Just watched this movie and I have to say I liked it a lot. So Red Line. Imagine if Space Dandy, Speed Racer, Wacky Races, and a Quentin Tarentino movie totally combined. It sounds ridiculous. It is. And by the way, this is probably an awful description on the how the movie plays out. The characters swear out the wazoo and there is like two scenes where the female protagonist is seen lounging around in the comfort of her home topless. So that is a thing, it passes quickly like a minute in total- but I don't want people to be all huffy when the boobs come out. Cause those people exist and I always feel like putting a disclaimer on anime that contain such scenes for those people. (Cause not all anime is made for kids. . .)
So it is basically a racing movie (the final racing competition is called Red Line.) and our main protagonist is so happy go lucky guy that has the worst odds of winning a competition. (His parts provider owes a ridiculous amount of money to the mafia.) and he wants to meet back up with a girl who began his passion for racing. Its also set in space, so the aliens that inhabit the worlds look pretty alien and fanciful- not colorful cause the movie is good with staying in these darker browns and grays for a good portion of stuff. I also never thought I would say that in a racing movie set in space- there is an entire civilization based around magic. Even after the sentient robots bases were covered, they threw in magical girls. Said magic users wear ridiculous outfits that woudn't be out of place in a PG-13/R rated movie. Oh wait. . .
Our Wacky Racers- a robot, green haired female lead, bounty hunters, mechanics turned racers, the magic users, a dirty cop, annoying comedy relief, and main character in that order from top-left to bottom right,
The first 12 minutes is an amazing scene of racing beautifully animated by Studio Madhouse (I really think Madhouse is climbing up that studio tier list I have cause this is a work of art- sort of light on plot in some areas- heavy in others, but a trip to watch. I had to do some research, but everything- and I do mean everything was hand drawn in this movie. You ever wonder how long seven years is? Look at this movie. It took the studio SEVEN years to draw it. So what if the plot is just another racing movie? Its animation makes me cry tears of joy.
Here's the trailer for an example of fluidity in motion.
In regards to the musical tracks that are in this movie. They are all pretty good at creating a mood and are actually catchy for being mainly electronica/techno based. Some stand out more than others but they do hold up overall with this thread of unabashed manliness that pervades the film. Want to see explosions? Got it. The closest thing that I have in Western media in terms of explosions per minute is Michael Bay's movies. And at least this is beautifully animated and doesn't have Shia LeBeouf screaming for a decent amount of time. (And yes there is going to be Transformers 4. . .with Mark Wahlberg?) So yeah, rating.
I'd say that it is a solid 9.5/10 from me (if the Evangelion Rebuilds weren't my faves currently because I love that show- this would be up there with Akira- which was made 30 years ago- with how pretty it is.) with recommendations to at least watch it somehow. Really only the gripe with the seconday plot petering out- with a battle against the entire planet of the robots- is what's dragging it down. But I only took off half a point because this is more personal taste. (I recommend looking on Youtube first. If necessary, use google to search for it. I just put in "Redline movie anime" in google search and it was the first video.
