Long thread! (No way to make this shorter due to the nature of it.) This is a little side-project of mine which hasn't actually taken a great deal of time. For years I've thought this would be a great idea. In case you don't know what a fanedit is, they're fan-made movie cuts. This might be to improve pacing, clean up mistakes in the official releases, or in some crazy cases... crossovers. I'm not sure if anybody has tried this though, or if many people make edits for TV or anime.
I am compacting Outlaw Star into a movie trilogy. My main reason for doing this is that it makes Outlaw Star easier to watch with family or friends which in my opinion is a better way to introduce people to a story. Some find TV series with dozens of episodes a struggle. As movies Outlaw Star can be completed in only three sittings. Best of all, each movie should be no more than two hours each. But how can I do that when every episode (at about 25 minutes each) comes to over 650 minutes? (Nearly eleven hours!!) It's easier than you'd expect.
First of all, obviously there's the intro, the opening and the ending in each episode. When they're cut that saves almost five minutes per episode. Little by little, by making lots of other cuts you can shave a helluva lot of time, not to mention removal of the filler content. Although I need to give it a full test viewing to check for any errors, the first movie is complete. I'll explain the edits. As a quick note, despite there being plenty of cuts the first movie will probably have the least because I want as much of Hilda's episodes there as feasibly possible. Not to mention, EP1-7 are plot-essential.
Outlaw Star: Sentinel
The first movie lasts until the end of episode seven, Creeping Evil. As mentioned, all OPs, EDs and narrations have been cut except for the beginning of the first episode and the end of Creeping Evil. (Although the "Next Time" part is cut.) I have decided to remove all of the gunshot intermissions from all episodes because they break the movie immersion. Obviously, the ad break eyecatches are all gone. While many unessential scenes are cut, those that are shortened are done without breaking context. I am going to miss some edits here. It's working well enough for even me to not notice some.
Episode 01 - Outlaw World: 0:00:00 to 0:20:18
- A lot of interactions between the Kei Pirates are shortened
- Jim's Ehefrau doesn't break down
Episode 02 - World of Desire: 0:20:20 to 0:38:21 (Length: 18:01)
- Horus' time docking at Blue Heaven and crew's entrance shortened
- Hilda's talk with Swanzo shortened slightly
- Jim doesn't have conversation with Melfina in their hotel room
- Final scene showing McCoy and his mech-thing slightly cut to seamlessly blend with next episode
Episode 03 - Into Burning Space: 0:38:21 to 0:57:18 (Length: 18:57)
- Some small cuts to Hilda's interaction with McCoy's gang
- Aisha's "discussion" (just a recording) with the Ctarl-Ctarl governor is shortened quite heavily
Episode 04 - When the Hot Ice Melts: 0:57:18 to 1:17:33 (Length: 20:15)
- A few segments slightly shortened, nothing notable
Episode 05 - The Beast Girl, Ready to Pounce: 1:17:36 to 1:31:14 (Length: 13:38)
- Scene where Jim tries to console Melfina and Gene is mad cut
- Aisha in the restaurant scene cut
- Swanzo's Toward Stars explanation cut
- Jim's mention of Fred Luo in the Outlaw Star cut (not doing so would have been problematic as Fred is mentioned in above scene)
- Aisha cleaning dishes at end cut
Episode 06 - The Beautiful Assassin: 1:31:17 to 1:48:25 (Length: 17:08)
- Short scene in rental car cut
- Gene's discussion with Fred and his bodyguards about Suzuka cut
- Interaction between Gene and disrobed Suzuka heavily shortened (still retaining all context)
Episode 07 - Creeping Evil: 1:48:28 to 2:04:37 (Length: 16:09)
- Gene's failed XGP liftoff simulation cut
- Gene's handsy Melfina scene cut
- Gene's discussion with spaceport staff cut
- Suzuka's brief discussion with brutish pirate (at end of battle) cut
- Jim's drive through Sentinel to get to Starwind & Hawking Enterprises cut
I know it seems like an awful lot has been removed but you'd be surprised by how easily these changes can be made unnoticed. Creeping Evil is such a satisfying conclusion to the first movie since Gene is poisoned at the end. Quite the cliffhanger! Some extra information...
Movies two and three will be called Heifong and Leyline. They will obviously divide episodes 08-26, but there will be a lot of cut episodes. These aren't essential to the plot in the slightest.
Completely cut episodes:
- 13 - Advance Guard from Another World
- 14 - Final Countdown
- 16 - Demon of the Water Planet
- 19 - Law and Lawlessness
- 23 - Hot Springs Planet Tenrei
"But wait, Mantis!", you cry. "We need Tenrei because it explains how Gene got the powerful caster shells." Well yeah, true, but you didn't need that context when you watched on Toonami. That's only a few minutes out of a full episode. It's hard to justify keeping Tenrei (which is almost wholly fan service) for that. An unfortunate but necessary sacrifice.
I'm keeping every other piece of essential viewing. That will include a few minutes from the ninth episode ("A Journey of Adventure... Huh?") because while it does have some nice character development that's worth keeping a few minutes of, it does have a crucial scene at the end: Gene seeing an advertisement for the space race which he sees the El Dorado in. Everything to do with Zomba will be cut.
So yeah, that's the project so far. Ah, one other thing. There's Through the Night for the first movie (Sentinel), but the second and third will have AMVs in Through the Night's place. I don't know which order yet, but one will be the second song from the Through the Night single (not many have heard it but it's great), the other being an undecided Arimachi Masahiko song. Second movie's AMV intro will have clips from EP1-7, third movie AMV having clips from second movie. (To avoid spoilers.) Hiru no Tsuki is the credits for the first movie as expected. Second movie's credits will be Kuroi Tame from the Tsuki no Ie single. Third movie's credits, Tsuki no Ie.
Finally, I won't be releasing the trilogy publicly. My YouTube channel only took off (a little) because I uploaded all the Outlaw Star episodes back in the day, but I now prefer that people buy a box set. I'd share it with those who have done so privately.