Gene and company arrive in the Hei Fong system for the
annual Hei Fong space race. Fame,
fortune and a chance to promote their name are all on the line. But this is the life of Gene Starwind, when
is a race ever a simple race? The
McDougall Brothers, who may or may not have been responsible for the death of
Gene’s father, are in the race as well.
And it looks like one way or another they’re going to make Gene’s life
hell more than they already have.
Space races, aliens of a bizzare kind (and that’s saying
a lot) and a little bit of a nod to a couple of classic action flicks took up a
great deal of the Outlaw Star action this week.
But in another odd twists, the main story seemed to suffer from lack of
unmet potential while the side quests proved to be pretty entertaining.
At the end of last week’s set of episodes we were teased
with a highly anticipated galactic event known as the Heifong Space Race. Gene saw this less as an opportunity to
promote the name of Starwind and Hawking Enterprises and more as a chance to go
after the McDougall Brothers, who had supposedly entered the race. With that added bit of personal drama you had
to have a feeling that it might’ve been the only aspect of the race the series
would focus on. Space racing seemed like
a pretty fun concept for Outlaw Star, especially if there happened to be other
Grappler Ships involved. But to be honest
I would have liked to have seen some more intense competition between ships
rather than outracing the elements of space as the Outlaw Star seemed to
do. Save for a tiny bit of unseen action
against the El Dorado, we nary saw any other ships going head to head to get to
certain checkpoints. That being said,
the Outlaw Star itself was in top form racing through the Ether stream and
avoiding a gravity wave.
The reappearance of the McDougall Brothers was another
nice moment this week. Their short
summary in one of the episode prologues built them up big, the baddest of the
bad asses who took everything and left nothing for others, including life. It was a little funny to learn that the
youngest is nothing more than a psychotic cry baby who bitches and moans when
he doesn’t get his way or even gets grazed.
But further intriguing was his ability to hack into the Outlaw
Star. Chilling as it was to see Melfina
almost abused by the attack, it raises all kinds of questions as to what Harry
McDougall actually is. His brother Ron,
even showed a bit of a softer side when it came to caring for his brother. They trust only each other and im sure we’ll
see more of that deadly side to Ron like when he killed Hilda a couple weeks
back soon when there two show up again.
The side stories were a lot stronger this week on the
show as the crew adjusted to new life on Hei Fong. The first episode was smart to split up
everyones stories but slowly tie them together at the end in a very humorous
finale, complete with poor Melfina being forced to smash a would be powerful
cactus plant (yes I did just type that) simply because wasn’t affected by his
mind control. Final Countdown was a bit
stronger with some nice nods to some classic action films like Speed and Die
Hard. Robbery disguised as terrorism and
a bomb on the verge of detonation if even slightly interfered with push a
trapped Gene, Melfina and especially Jim to their limits. But the awesome stuff was saved for Suzuka
and Aisha. Suzuka’s screentime during
the space race was shortened due to her lack of interest in participating, also
a bit smart since she got a lot of screen time last week when she was
introduced…though we did get to see her in a swimsuit for a brief moment, cutie
hehe. Aisha meanwhile has joined up with
the crew and together with Suzuka, they cleaned house against a group of
thieves who stood no chance against a bad ass samurai and a ferocious cat girl.
Some things could have been done much better this
week. The Space Race was full of missed
opportunities in exchange for a would be tighter focus. But some fun was had planet side and the cast
is definitely gelling well together, almost getting to the point where it’s ok
to call them the Anime equivalent of the Guardians of the Galaxy. But if next weeks preview is any indication,
the crew of the Outlaw Star is about to be put through the ringer when the
pirates return stronger than ever…and I cant wait to see em duke it out again.
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