Review for IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix - Season 2 (3 Discs)

Introduction

For every Part 1, there is a Part 2. You try reviewing two boxes of anime in short order and coming up with a second intro. When you do this as often as I have, you too will start paraphrasing from The Matrix: Revolutions. That's probably a call to the men in white coats, with the jackets that tie at the back. Regardless of my perilous grip on sanity, I shall soldier on regardless, for despite my lack of textual coherence, I found the first half of IGPX to be quite a surprise, a blend of US Saturday morning cartoon energy and enthusiasm, with an anime level of characterisation, story depth and detail. In other words, a whole lot of fun. I certainly didn't hesitate in placing disc 4 into the player and continuing where the first season left off. But if there is a sticking point, a potential flaw in the series, it's that this is a second season of a show about mecha racing. The first half covered one full season of a grand prix circuit, and this second half will cover another full season. It does threaten to be a rehash, and possibly even redundant.


In 2050, the world's biggest sport is the Immortal Grand Prix, the IGPX. It's so big that an entire city has grown up around it. Massive transforming robots race around a 60 mile elevated track, at speeds approaching 400 miles an hour. It's a team sport, three members in each team, the forward, the midfield, and the defender, and as they compete in the three-lap race, they jockey for position. The first lap is a formation lap, the second is a combat free for all, and the third is pure speed. Team Satomi doesn't exactly flow like clockwork. Takeshi Jin is the impetuous forward, goes in all guns blazing, and often forgets about the teamwork. Amy is the genius midfielder, who's a little timid, but has a good grasp of tactics. She pilots her mech with her pet cat Luca at her side. The hotheaded Liz is the defender, who is liable to take out her frustrations on Takeshi. Backing them up is the team manager Satomi, coach Andrei, mechanic Mark, and medic Jesse. And somehow despite their hit and miss teamwork, they managed to succeed in their first season in the upper echelons of the IG-1 league. But winning is one thing, defending a crown is something else completely, and with four teams looking to knock Satomi off their perches in this year's rematches, as well as a new rookie team in White Snow aiming to emulate Team Satomi, it's the worst possible time for a crisis of confidence, and for Team Satomi's teamwork to get even worse!


The thirteen episodes of Season 2 are presented in this three-disc collection, gathering the final three single volumes of the show into a very appealing art box.

Stage 4
14. A New Challenge
15. Feeling Lost
16. Vulnerable Mind
17. White Snow

Stage 5
18. Puzzle Rings
19. Takeshi, Go Forward
20. Comeback
21. Decision

Stage 6
22. Function Not Fashion
23. Fate
24. Winner's Circle
25. Hostile Contradiction
26. The End and The Beginning

Picture

You get a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer here, and as with the majority of anime, it's an NTSC-PAL standards conversion. That means, softness of image, blended frames, ghosting, and judder. However, as IGPX is a bright, shiny anime, with plenty of primary colours, and there is a degree of softness and haze deliberately applied to the image, it isn't one of those conversions that particularly annoys. The image is clear and well defined for the most part, and it brings out the animation to excellent effect. That's a good thing, as IGPX gets the full-budget treatment, a fully realised world design, appealing and consistent character designs, and fluidity and detail in the animation that is just shy of theatrical quality. You can see that Production I.G. have gone to town with this show, with top quality 2D animation, excellent CGI for the robot racing sequences, and toon shaded CGI for the character action sequences, that are almost indistinguishable from the traditional 2D sequences.

Sound

You also get the full-whack with the audio, with DD 5.1 in English, French, and Japanese, with optional translated English and French subtitles, as well as English and French signs only tracks. For once, these aren't just glorified stereo tracks, but full channel affairs that make the utmost use of the soundstage, with audio placement designed for all elements of the animation, not just making the various action sequences and races stand out. The English audio dub is as you would expect, a quality dub, and the added talent really shows. It isn't necessarily in the quality of the acting, it's just in the fact that you get voices different from the usual anime crowd in the main roles, and that alone sets the show apart. And once more, Cartoon Network's desire for localisation has crept into the subtitles, which aren't always as accurate a translation as they could be.

Extras

You get an art box with a fiery robot on the front (along with several logos), and with Cunningham of Team Velshtein in partial silhouette on the back. The BBFC sticker can be removed if you want, and there is also a sheet of blurb that can be stored in the box if you so like. The episodes are listed on the inside of the flap. The Amaray style cases of the final three volumes are collected within.

This being Beez, these are multilingual discs, and you have the option of English and French menus when inserting the discs. All three discs get animated menus, and I do feel they linger a little long on the animation, instead of getting directly to the option you require.

The trailers across all three discs comprise, Gundam SEED Destiny, My-Hime, Fantastic Children, and Eureka Seven.

French viewers get trailers for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Second Gig and Candidate for Goddess in addition to these.


