Outlaw Star
Age rating: Teenagers (May contain bloody violence, bad language, nudity)
Pics Plot Summary:
Gene Starwind and his partner Jim Hawking run a small business on the backwater planet of Centinel 3. But all that changes the day that Hilda hires them for a bodyguard job. Now, thrust into a mystery they don't fully understand, they're on the run from the cops, the pirates, an angry alien, and a mysterious assassin. But they've got one thing going in their favor - they have the galaxy's most advanced ship, the Outlaw Star.
The series takes place in the distant future, 150 years after the development of spacecraft capable of traveling faster than the speed of light, and follows the motley crew of the titular ship: the Outlaw Star.
Characters
While on Sentinel III, Gene met the much younger Jim Hawking and the two went into business; forming a company called Starwind and Hawking Enterprises. Gene is a reckless ladies' man and a bit of a pervert who shamelessly flirts with almost every woman he meets. He would rather try to achieve his goals with a minimum of effort and his reckless attitude proves a continuous source of frustration to Jim. Despite his brash nature, Gene does have a caring side to his personality which he usually displays toward Melfina. After realizing Melfina had no recollection of her purpose or function, Gene promises to help her find her past and protects her from the various individuals in pursuit of her. Through out the course of the series, he begins to develop feelings for her but is hesitant to act on them for fear of making himself vulnerable. It also results in him forming an antagonistic rivalry with Harry MacDougal who is far more open in his pursuit of Melfina's affection.
Gene is well armed with a variety of weapons including a pistol, grenade launcher, knife, rocket launcher, etc. His special weapon, a Caster gun, fires special Caster shells; magic bullets that are effective against Tao priests and other entities protected against normal weaponry. Caster shells are projectile capsules containing a spell cast by a wizard which have been contained, allowing non-magic users to fire the spell from a gun. Caster shells are also numbered by power level (although not incrementally), the three most powerful being 4, 9, and 13 (in Japanese culture, the numbers 4 and 9 are considered bad luck, and in western culture, the number 13 is considered bad luck). Caster shells are considered antiques, however, and are difficult to acquire. Some of the effects of the caster shells include opening up small controlled black holes in order to absorb an opponent, as seen by the shell being used effectively against Hamushi and ineffectively against Hazanko. Gene only reserves these particular caster shells for powerful opponents, since they carry the extreme danger of killing him if he uses them consecutively.
Gene's blue ear piercings are incredibly useful to him. They possess a communication device that serves like a two-way radio. Gene always wears one, letting him keep in contact with Jim, who holds the other communicator piercing.
Gene bears many scars all over his body, a testament to the hardships that he has endured over his lifetime. The most noticeable are the two on his left cheek, just below his eye. These were all probably made after his father's ship was destroyed and he crashed on Sentinel III.
The eleven year-old James "Jim" Hawking (ジム･ホーキング Jimu Hōkingu) is the business partner and sidekick of Gene Starwind. He is the son of a famous computer hacker known as the "Computer Wizard." How he met Gene is unknown. Jim serves as the team's computer expert, hacker, strategist, and back-up. He is responsible and concerned; he worries about the team's finances and plans, prefers to earn money the hard way rather than to take risks, and is often annoyed by Gene's lazy and cavalier attitude. Jim becomes good friends with fellow Outlaw Star crew member Aisha Clan Clan, who is in some ways his opposite: Jim gets treated like a kid even though he acts like an adult, while Aisha, though an adult, acts like a kid. Jim also looks up to the android Melfina as a mother figure (whom he occasionally has to protect from Gene's lecherous advances) and gets along well with the Outlaw Star's on-board computer, Gilliam II. Jim has trouble, however, trusting strangers such as Hilda, who first approaches him and Gene under false pretenses, and Suzuka, who tries to kill Gene and whose motives are unclear. Episode 20 of the anime tells the story of Jim's first love, a young girl named Hanmyo who, unknown to the crew, is a combat pilot charged with destroying the Outlaw Star and its crew. His name could be a nod to Jim Hawkins of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
Jim modifies one of the Gilliam maintenance robots, changing its color from blue to pink and adding silly eyebrows. He says that he just felt like making one of them special. After this is done, he carries that one with him and uses it as his own personal link to Gilliam.
