Anime: Redline

Sometimes, you just want to watch some turn-off your brain fun. When plot isn't the main focus and it's just there to be the driving force for all of the cool action set pieces and fun characters. And Redline is one of the best all killer no filler anime movies out there.

Released in 2009 at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival before being theatrically released in 2010, Redline has quite the history, taking several years to develop. A short 4 episode OVA was released way back in 2003 and was supposed to be released alongside Redline to promote is, but clearly things clearly didn't go as planned. But in the end and enough patience and persistance, Redline eventually got released, and the end product easily reflects the effort and time the team behind it put into it.

The story centers around a race that is held every five years called Redline, and it's one of the universes most highly anticipated competitions. Despite all of the advanced technology, Redline us a land race, showing that even in the future, there is still a fanbase for old styles of racing. The only rule of this race is that you have to cross the finish line. Where the race is held is announced right before the race starts, and the latest race is being held on the planet Roboworld, home to trigger happy military who is insulted that the race is being held on their planet.

The film focuses on "Sweet" JP, who drives in the universes most dangerous races for the fun of it. His partner, Joshua "Frisbiee" Flathead joins him as his mechanic and business partner, who is doing some backdoor dealings behing JP's back.

The rest of the characters are made up characters all with well designed and unique look to them, including a pair of magical girls who come from a planet that is 100% magical girls called BoiBoi and BosBos, the previous driver and four time consecutive winner of the deadly Redline race MachineHead who is big enough to tear you in half, and Sonoshe "Cherry Boy" McLaren, a racer that JP has taken an interest to.

Redline's plot and all of it's characters are pretty simple, knowing exactly what the audience is here for, but are all written and designed enough that you know which caracters are which just by looking at them or hearing them talk, which is more than I can say for the anime that have more complex stories and characters that I've seen.

Thankfully the movie does have it's slower moments, giving the audience a breather between the high energy races, letting us get familiar with the setting and characters of the movie. This movie could have easily fallen into the trap of being nothing but action, completely tiring the audience out, but doges that problem.

Redline's animation and art is also top notch and those several years of development are really shown off in this department, with every frame being hand-drawn and with high attention to detail instead of lazily re-using animation to cut corners. As a result, all the of animation is incredibly smooth and is wonderful to look at. The style is so on point that even looking at the background characters, you'll easily recognize any of them, even if they're in one scene.

The movie also comes with a fantastic 42-track OST done by James Shimoji, and I'm pretty sure that most of the music never made it into the film. Which is a shame, because all of it is fantastic, and is even worth listening to outside of the movie. I even have it on my phone to listen to when I go out to exercise. The English dub for it is also solid, so for fans of English dubs it's worth checking out.

While Redline was a fun fast paced fun film, it didn't have much in the way of character development. It had it's slower moments to break up the action, but it sacrificed character development for being well paced. But as if to make up for it, there was the previously mentioned short 4 episode OVA.

TRAVA: Fist Planet follows ace pilot Trava and his personal mechanic buddy, Shinkei, who are on their way to mart an out-of-the-way-planet. As they're arriving, they find a pod floating in space containing a girl called Mikuru, who has amnesia. Soon after, Trava and Shinkei discover that the planet that they were sent to mark is more than it seems.

This OVA is only tangentially related to the Redline movie, putting it's focus on the daily life of one of it's racers. It isn't as fast paced as the film is, instead going for a slower pace that puts it's focus entirely on the characters. Which is nice that it went in it's own direction instead of just doing what the movie did again but in a shorter time frame.

It's pretty obvious that this OVA was released several years before the movie, since the animation isn't as polished as the movie. But that doesn't matter, since it still has a unique art style and solid animation. For those who like their English dubs unfortunately TRAVA doesn't doesn't come with one, since I'm pretty sure all of the effort went into the actual movie itself, but isn't really a problem.

Honestly, I wish there was more short OVA based on the characters from Redline, each doing something different. Unfortunately we're probably not going to get that any time soon.

