Outlaw Star: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]

*this is for the June 2017 NA release of this series*I'm reviewing the actual release, because anybody coming here hopefully knows that this is the perfect anime series (unashamed bias).The color is crisp and amazing, it truly brings a whole new life to a show that I've seen a good 20 times over. On a good 4K tv this release looks outstanding. I just recently watched the anime legends DVD release and this blu ray release is hands over fist the better release. It's actually really cool to see some film grain in the cells that were used, which appear because the definition/scaling.The audio is crisp, detailed, and has amazing room,depth, and panning. The mixing engineer did great work on bringing attention to what is needed while still using great dynamics to highlight ambience and action. Punches you right in the face still.I was a child when I first watched this anime on toonami and it honestly brings back the feeling of watching it that first time, cross-legged in front of the CRT TV. The sub and dub are great. I admitedly always watch this show dubbed first because of nostalgia, and wow! it holds up so well! I will return to review the sub when I do my second watch. This series needed a high definition release and this collection doesn't disappoint. Completely new experience. Amazing !!! The only thing I regret is not getting the collectors edition!!

I remember catching random episodes of this show when it aired on Toonmai. This release seems to be a little edgier than what I recall from the 90s - more violent, bad language, sexual undertones. It is like I am experiencing this show for the first time. It is really great,I remember people always called Outlaw Star a poor mans Cowboy Bebop, but I honestly am really enjoying this re-watch. The show is well paced, characters are fun, and the main story line is interesting. It might not have the same animation polish that Cowboy Bebop has, but this series is definitely charming in its own way.There is the main story with Gene trying to figure out what to do with his life and the Galactic Layline, but every third episode or so, there is a random side mission that is just a one off trip the crew goes on. It helps keep the show fun and exciting.I do have two issues with this release that keep me from giving this a perfect score:1. There doesn't seem to be any closed caption option for the Dub. You have two "English" subtitle options, but one is merely used for signs and other written language so you can see what you are reading (since it is in Japanese). The other is the translation subtitle to be used with the Japanese language track, so it stays closer to the original Japanese script. It doesn't use the same dialog cues and exact wording as the English language track. It is surprisingly close most of the time, but still not a true closed captions for the hard of hearing.2. I had a hard time playing a copy episodes on Blu Ray disc 3.. Luckily the DVDs that came with the package have been playing back fine so far, but it is a bit of a bummer to go from HD to SD for a few episodes.Overall, I would recommend this to fans that grew up on Toonami re runs. Very cool to be able to re visit an old classic. Although, if you have the extra $20, I would grab the collectors edition. Kind of wish I did.

Outlaw Star: The Complete Series Collector's Edition (Blu-ray/DVD Combo) This review will be less about the series itself, and more about the product. I bought this version of the box set more for the artbook than anything else.So first off, is picture quality. If you owned the old Bandai Visual dvd's (as I do) the blu-ray release is a monumental improvement. Colors are much more vibrant, edges around characters are crisp, and all the details that may have been lost on the DVD release are quite prominent. Yes, it is formatted to its original 4:3 aspect ratio, but this isn't a bad thing. If you want an argument why, go watch some of the dragonball Z blu-rays from Funimation where they did jack it up to widescreen, and see how much has been cut off to reach this aspect ratio. It sucks; keeping a 4:3 ratio show in its original format is the way it should go. Short version: the picture is so vibrant it really makes it stand out, Funimation did a great job and if they read these, keep doing it; the quality is amazing.Sound is essentially the same. It's got some mild improvement for 5.1 systems, but it's still technically 2.0 so you won't hear a massive improvement from the DVD release. Funimation didn't re-dub it, and I take it when it was recorded it wasn't recorded with 5.1 in mind, so they could only do so much on that front. Not a bad thing, as few shows of this era did much with 5.1.The collector's edition box is pretty nice. It's about the same size as 3 DVD cases (width wise), so it won't take up much space. The box is pretty thick too, so it's not some flimsy case that'll rip. You might see a few scratches that look like the box is in poor shape, but it's actually the packaging cover - it fooled me too. The artbook, I think, is worth the investment. There's a broad range of turn arounds, facial expressions, and environment stills from production, not some b.s. 13 page booklet that's just taking marketing artwork you've seen a thousand times before.The blu-ray menu is pretty bare bones, pick a language and episodes. It works for me, I don't need a fancy menu screen. Not many extras, just the standard affair of openings/endings without the credits, some of the original commercials; no interviews or anything like that. I did have some issue with the blu-rays (namely the first disc) where sometimes either the main menu would lock up and not let me choose any options, or an episode might skip the intro. The episodes still played 100%, but I don't know if those hiccups were the blu-rays or my blu-ray player itself; episodes still played fine after that so it wasn't a lemon.Whether or not you buy the collector's edition or the regular edition is either how much money you have to spend or if you want the artbook/fancy box. I wanted the artbook more than the packaging, but the packaging is neat, so whichever version you choose it'll still be money well spent.

Not quite as good as Cowboy Bebop but a great watch

This review is not a reflection of how I feel about the show. I hold Outlaw Star up there with Bebop and Trigun. This low score is based solely on the cheap product you see in the photos before you.Let's start with the cases.The box feels like very cheap cardboard, which shouldn't be surprising because that's exactly what it is. The design is cool but it's the follow through that leaves much to be desired. It splits in the middle which looks awesome. Until your attempting to pick it up and it slides apart every five seconds. A magnet would have gone a long way. The wrap job is even worse, you couldn't have bothered to put a second interior wrap to hide it and make it look good. There was also all sorts of scuffing on the top and bottom of the box that I didn't even notice until later.The Blu Ray cases are even worse. Material so thin and flimsy that nothing sits right and just in normal delivery with no indication of package damage pieces were falling out left, right, and center. You can't believe my disappointment when I saw the two ultra thin cases with ill fitting sleeves that are printed in just slightly too thin of paper so that it warps and sits funny in the case.Because of the lackluster case design, upon opening the Blu-ray and DVD section multiple discs fell out. This appears to have happened during shipment so these disks were rattling around the whole time. Thankfully the Blu-rays appear to be fine but the DVDs on the other hand have minor scratches.The Art book is pretty nifty, although not enough concept art of the environments. But what it does have is beautiful.This is the first collector's edition I've ever ordered that has come in an envelope inside of a box. I speculate that this may be one of the reasons why this is in such bad shape. It's a damn shame that this is such a bad example of what a collector's edition could be when just recently we saw the release of Cowboy Bebop on Blu-ray and it's collector's edition was Stellar from start to finish.Right now at any price I don't recommend it. Let's see if the second one is any better.1 star for the art book.

Although it might not be for everyone, I'm enjoying this series. The character designs are fantastic and the world is rich and imaginative.

Re-release of classic. Do yourself a favour if you haven't seen it already and get it!

Outlaw Star is quite excellent! Especially on Blu-Ray.