After the death of Hilda, Melfina travels with Gene after he promises to find her past and purpose and gradually begins to develop feelings for him. Later in the series, it is revealed that she was created to navigate to the Galactic Leyline, and is the only one able to act as a medium to access its vast powers. Because of this, the pirates referred to her as the "Maiden of the Leyline". In the last episode, the part of her spirit which was created to be the Maiden of the Leyline departs from her and relocates with the Leyline itself, meaning that Melfina is no longer bound to the Leyline and her past, and is subsequently freed from a forced destiny. Afterwards, Melfina and Gene finally admit their love for each other, and she joins him in exploring space aboard the Outlaw Star.
Melfina navigates the Outlaw Star from within a cylindrical chamber on the bridge that rises from the floor and fills with an unknown, clear liquid-like substance, supposedly to help her link with the ship. The liquid is most likely a stabling agent to help ensure that her link is static-free, and because of this she has to navigate without wearing any clothes. She covers herself with her arms across her chest in a formation resembling angel wings. Her lower area is obstructed by the chamber's outer retractable metal coverings. As part of Cartoon Network's editing the show has her portrayed as wearing tight black shorts and a bra.
Age:18
Aisha Clanclan (エイシャ･クランクラン, Eisha Kurankuran?) is a Ctarl-Ctarl officer. She is a dark-skinned catgirl with a considerable ego and greater than human strength (Gene claims she has the strength of ten men in episode 16). She is also far more durable than any human; in episode 5, Gene shoots her at near-point blank range with a Caster shell that mimics a lightning bolt-type spell and Aisha is merely stunned, while in episode 23 she is shown comfortably bathing in what is at least boiling hot water and which might, due to the extremely slapstick nature of that episode, be molten lava. In episode 5, she claims to be immortal, but it is unknown whether or not this is based in fact or is merely Aisha's immense ego and racial pride. Even if it is true, it is more likely a reference to how difficult Ctarl-Ctarls are to kill than to an increased life-span. As with all Ctarl-Ctarl, Aisha has access to an ability referred to in the dub as "Beast Strength", where she taps into the primeval powers of her racial ancestors. This allows her to increase her strength and possibly her speed and durability, but is extremely energy-draining; Aisha burns a lot of calories by using this ability and is always depicted as eating massive quantities of food afterwards. This ability is somehow tied to lunar bodies, both their presence and their phase, though it is unclear if these make it easier for her to access the ability or if they reduce the amount of energy it drains. Using Beast Strength makes Aisha more animalistic in form and, apparently, in mentality; at less than full power, her fingernails elongate into claws and she sprouts a tail, while at full power she assumes the form of a feline-like creature that resembles a white tiger with elongated ears.
Aisha was originally in charge of locating the Galactic Leyline for the Ctarl-Ctarl Empire, but after she unknowingly allowed for Hot Ice Hilda to escape, her government ordered her to stay behind on Blue Heaven to look for clues as punishment. Aisha finds out that Gene Starwind is connected to Hilda and tries to pump him for information; however, Gene knows nothing of the Galactic Leyline, and eludes her by stunning her with a Caster and leaving her to pay the considerable restaurant bill she racked up. Later in the series, Aisha was able to trick Gene into letting her on board the Outlaw Star during the Space Race, where she finds out that the MacDougall Brothers have more information on Hilda than they do. Aisha then decides to join the crew, since they are the ones who were indirectly responsible for her demotion in the first place.
During the series, Aisha entered the universe's strongest woman tournament whilst under the guise of a wrestler called "Firecat" (the real Firecat had been captured by Aisha, and was kept tied up and gagged in a locker). The Ctarl-Ctarl were banned from the tournament after one of them five years before transformed into her beast form and, after being reprimanded and disqualified for biting off her opponent's ear, went berserk and killed over nine hundred people with thousands injured. In the final fight with Iraga of the Anten Seven, Iraga transformed into a wolf, forcing Aisha to transform into a tiger. Aisha eventually defeated Iraga and secured her place as the strongest woman in the universe. It should be noted, however, that as Ctarl-Ctarl were banned from the competition, it is unknown whether Aisha was crowned the universe's strongest woman or simply disqualified after the final fight, since it was never shown in the episode.