Redline, along with TRAVA: First Planet, are definetely a fun time. If you're going to watch it, it's definitely worth finding a Blu-Ray copy just to experience it in the highest quality possible.

SPOILERS ALERT! All my reviews have spoilers!

Redline is a 2009 auto racing animated movie, written and design by Katsuhito Ishii, and directed by Takeshi Koike. This was actually the first feature film of this director, and toke a lot of time to be released, more than what Madhouse had predicted (we are talking about 7 years with a lot of hand-made drawings to give it the look it has).
The story is set in a future world where racers take great risks to have the chance of winning the titular race. The most important of all is the Redline – held once every 5 years, it’s a deadly race that features the greatest ground car racers from the entire galaxy.
This year takes place in a planet called Roboworld, which is ruled by military cyborgs, and the government of this planet is actually against the race being held there – since they have illegal projects going on there that they don’t want to get exposed.
So, the qualified racers are transported to a moon, near Roboworld, that is called Europass, and this place will serve for the racers to get to know which other. Our protagonist, JP, is someone who, some year before, got in jail for fixing races for the Mafia with his friend Frisbee, and the truth is that this two continue to do that, because once you get into the Mafia shady deals it’s hard to get out. The method consist in JP holding back until midway, then move to second place to increase the odds, before purposely losing. But, you know, our JP is very passionate for the races, so if Frisbee sees that his going to win, he detonates the explosive device in the car making sure that he doesn’t win (like what happened in the Yellowline). Surprisingly he got selected for the Redline by people’s choice and since two of the qualified racers had withdraw.
A friend told me that he liked the movie, but he couldn’t understand the plot. Well, this happens because you get so much involve in the speed and adrenaline of the movie that you end up feeling that the plot is confusing. In true, there are some subplots there that you might miss: one of them is the guerrillas versus military government that will affect the Redline race, and what happened is that the guerrillas had sabotage the planet defenses, and they end up releasing a mass destruction bio-weapon called the Funky Boy. In response, the military unleashes a second bio-weapon which leaves the race in a complete mess.
Sonoshee will be one of the affected racers, and JP promises her to fulfill her dream of winning if she joins him. Yet, again, Frisbee had put another explosive device in JP’s car… The mechanic, Old Man Mole, notices and get just in time to stop the Mafia from forcing Frisbee to use it.
The final climax is the race between Machine Head (winner of the past 4 races) and the team JP/Shonoshee. In the dispute they’ll use a steamlight, but this is a high concentrated energy that releases a huge amount of power! For being so unstable the device in JP’s car explodes destroying both cars and projecting them towards the finish line. And you thought that the “Elvis” hairstyle of JP will make him win?
There’s also a little romance added in the end of the movie with Sono and JP confessing their love.
The racing cars theme was not new in the Japanese animation since we already had Mach Five, Speed Racer and Initial D but for a feature length-movie I think it was a first (unless we count Running Man from “Manie-Manie”, and even there was shorter and the theme touches more the supernatural, I think, but I can’t be exact about this...)
People usually say that they find the plot simple, but I think is more confusing than simple since you can’t pay much attention when so many things are offered on the screen with so few time to digest it with the speed pace. This originates another issue that concerns the characters – they end up lacking depth or development because the plot seems to lose control like a speed race car!
Visually is very exciting and stimulating – your heart beat will increase extremely high, with the help of the techno sound that gives you a lot of energy while you’re sitting in your couch!
Other important thing I would like to notice about the artwork is the complete exclusion of the shade grades – if it’s a shadow, it’s totally black! This gives a lot of originality to the animation.
Despite the plot issues it has great action scenes, a cool style, and the speed sense is very well achieved here. So, you shouldn’t miss this one for all those points!

Critic’s Log - Earthdate: September 14, 2013. Review #58: Redline

Racing, it sure is a popular sport. There’s Nascar, Drag Racing, and whatever form of racing you can think of. There’s even video games of Racing like Mario Kart, Gran Turismo, Need For Speed, and other racing games. There are also Racing Anime such as Speed Racer, Initial D, Oban Star Racers, and other Racing Animes. There’s also the Fast and Furious series. There is an Anime movie that is set in the future, plus the elements similar to Speed Racer, Initial D, and Mario Kart. The end result is REDLINE.



