More, More, More REDLINE!!!

I. REDLINE RACES

No, I’m not talking about that kind of races, but about flesh and blood ones.

I’ve done a lot of research on the paltry information available (to me, anyway) on this matter, and I’ll lay it all out in this post along with lots of reckless and tenuously argued speculation.  Since REDLINE masterminds Ishii and Koike love the concept of crossover characters in what seems to be a unified metaverse, I have dipped into two other works besides REDLINE: TRAVA and Hal and Bons.  I absolutely recommend TRAVA.  As for Hal and Bons, it’s pure Japanese-style banter comedy, and I found it very much a hit and miss experience.  The reason the banter works well in REDLINE and TRAVA is because of the surrounding situation and circumstances, whereas in that show all of that is nonexistent.  Anyway, Hal and Bons episode 1 (with English subtitles) is on YouTube so check it out.

The information in green is canon and comes from the REDLINE website and other promotional material.

A. JP = (Presumed) Human.

It’s a sign of the playfulness of the REDLINE creators that we can’t even be sure what JP is.  All the official info says that he is presumed to be Human, but…  But what??  Well, look at his ears.  They are rather freakish.  They are “elven”.  Other characters in this universe have such ears and hopefully we’ll be able to come up with some ideas of what JP could be (if not simply Human) as we go along.

B. Miki and Todoroki = Human.  From Japan Block on Earthship (an artificial planet modeled after Earth).

OK, with this we can be sure that there are plain and simple Humans in this universe.  I’m guessing Earth was destroyed and Earthship is a close replica, right down to the countries it contains.  By the way, the president of Roboworld speaks of his own planet as a beacon of peace for humanity, so there’s more good evidence that Humans do still exist but that something really dreadful has happened to them (there’s also mention of two interplanetary wars).

BTW, these two characters are based on two friends of the creators, and the same men voice the characters themselves!  Miki and Todoroki represent the average, anime-loving Japanese male.  JP represents the cool Japanese dude that guys like Miki and Todoroki dream of becoming (and fittingly enough, JP is voiced by superstar icon Takuya Kimura, member of the group SMAP, for which Koike had worked as an animator before!).

C. Bons = From Planet Dorothy.

Here’s one of the crossover characters: Bons from Hal and Bons.  We only get told that he’s from Dorothy, the planet hosting Yellowline in the film.  Dorothy has many of these doglike creatures, and for my purposes I will dub this the Supercanine race.  Why do I have a feeling that the planet is named after Wizard of Oz (with tie-in to Toto)?!

D. Machine Head Tetsujin = Oceanic.  Hybrid.

This designation of “hybrid” will come up a lot.  Most of the important characters in the REDLINE universe are hybrids.  I imagine that this hybridity can come about artificially (probably genetic engineering) as well as naturally (mommy and daddy of separate races).

Tetsujin is mechanically enhanced to such an extent that it’s impossible to tell what a pure Oceanic would look like just from staring at his big face.  Thankfully, we have other members of the Oceanic race in the film.

E. Shinkai = Oceanic.  Hybrid.

Honestly, my appreciation of Shinkai’s entrance in REDLINE (around 30 minutes in) soared after watching TRAVA.  It really did.

Shinkai doesn’t look anything like Tetsujin, but since they’re both hybrids that’s not so surprising.  But don’t lose hope, we have more information from TRAVA.  There we are told that Shinkai belongs to the Chikulun race, and it’s hinted that he’s not pure Chikulun and he has issues because of it.  Putting these pieces of information together we can infer Shinkai is half-Oceanic half-Chikulun.  Now the question is which race is responsible for his red scales and fishy looks…

F. Sonoshee = Half-Human half-Oceanic.

IMHO it’s awesome a) that the restaurant scene in REDLINE has three hybrid members of the same race (Oceanic) and b) that it happens to be a seafood restaurant , c) that Sonoshee’s first shot is as if underwater and d) that we have no way of knowing any of this from just watching the film because it’s never stated!!!  The film is not only playful, it’s really spare with what it chooses to tell us [think of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and how Tolkien kept from his readers so much background that he had so painstakingly developed, only giving them what he thought they needed to know to understand the specific war involving Sauron’s Ring]  By the way, according to the official REDLINE site, a half-Human half-Oceanic is nicknamed a “mermaid”.

