Just when life seemed to be getting good for Gene and his
crew on Hei Fong, dark forces come crashing down on top of them. The crew of the Outlaw Star finds itself
fighting on two fronts against two forces who will stop at nothing to claim
Melfina and the Outlaw Star. And if the
McDougall’s weren’t trouble enough, the Kei Pirates top leader is sending his
elite squad after them as well…foes so powerful that even Aisha and Suzuka’s
help may not be enough to stop them. The
toughest fight of Gene Starwinds life is about to begin…will his luck hold out?
I have to say, the more I think about them the more I
really enjoyed this weeks batch of episodes.
The series has been ok with some flaws but man did this week feel like
potential was being met in full. There
are gripes here and there but nothing that didn’t make me think less about this
show being on fire this week.
Let’s start with the Anten Seven. Seven seems to be a popular number in Anime,
no doubt helped greatly by a certain Japanese masterpiece featuring Seven
Samuari lol. And this band seems poised
to deliver some good challenge. Shimi,
or Lei Long, was a good start, managing to beat the living hell out of Gene,
Jim, and even Suzuka and Aisha. His
episode had a lot of dark overtones to it, even Gene having a nightmare about
his own demise…and man could that have come true in more ways, not just losing
his life but seeing his friends die around him one by one. It was heavy stuff but it’s always a relief
to see everyone alright in the end.
Bonus points given to Suzuka for blaming her defeat on Aisha’s terrible
cooking. However, while the second
featured member Hiraga was fierce, she was a bit more comical in her
appearance, wanting to put off her killing of Gene to prove she’s the strongest
woman in the universe in a tournament (more on that in a moment). It definitely cut into the foreboding feel of
this lethal group of assassins. Will the
others be more like Shimi, ruthless with a bit of dark wisdom or like Hiraga,
powerful but a bit more on the zany side?
Time will tell as we’re two members down and five to go.
The McDougall Brothers popped back up as well and we got
to know a bit more about them this week, more so with Harry though Ron did
finally reveal himself to Gene. Speaking
of Ron, he seems poised to give Gene some real trouble since he is packing the
same special Caster Gun as Mr. Starwing…though Gene’s is cooler in my honest
opinion. Harry, on the other hand,
continued his tough guy look that quickly turned to infancy when he didn’t get
his way. Made him annoying when he tried
to rationalize his actions towards Melfina as love when he was being so dark
and even knocked her out when she would go with him. He’s just asking for an ass kicking and he
did get it a little bit when a scared Melfina managed to short out his arm when
Harry tried to hack into the ship. We
also got a bit of Blade Runner action with Harry and Melfina as we learned they
may be one in the same being, hence how Harry could hack their ship Ghost in
the Shell style. Will his claims of
Melfina’s inevitable abandonment by Gene convince her to go her own way? And what does Gene feel for Melfina
anyway? One could say he was being a bit
colder to her than usual, trying to force a kiss on her when he thought he was
going to die the next day. I think Gene
does truly care for her but something else is going on in his head that he
isn’t sharing with her.
Even the filler stories this week were pretty
entertaining. The trip to the water
planet for buried treasure was tight and intense and with the old man leading
the crew, gave us a nice look into what Gene could end up as in the future…just
with more of his body and friends intact.
Then there’s the tournament for the title of the Strongest Woman in the
Universe. This got some good laughs as
we got to see Gene dressed up to infiltrate the tournament on a job for Fred
Lau (and immediately assume the job was initially to sleep with Fred after a
long pause which I did crack up at for some reason, timing I guess). We also got to see Aisha suit up and hop in
the ring and eventually get a well deserved action scene with Hiraga with a
Catrl Cartrl vs a Werewolf. It was so
great Gene even decided he would lighten up on Aisha since she showed just how
bad ass she could be. And to top it all
off, Fred actually came through for Gene and sent the crew and the series back
into space to go look for the Galactic Layline.
The road to get to this point may have been a bit shaky
at times but everything played it’s purpose well this week and now it think
we’re about to get into some better territory.
The action, story, drama and humor were perfectly balanced this
week. Some characters could use more
ironing out but there’s time for that.
For now, the Outlaw Star is heading back into space and we’re strapped
in for a wild ride.
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