# Outlaw Star (1998)

> A scrappy bounty hunter and his partner inherit a starship and chase a mysterious Galactic Leyline through a dangerous frontier of pirates and rivals.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/32302

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 26
- Episode runtime: 25 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: animation, science fiction, comedy
- Created by: Takehito Ito
- Network: TV Tokyo
- Cast: Shigeru Shibuya, Rica Matsumoto, Ayako Kawasumi, Sayuri, Yuko Miyamura, Toshihiko Seki, Kazuhiro Nakata, Tsutomu Kashiwakura
- TMDB rating: 7.9/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266171/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: breezy, adventurous, scrappy, wistful, playful

## What critics say

Audiences rate the single season positively, valuing its space adventure energy, character dynamics and retro-futuristic action.

## Synopsis

Outlaw Star (1998-1999) is a Japanese animated space western series created by Takehito Ito and produced by Sunrise for TV Tokyo. Gene Starwind, a jack-of-all-trades bounty hunter voiced by Shigeru Shibuya, and his partner Jim Hawking, voiced by Rica Matsumoto, scrape by doing odd jobs on a rundown planet until a bodyguard job goes wrong and leaves Gene the owner of the Outlaw Star, a battered starship. Their engine is the search for the mysterious Galactic Leyline, a goal that keeps pulling them into pirate attacks, rival crews, and firefights across a frontier of distant worlds. Ayako Kawasumi voices Melfina, an android whose presence adds an emotional thread to the crew's rough living. Each of the twenty-six episodes mixes bounty missions, swordplay, dogfights, and gunfights with broader space-adventure momentum. The series is a single season of twenty-six episodes with a brisk, scrappy energy and a warm bond among its misfit crew. Fans of Cowboy Bebop, Firefly and Space Pirate Captain Harlock will find resonance in its blend of frontier grit, outlaw camaraderie, and retro-futuristic adventure.

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