Ōban Star-Racers: Difference between revisions

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Every 10,000 years, teams from all over the universe are gathered by the mysterious Avatar to compete in the Great Race of Oban, a race with much more at stake than just honor or prize money. According to legend, the winner is awarded the Ultimate Prize, which is rumored to grant ''any'' wish, from large-scale destruction to, perhaps, the resurrection of a loved one. Some want it for glory, others as a way of universal domination. However, the true nature of the Prize is shrouded in mystery, and things are not what they appear to be...

Eva is caught in the middle of it all while trying to find her father, who had abandoned her after the death of her mother. Under the name of "Molly", she joins her dad's racing team to the outer reaches of space, where they take part in the Great Race. Having learned of the Prize, she hopes to win it to bring back her mother and put her family's life back together.

 

 

{{tropelist}}

* [[Amusing Injuries]]: Don Wei hurts his right arm in episode 3 by punching a hard surface while arguing with Molly during her first race. Said arm is in a sling later in the episode, and it's still the for the entirety of the next.

* [[And I Must Scream]]: {{spoiler|Sul}}

* [[Anime Theme Song]] - Actually in both Japanese ''and'' French, for the French, British English and Japanese versions. The American English release used a somewhat generic English-language song, though they left the end theme the same.

** The DVD simply uses an entirely English version of the original song.

* [[Anti-Villain]]: Ning and Skun, after it's revealed that they want the ultimate prize to reunite their people. The same can be said for practically any of the opposing pilots in the Oban cycle except for Lord Furter, Sul, and Kross.

** Hell, the worst you could call Sul is a [[Jerkass]]. [[Good Is Not Nice|He isnt actually evil]], he has simply done everything-except win the Ultimate Prize, that is-and wants to win just for the sake of doing it. He's actually a fairly nice for someone who's almost god.

* [[The Archer]]: Aikka's magic arrows are his greatest weapon during races.

* [[Arrogant Kung Fu Guy]]: Ceres constantly hurls verbal abuse at his opponents and likes to reiterate his superiority by playing his flute to make them hallucinate and probably crash. Grooor plays it similarly, focusing on humiliating his opponent and disabling their star racer. He confronts Molly after his loss with the serious intention to ''kill her''.

** Eva, for her part, {{spoiler|failed to bring her mother back from the dead, but she did finally come to accept her loss and reconcile with her father.}}

* [[BFS]]: Crog vehicles are basically flying versions of these. Powered up, their blades are able to slice through metal.

* [[Boisterous Bruiser]]: Rush.

* [[Boring Invincible Hero]]: Averted quite nicely; The Earth team is not only a dark horse at best, they've also spent time at the very bottom of the rankings and lose against better racers often.

* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]: {{spoiler|Spirit}}

* [[Dark-Skinned Redhead]]: Prince Aikka, whose reserved personality largely averts the standard traits. Stan, though, plays the trope pretty straight.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Most of the main cast except maybe Aikka (unless he's talking to Jordan).

* [[Death Course]]: The race track in episode 4 is this. The first trap is a series of huge spinning turbines, the second is a [[Indy Escape|giant, rolling boulder]] that can only be bypassed via flying through a whole in its center. This is followed by tunnels with swinging blades, a guillotine door, collapsing buildings and then a whole freakin' ''labyrinth'' of guillotine doors.

* [[Detached Sleeves]]: Nourasians seem to be fond of wearing these.

* [[Drives Like Crazy]]: More flying than driving, actually. Be glad Jordan only flew the ship once.

* [[Eccentric Mentor]]: Satis.

* [[Executive Meddling]]: Completely averted when Savin Yeatman-Eiffel refused to give in to demands from potential investors to rewrite the main character as a boy. He states on the behind-the-scenes documentary on the DVD's that this is (one of) the reason(s) why production on the show had been delayed.

* [[Facial Markings]]: Molly, Maya. [[Word of God]] confirms that they're tattoos, in case you were wondering.

* [[Falling Into the Cockpit]]: When Rick is unable to fly the Arrow, Don Wei stubbornly refuses to let Molly take his place, despite the fact that she is the only other person on the team with any hope of success. So what does Molly do? While Don's not around, she uses her [[Wrench Wench]] skills to reconfigure the Arrow's controls and hijacks the ship for the next race. She [[Beginner's Luck|barely manages to win]], but Don is still so angry with her disobedience that he wants to withdraw the whole team from the race. It takes a direct order from the President of the Earth Coalition to keep him from doing so, and another disaster with Rick to make Molly the team's permanent pilot.

* [[Fantastic Racism]]: Inverted, every alien race seems to hate humans, or just treat them as inferior.

* [[Flying Seafood Special]]: Oban has flying manta rays, and some of them are really huge.

* [[Freudian Trio]]: [[The McCoy|Molly]], [[The Kirk|Jordan]] and [[The Spock|Aikka]] are officially designed to fit this trope.

** Jordan also drinks coffee a lot, but the one time he actually called his brew 'Jordan's Java Jolt', the line was cut from the US broadcast.

* [[Genki Girl]]: Para-Dice, an energetic gaming [[Catgirl]] whose star racer is controlled by a ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]''-style gamepad.

