Redline (2009)
No red tape in this galactic adrenaline filled death race.
Presentation:
The contrasty art style stands out from other animations with a more cartoonish and abstract rendering. This death race has all the elements you’d expect. Speed, sabotage, upgrades, drama, competition, it’s packed with world building and vivid characters as well. Sonoshee in particularly should really catch you off guard as you don’t really take their stories seriously until the end. The race feels fast and the animation is definitely slick, catering toward fans, giving us everything we’d expect from an animated death race.
Conclusion:
A unique anime that stands out for its galactic, violent and absurd racing. The story can be formulaic at times with potholes here and there and I think the buildup to the final race was actually more enthralling than the actual race. It has scale, scope and delivers in presentation, but it somehow doesn’t impress or exceed expectations. It’s just overly drawn out with not the best execution of pacing and suspense. But there are very few animes let alone movies with the explosiveness that animated racing can provide, which still make this a worthwhile bumpy ride.
Recommendations
The best vampire movie might actually be an anime.