May 07th, 2008: Outlaw Star Retrospective - Part Two

Outlaw Star helped mark a major shift.

Toonami was already establishing itself as the provider of great action cartoons. 2000 remains the favorite year for many of the older Toonami fans. It isn't hard to see why.

That year, two classic cartoons, Batman: The Animated Series, and Superman: The Animated Series, arrived on Toonami, pleasing newcomers and old fans alike. The then-cutting-edge OVA Blue Submarine No. 6, from a then-upstart studio called Gonzo, caused many, many jaws to hit the floor with its intense storyline and visuals. Dragonball Z premiered dozens of new episodes. Several Tenchi Muyo! series aired, and Toonami's love affair with giant robots grew much, much stronger with Gundam Wing - the first limited-run series that was "Only on Toonami". For the girls, of course, there was Sailor Moon. Lots of it, with weeks upon weeks of new episodes and movies premiering through 2000 and continuing into 2001. And then came The Intruder, which set a standard for Total Immersion Events that has yet to be surpassed.

But none of those shows were abrasive or very adult. Both Tenchi and Gundam Wing had iffy dubs; the former due to some ill-fitting voices, the latter because of robotic, awkward writing stunting the actors' delivery. Dragonball Z's dub was rushed and to this day fans are unsatisfied with it. Superman and Batman, for all of their good qualities, are still Saturday morning cartoons and thus were limited in what they could do. Sailor Moon's dub was infamously bad. Blue Submarine was recorded in a small North Carolina studio that hasn't gotten much work since.

None of the shows above got away with much, other than Blue Submarine, which managed to keep most of its explosions and spiritual themes intact. All of the above shows ultimately appealed to children first and foremost, despite themes such as war, destiny, and travel. Outlaw Star, the first of only a few seinen series to ever air on Toonami, would change all of that.

The irony is, of course, that Toonami may never have picked this show up if they had gotten their hands on Escaflowne, which died an unfortunate death on Fox Kids. There was only so much funding in Toonami's budget, usually enough for nine shows a year (a trend that continued until 2006). If Toonami had managed to land Escaflowne they probably would not have gone after Outlaw Star, which was a much more difficult edit job thanks to its older target demographic. But unfortunately Sean Akins revealed his interest in Escaflowne after Toonami had revealed itself to be a threat, and Fox Kids swooped in on the license to prevent Toonami from gaining yet another bastion.

At the time, Toonami was entrenched in TV-Y7FV, which limited what could be aired. Gundam Wing had run with a light edit on the Midnight Run under the TV-PG rating, but that would not last forever.

The three shows that make up the "Space Western Trinity" - Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and Outlaw Star - were all fan favorites, but no one ever thought the shows would make it to American TV before Toonami's announcement that they'd acquired Outlaw Star. And after the licensing of Outlaw Star, other questions arose: would it really be possible for the show to air? Or would Toonami give up on it as a lost cause after futile attempts to edit it to TV-Y7FV?

Characteristically, Toonami found a way. They managed to cut 25 of the 26 episodes down to the desired TV-Y7FV rating, and removed the one that was unsalvageable (quick, guess which one). They cranked out impressive promos for a show they had likely never actually planned to air. Those promos captured the imagination of many people, from children to adults, in ways unseen since the first 2-minute Gundam Wing promo. They made people want to see Outlaw Star and follow Gene and his crew across the galaxy. Perhaps even more surprising, the longer promos prominently feature the sounds of realistic gunfire, which is something Toonami had never advertised before (even though Heero Yuy pointed a pistol at Relena, he never fired it in the promo). Toonami, which at the time always removed the opening sequence, also created a fierce 30-second intro filled with money shots.

Outlaw Star, needless to say, was still heavily edited. This dates from a time when Toonami edited nearly every program themselves. As Sean Akins said in a 2004 interview with Wizard Anime Invasion, he saw no reason to let the editing fall into the hands of people who may not care as much about the shows as Toonami did. He felt that Toonami would be able to edit the shows down without losing much in the transition. That was why Toonami took the time and money to edit nearly every show personally when it began taking on exclusive programming.

