Review of Oban Star-Racers

Oban is a criminally underrated and unknown series, which is sad since it's basically what you'd get if Miyazaki was French. The show was about eight years in the making before it was finally put into production(which means it was well underway before Star Wars episode 1), and was created through the tireless efforts of four French artists. So it should strike a cord with all you indie artists with great aspirations out there, and the two dirt-cheap DVDs come with a great "making of" featurette. But yeah, this series is amazing. The characters have depth and originality, the animation and CGI are seamless and amazingto look at (adding upon the unique art style), the OP/ED are by Yoko Kanno, and the rest of the OST is just fantastic. The story is well paced and full of good twists and developments, and the competition that the story focuses on is about as real as it can get. Often our heroes will be faced with opponents they have no business going up against, and in the latter half of the show they almost die nearly every episode. Speaking of our heroes, Molly is just great. She's one of a small handful of good, endearing female protagonists in this medium. The rest of the cast pulls their weight too, as mentioned before the main characters are conflicted and well-characterized, their interactions being entertaining and very human. All the main people have an opinion of each other, causing rifts and closeness between them. The minor/non-recurring characters and opponents are always fun and different, making you wish they were more recurring.

tldr: Beautiful show. Great music. Writing that's a step above most anime. Was made well before Pod Racing came about. The whole series can be bought for less than $10 on Amazon or something. The torrents are sucky TV rips. Go for it.