johann05 - 2015-04-03 17:32:58

While I'd say the story is quite uninspired, the anime makes up for it with sheer amps to 11 action, a striking art direction, and fantastic sound design.

Characters are interesting if a bit cliche, but it's a case where the sum is really greater than the whole of its parts.  It's a fun, fast, crazy movie that's something I think everyone should see.

little.makenzie - 2015-02-25 23:17:53

Story: 6/10

The story of Redline follows JP (the protagonist) and his journey to win the ultimate racing tournament in the world which is known as Redline .The plot is
fairly simple but to be completly honest nobody cares about the plot when you see the first awsome glimpse of the race .Through the entire story we see fragments of earth being destroy and wicked explosions which are damaging our eyes with god dam awsomness ,but the story itself is ok and nothing special and pretty much cliche all the way .Don't get me wrong the story is undineably the aspect wich is the
least important for this anime but there is some lackment in the backstories of the characters which is quite bad because you want to know a bit more of their orgins and villans are pretty stupid because of their problem with the race .Overall this is an a ok story that you won't pay much attention to because of the amazing races on your screens ,but still it is never good to have a completly forgettable story.

Animation: 10/10

Oh my god this is truly eye candy and something you will remember for a very long time .Everything about the animation is superb: characters ,explosions,
scenes of practicualy cars breaking the sound barrier and going all the way and many other things that can't be put to words because they are just WOW .
Animation is done by MadHouse and I have to say that this is one of their best
works .

Sound: 9/10

The soundtrack is defenetly well suited for this movie. Rock tracks that will
keep you pumped all time and something that is worth mentoning is the sound
effects which are done beautifully and realisticly (When you hear for the first time that engine you will know what I am talking about.). The characters are voice acted well (most of them) and the only thing that I could find as flaws in the soundtrack
 were few tracks but  this is a minor issue.

Characters: 8/10

Characters are interesting and funny here and our protagonist is a complete package of  badassery and  awsomness ,he makes this show so much better ,not say that other characters are bad but they simply lack the charisma that  the protagonist has .I wil mention this again  and  that is that this characters don't have good backstories (None of them.) and some relations between the characters feel rushed and sudden ,but all of this characters will..
be remembered by their wackiness and humor.

Enjoyment: 9/10

Overall

Redline is an amazing anime film that you will remember for years to come .This show truly is good at what it sets its gold on and that is great and amazing races ,good humor ,great designs of chatacters rides,likable characters and
visuals that have a unique art style. The story sadly keeps this show from getting a perfect score (Which is sad because it had potencial to do so  and it  was  close.)
 and some minor issues that are not worth mentioning.Overall I would defenetly recommend this show to every anime fan ,because this a great anime for  turning your brain off and watching some excellent action.

bartell.hipolito - 2014-10-17 16:46:08

Redline is an odd film to think about. At its very well-presented surface there are racecars with rocket launchers that seem to fulfill a base desire for wanton destruction. But with such bombast in the film, it would be easy to assume the writing is shallow, isn’t great, or is even bad. That Redline actually has solid storytelling to go along with its senseless action is as much of a surprise to me is at might be to you.

But yes, the film does indeed have racecars/mechs/boats/whatever with rocket launchers as the first few minutes will prove. But the race the contestants are in isn’t the namesake, but a qualifying event called Yellowline. The story itself follows the exploits of JP, who lives and breathes racing, but unlike the other contestants his ride isn’t armed to the windshield. As Yellowline concludes, an unfortunate event causes him to lose the race, but as preparation for Redline starts, a string of coincidences give him another chance to compete in the race.

From there, most of the film spends its time building character relationships and motivations. I would say world building, but most if it is made on the spot for whatever would be cool to happen in that situation. The titular race is going to take place on Roboworld, a planet whose rulers really don’t want the race taking place there. Somehow, they’re obligated enough to let the racing committee set up shop for the race, but violent enough to attack the racers, whether at a diner or at the race itself. Said racing committee has rules about race rigging to protect its entrants, despite all of the racers being allowed to drive what are effectively war vehicles. Yeah. Really.

Don’t mistake my facetiousness for disdain though. There’s a certain charm in knowing that flirtatious twins who command a racing stripper mech...come from the royalty of a magical kingdom planet. And the incompetence of Roboworld’s rulers makes the thought of how they run the planet humorous. Very little of the setting from its rules on racing to eligibility for racing don’t align. The racing committee has rules in place to protect its entrants, but they don’t seem to mind letting a police officer and the convict he’s chasing compete. The only consistency here is how inconsistent everything is. It’s cool things for the sake of cool things.

But back to the characters, all of them are fairly archetypical. JP is the typical cool cat who lives for glory, Sonoshee the sexy love interest, and Frisbee the manager and friend who makes the tough decisions. There’s nothing else to say about them individually, but together their naturally connected backstories give a surprising amount of weight to their relationships. These backstories don’t say much, but they unfold in a deliberate pace to give an otherwise brash film a surprising amount of heart. It’s just a shame the main trio is held back by the film’s need to try and flesh out other characters.

But that doesn’t mean all of the other characters were poorly realized. Big Robot and Crybaby Robot (seriously, you won’t remember them by name) are naturally introduced as JP and his epic pompadour go around scouting out the competition. The other characters, not so much. They’re introduced in a brief way that makes sense, but at the same time it’s easy to spot that their only purpose will be an excuse to create explosions at the Redline race. If the film didn’t waste time to pretend it cares about its other characters, then that time could be used on the main trio to make them something more than solid.

Of course, watching this film for the deeper meaning of what it means to win or for a character study on JP would be missing the point. The reason to watch Redline is for its final act, where studio Madhouse delivers on the film’s tagline to ‘WITNESS THE FUTURE OF ANIMATION.’ Instead of seeing the visuals take shortcuts to give the illusion of speed, speed is seen as racers take shortcuts within the visuals. Every vibration from their engines shifts each vehicle ever so slightly as even their hair sways with each skid and drift. It’s smaller details on top of fast-swerving objects against gorgeous backdrops.

Part of what makes the backdrops—and characters—gorgeous is the artstyle of saturated contrast. Colors that are normally dull manage to shine, colors that normally shine are brilliant, and shadows don’t give colors varying shades, but are pure black and used to highlight details for stylistic effect. It’s an artstyle of extremes that creates subtlety to be appreciated during the slower moments of the film. And even when the film gains speed, the visuals never lose their radiance and detail.

Unfortunately, the soundtrack is underwhelming—not bad—by comparison. The number of distinct pieces can be counted on one hand. They’re fun while they play during parts of each race, but the limited number of tracks makes the action slightly boring to hear (but it’s always fun to watch). I say slightly boring because character dialog thankfully picks up the musical slack, as the refreshing trash talk between contestants breaks the monotony of engines roaring. The non-action parts of the film especially rely on dialog to keeps things interesting, and for the most part it succeeds.

But it’s that non-action part of the film that I need to bring special attention to. Understandably, a film focused on spectacle still needs compelling enough characters to make the action worth caring about. And they ARE solid characters. At the same time, ‘solid’ might not be enough to hold everyone’s interest for most of the film, especially when it’s the animation—the action-packed animation—that’s the main draw of the film. For a story with characters who make split-second decisions, viewers will ironically need a small measure of patience.

Still, these faults aren’t enough to make Redline a bad or even average film. It’s uneventful moments are still energetic, the setting pulls off a casual disregard of consistency for coolness, and the character interaction believably builds backstory. Overall, no part of the film is ‘bad’ because even its weakest parts are still ‘good.’ With just enough human drama to accelerate the spectacle of racecars with rocket launchers, Redline will leave you at the edge of your driver’s seat.

ethel92 - 2014-09-07 19:47:50

Redline is a film with good visuals and music, but not much else. Famous for having "SEVEN YEARS [of] HAND DRAWN [animation]", the effort certainly shows. The funky soundtrack (Machineheeeeaaaaad!) is equally enjoyable. However, plot and character development are almost nonexistent. Redline is a fun ride, but that is all that it is, a ride. It doesn't have the lasting effect that a good film should. Regardless, it is worth a watch for the animation and music alone.

kovacek.gabe - 2014-07-10 22:57:08

This entire movie was beautiful. You could also tell where the anime "Space Dandy" got a lot of its influences from.

aufderhar.frederique - 2014-02-16 06:27:29

So this film we’ve got here is called Redline. It is a Studio Madhouse production directed by Takeshi Koike. It is quite enjoyable and the storyline is quite simple but that doesn’t mean that it is bad. It is one of those action-packed films I can't help but love.