Disc 4

Here you will find episode 4 of the IGPX: Original Pilot, where the team comes up against devastating odds in their battle, and also learn that there is something sinister in IGPX.

You will also find an interview with Lance Henriksen that lasts 12 minutes. He voices Andrei in the English version of the show, and he talks about the character and the story. He also talks about the differences between anime and US animation, as well as the differences in ADR and voice recording for original animation like the Tarzan feature. It's another smart and detailed interview and well worth watching.

Disc 5

Extras start to get scarce at this point, with the main attraction, the final episode of the IGPX: Original Pilot, Episode 5, where Takeshi has to pull out all the stops to avoid defeat, while the real reason behind IGPX is revealed.

You'll also find the textless credits here, with optional English, French, or Romanji trailers.

Disc 6

All you'll find here is a compilation video of all the IGPX pilot episodes, minus the opening and closing captions. Irritatingly, this is presented in letterbox format, unlike the anamorphic episodes on the first five volumes. The only soundtrack is English, with optional French subtitles.

Conclusion

I needn't have worried. IGPX Season 2 is certainly as much fun as the first season. It may be true that structurally, it follows a similar format, as we follow Team Satomi through another year on the racing circuit. You get the same format of races that cliffhanger over episodes, while half the runtime is devoted to character and back-story, again much the same as before. What makes this season different is they way that it approaches the story. This time Satomi are the champions rather than the underdogs, they have a reputation to uphold, and at the start of the season overconfidence has set in, for Takeshi at least. Also, this time there is a new rookie team to look out for, a new batch of underdogs that are storming up the leagues, and they quickly make Team Satomi look like yesterday's news. Add to that the personal issues that the various characters encounter, and this second season of IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix is really quite a different animal to the first season. But the races are still inventive and exciting, and they kept me at the edge of my seat once more in a way that racing in the real world has long since ceased to do.


Of course much of that comes down to the freewheeling, make-it-up-as-you-go-along nature of the sport. There really are no holds barred, anything goes on the racetrack, and rules and regulations would barely fill a sheet of A4. When a certain move appears too much like unsportsmanlike behaviour, it gets banned, but that doesn't mean that the team in question can't come up with something else that is sneaky and underhand. With that in mind, you'd think that it would be nigh on impossible for any team to come off as actual cheats. Even in the previous series, where Sledgemamma were underhand, sneaky, and vicious, that seemed more a function of their personalities and drive to win, rather than any actual cheating. After all, Satomi are just as inventive and improvisational in their tactics, they're just nicer about it. But this season's new bad boys, the ironically named Team White Snow, really do incite the urge to appeal to a referee. Their tactics, both on and off the racetrack are just dirty, and as a suitable villain to boo against in the show, they make for great foils.


And against all this, it looks like Team Satomi will just fall apart. When we see them at the start of the season, their enthusiasm and energy just seems to be lacking. Takeshi is resting on his laurels having won in their first season at the top, and is yet to realise just how much harder staying at the top actually is. He's coasting half-heartedly through the first races, expecting to win, and when it doesn't come as easy as he expects, he develops an attitude problem, taking out his frustrations on everyone around him. That doesn't do his relationship with Fantine of team Skylark any good. It also puts an imbalance in the team that also affects Liz and Amy. Amy's uncertain, and forgetting just why she liked the IGPX in the first place, while Liz, who was secretly sweet on Takeshi, finds that she doesn't like this new Takeshi very much. She's also distracted by some worrying news from her past, and it really does feel that the team is beginning to drift apart. It all comes to a head in the race against Team White Snow, where they get their first taste of just how malicious this new team is, when a horrific accident in the race sidelines Amy.


From that point on, it's a matter of rebuilding the team, and finding that spark that made them so special in the first place. Basically, it's Rocky III. My one disappointment with the first season was a lack of character focus. This second season doesn't go all the way to rectifying that, but we do get a little more depth for Takeshi, Liz and Amy, as well as some of the other characters in the show. We aren't going to see them suffer any major personal trauma, or plumb the depths of despair, but there is just enough dimension and thought to the way that they develop to increase the audience empathy. It's subtle, and it's measured, and it's almost invisible, which will probably be why I was so surprised to be grinning like an idiot at the end of the final episode, which ended on a very positive note in terms of the characters.


Both seasons of IGPX have turned out to be really great entertainment, surprisingly good fun when you consider just how ephemeral and lightweight the show actually is. It's not about saving the world, it's not about heartbreaking character stories, no lives are on the line, and the world doesn't end for anyone if something goes wrong. It's just racing, and racing presented in a ridiculous, over the top, yet utterly engaging and exciting way. The animation is very strong, the music is excellent, the voice casts in both languages give great performances, and in terms of production values and budget, this is a show from the very high end of the anime industry. It's almost a crime that like most Saturday morning cartoons, it is in the end utterly disposable fodder. You'll watch it, you'll have a blast, and then you'll forget about it. But I highly recommend that you do.