Aisha can be rather absent-minded at times, acting on rash impulse and not really caring about anyone other than herself. And she tends to act like a 12 year old child. She does start to have more positive relationship with Jim over the course of the series, and starts to concern herself with his well-being and acts like an older sister to him.
Much about Suzuka's past is unknown, such as why the Kei pirates would target her family, how she survived, and who trained her or if she trained herself. Even her age is never really mentioned during the run of the series. All that is known is that her pursuit of the Kei Pirates is of personal nature, particularly towards the assassin Hitoriga, who murdered her clan and family. Near the ending of the series, it is implied that she has feelings for Gene. During her fight with Hitoriga, he says, "Well wonders never cease. I'm surprised that you would even consider a partner (referring to Gene Starwind). So Suzuka, are you in love with him?" She responded by telling him that he will hear her answer when the time comes, after she kills him, as a sort of gift in order to see him off to the after life. After the fight and Suzuka wins, she never tells Hitoriga her true feelings for Gene so the nature of her feelings for him have been left unresolved.
Cartoon Network heavily edited references to Suzuka being an assassin on the first episode she appeared in (Episode 6) when this show aired on Toonami, though some references managed to slip by, leaving many fans to complain of the episode's inconsistencies and the fact that Cartoon Network censors cared more about editing violence than they did in toning down Fred Luo's homosexuality.
SHIP
The XGP15A-II, christened the Outlaw Star by Gene and his crew, is "the fastest, most advanced ship in the galaxy." It was constructed by the Kei space pirate guild using connections with the Space Forces military. Powered by four plasma fusion Unsen engines and a powerful Münchhausen reactor for use with its "sub-ether" faster-than-light drive. In addition, it is a "grappler ship," a spaceship with manipulator arms modified for combat purposes. It is designed so that the Bio-Android Melfina, who was created by the scientist Gwen Khan, can link up with and control the navigational systems. This was intended for the sole purpose of navigating the Galactic Leyline.
Allies
After Hilda dies, Gene has several visions of her, mainly at times when he is scared and believes that he is going to die (Episodes 15 and 25). This possibly suggests that there was more to their relationship than meets the eye, although he could just feel guilty for his powerlessness when he was unable to rescue her from Farfallas' gravity well.
Cartoon Network removed the scene in when Hilda commits suicide by detonating the bomb hidden in her tooth during the time it was running on Toonami, and instead made it seem that Hilda and the Tao Master died by sinking into Farfallas' sun.
When first activated, Gilliam seems hesitant to allow Hilda, Gene or Jim access to the XGP, noting that a large portion of memory has been deleted from the ship’s databank – no doubt a result of the hacking used to divorce the ship from its previous owners. However, upon being ordered, Gilliam enlists them as the crew, and remains unquestioningly loyal to them and their cause afterwards.
Always boastful on the topic of the XGP’s prowess and sure to proclaim it “the greatest ship in the galaxy” at any given opportunity, Gilliam is nevertheless burdened by a programming limitation, which disallows him to question the nature of his existence. A technical safeguard against rebellious and sentient AI, Gilliam is still sentient of the restriction, and so while unable to contemplate his own purpose in life, he can contemplate, and does lament, his inability to ask such a profound question. As such, he greatly empathizes with Melfina’s quest to discover her identity (a task that he could never begin to attempt in regards to his own origin), and is always willing to exert himself to the fullest in her assistance. As much as he combs online databases available to him, however, he is never able to uncover any information that would help her.
As previously stated, Gilliam has a seemingly endless number of tiny maintenance robots to allow him to repair the Outlaw Star. While the majority of these robots are colored blue, Jim Hawking decides to paint one of them pink on a whim, and in subsequent episodes, Gilliam uses this pink robot as a means of speaking face-to-face with the crew more often than with the blue robots.
