REDLINE

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Set in the far future, REDLINE is about the galaxy's biggest and deadliest illegal road race, only held every five years at a secret location not unveiled until practically the last minute. Naturally, everyone wants to take part, but to do so they have to qualify in one of the Yellowline races first. One such racer, 'Sweet JP', almost achieves it. Unfortunately, his prized yellow machine TRANSAM suddenly "malfunctions" just short of the finish line.

Waking up in hospital with an arm and a leg in casts and his dreams in tatters, JP is shocked to find he has in fact made the grade. It turns out the venue has been announced-- and it's the fascistic, authoritarian military superpower state of Roboworld, who aren't exactly pleased about their world being used as an impromptu racetrack and make it perfectly clear that they intend to stop the racers with extreme prejudice before the starting flag has even been dropped. As a result, two racers have already dropped out, and JP (through a popularity contest) is voted in.

Produced by Madhouse Studios, the directorial debut feature of Takeshi Koike and released in 2010 after spending half a decade in development, REDLINE is a racer movie unlike anything seen before and potentially one of the most daring and important anime movies of the decade. Visually, it's easy to see that Koike is a huge fan of western graphic art, and has been influenced as much by French comic artist Jean "Moebius" Giraud, the US animated film Heavy Metal, cult UK sci-fi comic 2000 AD, and even the Star Wars movies as much as he has by the likes of Katsuhiro Otomo, Hiroyuki Imaishi or Leiji Matsumoto. Not that REDLINE feels or looks like a mash-up of different styles – somewhere in the visual chaos it unrelentingly throws at its audience it becomes something that is far more than the mere sum of parts, a unique piece of animation that at times doesn't even feel like anime in the traditional sense.

Check out the totally sweet trailer. And if that's not enough for you, check out almost ten subbed minutes of it here and as of late December 2011 it has been released on Bluray and DVD in the UK, with the official North American release to follow on January 17th 2012. It was dubbed under Manga Entertainment.

Tropes used in REDLINE include:
  • Abnormal Ammo: JP's mechanic Old Man Mole has a revolver shotgun that fires screwdrivers, and he uses it to devastating effect during his Big Damn Heroes rescue of Frisbee.
  • Absolute Cleavage: Boiboi.
  • Affably Evil: Secretary Titan, with a dash of Wicked Cultured as well
  • All Work vs. All Play: Sonoshee and JP as revealed in a flashback. Incidentally, rather than jeering with all the other onlookers at her as she tried to get her car out of a ditch on her own while proclaiming that she'd compete in the Redline race, JP admired Sonoshee's determination and so as a result took up racing professionally.
  • Amphibious Automobile: Sonoshee's Crab Sonoshee, which has the advantage of driving on water due to her anti-gravity engine.
  • Anime Catholicism: Trava crosses himself in a Catholic fashion before starting the Redline race as well as Old Man Mole after he slays the Mafia don Inuki and his goons.
  • Awesome but Impractical: According to Old Man Mole, the TRZ Airmaster engines have a lot of power, but are very unstable. They hook it up anyway.
  • Awesome McCoolname: Sonoshee McLaren
    • "Sweet JP"
    • "Machinehead" Tetsujin and his vehicle, "God Wing"
    • The bio-weapon "Funky Boy".
    • Secretary Titan
    • Colonel Volton
    • It would actually be easier to name everyone without a awesome name. Even the announcer has the name "Void-do". His co-host has the comparatively less (but still) awesome name "Minvera Hanasse".
  • Badass Driver: Well, yeah.
  • The Berserker: Little Deyzuna
  • Big Damn Kiss: JP and Sonoshee. While in mid-air, in a magical field, after having just barely won the titular race.
  • Biopunk: Roboworld very unexpectedly turns out to be this, with plenty of Organic Technology and a Living Ship housing their Kill Sat
  • Blush Sticker: Sonoshee had them as a girl.
  • Boom! Headshot!: Inuki gets a two screwdrivers shot into his eyes from a shotgun.
  • Bounty Hunters: Dynamic duo Johnny Boya and Lynchman.
  • Captain Crash: Any vehicle with wheels on it that JP sets foot in will end up becoming a smashed wreck.
    • It isn't always his fault. And one of the times it most blatantly is, he and the vehicle are both miraculously unharmed!
  • Chekhov's Gun: Sonoshee's pendant, and the detonator on JP's car, though not in the way you'd expect-- instead of being used to kill off JP's chances of winning, it was used for even more speed.
  • Colonel Badass: Colonel Volton
  • Cool Bike: So many; of particular note is Miki and Todoroki's bizarre insectoid looking one 'Semimaru' (complete with legs).
    • And the hoverbike JP uses to get around Europass.
    • Crab Sonoshee is steered like a bike.
    • Gori Rider's 'custom rider' that is hidden inside 'Gorilla Tank'
    • The Sand Bikes (They will kick your ass).
  • Cool Car: But of course.
  • Cool Shades: Sonoshee when she's racing; also Bosbos and Boiboi (and everyone else from planet Supergrass).
  • Curse Cut Short: twins Miki and Todoroki during their interview.

