Since certain events of the 90s of the last century left ordinary citizens of our country virtually without their own cultural works, it is quite easy to understand the phenomenon that, in fact, every child of my generation was brought up with foreign works. They can be divided into two parts: western and eastern – and personally I grew up at a time when sometimes fans of one of these sides flatly refused to accept anything belonging to the other side. I have never been so radical and have always enjoyed both Western and Oriental art with pleasure, but at the same time tastes are tastes, and personally the European and American approach seems to me much more pleasant than the Asian one. But if there is something oriental in the world that everyone should see, then it seems to me that this is definitely a Redline anime.
It is difficult to talk about the Red Line, because, as one of the critics aptly said,
“Redline is not only the best of the animation world, but also, for the most part, animation for animation’s sake.”
The plot here is more for show: no one really follows it, and what kind of story can it be when futuristic car races with explosions and shootings take up half of the screen time. The laws of the world are not particularly publicized – and, again, what are the laws when we have magical girls in one car, anthropomorphic dogs in the second, a 35,000 horsepower engine in the third, and the fourth car is a cyborg at all, which is one with its car. A kind of kaleidoscope of fantasies, and it is necessary to look at the Red Line in the first (and only) turn precisely for the sake of these very fantasies.
And it’s definitely worth it. In terms of animation, Redline is without a doubt a masterpiece. First of all, it is worth mentioning that this tape is one of the latest hand-drawn anime. More than a hundred thousand frames were drawn for seven years and the result was worth it – these frames turned out to be beyond praise. The development of the Red Line began in the early noughties, and therefore everything that happens on the screen looks like a hymn to the past century. Here we have the style of the fifties, and the pop art of the sixties, and the futurism of the seventies, and the bright Sci-fi of the eighties, and the gloomy cyberpunk of the nineties – literally all in one bottle. Crazy races from Hanna-Barbera and Speedy Racer are mixed with Death Race 2000, the original Star Wars trilogy, the F-Zero video game series and Heavy Metal comics. An absolutely insane mix, while the colors are bright, saturated, the black lines are thick – absolutely everything looks… as much as possible. Just as much as possible. Maximum visualization… everything.
Among all this celebration of contrasts and colors, the central characters stand out especially. Especially the protagonist – JP – turned out to be as mundane as possible. He is not a cyborg stuffed with electronics, not an alien with tentacles; JP, on principle, does not put any weapons on his car, and his car, the Trans Am 20000, looks like an ordinary muscle car of the 80s without five minutes. In fact, the main character of Redline is a kind of island of something familiar to the viewer. The further away a minor character is from the protagonist, the more incomprehensible and crazier he is. As a result, it turns out that JP and his inner circle – childhood friend Frisbee, mechanic Old Man-El Topo, as well as Sonoshi’s main rival – are like a kind of anchor connecting animation with the viewer. It is these four who turn all the madness shown on the screen into something believable. While from the viewer’s point of view, the plot and the race are needed only for the sake of visual effects, from the point of view of our heroes, Redline is an event of a lifetime. They live in this truly fantastic world, and no matter what happens on the screen, the characters believe in what is happening, and the viewer unwittingly believes with them, no matter what game is going on on the screen.
The Trans Am 20000 is the only participant in the celebration, resembling an ordinary and more or less familiar car. However, the creators of Redline managed to achieve an amazing effect: against the background of monstrous aggregates from a galaxy far, far away, what should look everyday looks extremely unusual.
It is difficult to understand why the government of the planet Robomir considers the race to be an act of aggression and why the race is held on Robomir and not anywhere else. And it’s just as easy to understand why JP completely trusts Frisbee, despite the fact that the latter sabotages the main character’s car at the very beginning of the animation. In general, if you take a break for a second from the bright colors and the amazing action happening on the screen, and think for a second about the life of the central four, then their story turns out to be downright sad and almost ordinary. However, perhaps it is because of this contrast that everything that is happening looks so interesting, and the bad ending turns out to be truly happy. Could something more serious have happened in principle in the realities of the world shown? Yes, in principle, if you cross out forty minutes of racing and spend them building the laws of the universe and the plot, then it probably could have turned out well. But is it necessary? Honestly, I don’t think so. In the end, Redline is cool. Watching it is a pleasure. And, if you think about it, we have a lot of serious animations and films. But the frivolous ones, who at the same time are very good-looking and do not slide into utter surrealism? Units.
The progression of cars in the life of the main character is another extremely mundane and almost painfully close to reality thing. While intergalactic wars and races on anti-gravity wonderships are taking place around, the protagonist's idol in his childhood memories rides on something long, white, with huge fins, supercharging, pink interior and panoramic windshield - well, just the quintessence of the fifties. The hero himself began his career on a kind of black Corvette from the sixties. Well, at the time of the Red Line, JP is driving a Trans Am 20000 - even the name indicates a car from the seventies.
But all this is secondary. Genres, themes, plot, soundtrack – in this case, everything is relegated to the background. In general, the most important thing was said almost at the very beginning of this short review. And the bottom line is that the Red Line is something special that everyone should see, regardless of personal preferences and personal tastes. Yes, we have a protagonist with a pompadour and some very cool cars here – but this is a bonus. Just as it will be a bonus for someone that Redline is an anime. But the only thing that really matters is the fact that we have seven years of work in front of us, entirely aimed at making people simple… watched. A purposeful attempt to convey emotions directly with the help of successive paintings. Animation for the sake of animation. It’s definitely worth seeing. And if you’ve already seen it, it might even be worth looking again.
PS If you want to understand for sure whether you should watch this work of art, I present to your attention a four-minute pilot, released several years before the animation itself. I would like, of course, the quality is higher, but this short meter, unfortunately, was released only in this form. However, despite the previous remark, the pilot almost completely conveys all the main features of the full meter, and therefore, after watching it, it is quite possible to understand whether you want to see another hour and a half of exactly the same madness.And the quality of a VHS cassette only adds a certain charm.
