Immortal Grand Prix (IGPX): Mechs, Racing, and Underrated Potential

IGPX ushers the anime community into the world of mecha racing, exploring themes of teamwork, technology, and emotional connections among characters.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to IGPX and its Legacy
• 30:00 Team Satomi: Characters and Their Roles
• 1:00:00 Themes of Technology, Teamwork, and Emotional Depth

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

IGPX Immortal Grand Prix, toonami's First Baby, and I'll explain that later. It's a Japanese-American anime series set in the mid-21st century, where the world of sports has evolved into a high-speed, high-stakes competition involving giant mechs. This futuristic sport, known as the Amour Grand Prix, features teams of mechs racing at extreme speeds while engaging in combat. These series primarily follow Team Satomi, a rookie team entering the prestigious IG1, the top league of the IGPX, as they strive to prove themselves against seasoned competitors. The themes for IGPS would be teamwork and friendship a central theme in IGPS where each team member learns to rely on one another and standing that success in the IGPS requires more than just individual talent. It also speaks on perseverance and ambition, how they work tirelessly to improve their skills to achieve their goals and emphasize the dedication and hard work required to reach the top. And it explores the relationship between technology and humanity, examining how human emotion, decisions and interactions are integral, even in the world dominated by advanced technology. For the characters, we got a couple that I want to talk about. We got Takeshi Jean, the protagonist and forward-forcing team, to Satomi. He's known for his exceptional piloting skills and determination. We have Liz Recaro, who's the team defender, recognized for her agility and combat abilities. She's fiercely loyal and protective of her teammates. Amy Stapleton is the midfielder, who's themselves in strategy and teamwork. Amy has a strong bond with her cat, luca, who assists in her piloting. Luca, the feline companion that I mentioned, and Andre Rublo I hope I pronounced it correctly who's the coach and a former ITPX champion himself, who guides the team with his vast experience and wisdom. Fun fact, the co-production of ITPX was between the Daphne's Animation Studio, production, ig and Cartoon Network. You know the tsunami block and that's why I say that this is to nom his first baby because it's the tsunami original like I anime series specifically for Toonami. So you know like how Netflix and Disney Plus and Hulu and Prime Video have like original programming and well, toonami had that. Some celebrity voices like Michelle Rodriguez you might know her as Letty from the Fast and Furious series and Haley Joel Osment I believe she was Mesmer in the Boys. Yeah, yeah, it was Mesmer in the boys. Yeah, yeah, it was Mesmer. Mark Hamill was also in this one too. It was like some surprisingly number of people on this.

Speaker 1: 3:15

The innovative animation with noted that Higgs had a blend of traditional 2D animation with CGI to create a dynamic racing sequence, and they have real-life collaboration with racing experts to ensure the depiction of the racing mechanics was as authentic, as authentic as possible. Excuse me, so yeah, itps offers a thrilling blend of action, drama, futuristic sports. It a unique entry in the anime genre. Now, ultimately, I do have notes. Ultimately, I think it's an interesting concept that could have been bigger if the anime caught fire with a bigger audience, if the anime caught fire with a bigger audience. It not only was one of my first mecha anime outside of gundam, but it inspired me to maybe design a mecha racing game myself, if possible. Like I don't want to get into any copyright or legal trouble for it, but like dang, like that's just such an interesting idea that going nowhere now, like I would expect it, like more games like it, but you know, maybe like kind of spice it up a little bit. We'll see. I do love mecca, not gonna lie, and I love racing games and I think we need more racing games like between mario kart, sonic racing, uh, forza, like they're all right, but this is not a whole lot of variety. That's like Between Mario Kart, sonic Racing, forza, like they're alright, but there's not a whole lot of variety. That's like dang, keeping up with those titles you know what I'm saying Maybe somewhere in the future. Now, anime it was a slow start, not gonna lie, but it did get fairly interesting in the second half, where there was like more stakes involved, where you get to know the characters. Like the characters they were kind of mid at first but they grow on you later how, like you learn about their different backgrounds and their trauma and they have all this drama and sometimes they be dropping some wisdom that and sometimes they be dropping some wisdom that you appreciate more when you hear it in the English dub. So and that's another thing there's like some parts where they would dub over parts. That's not normally hard to keep track, but it's like it kind of makes sense where they do that.