What is Redline about? (Story):

Redline itself is the name of a major racing tournament; a series of races that take place every half a decade. The film introduces the two main characters at the start in a preliminary race. After that the preparations for the final race on Roboworld begin. The racers themselves prepare and it takes a couple of days for the race to start. A chunk of the film is learning about the characters and some of the dangers of Roboworld; this half was interesting but it felt like it was lacking something, perhaps it was action but that is made up for in the second half of the film. The Roboworld dudes have a problem with the race taking place on their planet so they try to stop the racers in their tracks. The second half is actual racing and it is wonderful, action packed and infused with adrenaline.

Story: 6/10 Decent

How does it look? (Animation):

(Example of Animation)

If I had to use one word to describe the overall animation and art in Redline I would use ‘sexy’.

This is one of the best parts of the film. The style is really nice. The lighting and overall style reminded me of the Gurren Lagann Eyecatches when I first saw it. The animation itself is sweet and it really shines during the action/racing sequences. The background work is nice too. The GIF doesn't give it enough credit, with sound it gets the extra bit of weight.

Animation: 9/10 Amazing

How does it sound? (Sound):

(Example of Sound)

The music is wonderful and it just adds to the overall mood. There are 42 songs in the soundtrack so there is plenty of variety, a nice touch was that most of the racers have their own theme song. The sound effects are really nice and fit the film nicely, as does the voice acting. The English dub is just as good as the Japanese dub.

Sound: 9/10 Amazing

What about the characters? (Character):

(Example of Character)

The thing I found when I was watching Redline was that a large majority of the cast was interesting but they built upon. We got their backstory but not much else. It is a shame since I was genuinely interested in some of the other racers and they didn’t get a chance to develop as much as JP or Sonoshee. Even though the character development is one of the weaker parts of the film it is still okay and we get to understand the universe a little. This is an action flick so it is understandable that the characters would be a weak point but it is still fun to watch despite this small con.

Character: 7/10 Good

How’d I enjoy Redline? (Enjoyment):

Redline is one of the anime flicks that I enjoyed watching a lot. It didn’t really have much balance between action and not-action parts but the soundtrack and artwork easily made up for that. It was fun and it is something I would be able to watch over and over again if I really desired to do that. The characters and their backstories were interesting; the whole thing is great to watch. It really gets my blood pumping.

Enjoyment: 8/10 Great

I’d like to reiterate the strong points of this film if you didn’t get them. The art was AMAZING, the soundtrack was SWEET and the characters; while most of them didn’t get much development with the exception of flashbacks or information from the in-universe broadcasts they were AWESOME. It is definitely one of my favourite anime movies despite some very minor pitfalls. This film is a great way to burn time during the weekend or any other time of the week. Give it a watch in either the sub or dub both are good since this is a great film.

mayer.darius - 2014-01-31 10:13:58

"Redline" is a film of style. It is a simple story that doesn't take itself too seriously. But this piece is truly art, you could watch it for that reason alone.

It's reminiscent of something Gainax would produce, but with a little extra kick of spice added.

The story of a racer who just can't turn down any race, along with everyone else in this film.

This film makes me think of a film version of an uncensored F-Zero.

For the art department. This movie should win an award. This is seriously the reason to watch this film. The execution, character design, machines, action, SPEED! Everything is done with excellent detail, and you really feel like you're apart of these races. Just beautiful.

Takeshi Koike should direct more anime features.

As for characters, most are very obvious. Mainly all characters are adrenaline junkies who want more speed and want to WIN!

Many plot points are quite obvious and cliche, and you will know all of them as soon as you watch the film. Does this take away from the experience? Not. At. ALL!