Gene Starwind and his partner Jim Hawking run a small business on the backwater planet of Centinel 3. But all that changes the day that Hilda hires them for a bodyguard job. Now, thrust into a mystery they don't fully understand, they're on the run from the cops, the pirates, an angry alien, and a mysterious assassin. But they've got one thing going in their favor - they have the galaxy's most advanced ship, the Outlaw Star.
The series takes place in the distant future, 150 years after the development of spacecraft capable of traveling faster than the speed of light, and follows the motley crew of the titular ship: the Outlaw Star.
Characters
Gene Starwind
- Voiced by: Shigeru Shibuya (Japanese), Robert Buchholz (English)
- Age: 20
While on Sentinel III, Gene met the much younger Jim Hawking and the two went into business; forming a company called Starwind and Hawking Enterprises. Gene is a reckless ladies' man and a bit of a pervert who shamelessly flirts with almost every woman he meets. He would rather try to achieve his goals with a minimum of effort and his reckless attitude proves a continuous source of frustration to Jim. Despite his brash nature, Gene does have a caring side to his personality which he usually displays toward Melfina. After realizing Melfina had no recollection of her purpose or function, Gene promises to help her find her past and protects her from the various individuals in pursuit of her. Through out the course of the series, he begins to develop feelings for her but is hesitant to act on them for fear of making himself vulnerable. It also results in him forming an antagonistic rivalry with Harry MacDougal who is far more open in his pursuit of Melfina's affection.
Gene is well armed with a variety of weapons including a pistol, grenade launcher, knife, rocket launcher, etc. His special weapon, a Caster gun, fires special Caster shells; magic bullets that are effective against Tao priests and other entities protected against normal weaponry. Caster shells are projectile capsules containing a spell cast by a wizard which have been contained, allowing non-magic users to fire the spell from a gun. Caster shells are also numbered by power level (although not incrementally), the three most powerful being 4, 9, and 13 (in Japanese culture, the numbers 4 and 9 are considered bad luck, and in western culture, the number 13 is considered bad luck). Caster shells are considered antiques, however, and are difficult to acquire. Some of the effects of the caster shells include opening up small controlled black holes in order to absorb an opponent, as seen by the shell being used effectively against Hamushi and ineffectively against Hazanko. Gene only reserves these particular caster shells for powerful opponents, since they carry the extreme danger of killing him if he uses them consecutively.
Gene's blue ear piercings are incredibly useful to him. They possess a communication device that serves like a two-way radio. Gene always wears one, letting him keep in contact with Jim, who holds the other communicator piercing.
Gene bears many scars all over his body, a testament to the hardships that he has endured over his lifetime. The most noticeable are the two on his left cheek, just below his eye. These were all probably made after his father's ship was destroyed and he crashed on Sentinel III.
James "Jim" Hawking
- Voiced by: Rica Matsumoto (Japanese), Brianne Siddall (English)
The eleven year-old James "Jim" Hawking (ジム･ホーキング Jimu Hōkingu) is the business partner and sidekick of Gene Starwind. He is the son of a famous computer hacker known as the "Computer Wizard." How he met Gene is unknown. Jim serves as the team's computer expert, hacker, strategist, and back-up. He is responsible and concerned; he worries about the team's finances and plans, prefers to earn money the hard way rather than to take risks, and is often annoyed by Gene's lazy and cavalier attitude. Jim becomes good friends with fellow Outlaw Star crew member Aisha Clan Clan, who is in some ways his opposite: Jim gets treated like a kid even though he acts like an adult, while Aisha, though an adult, acts like a kid. Jim also looks up to the android Melfina as a mother figure (whom he occasionally has to protect from Gene's lecherous advances) and gets along well with the Outlaw Star's on-board computer, Gilliam II. Jim has trouble, however, trusting strangers such as Hilda, who first approaches him and Gene under false pretenses, and Suzuka, who tries to kill Gene and whose motives are unclear. Episode 20 of the anime tells the story of Jim's first love, a young girl named Hanmyo who, unknown to the crew, is a combat pilot charged with destroying the Outlaw Star and its crew. His name could be a nod to Jim Hawkins of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
Jim modifies one of the Gilliam maintenance robots, changing its color from blue to pink and adding silly eyebrows. He says that he just felt like making one of them special. After this is done, he carries that one with him and uses it as his own personal link to Gilliam.
