YMMV / The New Adventures of Speed Racer

• Complete Monster: Caligula P. Barnum is the richest man in, and de facto ruler of, the world in the late 21st century. Barnum rules with an iron fist the only remaining city on Earth after a poison apocalypse, exploiting its people for profit and exiling anybody who disagrees with him into the toxic wastes. People exiled into the toxic wastes who—if they survive—are turned into monstrous mutants and used in slave labor for Barnum's empire or participants in deadly battle races for the amusement of the non-mutated population. After the popularity of the battle races decreases, Barnum uses a time machine to kidnap Speed Racer and force him to compete. Paranoid that Speed and his friend will try to stop the creation of mutants, Barnum sends his minion Des to assist the creator of the mutagens, Largo Sludge, in his work. Barnum ultimately sends his mutants to eliminate Speed and Racer X, having them attack Fontana Centre city and kidnap Speed's friends and family to become slaves, while supplying Largo with a new factory for his mutagens, which Barnum rigs to explode in order to create more toxic waste.
• Franchise Original Sin: This was the first show to the concept of time traveling, which was carried over to later installments such as Speed Racer X and Speed Racer: The Next Generation would use later. While the concept was novel, some fans felt like the time traveling idea was overused that it took away the original idea of what made Speed Racer novel in the first place.