Redline

• Japanese: レッドライン, Hepburn: Reddo rain; stylized as REDLINE
• Directed by Takeshi Koike (Directorial Debut)
• August 14, 2009 (Locarno) / October 9, 2010 (Japan)

Voice Cast

• “Sweet” JP-Patrick Seitz
• Sonoshee McLaren-Michelle Ruff
• Frisbee-Liam O’Brien
• Boiboi-Lauren Landa
• Bosbos –Laura Post
• Inuki Boss-Alfred Thor
• Gori-Rider-George C. Cole
• Todoroki-Cutter Garcia
• Miki-Sam Riegel
• Trava-Joey Morris
• Shinkai Yoshiyuki-Tony Oliver
• Secretary of Defense Titan-Doug Erholtz
• Colonel Volton-Jamieson Price
• Roboworld President-David Lodge
• Machine Head-Michael McConnohie
• Old Man Mole-Steve Kramer
• Lynchman-John White
• Johnny Boya-David Roach
• Little Deyzuna-Derek Stephen Prince

A charming young man risks everything for a chance to win the underground race known as Redline.

From what I have read it took about seven years to make the traditionally animated Redline, and it shows. The animation is stunning. Highly stylized as it takes visual cues from the likes of Peter Chung while only including effects beyond what animators can do by hand for flashes of light.

Vibrantly colored with very fanciful character designs. All this in a presentation that is crafted to be like you are watching a broadcast of some race. Director Takeshi Koike in his debut went all in on immersing you in this fictional world by including identifiable real world elements.

The racing aspects and the vehicles involved clearly are drawn from either the pod racing scene in The Phantom Menace or the popular racing game drawn from that scene. These are vehicles more like jet planes with wheels carrying weapons that engage in physics defying acts. All taking place in a very science-fiction setting with aliens of very imaginative types. You could even view Old Man Mole as being a riff on Sebulba-though taller and not a villain.

Visually this conveys excitement and gets your adrenaline going much better than some other racing films I’ve seen. And it’s not even real! It’s all hand drawn animation. Anything goes (even magic) married with a frenetic chaos that never gets confusing or implausible. Redline manages to overload your senses with visuals and sound. Music and explosions and hairpin turns come at you in rapid fire succession. Despite its nature, this film never breaks its own rules just to do something or get to the next step in the story. It helps to introduce few rules to worry about.

‘Redline’ sounds like it references pushing an engine dangerously hard (which it does) but here is also the name of the top underground race of a tacitly illegal though widely popular racing circuit that every knows about and even receives space TV coverage. Impressive for a science-fiction version of NASCAR.

The movie is about a racer because of his charm called “Sweet” JP. He is tied up with underworld figures to pay off debts by throwing races yet still tries to win. Our hero has a pompadour, but weirdly he’s not the only character with an early Elvis style. There is another but he is a baddie.

JP finds himself in the big race when several competitors bow out meaning he gets bumped up a few spots by default. The reason? The final race is taking place in the territory of the dictatorship Roboworld which is of course ruled by cyborgs. They say ‘No’ to the racing giving reasons of sovereignty and so forth and claiming oppression if it happens when in reality it’s over fears their military base in a demilitarized zone will be discovered.

As ludicrous as this movie is you come to feel it has some high stakes for the characters specifically and their larger world. “Sweet” JP must not only get out from the thumb of organized crime by winning the race but expose the treachery of Roboworld. The major weakness is the eventual love interest who is little more than the usual anime girl in creation and general story impact.

It’s my understanding this has achieved a bit of Cult Classic status and I can certainly see why. It may have some general tropes of Japanese animation, but it has much more that helps it stand apart from the rest. This never takes itself too seriously and never leans too much into absurdity. It is a nice balance making it not a throwaway film you’ll quickly forget but it’s also not something that’s meant to be a significant drama.

I heard about Redline on social media and those that spoke of it were rather passionate about it. I cannot call this is the greatest movie ever, but it is certainly something different in Japanese animation and just an all-around fun time.