Miki and Todoroki: GORI-RIDER, YOU MOTHERF-*BEEP*

  • Cute as a Bouncing Betty: Funky-Boy, Roboworld's top secret biological superweapon.
  • Cyber Cyclops: Big Deyzuna
  • Dark and Troubled Past: JP.
  • Deranged Animation: Think of a more realistic Dead Leaves.
  • Dirty Cop: The racer "Dirty Policeman Hamashi Frini, AKA Gori Rider" was caught on camera beating up his opponents (Miki and Todoroki to be precise), and having an affair with a Fair Cop. When asked about it by reporters, he attacked them too.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: the Boincar is a pink dragster styled to look like a woman lying on her back with her legs in the air. Make of it what you will.
    • The President of Roboworld makes grandiose statements about "ensuring justice" and "being a symbol of humanity that exists for peace". They also build an alarming number of weapons of mass destruction. Hmm.
  • Doing It for the Art: This is animation for the sake of animation. It took 7 consecutive years to make the damn movie, after all.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Everybody.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending
  • Eldritch Abomination: Funky-Boy
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Sonoshee is not happy to discover that the racing title the media have given her is 'Cherry-Boy Hunter'.
  • Energy Being: Funky-Boy.
  • Everybody Lives: All the Redline racers manage to make it through the death trap race.
  • Evil Brit: Secretary Titan
  • Exploding Fishtanks: An entire restaurant full of fish tanks.
  • Expy: Most of the other racers and characters are imported from previous Takeshi Koike / Katsuhito Ishii productions (e.g. Miki and Todoroki are from The Mole Brothers, and Trava and Shinkai were from a four part series called Trava: Fist Planet)
  • Facial Markings: Frisbee.
  • Fast Tunnelling: Miki and Todoroki hitch a ride on Gori Rider's Gorilla Tank as he tunnels under a minefield before embarking on their own tunnelling adventure and winding up in the lead.
  • Fingerless Gloves: JP
  • Fluffy the Terrible: Not as cutesy as other examples, but you wouldn't expect the name Funky Boy to be given to a nigh-unstoppable, Godzilla-sized Lovecraftian bioweapon who screams Wave Motion Beams and has a Healing Factor so powerful that it can come back from being head-shotted by a Kill Sat with the power of a nuke.
  • Gender Blender Name: Mr. Minerva Hanness, former Redline champion and current Redline news anchor.
  • Godzilla Threshold: The Superboins break their 'no magic' promise when Roboworld's troops corner them, and Colonel Volton transforms himself into an Eldritch Abomination in order to fight evenly with Funky Boy.
  • Gorn: There isn't much blood in this movie (It's a racing movie. Why would it need blood?) but they have enough blood for several movies of this type during Old Man Mole's Big Damn Heroes moment with the screwdriver shotgun.
  • Graceful Loser: Everyone who didn't make it to the finish line, for a refreshing change. The entire race comes off as a badassery competition, and part of it is this trope. Everyone seems to be just honored to be present when JP and Sonoshee ride the shockwave of their own damned exploding engine over the Redline. Machinehead pops not one but two Steamlights, and still shows an amazed pride at the event.
      • Which is kind of a mood backlash given that he was talking trash to them just a moment ago.
    • None of the other racers save JP, Sonoshee, and Tetsuzin entertain any chance of winning first place at the final stretch of the race, but keep going full throttle anyways purely to get first-class, front-row seats to see how the race ends.
  • Hood Ornament Hottie: When they're not racing, Bosbos and Boiboi pose and preen so much that it's almost ridiculous.
  • Hot-Blooded: EVERYONE.
  • Humongous Mecha
  • Idol Singer: Bosbos and Boiboi found time to release a CD in between the racing and fanservice.
  • Impossibly Low Neckline: Bosbos.
  • Improbable Hairstyle: JP's Epic pompadour; how he keeps it that way without product is a mystery. It may even be the reason he won, because it was the first part of him to cross the finish line.
    • Oddly enough, he is shown combing it in the first 15 minutes to keep it out of his eyes. Still a mystery how it stays up though.
  • Incendiary Exponent: In a movie this awesome, you knew it would happen. But JP and Sonoshee manage to achieve it by having Frisbee and the Old Man detonate their engine remotely, which somehow leads to them going even faster, and being little more than strapped to a hunk of metal propelled by a continuous explosion.
  • Incoming Ham: JP has one particular moment of ham when he announces his intent to drive in the Redline.

JP: "here, give me that *grabs the closest video camera and points the lense at him* ROBOWORLD! HERE I COME!!"