Melfina
- Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese), Emilie Brown (English)
Numerous portrayals of Melfina were altered for television broadcast as part of Cartoon Network's censorship.
Melfina navigates the Outlaw Star from within a cylindrical chamber on the bridge that rises from the floor and fills with an unknown, clear liquid-like substance, supposedly to help her link with the ship. The liquid is most likely a stabling agent to help ensure that her link is static-free, and because of this she has to navigate without wearing any clothes. She covers herself with her arms across her chest in a formation resembling angel wings. Her lower area is obstructed by the chamber's outer retractable metal coverings. As part of Cartoon Network's editing the show has her portrayed as wearing tight black shorts and a bra.
Aisha Clanclan
Voiced by: Yuko Miyamura (Japanese), Selece Zahn (English)Age:18
Aisha Clanclan (エイシャ･クランクラン, Eisha Kurankuran?) is a Ctarl-Ctarl officer. She is a dark-skinned catgirl with a considerable ego and greater than human strength (Gene claims she has the strength of ten men in episode 16). She is also far more durable than any human; in episode 5, Gene shoots her at near-point blank range with a Caster shell that mimics a lightning bolt-type spell and Aisha is merely stunned, while in episode 23 she is shown comfortably bathing in what is at least boiling hot water and which might, due to the extremely slapstick nature of that episode, be molten lava. In episode 5, she claims to be immortal, but it is unknown whether or not this is based in fact or is merely Aisha's immense ego and racial pride. Even if it is true, it is more likely a reference to how difficult Ctarl-Ctarls are to kill than to an increased life-span. As with all Ctarl-Ctarl, Aisha has access to an ability referred to in the dub as "Beast Strength", where she taps into the primeval powers of her racial ancestors. This allows her to increase her strength and possibly her speed and durability, but is extremely energy-draining; Aisha burns a lot of calories by using this ability and is always depicted as eating massive quantities of food afterwards. This ability is somehow tied to lunar bodies, both their presence and their phase, though it is unclear if these make it easier for her to access the ability or if they reduce the amount of energy it drains. Using Beast Strength makes Aisha more animalistic in form and, apparently, in mentality; at less than full power, her fingernails elongate into claws and she sprouts a tail, while at full power she assumes the form of a feline-like creature that resembles a white tiger with elongated ears.
Aisha was originally in charge of locating the Galactic Leyline for the Ctarl-Ctarl Empire, but after she unknowingly allowed for Hot Ice Hilda to escape, her government ordered her to stay behind on Blue Heaven to look for clues as punishment. Aisha finds out that Gene Starwind is connected to Hilda and tries to pump him for information; however, Gene knows nothing of the Galactic Leyline, and eludes her by stunning her with a Caster and leaving her to pay the considerable restaurant bill she racked up. Later in the series, Aisha was able to trick Gene into letting her on board the Outlaw Star during the Space Race, where she finds out that the MacDougall Brothers have more information on Hilda than they do. Aisha then decides to join the crew, since they are the ones who were indirectly responsible for her demotion in the first place.
During the series, Aisha entered the universe's strongest woman tournament whilst under the guise of a wrestler called "Firecat" (the real Firecat had been captured by Aisha, and was kept tied up and gagged in a locker). The Ctarl-Ctarl were banned from the tournament after one of them five years before transformed into her beast form and, after being reprimanded and disqualified for biting off her opponent's ear, went berserk and killed over nine hundred people with thousands injured. In the final fight with Iraga of the Anten Seven, Iraga transformed into a wolf, forcing Aisha to transform into a tiger. Aisha eventually defeated Iraga and secured her place as the strongest woman in the universe. It should be noted, however, that as Ctarl-Ctarl were banned from the competition, it is unknown whether Aisha was crowned the universe's strongest woman or simply disqualified after the final fight, since it was never shown in the episode.
Aisha can be rather absent-minded at times, acting on rash impulse and not really caring about anyone other than herself. And she tends to act like a 12 year old child. She does start to have more positive relationship with Jim over the course of the series, and starts to concern herself with his well-being and acts like an older sister to him.
