Redline (2009 film)

On the planet Dorothy, "Sweet" JP races in the Yellowline car race, the final elimination race to the most popular race in the galaxy, the Redline. JP's alien mechanic, Frisbee, watches the televised race along with a mafia boss, with whom they have fixed the race. When JP, who was supposed to come in 2nd place, attempts to win anyway, Frisbee resorts to remotely detonating an explosive hidden under JP's TransAM20000, thereby making Sonoshee "Cherry Boy Hunter" McLaren the final winner. While recuperating from the explosion in a hospital, Frisbee tells JP he's off the hook with his bondsman. JP initially turns down the money but a crowd of reporters storms the hospital room where JP learns that he has been voted by popular demand for the Redline following the dropout of two qualifiers due to the revelation of the race's location being on Roboworld — a planet dominated by militant zealot cyborgs whose President has threatened on to hang all involved with the Redline mothership if it appears out of hyperspace over their planet.

The racers prepare for Redline by camping out on EUЯPSS, a demilitarized moon of Roboworld occupied by refugees in the M-3 Nebula Federation. There, JP tries to sign his alien junk dealer Old Man Mole onto his team. Old Man Mole protests the presence of Frisbee on their team, and Frisbee’s insistence on using a rare uncontrollable hyper-powered engine, but eventually gives in to JP's convincing. JP finds Sonoshee in a restaurant on the moon, where many of the racers are converging. Trava, a racer, is attacked by Little Deyzuna, a recently AWOL subordinate of Col. Volton, but the restaurant is soon raided by Col. Volton and a squad of Roboworld soldiers. Volton reminds the racers any Redline event will be repelled by the army and police before retrieving Deyzuna and leaving the damaged restaurant. Fireworks celebrations and bookmaker agent desks break out on Roboworld despite the threats from the military, and are raided by deadly android police robots. Miners on Roboworld use their power suits to sabotage the military base's power station while the Race Commission hires Earth-native racing partners Lynchman and Johnny Boya to sabotage an Orbital Disintegration Cannon, which Secretary of Defense Titan plans to use to destroy the Redline mothership the instant it comes out of hyperspace.

While in hyperspace, the Princess from the planet Supergrass marks the race course on the military base with a pair of scout vessels. Unaware of the sabotage against the Orbital Disintegration Cannon, the President realizes the racers are on the planet after the cannon fails, and sends his troops en masse at the racers. The President becomes increasingly desperate as the racers evade them and approach the mine-laden Zone "Seven-Ex", lair of a secret illegal biological weapon named 'Funky Boy', who awakens from its stasis as the racers and the rebellious miners converge on it. With the several hundred foot tall Funky Boy awakening and subsequent destruction of the base coinciding with the orbital cannon coming back online, the President orders Funky Boy fired upon. The explosion takes out most of the Roboworld troops while JP pushes to right his overturned car off its side. Sonoshee, her vehicle totaled, agrees to ride with him to the finish line as Funky Boy regenerates. Funky Boy is taken out by Col. Volton, who dangerously merges with another bioweapon to do so. Frisbee watches the race in the mob boss's hovercraft, where he revives the same deal as Yellowline. Frisbee however, refuses to detonate the explosive charge, wanting to see his friend win just one time. He is attacked by mobsters for his decision but is saved by Old Man Mole, who discovered Frisbee's sabotage, and kills the mob boss and his lackeys. As the race nears the finish line, long time winner and Redline favourite Machinehead and JP race to the southern line boosted by their rare Steamlight boosters. As they come to a desperate neck-and-neck finish, a drunken Old Man Mole accidentally detonates Frisbee's remote explosive, propelling JP and Sonoshee towards the finish line, thrown from their vehicle. The boost is enough and JP wins by the length of his long duck tail pompadour. As the racers rest at the end of the track amidst the ruins of Roboworld, JP and Sonoshee float back down to the ground kissing and declaring their love for each other.

In 2003, prior to Redline's production and release, a prelude anime OVA entitled Trava: Fist Planet was released, featuring two characters (Trava and Shinkai) who would reappear as key characters in Redline.

Redline was produced by Madhouse,[4] and directed by Takeshi Koike, who also wrote the storyboard and served as unit director and animation director. The film's producers were Yukiko Koike and Kentarō Yoshida. Masahiro Fukushima served as executive producer. The task of writing the script was shared by Yoji Enokido, Katsuhito Ishii, and Yoshiki Sakurai. The film's character designs, original and otherwise, were done by Katsuhito Ishii, who also served as one of the film's sound directors, the other being Youji Shimizu. The film's music was composed by James Shimoji.[5] According to Tim Maughan of Anime News Network, Redline was released several years later than originally planned. Its development took seven years and used 100,000 hand-made drawings,[6] which Maughan notes is all the more unusual as it is Koike's directorial debut.[5]

Redline was initially meant to premiere at the 2009 Annecy International Animated Film Festival and follow Summer Wars, Mai Mai Miracle, and Yona Yona Penguin as the fourth and final feature film Madhouse planned to release between summer 2009 and spring 2010.[7] Instead, it premiered during the Locarno International Film Festival in August of the same year.[8][9] Several more advance screenings were done at international film festivals during 2010.[10] In May, Redline was shown during the Sci-Fi-London 9.[11][12] In June, it participated in Annecy 2010 in the category "Feature Films out of competition".[13] During September, it was shown in Australia and New Zealand as part of Reel Anime 2010.[14] Redline was shown in Austin, Texas on September 23,[10] and in Edinburgh, Scotland, on October 15 as part of the Scotland Loves Anime film festival.[15] At the 2010 Nantes Utopiales Sci-Fi festival, the film received the special mention of jury and public. The film opened in Japan on October 9, 2010. Coinciding with this, the film was shown in a San Francisco-based Viz Cinema theater from October 8–14, 2010. Distribution in North America is handled by Manga Entertainment.[4] It was the last new product released through the American division of Manga before they ceased distributing new titles in the States.

An official soundtrack to the film by James Shimoji (ジェイムス下地) was released under GBC label on October 6, 2010[16] and contains 42 tracks.[17] It ranked 207th on Oricon's album chart.[18]

• List of films shot over three or more years

• Official Japanese Website (in Japanese)
• Redline at IMDb
• Redline (film) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia