Finished watching Redline tonight.  This is probably the craziest anime, (possibly movie), I have ever seen.

As regular readers know, I’m a big fan of ‘racing anime’ – although among the various types of anime out there – it is comparatively rare, and I’ve pretty much seen all of them (Initial D, Wangan Midnight, IGPX, etc.), save for re-watching Speed Racer all over again, which I still may do someday (the 2008 live-action Speed Racer movie, however – that’s a great flick – see previous post here).  Common elements include the racing itself, which of course in anime means over-the-top posturing and ego clashes from nearly every character at some point or another if not constantly; technology can play a factor (IGPX being the anime-futuro-mecha version of team racing, not terribly unlike the Kinetica videogame on PS2) and illegal street racing, whether in town/highways (Wangan Midnight) or crazy steep mountain/cliffside roads (Initial D).

So Redline takes nearly all these elements in one form or another and goes one better – it is a series of increasingly challenging elimination races (Blueline, followed by Yellowline, then the ultimate final race with the cream of the competitors: Redline) that are held on various alien worlds across varied and unknown terrain, not always including actual roads.  Because (of course) some of the vehicles used are hover-jet/rocket/cars (think of the hover-car/bike race in The Phantom Menace) and because nearly all the cars (even those relying on wheels) have some sort of rocket/nitro boost in them, among other abilities (The Mach 5 would be sadly outclassed here, I think).

So the story follows a few key racers as they make it past a Yellowline race (already in progress at the start of the movie) and gain entry to the Redline final race (the third act of the movie is that race).  Unexpected plot elements include the ‘roboworld’ planet where Redline is to be held – doesn’t want the race to be held on their planet, and so does everything they can (including armies, space weaponry and bio-weapons) to stop the race and kill all the racers if possible.  Also JP (one of the main characters) has a shady past (unlike nearly every other racer who has a ‘shady present’) and is known for ‘fixing’ races, for which he was sent to prison at least once.

The plot is otherwise fairly straight forward, about what you’d expect in a racing movie/anime, save for the following:

First – it is completely hand-drawn animation.  No CGI.  Which is probably in part why it took seven years(!) to make.  The results are VERY impressive, although in many racing sequences the action is so crazy-chaotic it can be hard to figure out what is going on.  They make use of every frame in this movie to excess, and it shows.

I would have to describe the visual style of the movie as ‘Roy Lichtenstein vs. Aeon Flux‘ with a not-completely-subtle dash of Wacky Races thrown in for good measure.  JP looks almost as if he walked right out of an Aeon Flux episode, and he’s not the only one.  The stark color contrasts seen here really stand out (hence the Lichtenstein impression) with an incredible level of detail not normally seen in an anime (or most animation generally).  The ridiculous cast of racers *has* to have been influenced by Wacky Races, and the later IGPX, I’m sure – they are a total collection of freaks and misfits.

What passes for character development here is the second act, where the various racers prepare for the Redline race and have at least a few scenes of conversation here and there.  Sadly, there is a bit of gratuitous nudity thrown in (for no apparent reason) and there was some random profanity at points in the movie (I watched in Japanese with subtitles but it may have also made it into the dubbed version) which, taken together with some of the extreme action and character design, probably make this movie NOT suitable for kids – i’d rate it a PG-13.

But it’s definitely a very well-made, beautifully animated movie and if you like anime, worth seeing for that reason alone – they set a pretty high bar.  One of the few anime I’ve seen that equal this movie’s animation quality would be Appleseed – but that movie has a *lot* of CGI mixed in with the traditional animation, so not really the same thing.

Check it out!  Again I got it from Scarecrow but Amazon now carries it too if you don’t live in Seattle.

Other Redline reviews:
Anime News Network
Notaku Blog

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OK, this is the last time I want to hear any CRAP from people in UT about Seattle snow drivers!!  It would appear their hubris has caught up with them…..muhhahahha!

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Watched the one-off anime movie The Silent Service last night.  Made in 1995 and based on the manga of the same name, this movie tells the story of an advanced sub, the ‘Sea Bat’ – ultimately renamed the ‘Yamoto’ – built as a cooperative venture by the US Navy and the Japanese Self-Defense Force.  It is staffed by an all-Japanese crew, but an American captain is included as (presumably) an overseer.

{{Spoiler Alert}}

As the post-WWII treaty between the US and Japan forbids Japan to have any nuclear weapons (not sure if this is in fact really true, but it seems likely), this sub is to sail under the command of the US 7th fleet, but the story implies it is effectively a Japanese vessel, given its crew. And its captain states that belief outright during a conversation, then shortly thereafter steals the sub – the rest of the movie concerns the various diplomatic and international situations created by this action.

This is an interesting movie, for several reasons.  First, it plays like a combination of ‘Red October meets Red Storm Rising‘ given the regular interplay between the military action vs. the diplomatic wrangling.