"Twilight" Suzuka
- Voiced by: Sayuri Yamauchi (Japanese), Wendee Lee (English)
- Age: 21
Much about Suzuka's past is unknown, such as why the Kei pirates would target her family, how she survived, and who trained her or if she trained herself. Even her age is never really mentioned during the run of the series. All that is known is that her pursuit of the Kei Pirates is of personal nature, particularly towards the assassin Hitoriga, who murdered her clan and family. Near the ending of the series, it is implied that she has feelings for Gene. During her fight with Hitoriga, he says, "Well wonders never cease. I'm surprised that you would even consider a partner (referring to Gene Starwind). So Suzuka, are you in love with him?" She responded by telling him that he will hear her answer when the time comes, after she kills him, as a sort of gift in order to see him off to the after life. After the fight and Suzuka wins, she never tells Hitoriga her true feelings for Gene so the nature of her feelings for him have been left unresolved.
Cartoon Network heavily edited references to Suzuka being an assassin on the first episode she appeared in (Episode 6) when this show aired on Toonami, though some references managed to slip by, leaving many fans to complain of the episode's inconsistencies and the fact that Cartoon Network censors cared more about editing violence than they did in toning down Fred Luo's homosexuality.
SHIP
The XGP15A-II, christened the Outlaw Star by Gene and his crew, is "the fastest, most advanced ship in the galaxy." It was constructed by the Kei space pirate guild using connections with the Space Forces military. Powered by four plasma fusion Unsen engines and a powerful Münchhausen reactor for use with its "sub-ether" faster-than-light drive. In addition, it is a "grappler ship," a spaceship with manipulator arms modified for combat purposes. It is designed so that the Bio-Android Melfina, who was created by the scientist Gwen Khan, can link up with and control the navigational systems. This was intended for the sole purpose of navigating the Galactic Leyline.
Allies
"Hot Ice" Hilda
- Voiced by: Toshiko Fujita (Japanese), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (English)
After Hilda dies, Gene has several visions of her, mainly at times when he is scared and believes that he is going to die (Episodes 15 and 25). This possibly suggests that there was more to their relationship than meets the eye, although he could just feel guilty for his powerlessness when he was unable to rescue her from Farfallas' gravity well.
Cartoon Network removed the scene in when Hilda commits suicide by detonating the bomb hidden in her tooth during the time it was running on Toonami, and instead made it seem that Hilda and the Tao Master died by sinking into Farfallas' sun.
Gilliam II
- Voiced by: Takaya Hashi (Japanese), Peter Spellos (English)
When first activated, Gilliam seems hesitant to allow Hilda, Gene or Jim access to the XGP, noting that a large portion of memory has been deleted from the ship’s databank – no doubt a result of the hacking used to divorce the ship from its previous owners. However, upon being ordered, Gilliam enlists them as the crew, and remains unquestioningly loyal to them and their cause afterwards.
Always boastful on the topic of the XGP’s prowess and sure to proclaim it “the greatest ship in the galaxy” at any given opportunity, Gilliam is nevertheless burdened by a programming limitation, which disallows him to question the nature of his existence. A technical safeguard against rebellious and sentient AI, Gilliam is still sentient of the restriction, and so while unable to contemplate his own purpose in life, he can contemplate, and does lament, his inability to ask such a profound question. As such, he greatly empathizes with Melfina’s quest to discover her identity (a task that he could never begin to attempt in regards to his own origin), and is always willing to exert himself to the fullest in her assistance. As much as he combs online databases available to him, however, he is never able to uncover any information that would help her.
As previously stated, Gilliam has a seemingly endless number of tiny maintenance robots to allow him to repair the Outlaw Star. While the majority of these robots are colored blue, Jim Hawking decides to paint one of them pink on a whim, and in subsequent episodes, Gilliam uses this pink robot as a means of speaking face-to-face with the crew more often than with the blue robots.
Fred Luo
- Voiced by: Toshihiko Seki (Japanese), Ezra Weisz (English)
- Age: 20
No comments:
Post a Comment