Outlaw Star - Reception

Reception

Critical reception for Outlaw Star has been favorable. Eric Luce, Ivevei Upatkoon, and Michael Poirier of EX.org all gave similarly positive reviews for the Japanese manga, Japanese anime, and English anime versions of Outlaw Star respectively. Luce was complimentary of the manga's "raw" yet "good and distinctive" artwork, detailed backgrounds, and good placement of characters among one another. However, he was annoyed that all the women have "disturbing tendency to all have the same silicone stiffened chests" and that characters typically wear mad grins. Upatkoon found the artwork of the anime version to be good, and he particularly enjoyed the opening sequence, but took issue with the occasionally inconsistent character designs. He also appreciated the show's dichotomy between serious and humorous subject matter, shown by the titular ship in its grappler mode and how it communicates with the crew. Poirier found the main protagonist Gene to be the anime's best characterization: "Gene Starwind is a sly, sharp-shooting hero whose success with his gun (and with the ladies) is matched only by his propensity to get space-sick. Imagine that: the star of a space-faring series has to continually worry about vomiting onto his control panel. This sort of ironic comedy can be found throughout Outlaw Star, creating excellent segues between the fantastic action sequences and the delightful characters." Poirier was intrigued by its other characters as well, and was impressed by the "sharp but fluid" animation style and the spaceship designs. Mania.com's David Owens appreciated the artistic style specifically for the characters, nearly all of which he incidentally found likeable. Jacob Churosh of THEM Anime Reviews additionally noted high animation quality throughout. Although he proclaimed the vehicle designs of Outlaw Star to be superb, Protoculture Addicts writer Martin Ouellette judged the animation and character designs to be "less lucky" and lacking in "the special aura" of Sunrise's similar 1998 series Cowboy Bebop. Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy, authors of the The Anime Encyclopedia agreeably denoted Outlaw Star as "no competition for Cowboy Bebop in terms of style, content, or execution".

Critical reception for the plot of Outlaw Star has been mixed. Churosh found that though the series features many clichés of 1990's science fiction anime, Outlaw Star manages to transcend them as well. "Maybe it doesn't go anywhere that other series haven't already been," the reviewer stated. "But boy, does it have a damn good time getting there." Upatkoon observed that the plot " off with a bang at the beginning" and then begins to drag. Keith Dawe of Animerica also noted this about the anime's pacing, stating that even as the first few episodes do well to begin the narrative, the show's writers rely too heavily on inertia to advance it. He went on to remark that the series suffers from "unfocused scripting" and that "one has to endure the occasional cheesy episode to reap the rewards of a show that is clever, pragmatic and amusing". However, Dawe did regard the English script writing and voice acting, and called the over-the-top introductory narration for each episode a reminder that the show should be enjoyed for what it was. Owens commented that the plot will not seem very original, but that it does seem to have direction, despite said direction not being very clear.

Outlaw Star has received very modest commercial success and miscellaneous viewer recognition. The initial shipment of the manga's first volume sold out nationwide in Japan. According to Morning Star Studio's English website, the Outlaw Star manga has sold 250,000 copies, though the anime series was less successful. The Outlaw Star television series was aired in Japan during a late night timeslot because it was not likely to obtain more than one or two percent viewership like prime time shows. Outlaw Star was voted as the 20th best anime of 1999 in the Japanese Animage Anime Grand Prix. During a summer 2001 online poll to determine which show would return to Toonami, Outlaw Star received approximately two-thirds of the more than 150,000 votes cast. In August 2002, Cartoon Network announced that the late-night Adult Swim Outlaw Star received a Nielsen rating of 0.9, up 125 percent for that same time slot and a delivery of 414,000, up 135 percent for the 18–34 age range. The Outlaw Star Complete Collection was the 21st best-selling anime DVD in the United States in 2006 and the 25th in 2007. In 2012, Bandai's North American division, Bandai Entertainment, listed Outlaw Star as one of its top five most successful anime properties. Josh Pool of IGN listed Outlaw Star at number six on its "Top Ten Anime Themes and Soundtracks of All-Time", noting a stark polarity between the opening and ending themes.