| REDLINE | |
|---|---|
Japanese theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | Takeshi Koike |
| Produced by | Kentarō Yoshida Yukiko Koike |
| Screenplay by | Katsuhito Ishii Yōji Enokido Yoshiki Sakurai |
| Story by | Katsuhito Ishii |
| Starring | Takuya Kimura Yū Aoi Tadanobu Asano |
| Music by | James Shimoji |
| Studio | Madhouse |
| Distributed by | Tohokushinsha Film Manga Entertainment (UK, USA) |
| Release date(s) | August 14, 2009 (Locarno International Film Festival[1]) October 9, 2010 (Japan) 2011 (USA) |
| Running time | 102 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Redline (REDLINE Reddorain) is a 2009 science fiction auto racing anime film produced by Madhouse and released in Japan on October 9, 2010. The directorial debut feature of Takeshi Koike, it features the voices of Takuya Kimura, Yū Aoi and Tadanobu Asano, and an original story by Katsuhito Ishii, who also co-writes and sound directs.[2] The film is set in the distant future, where a man known as JP takes on great risks for the chance of winning the titular underground race.
After a total of seven years in production, Redline was intended to premiere at the 2009 Annecy International Animated Film Festival and follow Summer Wars, Mai Mai Miracle and Yona Yona Penguin as the fourth and final feature film Madhouse planned to release between summer 2009 and spring 2010. However, further delays saw its world premiere pushed back a few months to August 14, 2009, at the Locarno International Film Festival and its Japanese release to fall 2010.
Contents |
"Sweet" JP - so named for his personality, retro style, and refusal to mount weapons on his racecar - nearly wins the "Yellowline" race against various sorts of racers, including aliens, most who use massive vehicles with jet engines loaded with guns and missiles, but just before the finish line his car is sabotaged by an explosive device placed by his friend and mechanic Frisbee. Frisbee and JP were sent to prison for fixing races for the mafia, are doing so again to keep racing. While recuperating in the hospital he finds out he was selected for the "Redline" despite not qualifying in the last race due to popular demand, and because 2 racers withdrew.
The Redline race takes place on Roboworld, a militarized planet ruled by cyborgs. The Roboworld government is violently opposed to the race being held on their planet as they have several ongoing secret projects, including a giant bioweapon called Funky Boy. JP and the other racers are transported to a backwater planet near Roboworld to prepare. There he meets Sonoshee the winner of the Yellowline, who he met before either of them started racing professionally. After meeting several oddball racers, and almost seducing Sonoshee, he has to repair and refit his car damaged from the Yellowline. With Frisbee acting as the designer and a friend of theirs, a 4 armed old man procuring parts, they aim to make a high powered racecar.
Various colorful characters are in the final race, "Machinehead" a machine man and the reigning champion, "Super Boins" a pair of pop idols from a magical planet, a blue gorilla-like alien traffic officer, a pair of bounty hunters, an AWOL Roboworld officer who joins mid-race, and others. Guerillas on Roboworld as well as the Bounty Hunter team, sabotage Roboworld's planetary defenses, making the race less than suicidal. JP, Sonoshee, and the other racers speed across the planet under heavy attack from the Roboworld military, who virtually all the racers. During the race the guerillas attempt to unleash Funky Boy, but are unable to until one of the racers crashed into the containment facility. Funky Boy goes on a rampage, destroying most of the Roboworld units. One of the Roboworld generals merges with another Bioweapon to fight against Funky Boy while the race continues
Sonoshee attempts to rejoin the race, to find her car is wrecked. JP allows her to join him in continuing the race together. Frisbee who was forced to make another deal with the Mafia is almost killed when he refuses to sabotage JP's car again, but is saved by the 4 armed scrounger, who shoots down the mafia; he sits down to watch the race with Frisbee. The final part has Machinehead with JP/Sonoshee as the leaders. Machinehead uses a super nitro booster, and Sonoshee reciprocates with a nitro container she kept as a memento. Both racers blaze towards the final line, their cars falling apart as they do so.
The finish line is a tower atop the Redline Mothership which warps into place on the planetary surface, with a ramp leading to it. JP and Sonoshee are neck to neck with MachineHead but unable to get past him. The explosive detonator is accidentally pressed by the scrounger, which instead acts as a booster rocket for JP and Sonoshee. Machinehead follows by morphing into rocket form. Just before the finish line JP's car finally falls apart, but he, Sonoshee, and Machinehead reach the finish line. JP and Sonoshee barely make it before Machinhead and are declared the victors. JP and Sonoshee share a kiss while flying. The other racers, exhausted and in awe remark about the incredible.
