Hey guys, Nitsuj here and welcome to another side blog the blogs between the blogs. Well after watching something boring which drained the life out of me I decided to watch something exciting and fun to revitalize me. So I decided to watch Madhouse’s answer to Initial D, Redline. Serving as the directorial debut of Takeshi Koike and written by Katsuhito Ishii this movie is seen as Madhouse’s homage to Initial D, Speed Racer, and F-Zero. Production for the movie got started back in 2002 and didn’t finish until 2009. Why did it take 7 years to finish? Well because everything in this movie was hand-drawn. No computer animation, no CGI, everything from the characters to the backgrounds, explosions, movements, vehicles and facial expressions were all hand-drawn and because of this we get one of the best animated spectacles of all time. It’s like the pod-racing scene from the Phantom Menace only 100 times better and cooler. So as you can imagine I wanted to turn this into a review but there just wasn’t enough material to go on for a full review. However, there’s still enough material to talk about the movie so let’s take a look at it.
Now the movie takes place in the future where racers across the galaxy race for a chance to enter the Redline, a no holds bar race where the winner will be declared the greatest racer in the galaxy. We focus on a human named JP a racer (who resembles Dandy from Space Dandy. I think this is where Watanabe got the idea for Dandy’s character design) trying to earn a spot in the Redline but loses in a qualifying race. Despite losing he still earns a spot in the race because two racers backed out and by popular vote he was selected to be one of the replacements. We find out the reason why the original racers backed out is because the race will be taking place on the planet Roboworld a planet ruled by cyborgs who have openly protested the race and have threatened to kill any racer stupid enough to show up on their planet for the race. Despite this threat, JP along with the 7 other racers show up to race on Roboworld and hide out on one of their moons until the day of the race. While JP is getting his car fixed up for the race we see him spend his free time flirting with another racer named Sonoshee another human racer who is female and seems to be a girl from JP’s childhood (whether or not she remembers him is never addressed). We also get to meet the other racers in small video packages. Despite not really being a focus of the movie and only a little screentime, they’re flushed out very well. For example, one of the racers is called Metal King who’s the returning champion who is literally a machine. We got a pair of bounty hunters who are an obvious shout out to F-Zero in fact they look like they belong in the F-Zero galaxy, a gorilla cop, sexy space alien models, some alien technicians (these are probably the weakest of the racers), and two other human racers who remind me of kids from the 90s and deliver the best scene in the movie for me (scene here: https://youtu.be/tlXTQRKXSxI). In the final half of the movie we get the race and it’s everything you expect it to be. We got action, explosions, excitement, speed, Roboworld’s army trying to kill the racers, and even a biological weapon running loose. It’s a rollercoaster ride of excitement that you can’t get enough of. After Sonoshee’s car gets destroyed she teams up with JP and together they win the race and confess their feelings for each other ending the movie with the two kissing.
This movie was just a blast to watch from beginning to end and has a lot of good things going for it. First off is the main character JP. When I first saw him I was expecting his personality to be like Dandy but no he’s pretty laidback and trusting. He’s the perfect guy for us to follow in this universe because when he’s not racing he always looking for something fun to do. Whether that’s chatting with other drivers, consulting his mechanics, driving around, flirting, or just having a drink while smoking he always looks like he’s having fun. Another thing that separates him from the other racers is he’s the only one who doesn’t use weapons in races. You might think this his him being conceited and cocky but no it’s just him being confident and believing that he doesn’t need cheap tactics in order to beat people. All he needs is his speed and instincts as a racer in order to win and I respect that. The soundtrack is great, it keeps you pumped up throughout the movie, the characters as I said before are all enjoyable even if they don’t focus on them as much as we would like, and the animation is amazing. Like I said before everything in this movie was hand-drawn and it looks amazing. In each scene you can sense the effort and passion of every artists who worked on this movie. Despite this being a long and brutal project you can tell that everyone was passionate about the project and determined to give it their all no matter how tired or frustrating it got and because of their efforts we get one of the best animated features I’ve seen in a very long time.
Now despite these good points there are a few low points of the movie. The first one is the romance between JP and Sonoshee. While I don’t hate it, I think the two make a good couple and their interactions are certainly enjoyable, I have to ask, was the romance really necessary? It feels like it was just thrown in there to make their relationship have a purpose. I think it would have been better if the two had just stayed as racers who respected each other and see where the relationship took off from there. Another problem was with JP’s mechanic friend Frisbee. There’s a side story where he and JP are fixing races in order to pay off their debt to the mafia and Frisbee keeps rigging JP’s car with a bomb to make sure he takes a dive in each race and JP doesn’t know about it. It’s really not explained all that well. Finally, the ending. You would think that after seeing the biggest race in the galaxy we would end with an award ceremony and our two main characters receiving a trophy and sharing a kiss for everyone to see ending things on a high note, right? Nope, all we get is JP and Sonoshee crossing the finish line, kissing and saying they love each other and that’s the end of the movie. This was a letdown for me, I really wanted to see that trophy and ceremony. The most likely reason for this ending is that everyone was at their limits and just wanted to end the project. Can’t really fault them for thinking along these lines, if I had been working on a project as long as those guys have I probably want it to be over with as well.
Final Thoughts
In the end Redline is a good movie. While having a few problems, in the big picture they’re all minor and really don’t distract you from the movie overall. The characters are enjoyable, the visuals are out of this world, the music gets you pumped, and the racing awesome. It’s an enjoyable movie from beginning to end.
Final Score
The final score for Redline is a 7.5/10. If you’re a fan of racing or enjoyed anime like Initial D than definitely check this movie out. Even if you’re not a fan of racing like me I still say check this movie out if just for the visuals alone. I really do wish they would have turned this movie into an actual series, it would have been very good but I doubt the artists could handle drawing 12 episodes of animation, even they have their limits. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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