Sonoshee is key, because if you look at her she seems perfectly Human.  What that tells us is that Oceanics are practically indistinguishable from Humans, which means that Shinkai’s peculiar traits must be due to his Chikulun side (and this makes sense from hints in TRAVA).  It also means that we would expect Tetsujin before his “enhancements” to have looked very much like a normal Human being.

It makes sense that a humanoid race that loved the sea so much they were dubbed Oceanic would, at some point, intermingle with a fish-like race.  Shinkai makes sense then.  I wonder if the so-called Oceanics are simply a branch of the Human race that adapted itself to the sea.  Speculation aside, notice how Sonoshee is associated with the oceans: in Yellowline Sonoshee opts for racing on the water and she very quickly ends in the water in Redline as well.  That must have been the Oceanic blood in her calling the shots!

G. Boyboy and Bossboss = Supergrass.  From Planet Supergrass.

It goes without saying that these women look thoroughly Human.  The film tells us repeatedly that the Supergrass race is magical, that the planet is magical, that the Superboins themselves have had to seal their magical powers off in order to participate in the race, etc.  My guess is that the Supergrass race [does the name come from the British band??] has evolved from the Human race, possibly through the consumption of enormous quantities of high-caliber cannabis 🙂

H. Hamesh Friny = Supersimian.  From Planet Gorilla.

What I have translated as “Supersimian” is a Japanese compound in the original which literally means “very clever monkey”.  There’s not much to say on Hamesh, a.k.a. Gori Rider (pun in Japanese: Gori Raidaa → Gori+ Ra = gorira = “gorilla”) except that he seems to be the monkey version of Bons’ Supercanine race and that the two stripes on his face, which Tetsujin shares, are probably some fashion style that we don’t know about.

I. Trava = Anista.  Hybrid.

This is the third crossover character here AFAIK (with Bons and Shinkai).  Figuring this guy out is tough, because he’s a hybrid and because we don’t have information on any other Anista in the film (though at times I think the junkman looks somewhat like Trava).

Some people have noted Trava is doglike so maybe he is an Anista-Supercanine hybrid.  If so, then perhaps Anistas resemble Humans with very long ears.  Anistas would also probably have blue skin, since dogs don’t, and so a pure Anista is likely very close to what in other metaverses is called a dark elf, night elf, drow, etc.

In TRAVA, there’s another race called the Giants.  Giant males are truly gigantic, while females are Human-sized.  Other than that, the only difference with Humans is the elven ears.  It’s possible that JP himself is a Giant-Human hybrid, or an Anista-Human hybrid.  If the former, then possibly his mother was a Giant and his father a Human, thus his regular size and longish ears; if the latter then he’s inherited the skin color from his Human parent and the ears from his Anista parent.

[UPDATE 11/4/11: My friend iskrona suggests Trava’s name might come from the Slavic word “trava”, which means “grass” (e.g. in Czech, Slovene, Serbo-Croat).  Just as with English grass, Slavic trava is also slang for marihuana.  Trava and Supergrass…makes sense.]

J. Lynchman and Johnnyboya = From Planet Alber.  Lynchman’s race is unknown, Johnnyboya is a Kaneda hybrid.

These guys are both from the same planet.  Lynchman’s race is listed as a mystery, and Johnnyboya is a hybrid belonging to the Kaneda race.  They both look very Human to me, and there are no other examples or descriptions of the Kaneda that I know from anywhere.  I’m probably wrong when I say that this might be a reference to Alberta province, Canada.  Maybe more likely would be to suggest a Japanese pun with the sentence: “Kane da.” = “It’s the money.” considering how business-savvy the pair is.