Redline was produced by Madhouse[3] and directed by Takeshi Koike, who also wrote the storyboard and served as unit director and animation director. The film's producers were Yukiko Koike and Kentarō Yoshida. Masahiro Fukushima served as executive producer. The task of writing the script was shared by Yoji Enokido, Katsuhito Ishii, and Yoshiki Sakurai. The film's character designs, original and otherwise, were done by Katsuhito Ishii, who also served as one of the film's sound directors, the other being Youji Shimizu. The film's music was composed by James Shimoji.[4]
According to Tim Maughan of Anime News Network, Redline was released several years later than originally planned. Its development took seven years and used 100,000 hand-made drawings,[5] which Maughan notes is all the more unusual as it is Koike's directorial debut.[4]
An official soundtrack to the film by James Shimoji (ジェイムス下地) was released under GBC label on October 6, 2010,[6] and contains 42 tracks.[7] It ranked 207th on Oricon's album chart.[8]
| Track listing: Redline Original Soundtrack | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "Yellow Line" | ||||||||
| 2. | "Inuki" | ||||||||
| 3. | "Redline Title" | ||||||||
| 4. | "Boy's Memory" | ||||||||
| 5. | "Winner March" | ||||||||
| 6. | "Roboworld TV" | ||||||||
| 7. | "TV Show" | ||||||||
| 8. | "Roboworld" | ||||||||
| 9. | "Europass" | ||||||||
| 10. | "Mogura Oyaji" | ||||||||
| 11. | "Oasis" | ||||||||
| 12. | "And It's So Beautiful (feat. Kitty Brown)" | ||||||||
| 13. | "Shinkai" | ||||||||
| 14. | "Machine Head" | ||||||||
| 15. | "Capture Operation" | ||||||||
| 16. | "Let Me Love You (feat. Veronica Torraca-Bragdon)" | ||||||||
| 17. | "Get The Stones (feat. Andrew O. Jones)" | ||||||||
| 18. | "Crab Sonoshee" | ||||||||
| 19. | "彼のシフトはブンブンブン (feat. Super Boins)" | ||||||||
| 20. | "Lynch Man & Johnny Boya" | ||||||||
| 21. | "Redline News" | ||||||||
| 22. | "Gori-Rider" | ||||||||
| 23. | "Miki & Todoroki" | ||||||||
| 24. | "Put-up Guy" | ||||||||
| 25. | "Red Angels" | ||||||||
| 26. | "Three-point Decomposition Cannon" | ||||||||
| 27. | "Tension" | ||||||||
| 28. | "Chatter Void" | ||||||||
| 29. | "Volton Unit" | ||||||||
| 30. | "Vertical Drop" | ||||||||
| 31. | "Moniter Room" | ||||||||
| 32. | "Sand Biker" | ||||||||
| 33. | "Spinning Car" | ||||||||
| 34. | "Trouble" | ||||||||
| 35. | "Semimaru" | ||||||||
| 36. | "Gangster" | ||||||||
| 37. | "Flying Finger" | ||||||||
| 38. | "Funky Boy" | ||||||||
| 39. | "Redline" | ||||||||
| 40. | "Exceed Limit" | ||||||||
| 41. | "Dead Heat" | ||||||||
| 42. | "Redline Day (feat. Rob Laufer)" | ||||||||
Redline was initially meant to premiere at the 2009 Annecy International Animated Film Festival, where it would have competed in the Feature Film category.[9] Instead, it premiered during the Locarno International Film Festival in August of the same year.[10] Several more advance screenings were done at international film festivals during 2010.[11] In May, Redline was shown during the Sci-Fi-London 9.[12][13] In June, it participated in Annecy 2010 in the category "Feature Films out of competition".[14] During September, it was shown in Australia and New Zealand as part of Reel Anime 2010.[15] Redline was shown in Austin, Texas on September 23,[11] and in Edinburgh, Scotland, on October 15 as part of the Scotland Loves Anime film festival.[16] At the 2010 Nantes Utopiales Sci-Fi festival, the film received the special mention of jury and public.
The film opened in Japan on October 9, 2010. Coinciding with this, the film was shown in a San Francisco-based Viz Cinema theater from October 8–14, 2010. Distribution in North America is handled by Manga Entertainment.[3]
Tim Maughan of Anime News Network describes the film as "something very special, very different, and insanely exhilarating." In particular he praises the film's director, saying that "Koike has managed to make all this chaos believable." He goes on to say that "Redline is animation not only at its best, but also largely animation for animation's sake." Although Maughan says some may dislike its techno soundtrack and "minimal plot," he calls Redline "the most insanely exciting, visually exhilarating anime film you've seen in decades."[4]
Thomas Zoth of Mania.com comments that while the film does not provide "a deep plot or unique premise," it still "demands to be seen." He said that if Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was "an assault on the senses ... Redline is a declaration of war." Zoth went on to praise the film for its "imaginative creatures and clever designs", to compare Koike's work to that of Quentin Tarantino, and to compliment the film for its "soundtrack, with its memorable high-energy tracks that greatly complement the chaos onscreen." He concludes by saying that if "the life of the industry has been drained and replaced with rote, cookiecutter shows-by-committee, Redline shows a path out."[17]
Nicolas Penedo of the French magazine Animeland describes it as the "Paris-Dakar revisited à la Ōban Star-Racers",[18] a remake of Hanna-Barbera Wacky Races with arts inspired from Jack Kirby comics and know-how, rhythm and energy inherent of the best Japanese anime movies.[19] The reviewer praises the animation quality as breathtaking,[20] and declares that Takeshi Koike made an homage to comics and films of the 70s and 80s.[20] On the negative, he notes the lack of scenario stating "Don't hope to find any scenario in Redline".[20]
Kwenton Bellette and Peter Martin reviewed Redline for Twitch Film. Bellette describes it as a "truly out of this world experience", "Speed Racer on crack" and praised the supporting characters for being memorable and the background galaxy made of different races and creeds to be very solid.[21] Martin expresses that "it feels like every centimeter of every frame is filled with some kind of kinetic color or action or bit of business, making it an experience that is sure to overload the senses" and asserts that writer Katsuhito Ishii succeeds at making a feature-length anime as insane as his film Funky Forest.[22]
Jon Liang of UK Anime Network comments that "A sense of the cool and outrageous is seeped into every pore of the design, ... exaggerated is an understatement here", and notes that the film's "cinema-quality smooth animation" makes "even the most alien of things move naturally and the sense of speed that is often achieved is frequently mind-blowing." He remarks that "the visuals and over-the-top action will most likely overload sensitive brain cells," but concludes by calling Redline "an incredibly exciting cinematic experience that doesn't take itself at all seriously."[23]