The Rock The Rock
Mar
30
2008

Fresh Footage From Ishii-Scripted Anime Feature RED LINE!

Posted by Todd Brown at 3:02pm.

Posted in Trailer Alerts , Animation, Action, Asia.

redline01.jpg

I don’t normally post links to cam-job versions of trailers here on Twitch, not so much for ethical reasons as because they generally look like ass.  But, as any regular reader of the site should know we’ve got a major thing for Taste of Tea and Funky Forest director Katsuhito Ishii around these parts and anything that he’s involved with immediately gets our attention. 

While Ishii works mostly in the live action world these days he’s also quite prolific in the animation world, directing his own animated works and also writing for others.  One Ishii-scripted project we’ve been tracking for a while now is the Takeshi Koike-directed racing film Red Line, which we first wrote about way back in 2006.  Well, the film is finally nearing completion and a lengthy scene was screened for the crowds at the Tokyo Anime Fair and that scene has turned up online.  es, it’s a cam job which means the video quality aint great and the sound is horrible but it gives quite a good look at the madness that is in store.  Hopefully this turns up in a higher quality version soon ...

You’ll find the clip embedded below the break.

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Reader Comments

  1. Happosai 03/30/2008 @ 3:34pm

    Looks crazy! A big fan of Ishii’s work...I really like his hyper-kinetic anime Trava: Fist Planet, which this bears some resemblence to.

  2. crazybee 03/30/2008 @ 4:16pm

    Geez, 2009!?  Is it a feature or a series?  Theatrical or DVD?  I’ve been dying to see this since I first saw footage a couple years ago.  I also wouldn’t mind a sequel to Trava at some point.

  3. Brian 03/30/2008 @ 7:44pm

    Thanks for posting this. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while, and it’s great to see some new footage. (Was that one of the dogs from Hal & Bons I saw in there?...)

    In addition to the fantastic eye candy, I’m hoping that Redline will have a serviceable story as well. In addition to Ishii (who is also credited with the “original work"), the script was written by Yoji Enokido (Evangelion, FLCL, Gunbuster 2) and Yoshiki Sakurai (Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C., Otogi Zoshi, xxHOLiC, and an overall nice guy to boot).

  4. blackula jonez 03/31/2008 @ 9:47am

    can’t wait for a real trailer

  5. houseofgvsb 04/01/2008 @ 2:16pm

    Oh man.  I’m a big sucker for (almost) all movies car/racing related, save for the last ten years of the American output, and a huge fan of Ishi as well, so this is pretty exciting. 

    If it’s okay, I’d like to take this chance to ask for help locating a similar (short?) anime.  When I was in high school in the mid-90s, I used to visit the States (I was living in Japan at the time) and would record Liquid Television on MTV as much as I could.  One of the things that played was an anime about a guy flying in a race around a track.  As the race progresses he becomes gradually more crazy and both the track and his vehicle start coming apart piece by piece.  I’ve been looking for this for more than ten years to no avail, and it was partly an influence on my first script, so any help in tracking it down would be much appreciated.

  6. rnoise 04/01/2008 @ 9:27pm

    houseofgvsb: The anime short you’re thinking of is called “The Running Man” and it was directed by Yoshiyaki Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll, 2001 Vampire Hunter D). The short was the middlge segment of an 80’s omnibus originally called Manie-Manie, but redubbed “Neo Title” by Steamline Pictures upon it’s American release, to try and cash in on the Katsuhiro Otomo connection (who directed one of the other shorts). ADV Films released “Neo Tokyo” on DVD back in 2004, but it went out of print pretty quickly. For more information on this piece, I suggest checking out Justin Sevakis’s excellent write up on it over on Anime News Network, on his Buried Treasure column:

    http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/buried-treasure/2007-11-01

    To tie this back to Red Line and Takeshi Koike. Koike was mentored at Madhouse Studio by none other then Kawajiri. Recognizing Koike’s talent and potential, Kawajiri secured him a slot on the Animatrix, where he directed the short “World Record.” Kawajiri wrote the scenario, which bears a very strong resemblance to the aforementioned Running Man short. It’s nearly a remake!

    I’ve had my eye on new project for quite some time. Can’t wait to check it out.

    Lastly, here’s a tantalizing fan-made demo-reel of Koike animation:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b4EEVoVLlc

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