In every 5 years, there is a race called "Redline". This event is held at a surprise location revealed shortly before the race begins. This time around it's being held on Roboworld, but much to the dismay of Roboworld's militant government which has no intention of allowing the race to proceed. The race has no rules—whoever crosses the Redline first, wins. Sweet JP is a rare kind of racer who prefers an old-school style and raw power over high tech gadgets and weapon inventory. Troubled by their involvement with the mob, Sweet JP and his team just want a clean shot at winning the race. Sonoshee McLaren is a skilled and highly competitive rising star in the racing circuit. She beats JP in the last qualifier and caught his eye. Up against lethal hostility from Roboworld's government and their fellow racers, JP and Sonoshee are pushed to their limits in the race for the Redline.

All I can say now is that I am perfectly okay if you don’t give a damn about the sypnosis I just gave you because if you go through 10 minutes in this movie, this film will probably will hook you in.

To be technical, this is a Madhouse production. Remember that name people. Madhouse has gotten recognition for years of high quality productions and I bet you 100% that Redline does not disappoint there. It took 7 years for Redline to be made and it undoubtedly shows in this movie. Lately, computer graphics is common in anime today. Not too bad when used right. There are some animes that use computer graphics cheaply and it does not look good in the end result. I do miss the hand-drawn cel style that Anime used to have often years ago. Here’s a fact. Redline was completely hand-drawn from the first animation cel to the last. Lately anime is using computer graphics for their animation, Redline was a rare treat. It may look like it was done by computer, but it really is hand-drawn. This movie can be a little deceiving when it comes to animation, but it payed off well. The animation is the movie’s strongest suit and undoubtedly the movie’s selling point.

The music is by James Shimoji who debuts in this movie when it comes to music composition. For starters, he really had a fitting soundtrack that is probably just as fine without the show. It has techno as the main genre. Techno music fan or not, it is a fitting soundtrack to the movie because of its futuristic settings. The soundtracks for The Fast and Furious movies had electronic and hip hop, because it had a modern setting. Electronic music and/or Techno music can be just as effective in a modern setting of a fictional racing story. The music is pretty nice and compliments the movie greatly.

The animation and music go well together. But the characters is sort of one of the problems with Redline. Sweet JP is pretty cool and that’s pretty much it. Sonoshee is smoking hot and gorgeous (even though she’s animated), and she’s pretty much just there, but she does compliment JP in terms of character personalities. There are characters like Frisbee and Old Man Mole who are nice characters in this movie. Then of course we got the racers, The President (of Roboworld) and Volton, what am I kidding? Why the fuck would you care if the movie looks fucking awesome that it’s at an orgasmic level of animation.

I have noticed that the movie mostly sacrifices substance for the extreme style that was put into the 7 years of producing this movie. The characters is not the biggest problem with the movie, it is the overall story of Redline. I will say that the amazing animation distracted me alot while watching this movie. I think most people are paying attention to the visuals rather than the story. From the get-go, I knew this movie wasn’t going to turn into a Masterpiece. And you know what? It didn’t need to be. Sure, the story is very weak and I could barely remember most of the shit that happened in this movie. The reason is because the movie is filled with crazy, bat shit insane moments that often happen in certain scenes in the movie, and it distracts the plot at times. The plot is also very, very, very, VERY STUPID. But here’s the catch… IT ALL FITS IN THE MOVIE. The animation is amazing, but even with a stupid plot. The characters are over-the-top, and even hilarious. This movie is actually pretty funny at times too. How can some guy that looks all tough and cry like a pussy not be a good source for humor. Not only the characters are over-the-top, but so is the animation. The amount of effort put in the animation is just Fast and Furiously…FUCKING INSANE. Redline is (like the lady said in the Title screen) “Directed by Takeshi Koike”. Koike-san’s debut film and he does not disappoint in this film and It seems he wanted to make this an adrenaline-pumped animated film. Redline lives up to that. This is also the kind of movie that would just shout out FUCK LOGIC. This is definitely a movie you don’t have to put a lot of thinking to while watching it. Redline is a spectacle and we probably won’t get to see something this hardcore for a long while. Keep your fingers crossed for another spectacle of an anime. This movie is simply made to entertain and it is entertaining as hell, and Redline gets the checkered flag at the finish line for doing just that.

