[Dr Kain]

We watched the final disc to Outlaw Star tonight, completing the show and overall it was fantastic. I do think the first episode on the disc, Law and Lawlessness is hands down the worst episode of the series. It's not a bad episode, but it was kind of boring. Nothing interesting happened in the slightest and the characters in it make no impact on the rest of the series. The infamous hot springs episode was weird. I understand why Toonami had to skip it now, but it is such an important episode from a plot perspective that is kind of sucks they did. Learning about the origin behind the Caster Shells and how Gene got the special ones he used in the finale are vital to the finale. My favorite episode of the disc was probably the prison break one.

Speaking of the finale, ugh, I forgot that they pulled the deus ex bullshit. That final battle was just awful all around as if the writers had no idea how to handle the Galactic Leyline. Thankfully the ending itself is conclusive and well done, but I wish the show had done more with the Anten Seven. Especially given the leader's motivations at in the last few episodes.

I did finally have a dub cringing moment though, which dealt with Melfina's attempt at singing. God does her English voice actress not know how to sing. On the other hand, I learned that Aisha's English voice actress is the girl who played Rogue in the 90s X-Men cartoon, so that was awesome, especially since she is my favorite of the main crew. My favorite character overall though is Harry McDougal. That dude is just down right insane, and yet, he was exactly a villain. Plus, the show managed to make you sympathize with him in the end. Impressive.

The animation was pretty top notch outside of occassional off-character model moments and the previously mentioned cheap backgrounds and static characters. It featured a lot of the normal troupes anime was fond of in the 90s, but the material handled them quite well to keep them from getting distracting. Otani's score kicked ass and the opening theme rocks. Not so much for the ending theme though. Yuck!

Overall, I highly enjoyed this show and finally getting to see it in its entirety and in a few days really made me appreciate it more than I did when I first saw it on Toonami all those years ago (I think it aired in what, 2002?). The convoluted final battle and a few minor nitpicks will keep it out of my top 10 list, but it is definitely a fun and engaging show all the way through. I just need to make sure it doesn't take me like another 15 years to rewatch it.