IGPX - buy or pass?

[aquapermanence]

Never seen the show on CN, but the reviews seem pretty favorable. Since the release is cheap and Production I.G is known for their impressive work, I figured I ought to ask for some opinions on the show.

So, for those who have seen it, either on CN or DVD, how is it? Visually? Characters? Plot? Is it like other sports shows, or is it more like a sci-fi adventure? How's the music? The translation? The dub?

I tend to favor shows that are quirky in appearance, mature in tone and theme, and have different things happen from episode to episode. My favorites include Tenchi Muyo, Berserk, and Evangelion, but my tastes are very broad and my collection fairly large. Popular shows I found myself disliking include Naruto, Inu Yasha, and Bleach.

[Nuriko]

Bought vol 1 on dvd and have no desire to continue. Characters are not unique and for a racing series or in the sports genre, it is seriously lacking in the music section. It just isn't there when it should be. You are suppose to feel pumped up and excited, but none of that. The only thing it has slightly appealing is the graphics, however it was offsetted by the weirdest robot designs.

It may be different if I hadn't seen GPX Cyber Formula, which is superior in every department. Even comparing the first 4 episodes of each, GPX Cyber Formula held my interest to get to the exciting parts of the story and races.

Also, bear in mind that I had huge expectations going in, so it is natural for me to be more disappointed when it doesn't live up to my standards.

[Gildor]

I had very low expectations when I started watching it on Toonami. Maybe thats why I found it to be surprisingly enjoyable. The actual racing part is fairly small part of the overall show. The main driver for the series is the chacracter interactions and how they develop against the backdrop of a stuggling, rookie team competing in the big leagues for the first time. Since such things appeal to me, I did like the series.

Having said that, I will agree its not a "OMG! BEST ANIME EVER!!" type show. If it doesn't appeal to you, then you'll hate it. Otherwise, its one of those enjoy it while you watch it, then move on, type shows.

[Hayate Kurogane]

First, a cut-and-paste of some thoughts I'd posted in the GA forum back in November, just after episode 4 aired:

[ QUOTE ]
Sakura-oneesama said in November:
I've seen every episode that's aired so far, which I guess is 4 at this point unless what aired on the first night was actually a single episode of twice the length rather than two back-to-back.

So far, I can't honestly give this show more than a 6 out of 10 overall, and a lot of that 6 comes from two things: the great work Production I.G did on the animation, and Liz, because she's hot and Michelle Rodriguez is very easy on the ears (though I admit I've never cared about her previously since she's been in movies in which I've had no interest at all).

Why am I not ecstatic about this show? I'm not sure what it's trying to accomplish.

It's easy to say it's got a sports anime thing going, but that's a disingenuous way of sidestepping the show's amazing ability to avoid telling us anything at all about the IG-1. How is it set up? Who races who, and when? And how is it decided? What's the ultimate goal? Y'know, those little things. It's one thing to make an anime about, say, baseball, a real and established sport, and forget to elaborate on the intricacies of the game since the game itself is fairly well-known, but to base a show around a made-up sport and fail to even touch on the broadest of broad strokes indicates a severe lapse in decent writing and direction.

The show has yet to display a decent balance between the racing aspect and the character aspect. Maybe it's the lack of information about the racing, as described above, that makes it seem off, but even the character aspect in and of itself seems lacking. Sure, we see the team hanging around the lounge and things of that sort, but there's a distinct sterility to the interactions that makes it harder than necessary to really get into the characters. Maybe that's intentional. But the show is supposed to be a fun show about racing, so that thought doesn't really hold up, unless there's some sort of profound message they're going to spring on us in a few episodes.