  • Interrupting Meme: When discussing some parts of the truly awesome soundtrack people have the tendency to UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ.Observe.
  • In-Series Nickname: All the racers have one. For instance, "Sweet JP" is a snarky epithet hurled at him by the others because he’s too fair-minded to use landmines, rocket-propelled grenades or tactical nukes just to win a race. Shonoshee's epithet of "Charry Boy Hunter" comes from her percieved lack of interest in the opposite sex.
  • Kill Sat: Roboworld has one, and they use it twice: the first attempt, targeting the Supergrass ship carrying the REDLINE racers, fails thanks to Lynchman and Johnny-Boya sabotaging the cannons. The second attempt manages to destroy Funky Boy: however, it regenerates.
  • Large Ham: The president of Roboworld.
    • Also, Machinehead (well he is voiced by Michael McConnohie after all).
    • And let's not forget Colonel Volton, voiced by the largest ham of voice actors: Jamieson Price.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Sonoshee comments that her butt can be seen on the TV, while viewers of the movie can see her topless while eating cherries very suggestively during that particular moment.
  • Leitmotif: Most characters have them, though the notably reoccurring ones are Machinehead's, Lynchman and Johnny Boya's, and the Super Boins'.
  • Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: ALL of the racers (well, except Gori Rider). On the track, they're perfectly willing to blast each other with Sidewinder missiles, but off it, "We're all racers, we're here to show off how badass we are, not slaughter each other like those fuddy-duddy Roboworlders." Machinehead shows up while Little Deyzuna is picking a fight with Trava, and the mere presence of a seven-foot tall cyborg distracts the Roboworlder enough for the racer to wander off. He then gets in Machinehead's face, but the big man merely says "Fine. I'll walk around you." Heh. Manly men are Redliners, even when they're sexy girls.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Machinehead/God Wing.
  • Loveable Rogue: JP.
  • Made of Iron: Everyone qualifies for just surviving in their cars, but JP and Sonoshee deserve props for the former surviving at least 4 car crashes (One was at 300 km/h. JP was miraculously unharmed.) that we know of over the course of the movie, 3 without any sort of bodily harm, and Sonoshee being in his car in the final crash, both of them with no noticeable harm. Oh, and they were both on fire at the time.
    • Also, Tetsujin. He swallowed not one, but TWO steamlights and survived.
  • Magitek: Supergrass technology.
  • Manly Tears: Machinehead cried the first time he won the Redline.
  • Mauve Shirt: Big Deyzuna, whom we see a close up of when he's being vaporized by "funky-boy"
  • Meaningful Name: Bosbos, Boiboi and the boin part of "SUPERBOINS" are all japanese onomatopoeia for large bosoms bouncing.
    • Tetsujin, part of Machine Head's name, means Ironman in Japanese.
  • Mister Muffykins: Owned by Machinehead.
  • Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness: Most definitely on the soft end.
  • Moment Killer: The page picture was heading in the direction of an Almost Kiss-- until Shinkai decided to step in.
    • As the power up music got good during the final stretch, it suddenly stops and cuts to the remnants of the Roboworld army commenting on how they can't catch the Redliners. It then resumes with omnious music instead.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Bosbos and Boiboi. Sonoshee races in at a solid second place.
  • Multicoloured Hair: Sonoshee has green and pink hair. and Bosbos' hair is green and yellow
  • Naked in Mink: The "SUPERBOINS", Bosbos and Boiboi, are dressed like this during a televised interview.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The reason why the Roboworld government doesn't want the race to happen on their planet aside from having all their illegal arms building programs and labratories exposed is because they're afraid the commotion caused by the racers will wake up a Cthulhu-esque bio-weapon that they've created in said illegal research program. Guess what happens.(its Gori Rider's fault!!)
  • Nitro Boost: Several different types, with varying colors, strength -- and, of course, amount of damage to the car using it. JP uses "Gold Nitro", little capsules of awesomesauce he drops right into the transmission through a dash-mounted valve. Above everything else is the legendary "Steamlight", which appears to be collapsed antimatter stored in beautiful little sapphires. Sonoshee wears one as a necklace and drops it into JP's tank so they can match Machinehead in the final stretch.
  • Now Which One Was That Voice?: slight aversion, they provided the english dub credits after the japanese credits.
  • Off-Model: Expected due to its deranged nature.
  • One-Winged Angel: Colonel Volton.
  • Painting the Fourth Wall: JP can somehow hear what the Redline announcers are saying. And snark about it.
    • He is clearly shown to be switching off his in-car radio in the first race.
    • A particularly hilarious example during Redline (The actual race, mind you):

Announcer: "JP has somehow made it to Zone 7X with the other racers!"
JP, while his car does a wheelie on the wheel in the middle of his car: "What do you mean, somehow?!

