Review of Redline
Ah, Redline, the industry’s loudest bomb. A bomb so explosive, so meticulously crafted and vibrant that 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 inthe 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, 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. Tying them into their pasts and how well they're presented, Travistila and Dezuya’s rivalry following the former’s fallout with the former over at the military was brutal and magnificent to see. 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 that you can’t possibly hold, realizing just how damn tight the method to this film’s madness is, even if the ending leaves 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, flashin’ 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 to create 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 is 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 joy 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?
Written and edited by: CodeBlazeFate
Proofread by: Peregrine