However, a trademark of Toonami edits was inconsistency, and Outlaw Star's first run aired with some profanity and bloodspray left in, only to be edited out for later runs. No major controversy emerged out of that, although it certainly amused older viewers and eagle-eyed otaku. But accidents aside, Outlaw Star forced a revolution.

It opened doors. Outlaw Star, even in edited form, was edgier than any program Toonami had aired before. Highly stylized and featuring a lot of hand-to-hand combat and deaths (not just explosion fatalities, either), there had never been anything like it before, even on cable TV. Outlaw Star's advertised gunfire aired entirely without editing, although according to the edit lists the word "gun" was inconsistently changed to "blaster". The characters were able to keep the bulk of their personalities (even the obviously homosexual Fred Luo), and the plotline managed to stay coherent despite the edits, which is something not every show can brag about.

When the reactions to Outlaw Star started rolling in, it made Cowboy Bebop and Trigun obvious buys for the network - especially after Outlaw Star won an online poll which decided which Toonami show would return to the block for another run. Outlaw Star was also rerun frequently on the Midnight Run and helped stabilize that block until the September 11, 2001 attacks, when it was pulled.

Of course, it wasn't a terrorist attack that permanently changed Cartoon Network. New management at Cartoon Network had taken hold by then. Policies changed. Adult Swim was born and became the home for Cowboy Bebop, which was rumored heavily for the Midnight Run. Trigun was rejected for Toonami ostenibly because of heavy gun use, even after Outlaw Star and Big O aired with unedited guns and gunfire. Adult Swim would eventually run the series, and Trigun would become successful enough there for Adult Swim to keep the rights for two two-year contracts.

After a long break from the air, Outlaw Star finally returned to the network as one of the shows on Adult Swim's original Saturday action block. For some reason, it aired with all of the Toonami edits intact despite airing on an "adult" block, which hampered its performance towards the new demographic. Airing alongside Cowboy Bebop, and various near-Toonami and Toonami veterans, Outlaw Star would manage to hold down its Saturday night slot until the Cartoon Network let the rights expire.

Outlaw Star has been in the wilderness since then. Boxsets have been released, but not much else has happened concerning the franchise. The series was rumored to be getting a continuation as well but it never happened. It did eventually receive a spinoff called Angel Links, but that show was ill-received both in Japan and the United States, and effectively killed Outlaw Star's universe.

Comparatively, Cowboy Bebop and Trigun have become legendary, and even The Big O received a continuation. Other shows aired since Outlaw Star on Toonami and Adult Swim have received more attention critically and in general. Even some Toonami diehards would put Gundam, Dragonball, and Naruto ahead of the series. Which is a shame, since Outlaw Star did a lot for Toonami and inadvertently planted the seed for Adult Swim. It still holds the achievement of being voted onto the block by the Toonami-viewing public, something that hasn't happened since (mostly because Toonami hasn't made any such polls since then). But compared to many anime out there, Outlaw Star has been forgotten. It has been left behind as the Full Metal Alchemists and Narutos rise to prominence.

But it may be seen again sometime soon. Outlaw Star is on a gigantic list of shows long-rumored for Toonami Jetstream, especially since Viz Media owns the manga rights to the franchise. Of course, considering Jetstream has done practically nothing since the beginning of the year, it remains to be seen if Jetstream will simply continue to exist, much less stream Outlaw Star for a new audience. Toonami itself hasn't forgotten the series: TOM 4 has frequently chanted the show's signature incantation.

It seems that somewhere in Atlanta, Sean Akins, Jason DeMarco, and the Toonami crew long to the roll the dice one more time. Maybe Cartoon Network should take them up on it. The show isn't expensive anymore, and nothing more significant than a half-year license would be necessary - just to give the block a quick ratings boost before Friday becomes the new home for action. Outlaw Star and Samurai Jack constituting the final hour of the block behind our favorite knuckle-headed ninja?

I say roll it.

 

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