#REDLINE: The Definition of Holy Fucking Shit That's Cool as Fuck
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When watching anime, I like to think about what the director and other creative staff were thinking when making it. For REDLINE, I believe only two things were going through their heads: "How do we make this as cool as possible?" and "How many times can we make the viewer audibly say 'holy fucking shit'?" (in my case it was 14 times). Every aspect of this anime is designed from the ground up to be as cool as possible. From it's Unique art style and incredibly fun characters, to it's banging soundtrack and high octane action setpieces, everything about this movie just oozes coolness.
##Art/Animation
The first thing you'll notice when watching REDLINE is how cool it looks. The movie goes for a very comic book-esque art style, with vibrant colours and incredibly pronounced shading. This style gives every shot a great sense of depth and makes everything pop. It also gives the movie a very unique look compared to other anime. The character designers seem to have used this to their advantage to create some of the coolest character designs I've ever seen. Every character is very distinct and recognisable with an incredible air of coolness (
just look at this concept art ). The final cherry on top to complete
REDLINE's incredible looks is the incredible animation. As expected of MADHOUSE in their prime, they absolutely killed it in this movie. Every frame is completely hand drawn, and it absolutely pays off. The whole movie is very smooth, and race scenes are animated with very over the top, exaggerated movement, making them feel incredibly lively and bombastic. This is easily one of the best looking animated projects ever made.
Like seriously look at this shit, this movie is a sakuga fan's wet dream.
##Music
(This section is just going to be me gushing tbh)
This movie has the most kick-ass soundtrack I have ever heard in an anime. James Shimoji is an absolute fucking genius, and the second the first race starts and "Yellow Line" starts playing you will understand why. All the tracks that play during the races are some of the coolest, most hype-inducing, headbangingest (yes this is a real word don't look it up) tunes you will ever hear in your life, with the aforementioned "Yellow Line" being a highlight, along with "Vertical Drop" and "Redline". But this soundtrack isn't just hype ass tunes, it also delves into a wide variety of other sounds in its 78 minutes of music. There are some chill, funky tracks like "Shinkai" and "Mogura Oyaji", some tracks that sound like a PS1 racing game menu like "Oasis" and "Chatter Void", and even some lovely R&B style tracks like "And It's So Beautiful" and "Let me love you". The Redline Racers' introduction themes are also highlights, with all of them perfectly capturing the vibe of each racer ("MachineHead" and "Crab Sonoshee" are particularly excellent).
Soundtrack on Spotify if you want to take a listen
##Plot (spoiler free)
The plot of
REDLINE is beautiful in it's simplicity. The movie knows exactly what it is (cool as fuck) and what it is trying to do (be as cool as possible), and refuses to include anything that doesn't contribute to that. The movie doesn't waste time on pointless backstory, giving just enough to understand the context of the world and get to know the fun cast of characters. The time saved from this is used to set up incredibly unique and cool setpieces. The main cast of characters are well written and very likeable, ensuring their somewhat simple arcs still feel very satisfying, and while the Side characters aren't given much time or development, they make up for that with their incredibly fun personalities. The romance in this movie is also handled quite well. JP and Sonoshee have very good chemistry and their progress, while fast, is still believable.
##Final Thoughts
REDLINE is the coolest shit I've ever seen and my new favourite movie. This movie wastes no time on unnecessary complexity, it simply does exactly what it set out to do. Which is delivering a beautiful, over-the-top, and cool as fuck experience. (did I mention that it's cool)