Redline is available by Anchor Bay Entertainment. An OVA series called “Trava” which was made back in 2003 and related to this movie was never released stateside.

With all that said, Redline is an adrenaline-pumped anime film that is extremely entertaining. it has a fitting soundtrack that compliments the movie as well. It does suffer with lack of character development and a plot that is forgettable, but those factors deserve a pass because of the entertainment value this movie has and because of the incredible animation that took 7 years in the making.

I give Redline a 7.8 out of 10. It is GOOD!

Feel free to leave a comment, and get your motor running. Or just do whatever you like

This movie ( which has absolutely no relation to One Piece ) is aimed at fans of racing movies, such as The Fast and the Furious. On a secondary level it will appeal dearly to anyone who loves great animation, over the top action, and not much of a plot to tire his mind while looking at the pretty lights. Anime and racing go way back as the original Speed Racer but it was only after Initial D came around that people started to care about the genre in those weird Asian cartoons. Many others tried to redo its fame but none managed to do so… until this baby came out.

VRRRRUUUUM!

The production took seven whole years just to guarantee the necessary quality and style that such a project would require. And DAMN I must say the results are rewarding you in the fullest. I mean DAMN it looks super epic gorgeous just to look at. It has this style that makes it feel like a stylish graphic novel and soundtracks full of beat. It is not a first; they did a similar style in Dead Leaves and Trava: Fist Planet but the budget alone makes this ten times cooler. Studio Madhouse once again proves that it’s the king of anime series with this beauty, and if GAINAX hadn’t made Gurren Lagann while the film was still in the making, it would have caused an unparallel tsunami of excitement worldwide in its stead. But it’s ok; I consider Red Line to be the Gurren Lagann of movies.

So, just like your typical blood-boiling racing movie, the goal everybody has in the story is to win in a race. That is all, do not look any deeper for more, these guys just live to race. Although there are some attempts to flavor it further by inserting some secondary events, such as miners trying to sabotage a military facility, which is hiding a weapon of mass destruction, which goes out of control, which causes laser satellites to fire upon the planet, which causes Katsuhiro Otomo to think about suing them for shamelessly stealing all his ideas from Akira, down to it the story is by far the least of your concerns and by far the weakest aspect of the film. You are not watching this for its substance but for its over-the-top style; end of story. Everything follows the rule of cool and thus you get these insane stunts and explosions which if the story was trying even a little bit to show realistically, would have resulted to the horrible deaths of all the competitors in just a few minutes after the race begins. I mean, seriously, don’t try to make any sense of it because you will be facepalming every 30 seconds and you will miss all the awesomeness of the action.

ZZZVIIINNN!

Just like the story, the characters are also nothing complicating. We basically have 8 cars with one or two drivers in each, and every one of them is there for fame and glory. They are all quite the crazy folks risking their lives for a silly race but then again the whole point of the movie is to bring out their idealism to heights of mount Everest, so they fit the whole thing. Plus, none of them are fakin wimps like most of modern shows are full of today. THIS IS GAR MAN! I LOVE GAR! They are walking down the street with their uber machoness and revealing sexuality, making everybody to just drop their jaws and look for their ejected eyeballs by the awesomeness. DIS IS DA SH1T YIHA!