It’s also well written (but for a couple minor gripes, see below) – I really didn’t know what the heck Captain Kaieda was going to do at any turn once he stole the Sea Bat/Yamoto.  While the characters are otherwise fairly typical anime (one or two silent know-it-all guys; many more pride-filled, over-the-top guys; a few raging crusaders; a few moderates stuck in between all the rest) and none are close to being three-dimensional, within the confines of this story their limitations don’t get in the way.

The animation is fairly standard anime – no CGI in this one, probably a bit early for that – nothing spectacular but otherwise fine.

Minor nits:

1) One of the American motives here is revealed to be the ‘recolonization of Japan’ – WTF?  Is that really a concern after all these years (or even in 1995, or ‘ever’)?  Despite the Americans in this anime obviously being the bad guys, that’s really reaching, guys.

2) The American president has a little ‘rage session’ of his own in the bathroom near the end – and he brags to himself that despite the outcome of the sub chase and confrontation(s), the USA still has enough nukes to destroy Japan many times over.  Again – even transposing the recent departed war-mongering, civil-rights-trampling, corrupt Bush Administration into his shoes – I cannot believe Bush (or the even more despicable Cheney) would ever say (or even think) such a thing to even themselves!  This is just too much…

It’s interesting that even the Japanese players here (Prime Minister, Captain of the Sea Bat/Yamoto, other rival JSDF sub captain, and at least one of the high-level administration bureaucrats – all have competing visions as to what to do with this sub – naturally the guy *driving it* prevails with what happens, but it definitely adds to the story and keeps the viewer guessing.

One reason I was interested in watching this once I came across it in a random search – was that I used to play the Amiga computer game Silent Service – based on sub wars in the South Pacific during WWII.  The feel of this movie is very similar – although the players are reversed – and cool!

The only other downside is that they never made the rest of the manga into more anime footage, so I guess I’ll have to hunt it down to find out what happens later to the characters.  Still, this story is complete and stands alone quite well.  Check it out!  I found it at Scarecrow but I’m sure it’s elsewhere….

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Just got back from ‘tbtl live’ at The Neptune theater over in the U-District (by UW). VERY fun! Although they made us wait in the cold a wee bit too long before getting in, it was definitely worth the wait.

For those not familiar, TBTL (too beautiful to live) was a radio show on KIRO back in 2008-9, then was cancelled. But the hosts (Luke Burbank and Jen Andrews) + Sean DeTore (engineer and effectively ’3rd host’) decided to soldier on as a podcast-only show. Through persistence, hard work, home studios and the continued help of KIRO (web hosting and podcast streaming) they have now made it to 1,000 shows – hence this celebration.

Along the way they have had several ‘live’ shows both here (Seattle) and elsewhere (L.A., NYC, Chicago, etc.) – I attended one here in Seattle last year with Kerewin, and she has attended one in NYC as well as several other events in Seattle over the past few years. These are fun events – many smaller in scope than tonight’s, but definitely unique and part of the tbtl ‘tens’ culture (‘tens’ of listeners).

Tonight had some trivia, some long-time tbtl staple bits (tbtl players – where they ‘act’ out movie scenes; Awesome/Not Awesome – passing judgement on news items with sound effects;), a couple interviews and The Dusty 45′s played a few songs. Great band!

If you haven’t checked out tbtl yet – download a podcast or two and join the ‘cool crowd’ – they stream live Mon-Fri at 1pm PST for an hour, or download them anytime from TBTL.net.

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In the past couple days over our wussy Seattle ‘snowpocalypse’ the backyard birdies are still hanging in there. Today I got pics of a certain fat robin that hangs out by one of our holly trees, and of a swarm of bushtits that periodically visit the suet feeders. I have seen chickadees zipping around too, besides the usual seagulls and crows (there are a pair of crows that usually hang around too, but haven’t seen them in the past week)…

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not sure if i’m the last guy who’s seen this, but it’s very, very cool, for all the right reasons. Enjoy!

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from today’s Savage Chickens – funny! Older GZ comics linked below….

Older GZ’s

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had a GREAT day skiing at Mt. Baker yesterday. Despite the long drive (it is 145 miles from Seattle) the conditions were excellent: over 100 inches of snow, sunny, and minimal lines. The views of the surrounding ranges were also amazing, with many crazy hikers up on those cornices getting ready for extreme backcountry plunges into likely VERY deep powder.

Since I blew out my right knee ACL last year, I’m on the ‘brace train‘ these days, but I was never into the backcountry hiking anyway. Kerewin is doing great on her 3rd year snowboarding too!

Met friends up there and skied with them some – enjoyed the typical beer, champagne and foodfest in the Syncro midday, then back on to the mountain until close – probably got about 12-15 runs total? Took a while to get outta there – sadly someone had to get medivac’d off the mountain via helicopter – then stopped by some friends’ place on the way down the mountain, which meant not getting back until about 9pm (doh!).

Still….amazing day.

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Pretty cool. This is currently showing at LACMA, so if you are in Los Angeles, check it out!

Reminds me a bit of OMSI’s Gravitram in Portland, Oregon – which dates from the early 70s. Video of the Gravitram in action below also…

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CHRIS BURDEN: Metropolis II

OMSI Gravitram:

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