Speaker 1: 5:36

I do believe that the mech designs work in 3D animation, even if they're not the most impressive design by concept, like compared to what we've seen by now. They're not that impressive um paper, but they definitely work in 3d, like zoids, like honestly I would say it would have been looking ugly as fuck if those zoids were like 2d animated but 3d animated Okay, I can see it now. So that's just the thing with using CGI and whatnot. It's like it really depends on how you use it. Like, remember Attack on Titan, when they tried to make a colossal Titan 3D animated? I'm like, eh, I don't know about this. So sometimes some things look good 2D animated, some things look better 3D animated. That's just my opinion.

Speaker 1: 6:30

Oh yeah, igps did have a ps2 game. I didn't play it, but I do remember one thing about the game how they had, like this unbeatable racer known as the rocket. Like maybe y'all can tell me, maybe did y'all beat the rocket? Like let me know, uh, is the rocket really unbeatable? I don't really know. I'll, I'll look into it.

Speaker 1: 6:52

But yeah, if I were to rate ITPX, it's feeling like a six out of ten, like, once again, slow start, slow start, and you can tell that there could have been more. But the viewership just wasn't where it wanted to be, where people didn't really want more. Like that's just the thing about mecha anime like just don't get that much love, so that's the thing, uh. But yeah, like I would say that concept wise, it would have been great, but it didn't get enough viewership. So I can see why it didn't get as far as it could have gotten. And yeah, maybe that slow start is the main reason why? Because if you try to re-watch it and you're like, oh man, like the first half just so slow and boring, I'm like, yeah, I get it.

Speaker 1: 7:59

But then I'm one of those completionists where not all the time I will complete a anime, but for the most part, if I start an anime I'm trying to. For the most part, if I start an anime, I'm trying to commit myself to finishing it at the very least to see if it was like, worth it. And some of them are like this one I'm like, yeah, like, yeah, it's a product of it's time. At this point and I'm kind of glad I caught this right before the 20th anniversary, because I believe the it started out in what sometime this year. Hold on, let me, I'm going to check real quick. I don't think y'all have any information on that. I'm going to check out when exactly it dropped. Oh shit, never mind, y'all, I missed it. Uh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on original run october 5th 2005. Okay, yeah, yeah, I made it. I made, yeah, I got it. Uh, hold on.

Speaker 1: 9:13

The micro series was two years prior. That's what it was. See, the micro series was Two years prior. That's what it was. See the micro series more like Mainly combat. It kind of gave me that toys feel. That's what I kind of liked by TPS. It kind of felt like Zoids. And now I just kind of see the comparison Hold on Production.

Speaker 1: 9:39

I need to do boys. I don't think they did. They did, I'll be it. Don't look like they did, like I'm looking it up now. They didn't do it. Okay, did Like I'm looking it up now. They didn't do it, okay, just coincidence, I guess I was like whoa, that would be like wow. And I was like, oh, yeah, ig was behind Zoys and IGPX. But no, no, no, okay, okay, I got you, I got you. So, yeah, like I said October 5th 2005. That I said october 5th 2005. That would make it 20 years old by then. But yeah, it'll be pretty early for me.

Speaker 1: 10:31

But what can I say? I just wanted to go ahead and put it out there. You know well, yeah, that's all I had to say. So I'm gonna go ahead and close it out. Uh, go ahead and have yourself a good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever time it is, where you're at, and ultimately you take it easy. I'm gonna keep at it with these reviews as much as I can, like some are gonna be like barely quick and some are gonna be as long as you would probably expect if you're like on and on for like an hour or two. But if I'm going solo like this, then I'm going to be like I don't know within 30 minutes if I can help it. But yeah, go ahead, take it easy.