LEILONG SPOILER!
LE
Leilong is better known inside the Kei Pirate Guild as Shimi, one of the Anten Seven's most feared assassins and perhaps the most complete fighter Gene faces outside the final conflict. Rather than immediately announcing himself, Leilong meets Gene in a bar and talks with him about duels, killing and the exhaustion that comes from surviving too many of both. When the real confrontation begins, he defeats Gene's allies with alarming ease and agrees to settle things with a single old-fashioned gun draw. Gene appears to win when Leilong's weapon misfires. The death is staged. Leilong rigged the gun himself, allowing Shimi to disappear and Leilong to walk away from the Kei Pirates alive. It is an unusually graceful exit for a professional killer in this series.
LEILONG THROUGH THE ARCHIVE //
KEI PIRATES, MACDOUGALLS & ANTEN SEVEN //
Open page →Leilong meets Gene before fully revealing himself as Shimi, and that gives their confrontation a strange tone.
He is good enough to kill Gene's allies, experienced enough to understand exactly what kind of life he is living and tired enough to want a way out.
The final gun draw appears to kill him when his weapon fails.
He is good enough to kill Gene's allies, experienced enough to understand exactly what kind of life he is living and tired enough to want a way out.
The final gun draw appears to kill him when his weapon fails.
What changed
The failure was arranged. Leilong uses the duel to let Shimi die while Leilong walks away.
Why it matters
In a series full of people throwing themselves at treasure, duty and revenge, one elite assassin decides survival is worth more than finishing the assignment.
The Anten Seven are introduced as one elite group, but the memorable members are built around different kinds of encounters.
Leilong turns assassination into a conversation about surviving too many duels. Iraga hides inside a tournament. Hanmyo is a grappler pilot Jim likes before either knows who the other is. Hitoriga belongs to Suzuka's past. Tobigera can be threatening and ridiculous in the same episode.
Leilong turns assassination into a conversation about surviving too many duels. Iraga hides inside a tournament. Hanmyo is a grappler pilot Jim likes before either knows who the other is. Hitoriga belongs to Suzuka's past. Tobigera can be threatening and ridiculous in the same episode.
Why it worked
The group gives Hazanko reach without forcing the series into seven identical boss fights.
The crew keeps meeting the Kei Pirates through different genres of episode, which makes the organization feel embedded in the world rather than parked at the end of a dungeon.
The crew keeps meeting the Kei Pirates through different genres of episode, which makes the organization feel embedded in the world rather than parked at the end of a dungeon.
COMBAT & TURNING POINTS //
Open page →Leilong can beat people Gene depends on, and he is experienced enough to make Gene understand that this is not another bounty target.
The Breakdown
Their final exchange becomes an old-fashioned gun draw. Gene appears to win when Leilong's weapon fails, but the failure was the assassin's escape plan.
Why it matters
Gene survives the Anten Seven's first major challenge without actually defeating the man everyone thinks he killed.
Leilong gets the cleaner victory: he leaves.
Leilong gets the cleaner victory: he leaves.
SHIPS, CASTERS & TAO MAGIC //
Open page →Tao Magic Makes the Future Feel Older Than It Looks
Open →The first episode establishes the rule immediately: Gene can live in a world of spacecraft, blasters and advanced computers and still be attacked by Kei Pirates whose most dangerous weapon is Tao magic.
The series never treats that as a contradiction that needs to be solved.
The series never treats that as a contradiction that needs to be solved.
Why it matters
Outlaw Star's setting feels large because technology is not the final layer of history. The newest ship in the room can still be threatened by a magical system older than the people using it.
Caster weapons matter because they are one of the few places those layers meet directly.
Caster weapons matter because they are one of the few places those layers meet directly.
