Redline - Reviews

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 is an odd film to think about. At its very well-presented surface there are racecars with rocket launchers that seem to fulfill a base desire for wanton destruction. But with such bombast in the film, it would be easy to assume the writing is shallow, isn’t great, or is even bad. That Redline actually has solid storytelling to go along with its senseless action is as much of a surprise to me is at might be to you.

But yes, the film does indeed have racecars/mechs/boats/whatever with rocket launchers as the first few minutes will prove. But the race the contestants are in isn’t the namesake, but a qualifying event called Yellowline. The story itself follows the exploits of JP, who lives and breathes racing, but unlike the other contestants his ride isn’t armed to the windshield. As Yellowline concludes, an unfortunate event causes him to lose the race, but as preparation for Redline starts, a string of coincidences give him another chance to compete in the race.

From there, most of the film spends its time building character relationships and motivations. I would say world building, but most if it is made on the spot for whatever would be cool to happen in that situation. The titular race is going to take place on Roboworld, a planet whose rulers really don’t want the race taking place there. Somehow, they’re obligated enough to let the racing committee set up shop for the race, but violent enough to attack the racers, whether at a diner or at the race itself. Said racing committee has rules about race rigging to protect its entrants, despite all of the racers being allowed to drive what are effectively war vehicles. Yeah. Really.

Don’t mistake my facetiousness for disdain though. There’s a certain charm in knowing that flirtatious twins who command a racing stripper mech...come from the royalty of a magical kingdom planet. And the incompetence of Roboworld’s rulers makes the thought of how they run the planet humorous. Very little of the setting from its rules on racing to eligibility for racing don’t align. The racing committee has rules in place to protect its entrants, but they don’t seem to mind letting a police officer and the convict he’s chasing compete. The only consistency here is how inconsistent everything is. It’s cool things for the sake of cool things.

But back to the characters, all of them are fairly archetypical. JP is the typical cool cat who lives for glory, Sonoshee the sexy love interest, and Frisbee the manager and friend who makes the tough decisions. There’s nothing else to say about them individually, but together their naturally connected backstories give a surprising amount of weight to their relationships. These backstories don’t say much, but they unfold in a deliberate pace to give an otherwise brash film a surprising amount of heart. It’s just a shame the main trio is held back by the film’s need to try and flesh out other characters.

But that doesn’t mean all of the other characters were poorly realized. Big Robot and Crybaby Robot (seriously, you won’t remember them by name) are naturally introduced as JP and his epic pompadour go around scouting out the competition. The other characters, not so much. They’re introduced in a brief way that makes sense, but at the same time it’s easy to spot that their only purpose will be an excuse to create explosions at the Redline race. If the film didn’t waste time to pretend it cares about its other characters, then that time could be used on the main trio to make them something more than solid.

Of course, watching this film for the deeper meaning of what it means to win or for a character study on JP would be missing the point. The reason to watch Redline is for its final act, where studio Madhouse delivers on the film’s tagline to ‘WITNESS THE FUTURE OF ANIMATION.’ Instead of seeing the visuals take shortcuts to give the illusion of speed, speed is seen as racers take shortcuts within the visuals. Every vibration from their engines shifts each vehicle ever so slightly as even their hair sways with each skid and drift. It’s smaller details on top of fast-swerving objects against gorgeous backdrops.

Part of what makes the backdrops—and characters—gorgeous is the artstyle of saturated contrast. Colors that are normally dull manage to shine, colors that normally shine are brilliant, and shadows don’t give colors varying shades, but are pure black and used to highlight details for stylistic effect. It’s an artstyle of extremes that creates subtlety to be appreciated during the slower moments of the film. And even when the film gains speed, the visuals never lose their radiance and detail.

Unfortunately, the soundtrack is underwhelming—not bad—by comparison. The number of distinct pieces can be counted on one hand. They’re fun while they play during parts of each race, but the limited number of tracks makes the action slightly boring to hear (but it’s always fun to watch). I say slightly boring because character dialog thankfully picks up the musical slack, as the refreshing trash talk between contestants breaks the monotony of engines roaring. The non-action parts of the film especially rely on dialog to keeps things interesting, and for the most part it succeeds.