The individual episodes also have their own share of problems, which I can best sum up by saying that it almost feels like a longer show was taken and compressed to make a shorter show. That's not what was done, of course, but that's how it comes across. The episode that just aired last night, for example. The story about Amy and her parents always being at work and nobody remembering her birthday could easily have filled up an entire episode on its own, and done correctly, could've been very interesting and helped build up within the audience a lot of empathy for her character. Instead, we get a brief narrated flashback, a very quick conversation with a fellow team member, a bit of moping, and the cliched "oh, it's her birthday, and nobody's ever really celebrated it with her before, so let's have a surprise birthday party" situation, the end of which comes oddly and abruptly about three quarters of the way through the episode instead of at the end, just so the episode could instead end with a sort of dramatic cliffhanger featuring Takeshi and Cunningham. Not that their half of the episode was uninteresting, but it could also have been another episode by itself, without the cliffhanger and instead having the whole thing span a single episode.

Maybe the director's to blame. Mitsuru Hongo's not bad at what he does, but there's always been a significant amount of disjointedness and vagueness in his work. I put no stock in the idea that this show got somehow sabotaged or dumbed down during production because Cartoon Network was involved, or because it was going to be broadcast Stateside, or for any other reason someone might want to come up with that involves the Japanese being great and so on. It just seems to have ended up as a lackluster show in several ways. Lots of shows do.

So, that all seems overly critical and long-winded, but there's not too much discussion about this show so I feel the need to fill the void with something, even if it'll all just get discussed again in three months.

*saves this post for easy cut-and-pasting in three months*

I'm not writing the show off at all. Even if I've got some fundamental problems with it, it's still a fun show to watch, but I wouldn't be opposed to seeing it find some direction as it continues to progress.

But if not, there's always Liz to keep me watching.

[/ QUOTE ]

So, it's actually been five months, but those thoughts still stand.

Visually? It's phenomenal. Production I.G does damn fine work, and the money behind this project plus the motivation (or pressure, maybe) coming from the fact that the show was meant all along to be a hit in both Japan and the U.S. (I know, more and more shows are these days, but not quite in this way) means it looks very pretty.

Characters? The standard set of characters for this sort of show, plus the standard group dynamics. At the end of the first season (13 episodes), no real character development, either in terms of revelatory backstory or growth as a result of the events of the show. It's a static (though not entirely one-dimensional, at least) cast going through the motions. Move along, folks, nothing to see here.

Plot? There's racing. Oh, and occasionally some things like romance and in-fighting and rivalries and politics and such, but it's all very light and fluffy. But there's racing. No rise and fall to the story flow, but it looks cool.

As I note in my comments from five months back, it's basically sports anime. It sticks to a lot of the cliches, but it's worth pointing out that at least it's conscious enough to not be so heavy-handed about them as numerous other sports anime are (not that that's a bad thing, necessarily, since that's part of the charm of sport anime, but it does get tiring from time to time). If it wanted to be a sci-fi adventure, it'd have to be more like the original short episodes, or bother to explain why IGPX City is a utopia surrounded by an empty wasteland (like Appleseed... but with racing).

The music, oddly enough, works really well for me. I'm sure some find it crude, and others find it obnoxious, but I think it fits really well. The OP is a lot of fun with some good energy to it, and the ED is a pleasant ballad done by a Minami Kuribayashi side project.

If by translation you mean subtitles, I really can't say, since I have yet to watch it in Japanese or turn the subs on.

The dub is great. Whether you have a problem with so-called celebrity voice casting, I don't know, but everything turned out great. Haley Joel Osment does a fine job as our laid-back lead, Takeshi. As noted in November's comments, Michelle Rodriguez is very nice to listen to as Liz, one of our other two main pilots. Lance Henriksen delivers a fine performance as Andre, the team coach. And Mark Hamill makes his typically good (and inherently amusing) appearance as a villainous character. The rest of the cast are LA regulars, and are by no means phoning in their performances. I can't really think of any character of significance that I felt was lacking in terms of vocal performance. I can't comment on the accuracy of the dub script, since again, I haven't checked either the subs or the original Japanese, but there's nothing that stands out as a completely off-the-wall change. The dialogue seems to have been punched up just a tad more than usual; the word "dude" makes a frequent appearance, and some of the characters' syntax seems a bit more slangy than it really needs to be, but that may just be a representation of voice patterns and phrasing present in the original language. Either way, it works well with the show, and isn't distracting.