The story focuses mostly on two drivers, JP and Sonoshee, as well as the childhood fiend Frizbee and his shady dealings with the mafia regarding fixed races. The first two are like star-crossed lovers and to be honest I didn’t like how they even tried to include such sloppy excuses for romance in this mess. I guess it’s necessary to show some sort of romance amongst all the madness for the first place. It’s still weak though. As for his friend, well, he is supposed to make things more grey but the way everything in this movie happen are so insane that it doesn’t mean much in the longrun. As for all the rest, they are there only for flavoring the whole thing and despite each one being presented as entirely different, they are eventually quite unimportant despite the epic stuff that blow up around them.

KAPOOOOWWWW!

Anyways, both characters and story are eventually nothing but dressing for the action, which as I said so many times it’s superb. I am usually not fond of such shallow works but it also doesn’t drag more than it should, so I don’t think I would like it if it was a series. In this case it is awesome for the purpose they make it to be; something between Oban Star Racers, Mad Max, and Death Race 2000 all in one package and hyped to over 9000 in adrenaline. If this does not get to you, nothing will.

So that’s pretty much it, a movie you watch for the adrenaline and the oozing style. It’s not going to make you think about anything but it’s a great piece of action of a level much higher that most others out there. Take it as it is or GTFO!

Redline
All is flux, nothing is stationary.
There is nothing permanent except change.
–Heraclitus

Abstract: Redline is an old-school anime, a show drenched in the nostalgia of the Eighties, with all that entails. But I am a new-school fan of anime, and I have reviewed this show from that perspective. Having none of the nostalgia and knowing little of the conventions and tropes of the era, how would Redline look to me? Redline has the best artwork I've ever seen and a great musical score, but a weak plot and a between race gap prevented any hope for Redline of crossing the finish line to the best ever, but it does get an honorable mention. Final Grade: B+

Genre: Racing
Content: Light Nudity

Reasons to Watch: Best animation EVAR!; Awesome car races; Eighties nostalgia
Reasons not to Watch: Long dry spell in middle; Eighties nostalgia

Art: 10
I generally start a review talking about the Plot, but in Redline the core of the show is the artwork. Every scene is filled to the brim with colors and shadows and moving parts. The show is almost oppressive with the amount of things filling the screen. But despite all this action, my eyes kept focusing on the hands. Hands are some of the hardest things to draw, (and I'm sure you all have seen those low budget shows where a character suddenly has a sixth finger) and in Redline, the hands are beautiful in their ugliness. The detail, the anatomy, the play of shadows across them, Redline would score an 'A' just on those hands alone. And believe me, there is a lot more than hands to watch in this one. Explosions and racing, missiles and mecha fights, this show does it all, and with no CG. All the machines are hand-drawn in Redline. You know how awesome Gurren Lagann was? Redline makes Gurren look like fingerpainting. I wish there was a rating higher than ten, because Redline, like Spinal Tap, turned this up to eleven. Grade: A

Plot: 6
I said that Redline's art was primary to it's plot, and that is a major weakness in the show. After the initial awesomeness of the Yellowline race, we are treated to a long boring stretch of nothing much as we wait for the bigger awesomeness of the Redline race. Lasting about forty minutes, we get some introductions of the other racers, but only bits and pieces, some introductions of the main villains, but again, only bits and pieces, an awkward romance between the male lead and the love interest, and lots of arguments between the mechanic and the supplier. Oh, and we get a flashback revealing that JP met Sonoshee in past, which is supposed to be romantic, but ends up kind of stalkerish. And I don't think the writers did a good job at developing the other racers. They came up with innovative attempts at it, but by the start of the race, I knew very little about the characters other than their job descriptions, and during the race it was too busy to build on them. Yes, developing these characters would have been difficult, but you had forty minutes of downtime to do it in, and instead we saw the melancholy musings of JP. And while the Redline race animation is mindmeltingly awesome, trying to figure out what's going on is mindmelting too. Trying to tell the good guys apart from the baddies is as difficult as a Michael Bay Transformers movie. And I have no idea what the hell the Roboworld army was even doing at the end, let alone why a glowing baby was fighting a giant plesiosaur. And while the writers kept the tension high, my lack of understanding eroded it. With no clear way to tell who was even leading the race, it was hard to figure out if I should be concerned for JP's chances or not. And of course, there were a lot of predictable plot points, like the magical nitro that nobody can master and such. At it's core, the race was a rather conventional one, but it was all the window dressing and explosions that you take away from it. In the end, plot of Redline merely exists to give an excuse for old-school racing and explosions, and while that is acceptable, the forty minutes of pre-race waiting is a bit much to ask. Grade: B-