* [[Heroes Want Redheads]]: Molly toward Aikka, and later on Jordan toward Molly.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|O. And Jordan, sort of.}}

* [[Hide Your Lesbians]]: Ning and Skun are strongly implied to be a couple. Since they come from a [[One-Gender Race]] it makes sense. Of course, since this show was playing on [[Toon Disney]] and ABC Family, the most romantic thing we see them doing is holding hands.

* [[Hometown Hero]]: In the preliminaries on Alwas, the home team of Flint and Marcel are given the edge with traps activated to foil their opponent but not them.

* [[Humongous Mecha]]: Ondai, the robot from the Oban arc of the show, flies a spaceship that can [[Transforming Mecha|transform]] into a bipedal robot with a [[Laser Blade]]!

* [[Jerkass Facade]]: Don Wei was a very nice man before his wife was killed. He started acting mean to protect himself from the pain, and other people, too.

* [[I Shall Taunt You]]: Used a few times. Molly defeats Flint by taunting him into taking on the traps judges had been rigging in his favor. Toros defeats Rush by this method as well.

* [[Large Ham]]: Satis as Super-Racer.

** Lord Furter as well. See [[Small Name, Big Ego]].

* [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]]: Rick's encounter with Canaletto in the Alwas Cycle is erased from his memory.

* [[Mighty Glacier]]: While it might seem counter to the idea of a race, Grooor's star racer has very poor speed but phenomenal defense. This fits in nicely with his usual strategy of crushing his opponents against a wall.

* [[Missing Mom]]: Maya

* [[Musical Assassin]]: Ceres

* [[Necromantic]]: Molly and Muir both want to bring back a loved one with the ultimate prize. {{spoiler|When it's revealed that this isn't possible, Muir drops out of the race completely.}}

* [[Neck Lift]]: Grooor does this to Molly in one episode, and Kross does this to Aikka in another.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Molly's race with Aikka. {{spoiler|Given that Aikka is a [[Glass Cannon]] who rides a giant bug instead of an easily repaired vehicle, he was resigned to blowing Molly away in accordance with his government's orders. When Molly approached him with an offer of a straight-up race, he was moved by her competitive yet friendly attitude and was willing to take a loss as long as his wounded mount wasn't killed. She locked down Jordan's turret as the race began, and was winning soundly - until Don Wei ''unlocked'' Jordan's turret and ordered him to open fire. Cue humiliating defeat.}}

* [[Nitro Boost]]: Aikka uses a spell on G'dar to the same effect; the Whizzing Arrow's hyperdrive.

* [[The Noseless]]: The whole cast. No, they're not mutants, it's just the art style.

** And [[Big Bad|Canaletto]], of course.

* [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]: Satis as Super Racer. {{spoiler|His Avatar disguise is much better.}}

* [[Parental Abandonment]]: Don Wei stuck his daughter in boarding school and did his best to forget about her after the death of his wife. {{spoiler|To his credit, he ''does'' get better in the end.}}

* [[Petting Zoo People]]: Paradice, sort of. She's very catlike in appearance and mannerisms, but her head looks like a computer screen.

* [[Posthumous Character]]: Maya

* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]: The Crogs, and the Inna.

* [[The Quiet One]]: Spirit, and later O (yes, that's his name).

* [[Redeeming Replacement]]: {{spoiler|Jordan isn't a direct replacement, but his grandfather William Wilde is regarded by history as a traitor on the order of Benedict Arnold. At least in part, this motivated him to join the military in the first place}}

* [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]]: The blue 'jelly-bunny' creatures that stick to Molly's windshield in episode 17.

* [[Rookie Red Ranger]]: Molly joins the Earth Team as a stowaway. Even when she proves herself as a pilot, the [[Chilly Reception]] doesn't fully wear off until halfway through the show.

* [[Secret Keeper]]: Rick is the first character to figure out that Molly is Don Wei's daughter. He tells her he knows, but leaves it up to her to tell Don.

* [[Single Biome Planet]]: Played straight with Alwas, but strongly averted with Oban.

* [[Skintone Sclerae]]: The Nourasians have this.

** And before him there was Flint, whose victories were only due to the judges fixing the races in his favor.

* [[The Smurfette Principle]]: Molly is the only prominent female for much of the series, but she subverts the trope by being [[The Protagonist]] and [[The Hero]].

* [[Space Elves]]: The Nourasians, Type I. Sul qualifies, too.

* [[Space Pirates]]: Lord Furter and crew, to the point that he chooses to explain it to Molly when he attacks her during a race.

* [[Spikes of Villainy]]: Crog ships.

* [[Starfish Aliens]]: Pretty rampant, especially once they get to Oban.

* [[Wrench Wench]]: Not only did Molly build her own rocket-seat by herself, but she later grafts it onto the Whizzing Arrow's steering column!

* [[Xanatos Roulette]]: Canaletto's plan involves {{spoiler|emotionally scarring a girl with the right background, then ensuring she is the one to represent her planet during the races, and counting on her to win so her scars will cause her to reject the role of Avatar so he can steal it for himself.}}

* [[You Killed My Father]]: Molly's attitude towards Spirit, the racer who she thinks is responsible for her mother's death. She wrecks the Whizzing Arrow when she faces him, only to learn the truth when he shows her the events of that day through his eyes. Later, however, it turns out that {{spoiler|Canaletto was responsible for Maya's death.}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Science Fiction Western Animation]]

[[Category:Western Animation]]