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Redline is an anime that defies explanation. The movie is seven years and 100,000 pages of hand drawn goodness that seems almost fluid with how godlike it flows. You can tell that the creators and animators loved this and put their heart and soul into this.

At first glance it might seem like just some racing anime with a quirky look, but if you even watch one minute of the anime before the true heart of the racing part starts you see this colorful and unique world. All of the characters are unique and as I said earlier fluid. Everyone looks unique and when the cars ... come it only makes the world building so much better. It's hard to explain how cars can help in world building but it does, you see these giant war machines turned into race cars along with the main character driving (compared to the others) a small Trans Am.

Each of these characters have unique cars suited to their personalities. Certain characters have turned their racers into literal tanks and one character has modded his car and himself so he is literally one with his car. This is truly apparent with the main character, JP or Sweet JP. Almost everyone drive with some sort of weapon or defensive system. But he drives a car with no weapons or anything, even after being told doing so was suicide. He believes that racing is best when it's pure, this even shows in his car. The Trans Am 20000 WR which is similar to a 1971 Z28 Chevy Camaro, a car from an era that car guys call the golden years because cars were simple and pure.

Sadly when this movie released it was a commercial flop, and helped the era of hand drawn anime end. But recently the movie has become a cult classic with a loyal fandom. You might have even seen the poster in the background of the famous YouTuber Cr1TiKaL's videos and he has even talked about how much he loves it. This is truly one of the best Anime ever made and if you can buy a physical copy I recommend doing so.

light spoiler warning

This anime is a perfect example of an amazing first half, and then the second half just throws everything away. The first half (Aincrad arc) has some very philosophical ideas of does anything in this virtual world matter especially after so much time has passed, where people are getting married and abandoning the quest to get back to the real world because the virtual fake world has become a better home and is actually safer than trying to get back home. In fact the middle part of the first arc in my opinion was the best part. Along with having funny and interesting ... side characters. The ending of the first arc was pretty trash with the villains death but was pretty realistic with the main character being corpse like.

Then the second arc (Alfheim) was all downhill, the fun side characters are gone and all interesting parts of the first arc are gone. The philosophy goes away to be replaced by a rape cage and tentacles. The second half along with the entire rest of the series goes all the way from meh to trash in the toilet.

I believe we should in a way thank it or be grateful for it jumpstarting the Isekai genre of anime. It also has a banger soundtrack along with an amazing second end theme for a meh story line.