K. Frisbee

We have no info on him.  He definitely grew up with JP and he looked like that as a child.  There’s one brief scene toward the end (look above) where we can see a whole group of Frisbee-like characters watching the race on TV.  His race, whatever it is, reminds me of Hobbits, albeit of the nasty, mutant sort 😉

SUMMATION:

You have Humans, Oceanics and Supergrass (the normal looking folk) on one side, then Anista, Giants and whatever Frisbee and the six-legged junkman are on another (long-eared elf or hobbit types).  Finally you have animal types (canines, simians, whatever insect creature the junkman is crossed with, and possibly Shinkai’s Chikulun) and the robotically enhanced like Tetsujin and the folk in Roboworld etc.

The setup suggests to me that all of these races evolved naturally or artificially from the old Human race (with grafts from animal genes etc.), which would dive in well with the cyberpunkish flavor of the universe as a whole.

II. A LOVE TRIANGLE

Just who was Sonoshee waiting for at the restaurant?  The first time I watched the film I dismissed the issue because I assumed Sonoshee was lying and simply wanted to be left alone.  But upon rewatching it there does seem to be someone she planned to meet.

Toward the end of the race Tetsujin gets near Sonoshee and dares her to use the Steamlight.  He has a Steamlight as well and JP is surprised, and the way Tetsujin talked to her showed signs of familiarity (as if he had been the one that gave her that Steamlight).

When JP yells to Tetsujin that he has an edge because he has the goddess with him, Tetsujin’s “phallus machine” immediately slumps to the ground and he loses control of his vehicle.  Did you notice that?

And finally, Tetsujin did show up at the restaurant.  It’s just that by the point that he did Trava’s fighting had caused an uproar and JP and Sonoshee left without the latter meeting up with Tetsujin.  In conclusion, the evidence suggests to me that the guy she was planning to meet was none other than Machine Head Tetsujin.

EDIT: My theory is half-wrong.  Check out the first comment on this post below!!

III. SO WHAT’S THE POINT?

The universe has been rocked by two major interplanetary wars.  Life is tough.  People want to be entertained.  Racing becomes the entertainment of choice.  As the locus of attention and people’s hopes, money flows in.  Corruption, heat-seeking missiles, you name it.  Still, when the race is over and JP and Sonoshee win, everybody cheers.  Even the defeated races cheer.  There is hope yet for the universe.  That’s the point I think.

IV. LEIJITIMATE INFLUENCES

Maybe I’m hallucinating, in fact, it’s very possible I am, but I look at this and I see Leiji Matsumoto fashion all over.

Green jackets with nice big collars are a Leiji staple,  and the big yellow buttons on Shinkai’s green jacket look like the iconic Matsumoto dials (also check out the dials on the last stretch of the REDLINE course, which goes upward like a Galaxy Railways track).  And of course JP’s jacket’s skull and bones reminds me of Harlock.  But just to be on the safe side, let me post a screenshot from TRAVA that I’m sure I did not dream up:

Go watch TRAVA if you haven’t.  It’s fun (and you will see how the number 78 pops up in and links both works!).

I’m delighted that Ishii and Koike are so admiring of Leiji Matsumoto’s work.  Matsumoto comes up in many of their interviews.  A reporter on her blog [here] writes that she interviewed Ishii and quotes him as saying he will never forget the impact he felt on watching anime with hand-drawn designs when growing up in the 70s and 80s, an experience that began for him with Space Battleship Yamato and Galaxy Express 999.  Ishii added that director Koike had the same experience.  [In fact, Koike has said he first desired to become an animator upon watching Galaxy Express 999, loving the show and specially the work of its key animator Yoshinori Kanada]

It’s funny that after the interview the reporter felt compelled to go out and rent a Yamato DVD (apparently she hadn’t watched it).  She enjoyed it.

Anyway, it’s great news for the new generation.  One thing that Leiji and Ishii/Koike indisputably share is a love for their characters.  This love shows, and their work is of higher quality because of it.

~ by Haloed Bane on September 5, 2011.