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.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
IGPX Immortal Grand Prix, toonami's First Baby, and
I'll explain that later.
It's a Japanese-American animeseries set in the mid-21st
century, where the world ofsports has evolved into a
high-speed, high-stakescompetition involving giant
mechs.

(00:22):
This futuristic sport, known asthe Amour Grand Prix, features
teams of mechs racing at extremespeeds while engaging in combat
.
These series primarily followTeam Satomi, a rookie team
entering the prestigious IG1,the top league of the IGPX, as
they strive to prove themselvesagainst seasoned competitors.

(00:44):
The themes for IGPS would beteamwork and friendship a
central theme in IGPS where eachteam member learns to rely on
one another and standing thatsuccess in the IGPS requires
more than just individual talent.
It also speaks on perseveranceand ambition, how they work

(01:05):
tirelessly to improve theirskills to achieve their goals
and emphasize the dedication andhard work required to reach the
top.
And it explores therelationship between technology
and humanity, examining howhuman emotion, decisions and
interactions are integral, evenin the world dominated by
advanced technology.

(01:25):
For the characters, we got acouple that I want to talk about
.
We got Takeshi Jean, theprotagonist and forward-forcing
team, to Satomi.
He's known for his exceptionalpiloting skills and
determination.
We have Liz Recaro, who's theteam defender, recognized for
her agility and combat abilities.

(01:46):
She's fiercely loyal andprotective of her teammates.
Amy Stapleton is the midfielder, who's themselves in strategy
and teamwork.
Amy has a strong bond with hercat, luca, who assists in her
piloting.
Luca, the feline companion thatI mentioned, and Andre Rublo I

(02:08):
hope I pronounced it correctlywho's the coach and a former
ITPX champion himself, whoguides the team with his vast
experience and wisdom.
Fun fact, the co-production ofITPX was between the Daphne's
Animation Studio, production, igand Cartoon Network.
You know the tsunami block andthat's why I say that this is to

(02:31):
nom his first baby because it'sthe tsunami original like I
anime series specifically forToonami.
So you know like how Netflixand Disney Plus and Hulu and
Prime Video have like originalprogramming and well, toonami
had that.
Some celebrity voices likeMichelle Rodriguez you might

(02:53):
know her as Letty from the Fastand Furious series and Haley
Joel Osment I believe she wasMesmer in the Boys.
Yeah, yeah, it was Mesmer inthe boys.
Yeah, yeah, it was Mesmer.
Mark Hamill was also in thisone too.
It was like some surprisinglynumber of people on this.

(03:15):
The innovative animation withnoted that Higgs had a blend of
traditional 2D animation withCGI to create a dynamic racing
sequence, and they havereal-life collaboration with
racing experts to ensure thedepiction of the racing
mechanics was as authentic, asauthentic as possible.

(03:36):
Excuse me, so yeah, itps offersa thrilling blend of action,
drama, futuristic sports.
It a unique entry in the animegenre.
Now, ultimately, I do havenotes.
Ultimately, I think it's aninteresting concept that could

(03:56):
have been bigger if the animecaught fire with a bigger
audience, if the anime caughtfire with a bigger audience.
It not only was one of my firstmecha anime outside of gundam,
but it inspired me to maybedesign a mecha racing game
myself, if possible.
Like I don't want to get intoany copyright or legal trouble
for it, but like dang, likethat's just such an interesting

(04:18):
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 gameslike between mario kart, sonic

(04:39):
racing, uh, forza, like they'reall 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 nota whole lot of variety.
That's like dang, keeping upwith those titles you know what
I'm saying Maybe somewhere inthe future.
Now, anime it was a slow start,not gonna lie, but it did get

(05:00):
fairly interesting in the secondhalf, where there was like more
stakes involved, where you getto know the characters.
Like the characters they werekind of mid at first but they
grow on you later how, like youlearn about their different
backgrounds and their trauma andthey have all this drama and
sometimes they be dropping somewisdom that and sometimes they
be dropping some wisdom that youappreciate more when you hear

(05:23):
it in the English dub.
So and that's another thingthere's like some parts where
they would dub over parts.
That's not normally hard tokeep track, but it's like it
kind of makes sense where theydo that.
I do believe that the mechdesigns work in 3D animation,

(05:43):
even if they're not the mostimpressive design by concept,
like compared to what we've seenby now.
They're not that impressive umpaper, but they definitely work
in 3d, like zoids, like honestlyI would say it would have been
looking ugly as fuck if thosezoids were like 2d animated but
3d animated Okay, I can see itnow.

