Review of Redline
How do you top the hype and adrenaline of this movie? My only answer is Gurren Lagann. That's it, the only other show to be on the same level of style and hype of Redline. From the first moments, the movie sets anticipation. A full minute of buildup as superbly animated and designed aliens mill about, waiting for the race to come to them. Then the payoff. A whole 2 or so seconds of cars shooting by in a blur. Then we cut to the cars and the movie already shows it's greatest strength, how it handles it's speed. Smooth, fast, punchy, and above all,stylish. The Nitro scene at 4:20 sold me on the movie as a whole. The animation blows me away everytime I see it. And from that moment, the movie took me on a Mach 12 Ride straight to Anime Original Heaven. This review will be spoiler free and spoilers, this movie is a solid 9.6.
The story is solid and multi-faceted. It's not the best story around but the lore and world building sell the setting and race. There's fantastic character development in between and during the action which unveils a more complicated interpesonal plot. Not to mention Roboworld and their scheming adding a lot more stakes to the table as well as good political intruige. But don't expect it to be that deep of a story. This movie works by the Rule of Cool. So it's more akin to Gurren Lagann's bro-venture than to some deep and intellectual work like Zankyou no Terror. My only complaint is that the ending felt a bit too soon. Very good story all around, 8/10.
The characters were also really good and fun. You'll really be paying attention to JP and Sonoshee most of the time who are fun characters. You really buy their chemistry. JP is like the giga-chad version of every Shonen protag. So much of a cool guy, violence is overrated for him. All he needs is a sick ride and enough Nitro to blow a small moon to high hell. Sonoshee is a bit 2-Dimensional but she's still a treat to watch. She really becomes interesting after the 1st Act. The rest of the cast is fun, well designed, but still very much feel like background characters that are incredibly fun to look at and watch do their shenanigans. Frisbee and Mogura are both fairly well thought out characters who you buy their drama between each other and JP's demands. There's another subplot between 2 of the racers and a member of Roboworld's military but for the sake of time, I won't go over it. Characters, 9/10.
The art is some of the best I've seen in a movie period. But what sets it apart from modern movies like Kimi no Na wa and Koe no Katachi, and from older movies like Akira (all of which are fantastic and have fantastic animation) is it's style. I have never seen such a stylish movie before. The only other movie I can think of with such a distinct art style is maybe Paprika and that's it. Redline has this stunning aesthetic that forgo the modern neatness so many go with. And it's not quite the hyper detailed animation from the years past. Redline is very much Redline. With super fun coloring on everything and shading that looked like they were ripped from Borderlands 1. Not to mention how fluid everything is and how often they go off model for good effect. And the cars aren't CGI. EVERYTHING about the animation clicks. Quite possibly, the best animation I've ever seen. This movie exudes style that you can't really match. 11/10 (cliche as fuck but I don't care)
Sound is punchy and a fantastic soundtrack to boot. The sound just works to excellent effect. Watching clips without sound is a travesty as the sound adds so much to the experience. Also the dub is fantastic. I recommend watching the dub first time around so you can fully enjoy the animation. 10/10
Enjoyment, yeah. I was losing my mind the whole time. Towards the end, I barely understood what was going on as there was just so much going on and it didn't irk me too much (I was also severely sleep deprived when I watched it so that probably didn't help). I had way too much fun watching this. So yeah, easy 10.
Overall, this is a mindbowingly awesome movie everyone should watch. Virgin Initial D has nothing on Chad Redline, all I gotta say. So yeah, go and watch this movie. It's pretty fucking good.