Sound: 9
The score is almost as awesome as the animation. Music drives action, and this is the kind of thing you'd hear in a mosh pit. You could not ask for better music during the race scenes, and even the down time has a nice, subdued touch to it. The male lead, Kimura Takuya is not a voice actor: he has only one other role, that of Howl in Howl's Moving Castle, but he fits the role well, although not outstanding. The female lead, Aoi Yuu, is just as inexperienced to voice acting, and like Mr. Kimura, it does show, but it is not detrimental. In fact, most of the other voice actors aren't voice actors by trade, which makes does make things a bit raw, although Aono Takeshi steals the show as the old spider dude. Aono Takeshi is a very experienced and skill voice actor, and you can hear the emotion in his voice that is lacking amongst the others. This makes the sound grade a tough decision. Redline is not driven by voice acting, and the music is superior. But I can't give a perfect grade to a show with such a obvious weakness. Grade: A-

Characters: 8
As I wrote in the plot section, Redline does a poor job at developing the side characters. But what about the main characters? Sonoshee is a very one-dimension character, and if you were hoping she would become a strong rival as well as a love interest, prepare to be disappointed. While she is awesome during the Yellowline race, in the Redline she is nerfed and turned into a simpering damsel for JP to pocket on the way to the finish line. But the character of JP is much more detailed. He is a ten-year-old's projection of himself, cool, collected, gallant and amazing, the rogue with a heart of gold. And those boring bits of rumination do serve to build a strong sketch of the character, and his friend Frisbee. If you despise the milquetoast protagonists so common in modern anime, JP is a throwback to the days when men where real men. And while he is a total jock, and I'd probably hate his guts if I met him in real life, JP is not a asshole or a dick, and he does have a sensitive side, enough to earn him his nickname of 'Sweet' JP. And the morality of Frisbee was unexpected, and quite delightful to see. The side characters, while not developed, do come from good stock (here I'd expect one's experience with the older shows would get more out of the character stereotypes). Despite the weakness of the female lead, Redline does a better than expected job with the development of JP and Frisbee, and I give it props for that. Grade: B+

Value: 9
Watchability: During the middle of the long pre-race middle, I got bored, turned it off, and watched a baseball game instead. A baseball game, the most boring sport in the world outside of cricket! That section really drags. The movie is just shy of two hours, and the first fifteen and last forty absolutely rock, but man, that middle section is weak. And the end is so confusing it almost doesn't make up for it. Grade: B+
Re-watchability: Just watch the Yellowline and then skip ahead to the Redline, and you have a great way to waste an hour. Grade: A-
Historical Value: You can't really put a value on what hasn't happened yet, but this has a lot of potential value. We could look back and say this is the first directing role of the talented Koike Takeshi. We could look back and say this was the last stand of the oldguard anime generation. It could be a rebirth of the old traditions. But what ever it is, this is not the kind of show that will disappear from the minds of true fans of animation. Grade: A

Enjoyment: 8
I am not a fan of old-school anime, or mecha, or car racing for that matter. In other words, if Redline has a target audience, then I am squarely outside of it. But I do recognize the skill and effort in Redline, and I respect it for that. Like I said, I couldn't get through it whole in one sitting, but the Redline race itself was so thrilling I lost track of time during it. In the end, Redline did not convert me, but it did not fail me either. It will never be one of my favorites, but I feel privileged to be able to watch it. Grade: B+

Errata:
Watched the standard edition with subs by BSS. Wins my award for best use of stereotypical eighties anime hair. All reviews are done independent of the original format or other adaptions.

Final Grade: B+