  • Panty Shot: Despite the mink, Bosbos and Boiboi are not quite as daring as Sharon Stone.
  • Planet of Hats: Roboworld, though slightly different to how you might expect.
  • Putting on the Reich: The Roboworld flag resembles the Nazi flag, and their Mooks have a stormtrooper-esque look to them.
  • Rated "M" for Manly: Latches onto the part of the brain that likes high-speed racing, breasts, explosions and bright colours.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Trava and Shinkai.
  • Refuge in Audacity
  • Revenge Before Reason: Little Deyzuna is so set on making Trava and Shinkai pay for 'abandoning' him that he ends up going AWOL and joining the race
  • Rule of Cool
  • Rule of Fun
  • Scenery Porn: To quote Anonymous: "Every single frame is a goddamn wallpaper!"
  • Schizo-Tech: Apparently V8s and chopper style bikes will remain popular in the future.
  • Screw the Money, I Have Rules: Frisbee eventually becomes this when he sees just how close JP is to winning Redline, alongside a combination of guilt for nearly trashing JP's hopes and dreams twice and Inuki trying to alter the deal by having the Transam 'malfunction' before it reached first place.

"He's so close... I want to see him win, I want to see him win for once in his life!!"

"... fuck this, they're too fast."

  • Shout-Out: To various anime and western shows.
    • Sonoshee McLaren is probably named after the Formula One team / road-legal supercar manufacturer McLaren.
  • Sibling Team: Miki and Todoroki. Also, the 'SUPERBOINS' Bosbos and Boiboi.
  • Smoking Is Cool
  • Space Elves: The magical inhabitants of Supergrass, who are major backers of the Redline race and have submitted their own team, the Superboins.
  • Spy Catsuit: Bosbos and Boiboi.
  • Stealth Pun: The movie's title refers to the maximum engine speed at which an internal combustion engine or traction motor and its components are designed to operate without causing damage to the components themselves or other parts of the engine. It can also refer to the director's full embrace on the line quality of animation in this movie, since everything rendered in it is derived from a solid black line!
  • Stuff Blowing Up: Lots and lots of stuff. Especially JP. Twice. but he was fine both times.
  • Technology Porn
  • The Mafia: Inuki and his goons.
  • Transforming Mecha: the superboins' pink racer "Boincar".
    • also, roboworlds fighter aircraft
  • Transhuman: Old-fashioned humans are in the minority. Roboworld is full of cyborgs, and there are people with dog heads, or extra arms, and all sorts of nonhuman attributes, but it's not explained if they're transhumans or aliens.
  • Troper Critical Mass/Troperiffic: This movie is adored by tropers. Not to the extent of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann or other Troper Critical Mass works, but it's impressive for a 70-minute movie that seems to have been destined to become obscure.
  • Unusual User Interface: Reigning Redline Champion Machinehead and the denizens of Roboworld plug themselves into and literally become part of their vehicles.
    • Sonoshee's hovercraft racer uses a chopper style motorcycle handlebar setup for steering.
    • Miki goes into his part of the "bike" sideways.
  • Vehicular Combat
  • Wacky Racing: Taken to levels never before seen.
  • Weak but Skilled: JP
  • Weaponized Car: All of them, except JP's TRANSAM 20000, as JP refuses to have any weaponry mounted on it.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: JP using his Nitro Boost to rock-skip his car across an entire lake while it's spinning on its own axis upside down.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: There's all this dramatic build up for Funky Boy, but as soon as Volton turns himself into a monster and fights him head on, they both vanish from the plot and never return.
    • There was also a build-up for Miki and Todoroki seeking revenge on the Gori Rider, but that actually never comes up during the race.
  • Wilfully Weak: During their interview the Superboins Bosbos and Boiboi make it known that they won't be using magic out of respect for the other racers. Once it becomes apparent just what sort of hell Roboworld's got prepared for them, though, all bets are off.
  • Work Off the Debt: A much darker version. JP's friend Frisbee took out a loan from some mafia types to pay for an engine for JP to use in an upcoming race on the proviso that he won, unfortunately JP lost; as a result both Frisbee and JP had to work the debt off by fixing races (JP would hang back in last place until the final lap, shoot up to pole postion and then lose, though JP never exactly tried to follow the last part of the deal, causing Frisbee to make him lose by sabotaging his car). Worse still Frisbee got caught redhanded race fixing and JP served time for it (taking the fall for Frisbee) prior to the movie beginning.
  • X Meets Y: One reviewer summed it up as, "as if the cast of Top Gear raced through minefields on the North Korean border or the cast of the Cannonball Run took on Darth Vader."
  • You Gotta Have Colorful Hair: Boiboi has pink hair and Bosbos has green hair with yellow highlights. Trava has blue hair, though he's not exactly human. Sonoshee has green and pink hair, and JP's hair can be seen as a shade of blue in some scenes.
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