JP is an old fashioned racer, with the help of his mechanic, an old friend Frisbee, he can win. If it were not for Frisbee fixing the races because of his deals with the mafia.

Sonoshee is one sexy babe, and she's the :Spoiler: love interest for JP in this picture (It's no spoiler). Her dream is to win the Redline.

There are many other quirky supporting characters that enter races, qualify for the Redline, and get in JP's way.

But, it's all in the execution.

The sound department in this production. The SFX should get an award as well, especially with the well executed explosions and vehicle sounds.

All the seiyuu are excellent.

The music is very good as well, it reminds me even more of F-Zero.

---

If you are interested in any way in speed, animation, execution, and style, you're at the right place.

This is quite a beautiful film!

This film deserves my 10, because it does what it is trying to do perfectly.

Beautiful art, fast paced story with some well executed down time, and a perfect experience!

Another great Madhouse production has hit streets.

As I said before, Takeshi Koike should direct more anime features!

king.ismael - 2013-09-13 21:47:42

For me after seen this movie, I only can say that looks like Wacky Races reborn in Anime via Madhouse Studio.

Redline

Warning this review could contain spoilers!

If the reader wasn't watched this anime, this could reduce the enjoyment!

For instance Sasuke will kill Naruto in season finale!

See the danger of a Spoiler? Now this was a lie, only to show the power of a spoiler!

The reader was been warned!

Now Let's Get Started:

"Wacky Races goes to a Madhouse!!"

Movie Directed by - Takeshi Koike

Studio - Madhouse

Year - 2009

Scenario

In a world were technological reach to his peak (earth in the future), were cars can fly, an organization comes up with a brilliant, crazy, no fear race! the Redline Race. A world that to me makes me remind the bars presented in the movies of Start Wars! Basically to run in this race your car needs to had a nice pair of wheels. :)

Analysis

I like to start for the opening, and this add what is needed to an anime film op, short and great! With the great detail of saying the name of the director :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESi7uGMNaMs

(Movie opening)

Sorry it had to be done! Bellow the real trailer of Redline.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2H_FsmxWzc

The history was pretty plain and simple, they show how to qualifies to the race, they presented the racers, presented the pass of the mains characters (with a little feud), and they done the race in what appears in the planet of the organization of the Redline race worst enemy, that swear to kill all the racers!

The animation of the characters, or by the way of the whole world, sincerely i didn't liked, it was pretty rough and a little ugly!

In overall if you like of races, in a total chaos universe this is your movie, if you prefer a movie with a plot more complex, stay way from this movie!

*Watched by me in 2013 - originally released in 2009

If you like this review you can find more in my Blog:

http://inanimeshadow.blogspot.pt/

greyson33 - 2013-05-22 09:19:55

Someone showed the Japan­ese ‘Wacky Races’. They were not impressed. “They call this ‘wacky’?”, they said. “We’ll show them wacky”.You have never seen an anime like this before.Red­line is an experience.The story is about some punk-ass racing driver JP. He’s got­ten him­self into some match-fixing scan­dals but, due to some unfore­see­able coin­cid­ences, he wound up qual­i­fy­ing for Red­line, the worlds biggest racing event. The only rule is your vehicle must use wheels. Plus, to make things inter­est­ing, they decided to hold the race on Roboplanet, home to a war­ring civil­isa­tion who vow to kill any racers who dare enter their planet. Why hold the race there? So the TV rat­ings for the galaxy air­ing of Red­line shoot through the roof and so the anim­at­ors have plenty of oppor­tun­it­ies to anim­ate pretty explosions.Not that any of this really mat­ters. The plot is a tedi­ous frivolity that’s just there to jus­tify the crazy sequences they put these char­ac­ters through. You couldn’t even hear the expos­i­tion and explan­at­ory dia­logue over the explo­sions, rev­ving engines and thump­ing soundtrack, to the point that sub­titles would often appear on the screen when I couldn’t hear any­one actu­ally say­ing any­thing. The real sign of this is the final scene, which I won’t spoil, but acts as a sign by the cre­at­ors that you weren’t meant to be tak­ing this ser­i­ously in any way, shape or form. It’s such a bril­liantly corny way to end the movie that you can’t help but applaud the auda­city of it all.Red­line is all about the visual exper­i­ence. As little import­ance as they might have had, it’s really a shame I had to pay some degree of atten­tion to the sub­titles because I prob­ably missed so many little details. Each scene is full of little eye­c­atches to com­pli­ment the over­all pic­ture. From the Red­line cham­pion Iron­head, a 3 metre tall fella with a head of, sur­prise sur­prise, iron, strok­ing his teeny tiny dog dur­ing an inter­view, or the hero in JP’s dream snog­ging two girls at once, the movie is full of these little amus­ing details that act as winks to the audi­ence. I’d almost say it didn’t have enough of these, which is kinda like say­ing Death Note needed more Latin chant­ing, but I could have done with a few less explo­sions and a few more cars fly­ing through the air with their wind­screen wipers on. There’s only so many ways you can make an explo­sion look inter­est­ing. I’m pretty sure Red­line used up every single method, and made up a few of it’s own, but the eccent­ri­cit­ies with anim­at­ing other incid­ents is what made me love this movie.Red­line is aim­ing to have as much fun as pos­sible. That’s how the brain behind the series works and drives what the movie does next. Com­pare this to Panty and Stock­ing for a second. P&S uses the auda­city of it’s anim­a­tion tech­niques to pro­voke shocked responses of “OMG did they just do that!?!”. Red­line uses it’s anim­a­tion for the power of fun. You can tell how much the cre­at­ors enjoyed work­ing on this. If any­thing, it looks like they might have had too much fun and were forced to cut out parts of the movie to make it more man­age­able. There cer­tainly appeared to be a chunk of the final race miss­ing as it leaped from mid­way point to the fin­ish line. All things con­sidered, they prob­ably made the right choice if they cut out some scenes from there. The movie was just the right length, any­more might have killed the fun just that little bit, but it did leave the final race feel­ing a little bit disjointed.Ulti­mately, because of the dis­reg­ard for nar­rat­ive, the movie doesn’t hold much weight. Hence I don’t think it will make quite the splash some of the early reviews pre­dicted it would make. But Red­line is such an incred­ibly fun film that I find it hard to see how people won’t get sucked in by it’s atmo­sphere and inten­tions, grin­ning like a maniac right the way through the film. Are you not enter­tained? Is this not why you are here?::Edit:: I've seen this movie 3 times now and decided to hike the score up from an 8 to a 9. If anything, it gets more fun with each rewatch

lubowitz.alberta - 2013-03-15 13:28:45

::TRAILER::http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t26m_Q6ENo::TRAILER::So, let's talk about Redline!I watched this film (English Dub) last night, and I have to say it is the best motherfucking anime movie I had seen in so goddamn long. I can't shit out enough profanity to express how many assess Redline kicks! A masterpiece that took seven years to construct, consisting of nothing but authentic, hand-drawn, comicbook-styled animation from the pumps of the high heals to the feathered hair of a pompadour, with an enthralling soundtrack written to compliment every single frame, not to mention the excitable yet simply delicious plot, Redline screams of exuberance and and adrenaline. An ingenious production birthed only by a crew seeking to spin the wheels of anime offroad, against the traffic of the industry's current and monotonous trends in story and style, animation and action.Redline is more than just shounen-inspired work with an heavy injection of adulthood. The entire movie is a wild ride to the finish line, decorated with alien dogs, babes, badasses, bioweapon, pop-culture references, explosions and more vividly designed cars than your dad's Hot Wheel collection could ever hope to boast. Perfect from start to end, Redline does more than justice to the word's definition; "the maximum engine speed at which an internal combustion engine or traction motor and its components are designed to operate." I can't wait to re-watch (Japanese Dub w/ Subs) such a great example of what anime was, is, and can be.If you would like to know more about Redline, then check out the following links OR just hurry up and watch the fuck out of that movie:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redline_(2009_film)http://myanimelist.net/anime/6675/Redlinehttp://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6456