But it’s that non-action part of the film that I need to bring special attention to. Understandably, a film focused on spectacle still needs compelling enough characters to make the action worth caring about. And they ARE solid characters. At the same time, ‘solid’ might not be enough to hold everyone’s interest for most of the film, especially when it’s the animation—the action-packed animation—that’s the main draw of the film. For a story with characters who make split-second decisions, viewers will ironically need a small measure of patience.

Still, these faults aren’t enough to make Redline a bad or even average film. It’s uneventful moments are still energetic, the setting pulls off a casual disregard of consistency for coolness, and the character interaction believably builds backstory. Overall, no part of the film is ‘bad’ because even its weakest parts are still ‘good.’ With just enough human drama to accelerate the spectacle of racecars with rocket launchers, Redline will leave you at the edge of your driver’s seat.

Story

The consensus amoungst many is that this anime is simply worth watching for the animation, and the story is forgetable.

When rating or reviewing the storyline of any form of media, it's only fair and accurate to take into account certain other production factors, which severly effected the storytelling potential of the work in question. In this case, many of the ideas were impressive, unique and brimming with potential, but 101 minutes was simply not enough time for them to flourish. Compromising on two of the best racing scenes in the history of animation, would have allowed the 101 minutes of movie time to focus more on bulking the story out, and explaining certain details, however this compromise would have been a great shame. To have equal visuals, exciting action scenes and complex character and plot development, the running time would have to be about twice as long, and this film would have taken 14 years to produce instead of 7.

What I mainly intend to get accros though, is most easy to comprehend with a small change of perspective. The story came first, the visuals second. First and foremost, It is the ambition behind the action scenes, environments and character designs to praise, as well as the execution.

Animation

7 years of production for something which lasts only 101 minutes?

The effect is blocky with very vibrant, highly saturated colours. Furthermore there are certain things that  appear simpler than in average animes, like some of the backgrounds, and ground textures for example.

The result however is amazing.

Many animes give me the illusion of 2d stensils moving around against a background, which for all intents and purposes look like photographs put through cartoony filters on photoshop. I often don't really feel like the characters are actually 'there'. The simplicity of the backgrounds, and intricacy of the lighting never gave me this impression. The characters shift in and out of perspective all the time, which to me is very important. I feel like most modern animes might aswell be 3d modeled, as they don't often deliver the sense of exaggeration that makes anime unique. The dispirity between the environments and characters and further detract from the feel of life and dynamism i long for in anime.

The overall artstyle along with the incredible racing scenes, make something that is really a must see for anyone enthusisat of animation as a medium.

Sound

The techno soundtrack adds to the action perfectly without becoming intrusive or distracting. The voice acting in the dub is pretty good, although some of the voices are a little flat at certain bits. Some of the music, especially the music associated with the romantic moments in the film, are pretty poor.

Story- Okay so Redline doesn't have the best story ever, but some of the sub-plots are somewhat interesting, but unfortunanatly are kind of underdeveloped. Like who was the dude with the pink car pimping two girls at once? We can only assume a role-model for JP and the whole thing with Funky boy and the Robo world government... Yeah this anime didn't really need such a convoluted plot a nice simple race would have been fine, but I don't think it really takes anything away from the show. Maybe setting it up for more movies/OVAs in the future for explanation =/ unlikely but possible

Animation- This is where Redline shines. This anime has the best animation I have ever seen in an anime movie hands down. I would expect nothing less of 7 years of handrawn animation. The fluidity of the animation and the complexity of the character designs are captivating and the dark shadows add a nice comic book feel to it. You must see this in Bluray if you have the chance.

Sound- Great Techno and pop soundtrack that gets the blood pumping, during those exhilarating race scenes. Could have benefited a bit from some more variety (maybe some jazz or rock?) but it might not have fit in quite as well as the techno or pop did. Most of the characters even have their own theme music, which is awesome. Oh and don't forget the main theme which is kinda sappy as hell but I still love it. Its a Redline day lol!

