudioGiants[=/=]Creator/{{Xebec}} (episodes 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 13 & 22), Creator/NakamuraProductions (episodes 5, 7, 11, 12, 17, 18, 20, 21 & 23), Creator/ProductionIG (episodes 4 & 25), Ad Cosmo (episodes 15, 16, 19 & 24), Creator/StudioMu (episodes 17 & 23. Also supervised episodes 5 & 12), Creator/StudioMark (episode 5) and Creator/{{Sunrise}} themselves (episodes 1, 8, 12, 14, 17, 20, 23, 25 & 26) [[/note]], every episode had wildly varying quality.

* FiveManBand:
** TheLeader: Gene — TheCaptain of the Outlaw Star, good with guns.
** TheLancer: Suzuka — An [[MysteriousMercenaryPursuer anachronistic assassin]], skilled with swords.
** TheBigGuy: Aisha — Aggressive [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Race Girl]], gets stronger by [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent transforming]].
** TheSmartGuy: Jim — Gene's precocious young business partner and [[HollywoodHacking genius hacker]].
** TheChick: Melfina — The gentle one whose tries to make everyone get along and [[WetwareCPU navigator]].

* HandCannon: Gene describes Duuz's blaster like this.

* GirlInABox: End of the first and second episodes. In fact, this series is one of the prime examples.

-->"This show gets a free pass for being the most wish-fulfilling sci-fi title '''''ever'''''. Everything you can love about sci-fi is here: [[WackyRacing space races]], [[ExplosionsInSpace space combat]], [[SingleBiomePlanet diverse planets]], [[AnotherDimension alternate dimensions]], [[StarfishAliens weird aliens]], [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe hot aliens]], [[BizarreAlienBiology aliens of questionable gender]] (seriously, what is [[https://imgur.com/bDFUt64 that?]]), [[HumongousMecha giant robots]], [[ArtificialHuman bio-androids]], [[HollywoodCyborg human cyborgs]], [[GirlInABox cold-sleep]] [[MysteriousWaif beauties]], [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent shapeshifting]] [[CatFolk beast men]], [[FamilyFriendlyFirearms laser]]-[[GunsAndGunplayTropes gun fights]], [[SingleStrokeBattle sword fights]], [[GoodOldFisticuffs fistfights]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking paintball]], {{Mad Scientist}}s, [[MagicPoweredPseudoscience Tao magicians]], [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot robotic panthers, kung-fu housecats]], ''and'' a HotSpringsEpisode that is actually ''[[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments funny]]''.

* EpicRace: One episode is like this.

* TamerAndChaster: A kind of BadExportForYou and ToneShift is the English adaptation of the anime in which Creator/CartoonNetwork toned down the anime in its exhibition, including the DigitalBikini added to Melfina in the first episodes, Fred's mannerisms were toned down and the HotSpringsEpisode wasn't even broadcast. All of this was subverted with the DVD releases, that have all the original scenes available, including the censored episode.

* TheUnseen: The Tendo King, enigmatic ManBehindTheMan with Tao magic ability implied by [[BigBad Hazanko]] to be god-like. The Tenpa Emperor takes this UpToEleven with [[InformedAbility implied]] power far exceeding that.

* AdultFear: Harry's stalking of Melfina gradually moves in frightening resemblance of the two being in an abusive relationship.

* KingOfThieves: [[BigBad Lord Hazanko]] of the "108 stars" branch of the [[SpacePirate Kei Pirate Guild]]. The Tendo King of the guild itself, and the Tenpa Emperor.

* {{Space Is an Ocean}}: A major theme given by the opening narration at the beginning of each episode. Also physics.
* {{Space Is Noisy}}: In almost any space scene in the anime. Most likely related to the fact that space is also an ocean.

* CastFromHitPoints: The all-but-mythical Caster Shells #4, #9 and #13 are so potent that, to be triggered, they require a sacrifice of LifeForce from their user, alongside the mana already sealed into them. Just using them isn't inherently deadly, a person can recover from the drain given time and rest, but using three in a row would drain so much LifeForce as to be fatal to the average user. [[spoiler:Luckily, Gene is far from the average man, and has the strength to withstand using three in relatively quick succession.]]

* ThemeTuneCameo:
** "Through the Night" plays from the ad ship the Outlaw Star is hired to tow in episode 14.
** Then in episode 21, Melfina sings one of the ending themes. ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz1508RBx2w "Hiru no Tsuki"]], officially translated as "Daytime Moon".)

This is only the beginning of his problems, as between trying to scrape together enough cash to pay for his new ship's upkeep, he has to contend with both the Space Forces and pirates trying to get the ship back as they all race against each other to reach the mysterious "Galactic Leyline". Helping Gene are his young partner Jim Hawking, the exotic but hot-tempered CatFolk alien Aisha Clan-Clan, the sword-wielding assassin Twilight Suzuka, the somewhat incoherent shipboard AI Gilliam, and others who come and go from the plot. If you like "pulp"-era science fiction, you'll like this show.

* RealityEnsues: The crew never gets out of BrokeEpisode territory and in the epilogue for the final episode, [[spoiler:Gene ends up having to serve time for the crimes he committed escaping pirates at the beginning of the series. He only gets off lightly because it also exposed officials who were bribed by the pirates.]]

* EldritchLocation: The Galactic Leyline [[MindScrew doesn't really play by the laws of physics]], or [[TimeyWimeyBall spacetime]], [[PocketDimension dimensions]], [[GravityScrew gravity]], etc... It's basically every Eldritch Location from fiction rolled up into one, with the added bonus of it looking like a glittering, gold-plated version of Hell.