(06:04):
So that's just the thing withusing CGI and whatnot.
It's like it really depends onhow 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 knowabout this.
So sometimes some things lookgood 2D animated, some things

(06:26):
look better 3D animated.
That's just my opinion.
Oh yeah, igps did have a ps2game.
I didn't play it, but I doremember one thing about the
game how they had, like thisunbeatable racer known as the
rocket.
Like maybe y'all can tell me,maybe did y'all beat the rocket?

(06:47):
Like let me know, uh, is therocket really unbeatable?
I don't really know.
I'll, I'll look into it.
But yeah, if I were to rate ITPX, it's feeling like a six out of
ten, like, once again, slowstart, slow start, and you can

(07:15):
tell that there could have beenmore.
But the viewership just wasn'twhere it wanted to be, where
people didn't really want more.
Like that's just the thingabout mecha anime like just
don't get that much love, sothat's the thing, uh.
But yeah, like I would say thatconcept wise, it would have
been great, but it didn't getenough viewership.

(07:38):
So I can see why it didn't getas far as it could have gotten.
And yeah, maybe that slow startis the main reason why?
Because if you try to re-watchit and you're like, oh man, like
the first half just so slow andboring, I'm like, yeah, I get

(07:59):
it.
But then I'm one of thosecompletionists 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 startan anime, I'm trying to commit
myself to finishing it at thevery least to see if it was like
, worth it.
And some of them are like thisone I'm like, yeah, like, yeah,

(08:23):
it's a product of it's time.
At this point and I'm kind ofglad I caught this right before
the 20th anniversary, because Ibelieve the it started out in
what sometime this year.
Hold on, let me, I'm going tocheck real quick.
I don't think y'all have anyinformation on that.

(08:45):
I'm going to check out whenexactly it dropped.
Oh shit, never mind, y'all, Imissed it.
Uh, wait, wait, wait, wait.

(09:07):
Hold on original run october5th 2005.
Okay, yeah, yeah, I made it.
I made, yeah, I got it.
Uh, hold on.
The micro series was two yearsprior.
That's what it was.
See, the micro series was Twoyears prior.
That's what it was.
See the micro series more likeMainly combat.

(09:28):
It kind of gave me that toysfeel.
That's what I kind of liked byTPS.
It kind of felt like Zoids.
And now I just kind of see thecomparison Hold on Production.
I need to do boys.

(09:48):
I don't think they did.
They did, I'll be it.
Don't look like they did, likeI'm looking it up now.
They didn't do it.
Okay, did Like I'm looking itup now.
They didn't do it, okay, justcoincidence, I guess I was like
whoa, that would be like wow.
And I was like, oh, yeah, igwas behind Zoys and IGPX.

(10:13):
But no, no, no, okay, okay, Igot you, I got you.
So, yeah, like I said October5th 2005.
That I said october 5th 2005.
That would make it 20 years oldby then.
But yeah, it'll be pretty earlyfor me.
But what can I say?
I just wanted to go ahead andput it out there.
You know well, yeah, that's allI had to say.

(10:36):
So I'm gonna go ahead and closeit out.
Uh, go ahead and have yourselfa good morning, good afternoon,
good evening, whatever time itis, where you're at, and
ultimately you take it easy.
I'm gonna keep at it with thesereviews as much as I can, like
some are gonna be like barelyquick and some are gonna be as

(10:57):
long as you would probablyexpect 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 ifI can help it.
But yeah, go ahead, take iteasy.