The ''

Outlaw Star is a Japanese anime Television show, television series produced by Sunrise (company), Sunrise and Seinen manga, ''seinen'' manga series written and illustrated by Takehiko Itō. The series takes place in the "Toward Stars Era" universe i ...

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

is the adaptation of the manga series of the same name by Takehiko Ito. The plot follows the protagonist

Gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

and his crew in their outer space adventures on board their advanced spacecraft named the Outlaw Star. The anime, which was produced by

Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects. Terminology Al ...

and directed by

Mitsuru Hongo is a Japanese anime director of television and film. Hongo originally worked at Ajiado as an animator but moved to Shin-Ei Animation where he directed '' Crayon Shin-chan''. He left in 1996 and went on to direct ''Immortal Grand Prix'', ''Outla ...

, aired on Japan's

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified b ...

from January 8, 1998 to June 25, 1998 for a total of 26 episodes. The anime was later licensed for

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

distribution in North America by

Bandai Entertainment was a Japanese anime, film production, and distribution enterprise, established by Bandai and a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings. They focused mainly in international distribution of anime properties in North America. Most of the anime and f ...

. The series originally aired on

Toonami Toonami ( ) is an American late night television programming block that primarily broadcasts Japanese animation and occasionally American action animation. It was created by Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by Williams Street, a divis ...

from January 15, 2001 to February 16, 2001. Episode 23 was not aired during this run due to scenes of extensive female nudity and sexually suggestive humor/themes; it was finally broadcast 17 years later, on February 25, 2018, during the revived Toonami block on

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

. Bandai released the series on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

in Japan in two halves with the first 13 episodes released on August 25, 1999 and the remaining 13 episodes released on November 25, 1999. A Japanese "remastered" DVD boxset containing the entire series was published by Bandai on September 22, 2006. Bandai also released the series in North America in three DVD collections on September 1, 2000, February 14, 2001, and March 6, 2001. The ''Outlaw Star Perfect Collection Box Set'', a DVD compilation of the entire series, was released on September 10, 2002. The series was again re-released on March 28, 2006 as the ''Outlaw Star: Complete Collection''. ''Outlaw Star'' additionally received a Region 4 DVD release in Australia by

Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, is an Australian distribution and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising in feature films, documentaries and television series across theatri ...

on June 23, 2004. The music for ''Outlaw Star'' was composed by

Kow Otani is a Japanese composer. He is best known for creating the soundtracks for the Heisei ''Gamera'' trilogy, '' Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack'', ''Mobile Suit Gundam Wing'', and ''Shadow of the Colossus''. Biogra ...

. The series has three pieces of vocal music, one opening and two endings. The opening theme is "Through the Night" performed by Masahiko Arimachi. The two endings themes are "Hiru no Tsuki", used in the first 13 episodes, and "Tsuki no Ie", used in the remaining 13 episodes. Both endings are sung by

Arai Akino is a Japanese singer, songwriter, and lyricist for various anime theme songs and shows, including ''Record of Lodoss War'', ''Please Save My Earth'', ''Macross Plus'', ''Outlaw Star'', ''Kaze no Stigma'', ''Maoyu'', and ''Aria The Origination''. ...

Episodes

References

{{Outlaw Star

Episodes Episodes may refer to: * Episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a series intended for radio, television or streaming consumption. The noun ''episode'' is derived from the Gree ...