Recap: The Beautiful Assassin

Dedicated to the memory of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds

Hello everyone! Well, I just saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi a little bit ago, and I; for one, loved it! Not only did it live up to my lofty expectations of following up The Force Awakens, but Rian Johnson definitely delivered a dynamite film on its own and easily “The Empire Strikes Back” of the sequel trilogy. I won’t spoil anything, but I recommend seeing it. Lots of you already plan to, anyway.

So, I thought I would do something I’ve been meaning to a while: my favorite episode of Outlaw Star, in honor of its return to Toonami and remaster on DVD and Blu-Ray. Let’s open up “The Beautiful Assassin!”

The opening narration details our character who is the basis for the title: an assassin known as “Twilight” Suzuka. Known for her swordsmanship and determination to killing by the stroke of dusk, she is also the very definition of a “femme fatale:” she’s usually the last thing her targets see before they die.

We then get the theme song, “Through the Night,” which is honestly a quite catchy theme. I am still working on compiling my Next Top 13 Anime openings, and I think this will be on it. As one part of my personal trinity of science fiction anime (along with Cowboy Bebop and Trigun), this was a great theme song, showing off a lot flashy imagery and a lot great design work by Shoji Kawamori (who worked on series such as Macross and Escaflowne). If you are reading this and haven’t seen the show: here’s a link for you. 

After that, we see Gene Starwind, and his cohort Jim Hawking land the titular Outlaw Star at a spaceport while they try to determine how to make ends meet until their ship refuels along with their associate Melfina. I definitely notice some similarities to my favorite show, Firefly, given how Gene is basically Mal Reynolds and Melfina is essentially River Tam; which fits quite while. The ship also is in the same league as the Serenity, the Enterprise, the Millennium Falcon, the Bebop and now the Milano as one of my favorite movie and TV spacecraft. 

I also submit that Gene has the same appeal as a character that Captain Kirk, Han Solo and now Peter Jason “Star Lord” Quill do, being flawed; but still relatable as a sort of daring rogue. His father was killed in an accident when he was 15, he’s 20 as of the start of the story. His associate, Jim Hawking (maybe inspired by Jim Hawkins from Treasure Island) is technically younger than him at age 11, but he often has to be the responsible one in their dealings, much to his dismay. It’s also heavily implied, but not outright stated, that his parents are dead.

Text-The Beautiful Assassin

Anyway, they go to see a man named Fred Luo; who is just a little bit too friendly with the way Gene describes him. I do kind of like the hover-Volkswagen Gene is driving: it’s the only hovercraft to come with “fahrvergnugen!”

Fred meets with Gene, and he is more than willing to help Gene for the right price. He may be a very touchy-feely sort of arms dealer; but he reminds me of Lando Calrissian in many ways; and more recently, DJ the master codebreaker.

It turns out Suzuka has been offered a substantial sum from an unseen bidder to kill Fred, and she vows to do so by the stroke of Twilight. I like how she has a space-age pocket watch, and she’s able to kill two of Gene’s guards with a single stroke: with a wooden sword, no less. 

You are already dead. "What?" (explodes)

She tries to go after Fred, but is confronted by Gene outside his office! The ensuing fight between them has great animation, and Sunrise did a great job with the series. The remaster is also fantastic in terms of sound and picture quality.

Gene even grabs a sword from Fred’s armory to try to fight Suzuka on her own terms! However, when she realizes that twilight is almost at hand, she decides to try again tomorrow. That has to be one of my favorite kind of antagonists: she could easily turn Fred and Gene into uncooked hamburger, but she wants to keep to her own moral code of honor.

Anyway, Fred realizes his life is in danger, and Gene decides to use his compromised position to demand the weapons and ammunition he needs; which Fred grudgingly agrees to.

I must say, the designs of a lot of the worlds that they visit in this anime have to be some of my favorite things about it. The city in this episode in one of the many cases of a setting that’s nostalgic yet futuristic, and has flavors of both the Far East and the far reaches of space. 

So, Fred not only gives Gene the weapons and ammo he needs to take on Suzuka; Suzuka is more than willing to meet Gene’s challenge! Geez, she’s as persistent as some of the enemies on my Wii U download of Super Mario Galaxy 2!

The chase through the city provides some of my favorite parts of the episode, if you’ll pardon my French in the next sentence: Holy shit, she just cut a truck in half! Gonna need more than Flex Tape to stop her cutting power. 

Their chase leads to the bluffs outside town, and when Gene realizes mere gunplay won’t be enough against Suzuka; he uses some EMPs in his gloves to fight her hand to hand!

Gene is not only able to successfully steal her sword, he also pulls the sash off her outfit; causing it to nearly fall off!

For those of you playing at home, pulling the sash off someone’s outfit is considered to be a very lewd act which dates back to the days of the shogun. Whenever it’s used in an anime, it’s basically a way of showing that someone’s been violated; given how it shows the victim with their clothes coming apart. This has been another useless fact.

To add insult to injury, when Suzuka demands her weapon and sash back, Gene taunts her by smelling the perfume on the sash! Essence of murderer: I like it!

Gene then presents a counteroffer to Suzuka: she can have her sword and sash back on the condition that she leave Fred alone and he becomes her new target. Humiliated at the idea of walking home disarmed and practically naked, Suzuka agrees. That’s one way of negotiating. 

Fred, as thanks for saving him, gives Gene a 30% discount on the arms and ammo he bought! My, you do have pure motives. You’re like a guy I just met on Canto Bight.

So, we close on Suzuka watching Gene, Jim and Melfina drive off into the night; vowing to get him back one day! A simple, but effective ending to my favorite episode of this show.

“The Beautiful Assassin” is a beautiful episode to mark my favorite of this anime. Suzuka would later become a character that’s a reluctant ally to Starwind and Hawking associates, which has to be one of my favorite character paths: to turn an antagonist into an aloof ally of sorts; more than willing to set aside their differences if they’re faced with a threat bigger than them. The animation, music and voice acting are great; and they did a really good job with the remaster in HD that’s airing on Toonami. I am seriously considering getting the DVD and Blu-ray complete set in the near future; since I think it will be worth it (and I don’t know whether or not they’ll air the infamous hot springs episode. They skipped it the last couple times, which created the problem of Gene somehow getting the caster bullets he needs without going through the episode where he got them).

For now, though, to those who have seen The Last Jedi: great. For those who are planning to: enjoy. For those who haven’t seen it: please do so as soon as you have the time. For now, I still have a few things I want to do before the year is out. I have my recap of Pokémon The Movie: I Choose You written, I still want to have it posted along with my other recaps for this year by Christmas Eve. That will be all for now. May the Force be with you all.