The story follows the alien Kahm, crown princess of the interstellar Santovasku Empire, who invades Earth and meets and falls in love with human news photographer Tetsuya Wakatsuki.
He was driven by his penchant for illustrating attractive, sword-wielding girls and large, detailed spacecraft, as well as his interest in science fiction epics such as the original Star Wars Trilogy.
Outlanders begins in modern day Tokyo with the arrival of a Biomech, a giant, organic starship that easily destroys several Japanese Self-Defense Force (JSDF) helicopters.
News photographer Tetsuya Wakatsuki comes face-to-face with the craft's occupant Kahm, crown princess of the technologically advanced, interstellar Santovasku Empire.
Kahm's father, Emperor Quevas, is informed that the Santovaskuan "sacred planet" is infested with humans while the JSDF supreme commander Togo prepares for an impending war with the alien invaders.
The couple rendezvous with Kahm's Nuba Tribe servants, use her crashed ship's communicator to call for extraction, and set a course for the Santovasku imperial home world.
Kahm tells her she is denouncing her father's intention of arranging her marriage to produce a royal heir and is strategically marrying Tetsuya to stop the war.
Togo, now the head of Earth's global armed forces, plots against the Yoma so that humanity alone may ultimately triumph so that he can achieve his own ambitions of galactic conquest.
The author took inspiration from numerous science fiction properties, specifically the original Star Wars Trilogy, the Lensman series, and Flash Gordon.
[10] Manabe simplified writing the plot as a war between Earth and the Santovasku Empire that would end with one winner and one loser, but did have some difficulty with getting the conflicts within each faction to "mesh.
"[9] At some point during the serialization of Outlanders, Manabe moved to Tokyo, opened his own manga studio, and hired full-time assistants to focus more on its production.
[21] Smith had helped pioneer the sale of manga outside of Japan by convincing retailers to carry it in monthly issues that could be read in the left-to-right format to which many English readers were accustomed.
[23] Unlike translators such as Viz Media, Studio Proteus was an independent contractor who negotiated and obtained the rights to manga for multiple publishers, effectively making Smith's group a "co-publisher" of Outlanders.
[25] Dark Horse writer and artist Chris Warner performed part-time editorial work on the English version of the series beginning with its first chapter.
[6] With the release of the overseas version of the manga, Manabe lamented on some of its production by stating, "Someday, if I have the chance, I'd like to write Outlanders II and get it right.
[8][17] The individual serialized chapters, alongside related manga stories by Manabe, were collected into a total of eight tankōbon books and released from June 1985 to November 1987.
[46] Throughout the 1990s Outlanders was licensed for release in European countries including Dark Horse Comics in France, Planeta DeAgostini in Spain, and Granata Press in Italy.
[76][77] Manabe and his studio have additionally created various hentai of his own work and erotic doujinshi of other anime and manga under the label Ura Outlanders (裏アウトランダーズ).
[4][81][82] Although sales and print circulation numbers have not been made widely available, Outlanders enjoyed commercial success in Japan to a degree that author Johji Manabe was able to open his own studio and employ assistants during its publication.
[24] Jason Thompson critiqued the series in Manga: The Complete Guide as "a star-spanning epic adventure that gradually morphs into a drippy love story."
He was impressed with the creative choices Manabe made with its action and science fiction elements early in the manga, but disliked how the series became increasingly more centered on the evolving romantic subplot between its two main protagonists.
Reviewers saw the plot as a standard yet light-hearted science fiction epic with large amounts of fan service and casual use of graphic violence, though views on its execution varied.
The Anime Encyclopedia authors Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy found the story presented "considerable charm despite a fairly high violence quotient.
"[15] Anime News Network contributor Theron Martin noted it as "quite a bit more sexy and violent than the norm" and "a fun romp which does not concern itself with weighty matters like originality, cohesiveness, or logic.
"[86] Both Martin and Arbogast objected to the condensed nature of the OVA's narrative and its fast pacing, stating that knowledge of the manga would be a prerequisite to enjoying or understanding it.
[14][86] Martin summarized, "The lack of adequate explanation for several key story elements also suggests that it was made specifically for fans of the manga, as newcomers to the franchise will be left scratching their heads over certain events.
"[14] Arbogast claimed the plot of Outlanders to be a plagiarism of the manga and anime series Urusei Yatsura, which also centers around the romance between a lecherous, human male and a scantifly-clad, alien female that starts when the latter's race attempts to invade Earth.
"[14] Arbogast complimented the background art as "nicely detailed", but viewed the animation as poor overall, particularly its fight sequences and scenes involving nudity, surmising that it would inexcusable had it been released only a few years later.
[14] Both Martin and Luscik praised the talent and delivery of the CPM dub performers and recognized that the licensor's allowance of fans to elect voice actors by vote would likely curb most criticism of their casting.
[85][14] However, Martin downgraded the dub portion of his review due to the newer script altering the meaning of certain lines of the Japanese dialogue and unnecessarily adding in others for comedic effect.