Review of Oban Star-Racers

Here’s a hidden gem for you, Oban Star-Racers, an anime with a mixed country of origin production with France. “Yet another racing anime” might sound like a boring idea, but this series is anything but, don’t miss this one! Plot: 9 What can I say? The plot isn’t all that complicated, there’s a race and for 22 out of 26 episodes, half the focus is on winning the race and the other half is on building character relations, backstory, or setting. The first two episodes don’t concentrate on racing and neither do the last two, but for just about every other episode, you can expect a race.That’s not to say the races feel like boring filler either, the creativity in the racers, whose vehicles range from a cat face with a DDR style control pad to a giant flying bug, make every race interesting because you’re not just watching two standard cars or spacecraft squaring off all the time. Not to mention that opponents can attack each other and sometimes races have special goals in mind other than “finish first”. When the story does veer off from just watching a race, it’s still good and tends to focus on Molly and why she wants to win the race. As simple as the premise might be, it still comes together to be more than the sum of its parts. It can, however, be a tad predictable at times. Usually not the races, which keep you guessing from start to finish, but the half of the episode that deals with the plot progression and character development can be a tad easy to guess at at times. It shouldn’t stop you from enjoying it though, it’s still told really well.

Characters: 8
The characters are quite good, a lot of the one shot opponents are going to be best remembered for the interesting race they give us, but a few linger on a bit longer and all have interesting customs which might surprise our mains a bit at times. The characters really go hand in hand with the plot here though as everything somehow gets connected through racing, but watching them develop is still great. I think the romance aspect came in a tad forced though, like it got switched on during one episode at tad too suddenly for me. If you like being on the fence for ___X___ pairings, you'll be getting some of that here too by the end.

Presentation: 10
This series easily has the best blending of CGI and 2D animation I’ve seen before or since. It’s only obvious a very few times that there’s any CGI at all, CGI is usually on screen more than half the time and I couldn’t usually tell. Character designs though take a bit of getting used to and may be slightly off-putting. Music is a big plus though, the composer for the OP and ED is none other than Yoko Kanno and the series composer is Taku Iwasaki, who would later do equally great music for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Sound effects are great too, they went all out, each and every vehicle has a distinct sound all its own made from blending other sounds.

Overall: 9
It’s a great series, even if the excellent sound and visuals don’t bring it up to a 10 for me, but it’s still worth checking out to learn how to properly mix “of the week” with an overall continuing story plot. There’s not much else quite like it, racing, sure, girl who’s a semi-orphan main, sure, but the way the story is told more than makes this worth checking out.