Story
The story, like all aspects of Outlaw Star, is almost great, but somehow comes up drastically short. Everything is there, and you know what's happening, but it's all executed improperly. Part of this is because of the characters (I'll explain later), but it's really because of the directors. You constantly find that dramatic scenes are cut down to size, losing the tense air that's supposed to surround them. Romantic sub-text is established early on, but after that you're supposed to assume it's there for yourself. In general, the story moves too fast and doesn't flesh out enough to get a hold onto you and compel you to watch.
TL;DR: There's a plot, but it's not something you'll care about.
(By the way, it's like One Piece in space. Except it came about a decade earlier. Just wanted to point that out. : P)
Art
The art is...Sporadic, I guess you would say. At first, it's your standard anime. The character designs have a bit of detail to them, and the animation is fast-paced action spliced in with those long, drawn still shots that save precious, precious money. But after the first few episodes, they introduce Suzuka, one of the main characters. Her design is incredibly bland and empty; she's a blob of white space in the middle of the screen.
One of the episodes near the middle, around 14 or so, has a massive action sequence in it. It was the most horrid animation I've ever seen in anything, it quite literally made me sick. Yet a few episodes later, another action sequence comes up where the animation was on a godly level. Basically, the animation is a complete wildcard.
TL;DR: Good animation only makes you realize how crappy the bad animation is
Sound
I watched mainly with the English voice actors through the series, and allow me to tell you: Don't. They may be good, or at least average in the beginning, but they ruin a multitude of episodes. I actually HAD to switch over to Japanese to get through some episodes, but I had to go back to English since I had no idea which character was talking.
The opening them is hilariously retro. It's a good song, but it reminds me of the Duck Tales' opening (best show ever, by the way)
The actual sound effects, I didn't pay too much attention to, except for one. THE GUNSHOT. The gunshot sound effect I speak of isn't necessarily a gun being fired, but in the first half of the series, they mark scene changes with the sound of a gunshot as a picture flashes (white space with a bullet hole). It only takes once to realize how horrible the sound is; it barely even sounds like a real gun. Good thing they will continue to use this. A LOT. Thankfully, they realized how annoying it is at some point in time, and discontinued the practice after a bit.
TL;DR: Go for the subs, "lol 90s" opening, scene changes suck at first.
Character
Ah, characters. The most important aspect of any story. They can ruin a good plot, or save a wretched one. Neither one applies in this situation, since the character and the plot aren't that good.
Ok, ok. Neither aspect is bad, but I found the characters' shallowness irksome and tiring at times. Their personalities are similar to the plot. You know who they are, and you know why they're SUPPOSEDLY doing what their doing, but it just doesn't seem real.
In case that sounded incomprehensible, allow me to try rephrasing.
You have the character Melfina. It's established in episode 2 or 3 that she wants to find out why she was created. So you know that's her motivation. But as the series continues on, she doesn't act like she's being driven by anything. Sure, she SAID she wants to know why, but it's like she said it only to give the plot a reason to progress.
TL;DR Characters are bland and plot oriented, rather than being their own person.
Enjoyment
All right, for all the bashing I've done toward Outlaw Star, it IS enjoyable. First of all comes it's ridiculousness. When Gene obtains his ship, and enters into his first fight, you might think it a bit strange that the ship has it's own arms that it fights with. But arms on a space ship could be considered realistic, after all, they would be useful...
Then you realize the ships arms are wielding a handgun and a freaking battle axe. I couldn't help but laugh at the Lagann-esque hilarity of it.
The action sequences are hit or miss, but Gene definitely has his badass moments, the ones where you start smiling because he just made you gay for him.
Character interactions, despite them having little personality, can still crack you up or make you grin using what personality they do have.
TL;DR: It's awesome and hilarious some of the time
Overall
The story is a mess and uninteresting, sometimes the art can sicken you because it's terrible, and the characters don't seem like people, but there are enough good bits (which are unmentioned by me) to pull this anime through and make it enjoyable. Somewhat.
But maybe I just missed the point of this anime; maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way. You might like it, but if you're going to try it, make sure you don't have something more highly regarded to watch first.
TL;DR: Go watch Black Lagoon instead. Or anything else. THEN watch Outlaw Star.
