Summary
Outlaw Star mirrors Cowboy Bebop with a mix of sci-fi and western themes & aired during the Toonami era. Unlike Bebop, Outlaw Star is based on manga & has mystical elements, with magic playing a role. Outlaw Star is a worthy rival to Cowboy Bebop with an interesting storyline, unique characters & a bit of humor.
Cowboy Bebop Cowboy Bebop is a classic of both science fiction and anime, and its unique blend of Western elements and space travel makes it hard to find anything else that can compare. However, Cowboy Bebop has a contemporary anime that is almost as good, and shares many of the features that made Bebop great: Outlaw Star.
Outlaw Star is a 1998 sci-fi anime from Sunrise, the creators of Cowboy Bebop, which makes it very similar. Likewise, it aired at the beginning of the Toonami and Adult Swim eras, and helped make the block what it is today. Unlike Bebop, Outlaw Star is actually based on a manga, the seinen series of the same name that ran for 21 chapters from 1996 to 1999. While it didn't have the lasting impact of Cowboy Bebop, the series was popular enough to return to Toonami in 2017 and 2018, around the time Outlaw Star finally got a Blu-ray release.
What Makes Outlaw Star a Worthy Rival to Cowboy Bebop
Outlaw Star exhibits many of the same ideas as Bebop
Outlaw Star is a series that stars Gene Starwind, an “outlaw” who owns his own spaceship, which he calls the Outlaw Star, and who initially works with a single partner – in this case, 11-year-old Jim Hawking. After acquiring the ship and a mysterious girl in a box named Melfina who is somehow connected to the ship, Gene and Jim set out into the stars in search of something called the Galactic Leyline, which is said to be able to grant any wish. Along the way, they make friends with other strange companions while avoiding both the space force that patrols the galaxy and space pirates who want to steal his advanced spaceship and reach the Leyline themselves.
Like Spike and his crew on the Bebop, Gene and his crew are often broke and have to take whatever jobs they can to keep flying. They even occasionally engage in bounty hunting, though bounties are few and far between in the Outlaw Star universe. Gene, like Spike, is a skilled fighter, primarily using firearms, although his gun is a special gun that uses the series' equivalent of magic. The show strikes a careful balance between comedy and drama, creating a tone very similar to Cowboy Bebop.And, while there's still an ongoing storyline that culminates in the final episodes, Outlaw Star also has plenty of standalone episodes about specific jobs the crew does.
What makes Outlaw Star different from Cowboy Bebop
Outlaw Star has a mystical element that Cowboy Bebop lacks.
As one can see from the term “Galactic Leyline”, Outlaw Star tends to be much more mystical than the rather hard-boiled sci-fi show Cowboy Bebop. Magic is a fact of life in the Outlaw Star universe, though the mana that magic relies on has become increasingly scarce and fewer and fewer people know how to use it.. Gene can use magical projectiles, called Caster Shells, that are enchanted to be incredibly powerful – some of them even draw from his own power to maximize damage. However, their mission to Leyline means that Gene and his crew have to deal with magic more often than anyone else.
The series is also set in vast space, with the entire galaxy as its stage, whereas Cowboy Bebop is usually confined to Earth's solar system. There are even aliens in the Outlaw Star universe, such as the Ctarl Ctarls, cat-like aliens who can transform into monstrous cat forms. One such alien, Aisha Clanclan, is even a main character aboard the Outlaw Star. The series also features bionic robots, something that didn't really appear in Cowboy Bebop. The ship itself is also more of a character than Bebop, with an AI character called Gilliam.
Does Outlaw Star really measure up to Cowboy Bebop?
Outlaw Star isn't iconic, but it's almost as good.
Outlaw Star lacks some of the things that make Cowboy Bebop so memorable and iconic. There have been very few anime that can compete with Bebop in terms of music, so it's no surprise that Outlaw Star's soundtrack isn't as good. The show's humor can also be a bit dated compared to Cowboy Bebop, which can make it a bit more difficult to watch. It's also often said that the plot gets a bit weak towards the end, although the ending is actually quite entertaining. Despite these shortcomings, Outlaw Star is still a worthy companion piece. Cowboy BebopAnd fans who want to learn more can check out this classic 90s sci-fi film.
Outlaw Star can be streamed on Hulu.