I would not call this show quirky in appearance or mature in tone and theme, and different things do not happen from episode to episode. It's a very laid-back show (a lot like its main character) that knows the rules and plays by them a bit too safely to be any sort of stand-out title. But it's not a bad show by any means. If you don't mind good clean fun with some great animation and a neat dub, then give it a shot. If you want something great or better, then go buy Gankutsuou (or whatever else). /images/graemlins/happy.gif

[lostnomad84]

The animation is above average. The story focuses mainly around the race, the side events from the races, and little on the character development of the team itself. The series started with potential but just doesn't really develop into anything. I can easily say pass on it.

[Gersen]

Pass.

The animation is good, but all the rest is below average. (IMHO of course /images/graemlins/wink.gif )

Gersen

[fujishig]

As bad as it seems to be... for 15 bucks with the funky puffy box, it's tempting me.

[Hayate Kurogane]

[ QUOTE ]
Fujishig said:
As bad as it seems to be... for 15 bucks with the funky puffy box, it's tempting me.

[/ QUOTE ]

For anyone who:

1) Is somewhat interested in the show.
2) Lives near a Best Buy.

Go drop $10 on the first disc, or get yourself a spare shirt (or rag for washing your car, or piece of cloth for your cat to sit on) and interesting box with the first disc for just $5 more. As I mention in my first post, I really can't call the show bad. The first disc (first 4 episodes) is awfully representative of the first season as a whole, so give it a try and see what you think.

[Leon_Belmont]

I agree with Sakura on this one. I caught like 4 or 5 episodes on CN and fairly enjoyed it though it was nothing to write home about. I'm really at the point where there's more anime than a normal person has time FOR anime, so shows like this don't really make the cut. It's your basic rise to the challenge shonen show.

But if you're talking value for dollar, yeah, volume 1 with goodies is as cheap as anime gets right now, so pick it up and give it a try if you're looking to kill some time. It'll no doubt get the job down, and these types of shows can hook you.

Though if you want the best competition shonen and money's not that tight go out and get something like Fighting Spirit. That show will floor you in the balls.

[AbeChinchilla]

Buy it for Haley Joel Osment.

*runs*

[animeforever'04]

[ QUOTE ]
AbeChinchilla said:
Buy it for Haley Joel Osment.

*runs*

[/ QUOTE ]
already done that! actualy for the japanese lang. runs the other Real fast

[geraldr]

[ QUOTE ]
Sakura Shinguji said:
[ QUOTE ]
Fujishig said:
As bad as it seems to be... for 15 bucks with the funky puffy box, it's tempting me.

[/ QUOTE ]

For anyone who:

1) Is somewhat interested in the show.
2) Lives near a Best Buy.

Go drop $10 on the first disc, or get yourself a spare shirt (or rag for washing your car, or piece of cloth for your cat to sit on) and interesting box with the first disc for just $5 more. As I mention in my first post, I really can't call the show bad. The first disc (first 4 episodes) is awfully representative of the first season as a whole, so give it a try and see what you think.

[/ QUOTE ]

I noticed this and wondered just how badly the show must be doing for them to be trying to get rid of the show. Maki Takeshima from Product IG also mentioned that the show was doing badly, and from what I can see of the show, that's not a surprise since I share other person's sentiments on the board and feel the show is seriously lacking. However, what kills the show more than anything else is the completley unlikable main character who has nothing going for him until you get around half-way through the series (which is far too long to wait for a character to develop any sort of character).

It's a shame really and I talked about this in a podcast I'm a member of (see shameless plug in my sig), but it seems to have done so badly that I wonder if Toonami will ever do another original series with Production IG? It's a shame since there might be some really good stuff that could happen, but this show seems to be a disaster, but really the creator brought it upon themselves. I mean did they really need to hire Haley Joel Osmond and Mark Hamill? There are fine (if not better) actors who would have done it for far less so that was a major waste of money and the show just not being very good also doesn't help.