History Anime / SpeedRacer

* SillySimians: Chim-Chim is a chimpanzee that Sprtile's pet. Spritle Chim-Chim are forever getting into trouble and act as a source of comic relief for the show.

* SoapOperaDisease: In the episode "The Desperate Racer," Hap Hazard desperately wants to win a race so that he can cure his sick sister [[IllGirl Eloisa]]. What sickness Eloisa has is not elaborated upon.

** The English episodes released by Speed Racer Enterprises are rendered badly. The framerate and audio is slightly high pitched and faster, compare to how it was made originally, which only makes it UpToEleven of the characters speaking fast than it already is. This is noticeable if you watch the original Japanese version, or you listen to some of the original soundtrack pieces. The only episodes that are not affected prior to Funimation's releases are the ones released in the 1993 video (these include "The Car Hater" and "The Mammoth Car").

* MrFanservice: Again, Speed.

** In "Mach 5 vs. Mach 5," the Mach 5's EvilTwin had full-sized rocket-propelled wings that allowed it to fly under its own power, and a [[DeathRay Mismo Beam]].

* BrokenAesop: Speed's loss to Hap Hazard is supposed to be a stab at putting your pride before others' feelings and HonorBeforeReason attitudes, but it fumbles because 1. Hap Hazard proceeds to engage in serious UnsportsmanlikeGloating despite only winning on a technicality, and 2. Hap's sister seems to believe Speed ''intentionally'' threw the race for her, which he doesn't deny, so Speed ultimately ''Still'' comes out with his pride mostly intact.

* BigBrotherMentor: The mysterious Racer X will frequently give Speed advice for upcoming races, warn him of danger, and has saved his life on numerous occasions. However, he also does his best to win when he races against Speed, and Speed sees him as a rival. (Anyone who's watched the show for more than ten minutes will know that he actually ''is'' Speed's older brother, Rex Racer).

* CarFu: '''And how!''' This is frequently FullContactRacing, with cars that are weaponized to match.

* BigBrotherMentor: The mysterious Racer X, who is secretly Speed's older brother Rex Racer, will frequently give Speed advice for upcoming races, warn him of danger, and has saved Speed's life on numerous occasions. However, he also does his best to win his races against Speed, and Speed sees him as a rival.

%%* CarFu: '''And how!'''

* CoolCar: Pretty much the whole point of the show. The Mach 5 is not only fast, but it has auto jacks that double as a jumping mechanism, belt tires that allow it to safely drive through any rough terrain as well as sideways, sawblades to cut through heavily-wooded terrain, bullet-proof glass, illumination lights that make high beams look like nothing, the ability to drive while underwater, complete with periscope, (though the Mach 5 doesn't float and remains at the bottom of whatever body of water it is in) and a homing robot that can take pictures and send taped messages anywhere.

* MotorMouth: The dub is infamous for turning almost ''everyone'' into this, mainly because this was the heyday of anime dubbing, and the cast thought they had to keep up with the lip flaps (it doesn't help that Peter Fernandez was only given ''two days'' to dub each episode: the first to write the script, and the second to do the actual voice acting). Whenever somebody does a Speed Racer parody, this is always a necessary component. Though this helps as the series is about racing. This is averted when there are no lip flaps, such as Speed's explanation of the Mach 5s various functions.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: Chim-Chim is a chimpanzee that Sprtile's pet. Spritle Chim-Chim are forever getting into trouble and act as a source of comic relief for the show.

* BadassMustache Daisuke Mifune/Lionel "Pops" Racer.

* ShootTheShaggyDog: "Race for Revenge" ends with [[TheBadGuyWins Speed failing to stop Flash Marker's revenge plot as he had successfully wrecked the cars of two members of the Three Roses Club, killing them, only for [[LaserGuidedKarma Flash himself to crash into the side of a cliff in the process and die.]] Also, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking nobody wins this episode's race.]]

* SinisterCar: There exists, not a sinister car, but a sinister engine, the GRX, an engine so powerful that anyone who drives it inevitably crashes.

* MultilayerFacade: In the episode "The Fire Race," Kapetapek's champion race driver, Kabala, is revealed to be Racer X, leading to a scene where Kabal removes his mask, only to display the Racer X mask.

* ManOfAThousandVoices: The dub cast was made up of four people (one of which--Peter Fernandez--is uncredited for his voice acting role. The studio would only spring for three actors so writer/director Fernandez threw in his voice for free, primarily voicing the title character and Racer X).

** Worth of note is in the intro, when Speed knocks a car off the race track, sending it flying through the air, and crashes with an abnormally big explosion the size of a nuclear blast!

* EveryCarIsAPinto: Then again, these are high-performance race cars, and they did explode like that in real life in the 1950s and 60s.

* DreamSequence: In the episode "Motorcycle Apaches" Spritle falls asleep while driving a wagon and dreams he's a cowboy, geting into gunfights with outlaws in [[ArtShift a different art style]].

** Don't forget "The Mammoth Car," which was basically a rubber-wheeled train. One made of solid GOLD no less.

* CoolCar: Pretty much the whole point of the show. The Mach 5 is not only fast, but it has auto jacks that double as a jumping mechanism, belt tires that allow it to safely drive through any rough terrain as well as sideways, sawblades to cut through heavily-wooded terrain, bullet-proof glass, illumination lights that make high beams look like nothing, the ability to drive underwater like a submarine, complete with periscope, and a homing robot that can take pictures and send taped messages anywhere.

* SoapOperaDisease: In the episode "The Desperate Racer," Hap Hazard desperately wants to win a race so that he can cure his sick sister Eloisa. What sickness Eloisa has is not elaborated upon.

* ShootTheShaggyDog: "Race for Revenge" ends with [[TheBadGuyWins Speed failing to stop Flash Marker's revenge plot as he had successfully crashed out the Three Roses Club (possibly killing them)]], only for [[LaserGuidedKarma Flash himself to crash into the side of a cliff in the process and die.]] Also, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking nobody wins this episode's race.]]

* HollywoodMirage: In "The Desperate Desert Race," Sprittle and Chim-chim become lost in the desert and encounter one of these, jumping into the water and swimming, before they come to their senses and realize they're just rolling in sand.

* PiranhaProblem: In the episode "Crash in the Jungle," the villain threatens to lower Trixie and Sprittle into a tank of piranhas, then demonstrates how dangerous they are by throwing a lion into the tank. The lion is reduced to bones in seconds.