I think this is the first time where an intriguing premise, good worldbuilding, and initially interesting characters absolutely failed so fucking hard because the writer had no clear ideas for what to do with their series. I finished this 26-episode series expecting some cool sci-fi treasure-hunting story similar to One Piece’s fantasy treasure-hunting, but instead I found an absolute snorefest whereby the main character Gene Starwind and his best friend, the kid character named Jim, whine about their debts for 99 percent of this story. It isn’t an exploration of new, exotic alien worlds or getting caught up in trade war conspiracies; that type of content only happens in the final four episodes and it is bland because it isn’t fleshed out very well. To get a better picture of how lacking this anime is; they show seven enemies working under the leader of a Black-Market operation in the opening and only depict six of those seven people in the anime. Most of the anime’s focus for 99 percent of the story has been on Jim whining to Gene about money, the Outlaw Star group getting into a new scheme with their debtee somehow involved, and then failing at the scheme and ending-up in even more debt. Rinse and repeat for the entire series. No seriously, that’s all this anime was for its entire series; whether comprising of episode of the week one-offs or a mini-sequence of events that all end the same.

I feel an overwhelming sense of disappointment with having bothered at all to watch this series. That is mainly because I liked the characters, the worldbuilding, the music, and premise . . . but it went nowhere. Watching this show was the equivalent of if One Piece was set in space and just had Naruto or Inuyasha-style filler story arcs for 99 percent of the story with the conclusions ending the same and nothing having changed for the cast at the conclusion of each arc. The worst part of this show is that it could have been amazing. A Western space-opera with a cowboy meeting friends to go on an adventure to find out a galactic mystery or uncover some galactic treasure? That sounds incredibly fascinating! And yet, it goes absolutely nowhere and the conclusion of the series ends the same as all the other arcs. That is why I can’t help but feel contempt for this show. Gene Starwind, Jim Hawking, Melfina, Aisha ClanClan, and Suzuka are rather interesting cast members, but none of them really grow or develop as the series moves on from debt-scheme to debt-scheme without any focus on the mystery or actual treasure-hunting. I really liked the robot-ship battles that the Outlaw Star ship had with other ships, but it isn’t enough to carry this anime forward. I wish that Hilda hadn’t died in episode 4, so we’d actually have a character who was motivated and didn’t let debt stop her from moving towards her goals. Also, I’m sorry to say, but Suzuka felt like a nothing character all the way to the end despite what could have been a potentially interesting character. Even in the finale fight, they bring up her possible random love for Gene and Suzuka says she’ll answer the question after she kills her enemy and yet that entire conversation is ignored and never answered after Suzuka kills them. In her introduction episode, the way Gene beat her didn’t make any sense in the greater context of her being an assassin and her later fights. Even the McDougal Brothers subplot went absolutely nowhere with nothing revealed regarding the incident that Gene was upset about.

This show suffered from a severe lack of ideas. It was boring, it didn’t go anywhere, none of the characters developed, the worldbuilding and interesting cast of characters were wasted, and I wish I had never listened to any recommendations to watch this supposedly alluring 90s anime show. I can only give it a 2 / 10 in good conscience.