Characters- Lots of crazy characters with exiting personalities, JP is deffinetly a likable main character and Sanoshee is a great love interest, my favourite character has to be Machine Head though, I also think his theme is awesome.

Overall- One of the most entertaining experiences of anime that I've ever seen with none of the stereotypes that plague modern day anime (thank god for no school girls with whiny voices and character designs that resemble blobs... well except that one alien dude lol). Watch this in the best quality you can, you won't regret it.

 

Straight from my blog!!

***This is a spoiler free review. Even if you are somehowed spoiled by this review, the plot is almost non-existent***

After sitting through Redline, a Madhouse animated movie, I am having quite a hard time trying to fathom what I just watched. Starting from the first scene where the clumsy old dad is trying to set up his camera to take a picture of the racers, I was instantly glued to the screen. The mouthwatering visuals and chilling sound effects are more than enough to please an average Joe’s thirst of racing but what about all that other mombo jumbo that people plea for? What’s it called…oh yeah story and character development?

Story: 5.4/10

The basic premise is that “Redline” is a race where only the best racers can complete in. Our main man JP goes through a lot of trouble to get to this race and with a little help from fellow racer Sonoshee, they might just win the entire thing. While everything about this movie screams production value, one thing that was overlooked (and maybe for good reason) was the plot. While it isn’t the best thought provoking material I have ever experienced, the movie does keep you invested throughout its entire one hundred and one minutes. The hidden beauty of this is while the plot is dubbed down to the generic first race--->break--->last race formula, they give us just barely enough to hold onto. I would of liked a better character development (it’s there but it is thrown together very half hazardly) but it worked well enough.  What really drags the score down is the ending…it just seems like it suddenly stops. We have the super buildup to the final stretch and then…it ends. Plus they had the audacity to have the most unneeded confessing of feelings at the last frame. It was just…somewhat of a letdown because I thought we were out of old anime’s bad habits.

Animation: 10/10

Here we go again…throwing out a perfect score is something I find very hard to do but boy I do not think I will ever see something this unique and beautiful in my life ever again. After doing a little bit of research, I found that it took around seven years to complete this movie (talk about a HUGE gamble). Everything is HAND DRAWN. Madhouse really created a visual masterpiece that will last into the endless future. Every scene flows very well into each other, the facial expressions are very believable, the lighting is so spot on, and the character models are so detailed. This movie sports the best lighting I have ever seen; when it’s out on the desert, the sun reflects off of everything. Inside the nightclub the fish tanks in the background glow and shine onto the adjacent tables. It’s just…so hard to put it into words how amazing the movie looks. Even if you are turning this away due to the lack of plot please just watch it for the visuals and sounds. Treat it like a Transformers movie; its complete s#!t but it’s amazing looking s#!t. 

Sound: 10/10

Again with the perfect score…Every car has their own unique and amazing sounds that stick within the entire show. From the crowd cheers to the main character’s voices, this anime just sounds orgasmic. Even the techno (correct me if that is the wrong way to express it) soundtrack is spot on and off the track.

Characters: 6.5 8.5/10

While the characters of this anime are forgettable and uninspiring, JP does stick out a little bit. At first I thought he was just a junky gear head but after a while he did start to grow on me. Heck even Sonoshee made me gleam a little bit towards the end. Just know that the other characters will most likely not bring a lasting impression; they show up, race, and then leave stage left.

I was an idiot. While the caracters are not really fleshed out in this film they do leave such a lasting impression (just finished another watchthrough and I absolutly have the largest grin on my face). With their over-the-top personalities and wacky character interactions it is hard to not like all of them. 

Overall: 8 8.5/10

The score says 8 but in my mind it is a gear head’s bread and butter. If you want to turn your brain off and enjoy the best looking, sounding, and feeling anime to come out in years then this is your calling. I hope more animation studios take their chances on projects like this in the future.

***When JP triggers the nitro get ready to s#!t bricks***

 

Enjoyment: ∞/10

 

Thanks for reading my review! If you liked my writing style, would like to see some other reviews, or just want to talk, please stop by my page!

Sincerely,
Awesome Drummer