History Anime / RedLine

** His vehicle, Godwing, is no slouch in this department either. While everyone else's vehicles are at least believably car sized, Godwing is titanic, being almost as big as a small spaceship. And just like it's driver Godwing takes the brunt of Roboworld's firepower and is still commanding a lead, even if it has to destroy the ''racetrack itself'' to do so.

* MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness: Most definitely on the soft end.

Set in the far future, ''REDLINE'' is about the galaxy's biggest and deadliest illegal road race, only held every five years at a secret location not unveiled until practically the last minute. Naturally, everyone wants to take part, but to do so they have to qualify in one of the Yellowline races first. One such racer, 'Sweet JP', almost achieves it. Unfortunately, his prized yellow machine TRANSAM 20000 suddenly "malfunctions" just short of the finish line.

Waking up in hospital with an arm and a leg in casts and his dreams in tatters, JP is shocked to find he has in fact made the grade. It turns out the venue has been announced-- and it's the fascistic, authoritarian military superpower state of Roboworld, who aren't exactly pleased about their world being used as an impromptu racetrack and make it perfectly clear that they intend to stop the racers with extreme prejudice before the starting flag has even been dropped. As a result, two racers have already dropped out, and JP (through a popularity contest) is voted in.

Produced by Creator/{{Madhouse}} Studios, the directorial debut feature of Takeshi Koike and released in 2010 after spending half a decade in development, ''REDLINE'' is a racer movie unlike anything seen before and potentially one of the most daring and important anime movies of the decade. Visually, it's easy to see that Koike is a huge fan of western graphic art, and has been influenced as much by French comic artist Jean "Moebius" Giraud, the US animated film ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal'', cult UK sci-fi comic ''[[ComicBook/TwoThousandAD 2000 AD]]'', and even the ''StarWars'' movies as much as he has by the likes of Katsuhiro Otomo, Hiroyuki Imaishi or Leiji Matsumoto. Not that ''REDLINE'' feels or looks like a mash-up of different styles – somewhere in the visual chaos it unrelentingly throws at its audience it becomes something that is far more than the mere sum of parts, a unique piece of animation that at times doesn't even feel like anime in the traditional sense. It was also drawn - by hand - over the course of seven years.

* BadassGay: It is strongly implied Little Deyzuna is this by Shinkai, and he is frantically enraged and hysterical from Trava leaving what Shinkai implied was a romantic relationship during their time in the army.

AwesomeMusic: Yellow Line and Red Line Day - The first is a pumping rocking tune that is ideal for the action sequences. Red Line Day meanwhile is a gentle, breezy and somewhat melancholic track perfect for the movie's final scene and credits, wrapping up the anime perfectly.

* TroperCriticalMass[=/=]{{Troperiffic}}: This movie is ''adored'' by tropers. Not to the extent of Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann or other TroperCriticalMass works, but it's impressive for a 100-minute movie that seems to have been destined to become obscure.

* FingerlessGloves: JP.

* UsefulNotes/Bosozoku: Quite a bit of the cast are these JP, Sonoshee, Gori and even Old Man Mole. [[spoiler:Coming in at the climax to save Frisbee before he's killed by the Inuki mafia. Funnily enough however he borrows JP's bike.]]

->'''JP''': ''Someone's havin' doubts, huh? Hell, I'm just trying to keep this thing interesting. You can't write me off like that. You're just a voice, pal! YOU DON'T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT RACING!''

Bōsōzoku Quite a bit of the cast are these JP, Sonoshee, Gori, and even Old Man Mole. [[spoiler:Coming in at the climax to save Frisbee before he's killed by the

** Sonoshee's Crab Sonoshee, while not as fast as the [=TransAM=] 20000, has some decent offensive options and can take a lot of punishment, making it a JackOfAllStats. Its main gimmick, amphibiousness, falls into SituationalSword. On a course like the Redline, where any path (other than presumably outright air travel) is allowed as long as you get to your destination, an amphibious car can turn into a huge GameBreaker in the right situation, but on a course without water it's a waste of a feature.

* AbnormalAmmo: JP's mechanic Old Man Mole has a revolver shotgun that fires ''screwdrivers'', [[spoiler: and he uses it to [[BoomHeadshot devastating effect]] during his BigDamnHeroes [[DynamicEntry rescue of Frisbee]].]]

* AmphibiousAutomobile: Sonoshee's Crab Sonoshee, which uses a hovercraft engine.

* BadassDriver: Hell yes! All Redline racers would have to be if they want to take on Roboworld's racetrack ''while fighting the military forces there''.

* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler: Representative of the Inuki Group]] gets a two screwdrivers shot into his eyes from a shotgun.

* [[BountyHunter Bounty Hunters]]: Dynamic duo Lynchman and Johnny Boya.
* CaptainCrash: Any vehicle with wheels on it that JP sets foot in will end up becoming a smashed wreck, although it's never intentional.

