8/7/2023 0 Comments Anime redlineAn actual human hand-drew all the pictures necessary to create that.” In Japan, Masaaki Yuasa’s work attains the same level of sheer detailed, exuberant weirdness, and Redline’s Takeshi Koike is also in that boat. It’s hard not to look at the work of, say, Richard Williams, once you’ve picked your jaw up off the floor, and say “GOD. These days, with our glut of committee-produced CG animation franchises, it’s easy to forget that animation is indeed an art form capable of depicting motion and emotion in ways live action or even photorealistic CG can’t even approach. Redline took seven years to complete, and every second of it shows. This is a movie you watch for its achievement – a completely hand-drawn animated feature film by a first time director who, through it, has already made his masterpiece. And they’re all racing against the government of Roboworld, which doesn’t want them on its planet and won’t hesitate to unleash its full arsenal to stop them.įor viewer purposes, though, the plot is “VROOM VROOM DRIVE FAST” because this isn’t a movie you watch for plot. Trouble is, he’s racing against a horde of drivers with wildly tricked-out vehicles that frequently include missiles and other ridiculousness as standard gear. Redline is a 2009 anime that follows the gloriously pompadoured Sweet JP as he and his Trans Am compete to win the titular race. That should probably be best left a mystery.While watching Promare’s spectacular animation, I was reminded quite a bit of Redline, and then when writing my Promare review, I realized I’d never actually reviewed Redline. I've never done acid, but I have to wonder what watching this film would be like on that drug. Director Takeshi Koike, Katsuhito Ishii, and so on have definitely crafted something memorably wacky. "Redline" is probably just utter escapism. I can't believe that word comes to mind when this film has a racing vehicle with two breast-shaped windows. There could be a moral on leaving a profitable criminal lifestyle, for one. Looking past the craziness and the animation, does "Redline" have anything meaningful for us to take away? I'm not sure. Watching the film, I didn't even think of the flashbacks that way. There are flashbacks to him as a child, which may also be clichéd, but again, no biggie. JP is likable and down-to-Earth, if you will. As the film goes on, we do get to know the main characters to a certain extent. The action is thrilling and that includes the beginning with the Yellowline race despite the lack of characterization. The audience even cheered at least twice. On the way home, I laughed to myself over what I just watched. Even films that are hard to follow, such as "Inception", can be highly entertaining. Nonetheless, I did laugh with the audience at times, like when one of the racers on TV is talking with a puppy. There were a few times where audience members were laughing and I didn't get what was funny. There's so much going on and sometimes the subtitles went too fast for me to read. I admittedly had some trouble following the film. In fact, because I had to read its English subtitles, I wish I could've understood Japanese so I could've focused more on the animation. Unlike the live action "Speed Racer" film, "Redline" was never overwhelming to look at. The heavily detailed animation is sweet eye candy. I, for one, certainly don't think those years went to waste. "Redline" was in the works for seven years, as I've recently learned. Added to the story is a nice relationship with JP and Sonoshee, a female racer. Yeah, it's a cliché, but it feels minor to me, especially for this particular film. JP, being the daredevil that he is, participates in the big race that's the final scene for the film. I can hear "The Imperial March" playing in my head when it comes to them. However, he qualifies for the Redline, anyway, which is being held on a planet where its government violently opposes the race. After losing a race called the Yellowline, a precursor to the famous no holds barred Redline, it seems like it's over for him. Our protagonist is JP, a male racer with funky-looking hair who tends to be laid-back when he's not racing. Maybe some are aliens and some are animals or animal-like? Those are my best guesses. I can't really describe any of the anthropomorphic creatures in the film. Anyway, it's an anime set in a futuristic universe involving people and anthropomorphic creatures racing in vehicles on different planets. You'd really have to see it for yourself. What's it about? My story depiction probably won't exactly tell you the madness you'll be getting into, unfortunately. If he attended the screening and did a Q&A, I bet there would've been a question on drug use for coming up with the story or making the film. A video presentation was also shown of writer Katsuhito Ishii when he was in the city not too long ago. I saw "Redline" courtesy of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival and the presenter used those comparisons.
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