REDLINE

DESCRIPTION

CAST

OVA ActionTRAVA: FIST PLANET
SPECIAL SportsRED LINE

REVIEWS

• 

  megafat

  82/100
  A fast paced race that doesn't waste it's time by focusing on unnecessary fluff.

  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 persistence, 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 behind 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 definitely 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.

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• 

  CodeBlazeFate

  85/100
  My holy-shit quotient broke by the middle of the final race, reducing me to a gibbering mess of hype.

  Ah, Redline, the industry’s loudest bomb. A bomb so explosive, so meticulously crafted and vibrant its aftershocks can still be felt today from all sides of the spectrum, from the painful lack of risks maligned in today’s time, to the cult following that spawned from the ashes. A decade later, and the film’s still one of the biggest spectacles in the business, so it may have just won in the end.

  Before I gush about the obvious, how ‘bout we get the specs on the writing, or rather the mainframe holding this bad boy together. Protagonist JP is one of the freshest mother fuckers in the business, with enough style and charm to rival the likes of Char from Gundam and Lupin from the III. His crew’s pretty alright and Frisbee’s subplot ends in the coolest way you can think for that kind of rigged mafia sports story, but apart from JP and the galaxy he races in, the real stars are the competitors: the racers and the Fun Nazis that run Roboworld. Nothing’s deep about them other than the fun ways the film lets us in on their pasts, —Travistila and Dezuya’s rivalry following their fallout in their military days being the highlight in this regard— but the likes of Sonoshi and Metalhead are captivating love interests and rivals respectively, and Johnny, Lynchman, Shinkai, and Todoroki make for gloriously badass comedic relief. Seeing this absurd yet damn well-constructed galaxy thrash about as the Roboworld Fun Nazis fuck themselves and everything with them up is a sight to behold, even if that whole subplot does leave a few loose threads hanging.

  The madness doesn’t stop there, as when you can see it, you can hear the adrenaline. Heart-pumping tunes such as “Yellow Line” and one of the many examples of leitmotif on display: “Redline” drill into your ears as your heart prepares to explode! Matching and even surpassing the ear-candy tunes by James Shimoji is the dub. Recognizable A-list VAs such as Michelle Ruff, Doug Erholtz, Keith Silverstein, James K. Price, and our main protagonist Patrick MoFUCKING Seitz give it their all to bring all the style to each bombastic character, in a damn valiant effort to match the flowing, flashing attitude of this stellar rush of awe. Not a single performance falls short --not even those of lesser-known VAs such as Joey Morris and Laura Post-- allowing this dub to go down as an underappreciated beast worthy of the godlike warhead of a film it’s attached to.

  As this lavish atom bomb blew, onlookers were greeted to one of the most monumental spectacles in animation and film in general. Forget eye-candy, this is a king’s feast for the eyes! Through the fiery hells of a 7-year production line at Madhouse, animator superstars and madmen of the industry such as Hiroyuki Imaishi and Hiroshi Hamasaki, and madman director Takeshi Koike created an unstoppable juggernaut of some of the most fluid, bombastic, and detailed sakuga in the market. Every second of every race, every shoot-out, fight-scene, and scene in general is crafted to utter perfection, as to squeeze the life out of your red, blazing eyes as they somehow manage to perfectly parse all the earth-shattering action going on. The wonderfully vibrant colors, car designs, mech designs, and especially character designs Katsuhiko Ishii, and every aforementioned and unrecognized name crafted are as gorgeous, expressive, and or unique as it can possibly get in such a small yet galactic showcase. Each setting is as majestic and even destructible as the last too, and my god, even gushing can’t do it justice! JUST LOOK AT THIS SHIT! FUCKING LOOK AT IT, AND TELL ME THIS ISN’T ONE OF THE BEST-LOOKING THINGS YOU’VE EVER SEEN!!!

  

  

  It left me feeling like a kid riding a roller-coaster and going down a waterslide while on a sugar rush. My holy-shit quotient broke by the middle of the final race, reducing me to a gibbering mess of hype trying to feast on the visual splendor at hand. The raw style and energy on display are borderline unmatched in this industry, as something like this has never been attempted since its painful crash in ‘09. Amidst the fires still stood a proud work of boisterous art, an exhilarating monument to the sheer passion plugged into this industry, and the sheer level of glory its patrons express! And some bastards say some risks never pay off! Fuck ’em, now what about you? Think you can handle a little test drive?

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• 

  Chanku

  95/100
  Fast paced visual spectacle of a movie, which doesn't waste it's time focusing on unnecessary stuff

  Redline a visual spectacle of a movie, which I believe every anime and non-anime fan should definitely check out. I started watching the movie without expecting a lot from a racing themed anime, but was blown out by how much it offered. Throughout the whole movie, I was eagerly waiting to see what happens next, not because I was invested in the story or anything, the whole movie itself is a one big adrenaline rush.

  Story:- The story is basically about racing in other planets, in the future, on Hovercars (except for our main character). If you are going to watch the movie, expecting a grand story, then don’t.
  There is a story indeed, but it’s not even worth mentioning. The story is there to merely set the setting so the action could take place. After all, this is a racing themed anime, putting a story in there, isn’t that easy. There’s some romance sprinkled on top, which I’m always a big fan of. Sometimes the story was hilariously ridiculous, which I think is purely intentional.

  Characters :- Main characters have their character goals, winning the Redline—as expected. And other minor characters have their own goals as well. There is not much character development here, not saying there's no character development at all. But then again—that is not the point.
  I should give a lot of praise to the character designers though. They’ve done an outstanding job creating entirely unique characters. All the characters have their own unique characteristics, everyone is unique. Even the characters that appear just for 5 seconds. I can see how much effort has gone in to designing these characters.

  Animation :- I believe this is where this anime should get the most praise. The art style is astounding, sound design is absolutely amazing and the animations are breathtakingly beautiful and action packed. Every second, there’s something happening. And as I said before, it’s an adrenaline rush the whole way through. The action packed races, are absolutely amazing. Just the mere feeling of speed and momentum was extremely satisfying. The over exaggerated movements and emotions of the characters, were hilarious and extremely well done. This is one of the best animations I’ve ever seen. It’s absolutely amazing.

  To finish off, you might have guessed by now, I enjoyed every second of the movie. I wish there was a bit better story, but I honestly don’t mind it that much. If you're an anime fan whos looking for an anime with a great story or well developed characters, I don't think this is the anime for you.
  But this is visually amazing anime, that doesn't really mess around with unnecessary things, it gets straight to the point and presents an incredibly enjoyable piece of media.

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