* ChekhovsGun: Sonoshee's steamlight pendant, and the detonator on JP's car, though not in the way you'd expect-- [[spoiler:instead of being used to kill off JP's chances of winning, it was used to gain even more speed]].
* ColonelBadass: Colonel Volton, who commands his own special forces, has the authority to ''mobilize the planet's entire military force'', [[spoiler:and even [[OneWingedAngel turn into a monster]] capable of matching [[EldritchAbomination Funky Boy]].]]

** Sweet JP's [=TransAM=] 20000 and Trava and Shinkai's dragster are both poorly/not at all armed and with a power-to-weight ratio that borders on insane, slotting them both neatly into FragileSpeedster.

** [[spoiler: Little Deyzuna]], who shows up midway through the race and not even in a customized vehicle, is a JokeCharacter.
*** Could be considered a LethalJokeCharacter as despite being in a bog-standard vehicle he still managed to stay hot on the tails of the racers right up to the end.
* CoolBike: So many:
** JP uses a souped-up anti-gravity bike to get around Europass.
** Miki and Todoroki's bizarre racing vehicle, "Semimaru", has two wheels and six legs. Whether it's a {{cool bike}} or a {{spider tank}} depends entirely on which mode it's in at the time.
** Crab Sonoshee is steered like a bike.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: The pursuing Roboworld troops towards the end of the movie.

** Lynchman & Johnny Boya's introduction uses the famous spotlight scene from ''Anime/LupinIII''.

* SmokingIsCool: JP, JP, JP.

* VillainHasAPoint: Even though the people of Roboworld are warmongering assholes, they ''are'' merely defending their territory from what is essentially a foreign invasion.

* WeakButSkilled: JP

** Little Deyzuna violated Volton's orders and committed treason, the penalty of which is death, to join the race. However we don't know what happened to him after that.

** Sweet JP refuses to use weapons despite everyone else doing so. Even going to [[DeathWorld Roboworld]], the most he'll do is install an engine that is, at best, a danger to himself.

* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Nitro. A single dose can exponentially increase the power of an engine, but most engines can only handle one tiny cap of the stuff at most before the vehicle starts to break down from the strain and unless you're a really great driver, it's hard to maneuver a Nitro boosted car on any course that isn't a straight line. Most racers prefer "safer" upgrades like gadgets, armor, or firearms (Pops considers grafting a ''cannon'' onto the [=TransAM=] a more reasonable mod than installing an engine that can take ''three'' caps of Gold Nitro without blowing up). Some like Trava and Shinkai try to spoof the speeds granted by Nitro by using larger engines or even several at once. The fact that JP relies heavily on this feature and can weave past obstacles and other racers while using it makes him a favorite of the crowds and a WildCard dark horse upstart for his opponents.

* PantyShot: Despite the [[NakedInMink mink]], Bosbos and Boiboi are not quite as daring as [[Film/BasicInstinct Sharon Stone]].

* The final scenes build to a [[ImmodestOrgasm furious climax]] as the racers blast toward the finish line. In a triumphant denouement, after the racers [[SexualEuphemism have finished]], every one of them is panting, sweating and grinning in what looks like a state of post-coital bliss. They look up with approval at [[spoiler: Sonoshee and JP, who tenderly embrace one another and declare their love.]]

* DrivesLikeCrazy: ''Everybody''.

** The President of Roboworld makes grandiose statements about "ensuring justice" and "being a symbol of humanity that exists for peace". They also build an alarming number of weapons of mass destruction. Hmm.
** Godwing's tip looks suspiciously phallic when Machinehead activates the platinum nitro charge. It doesn't help that Machine''head'' is right at the tip of it glowing red and orange from the friction.

** She also does a good job of fending off Lynchman with the missiles and machine guns on the Crab Sonoshee

*** Or an even more similar, intentionally [[NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind giant bioweapon]] that spits lasers and was activated too soon.

* {{Gainaxing}}: Sonoshee after winning the Yellowline. Later on, the Boinboins get in on it too.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Sonoshee's talk about the steamlight on her pendant - "They say if you pop it in your tank, it releases 100 times more energy than gold nitro". [[spoiler:This is what JP ends up using to get a final boost near the end of the Redline]].

* AbnormalAmmo: JP's mechanic Old Man Mole has a revolver shotgun that fires ''screwdrivers'', [[spoiler: and he uses it to [[BoomHeadshot devastating effect]] during his BigDamnHeroes [[DynamicEntry rescue of Frisbee.]] ]]

** Sonoshee's Crab Sonoshee, while not as fast as the [=TransAM=] 20000, has some decent offensive options and can take a lot of punishment, making it a JackOfAllStats.
** The Superboins' Boincar, which is able to [[TransformingMecha transform into a humanoid mecha]] [[spoiler:and use magic to destroy military vehicles,]] is a MagicKnight.

* AntiClimax: Just before the Redline starts, the president of Roboworld orders [[spoiler:the planet's KillSat to be fired on the dropship. Nothing happens, as Lynchman and Johnny Boya had sabotaged it beforehand.]]

* PetTheDog: Literally, in Tetsujin's case.