REDLINE is perfection

REDLINE is an anime movie that has been on my radar for many years now, and is one that I only recently had a chance to see for the first time.

REDLINE released in 2010 and marks animator and illustrator Takeshi Koike’s very first directorial feature film. He was previously seen as key animator for numerous shows and movies such as the Afro Samurai Pilot, The Animatrix and Dead Leaves. Despite REDLINE being a box office bomb, it would gradually become a cult classic ever since its wider distribution arose from home releases.

REDLINE is the most fun I have had with a feature length movie in a while now. The film is set in the distant future where we follow JP, a racer with his sight set on winning the titular underground race that is only held every five years.

If you, like me, have never seen the film before, hopefully the following will spark at least a smidge of interest for you to explore it further. Surely its art style and bonkers plotline will get you hooked!

A true spectacle that oozes style, uniqueness and originality that deserved better

It’s a pretty well-known fact that REDLINE’s creation was a bumpy ride. With seven years in development and four in production, REDLINE would see little return on all the blood, sweat and tears that were lovingly poured into it to make it the sheer spectacle that it is – in fact, the sheer amount of effort driven into it involved 100,000 hand-drawn drawings and no computer graphics!

As a passion project, Koike would exceed the two year limit on development time imposed by Madhouse Inc. — with an additional five years on top. To make matters worse, the astronomical budget of the movie saw very little back at the box office after its release finally did happen.

It was probably also rather held back in terms of financial success by the star power of its voice actors line-up. The main character JP, for example, was portrayed by Takuya Kimura, member of successful boy band SMAP and the voice of iconic characters including Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle and Takayuki Yagami from the Yakuza spinoff series Judgment. He also took the leading role in the underappreciated gem of a TV show, Mr. Brain.

With it being a box office failure, the general takeaway from this chaotic result for production studio Madhouse Inc. and others like them was to take fewer risks with original ideas and new IPs. And that’s a shame; REDLINE clearly wanted to showcase the potential of what movie animation can truly be by attempting to overwhelm its audience; considering more recent productions like Everything Everywhere All at Once from 2022 showed that this approach can be a success, it’s tragic that REDLINE didn’t perform better than it did.

Cranking up everything to eleven

Quite simply, REDLINE has everything, meaning that anyone and everyone can take something of value from it. There is so much passion on display both inside and outside the movie — not just from the artistic vision from its auteur creator and an everlasting label of “cult classic”, but the subject matter of the movie itself is full of passion, too. It’s a love letter to living for a sport, while also finding love in it.

On a wider scale, it’s even quite a tense political drama involving the entire world being at stake. But it also functions as an affirming tale of valuing and seeking fulfilment through supporting those around you. The Power of Friendship strikes once more!

It also goes without saying that there’s a very evident sci-fi edge to its visuals and world design. At the same time, REDLINE turns into something else entirely by its last scenes, even including a full-on monster attack. The spectacle of everything about REDLINE is mental. It even beats out the insanity level of other beloved cult classics in animation such as Rock & Rule, another incredible feat for the medium from back in the ’80s.

REDLINE’s characters have their own minor storylines happenings off-screen that add depth to their appearances. This helps beef up their unmentioned motivations for participating and wanting to win the illegal competitions. They’re quite easy to miss as audio or visual cues that go by very quickly, making subsequent rewatches all the more fun.

These characters are some of the most eccentric, loveable, entertaining and memorable characters I have ever seen. We rarely see much of quite a few of them over the course of the whole movie, but you will be sorely missing them by the time the credits roll for how hot-blooded but wholesome they all are.

REDLINE is incredible in every way. Its extensive OST spans 102 minutes over 42 tracks and elevates each scene even further, with some of its greatest pieces being tied to certain characters as their unofficial theme songs.

I was already a fan of the soundtrack created by James Shimoji before watching the film for years prior. And the OST has become even more sacred now that I have seen the clips that the tracks accompanied!

An animated movie that will withstand the test of time

REDLINE features a surprisingly layered narrative to appreciate, and its sublime attention to detail features some of the most creative character designs, even in the case of the furthest away background characters.

REDLINE is a hilarious and exhilarating time thanks to how extremely artistic its visuals and expressive work in its facial animation are alone. Even the sound cuts and slow motion effects are used super effectively here to convey the tension that the in-movie crowd experiences.

REDLINE is an overwhelming experience as a wacky racing movie, but it’s one to cherish for everything that it stands for. The movie deserved much more back when it released. No matter how late some of us are to actually watching and appreciating it, we are finally giving the movie the appreciation it deserves as its legacy grows all the more important and widespread.

REDLINE is available on Blu-Ray, but your best chance of finding it today is via second-hand stores.

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