eX-Driver Anime Review

eX-Driver
Ekusudoraiba
Anime Works-Media Blasters
Complete Collection - 2 discs
180 mins. - 6 episodes
$29.95 (2003)
$24.95 (2002) Vol. 1-2/ea.
ISBN 631595024272
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Jun Kawagoe
Studio - Bandai Visual/Actas

Synopsis: In the near-future cars are all electric and controlled by computerized artificial intelligence (AI).  Your regular citizen doesn't own or even know how to drive a car, but merely gets into a nearby vehicle and tells it a destination.  The result is a much safer and predictable traffic flow helping to keep society peaceful.  The actual technology is not perfect and sometimes the AI cars end up malfunctioning.  When this happens the cars end up driving off by themselves at high speeds with their hapless passengers trapped inside.

The eX-Drivers (clockwise from top) - Lorna in her white Lotus Europa,
Souichi in his yellow Caterham Super 7, and Lisa in her blue Lancia Stratos

When cars go out of control it's up to the eX-Drivers to save the day.  They drive gasoline-powered classic cars (modern for our time) without the help of any AI and relying only on their driving prowess.  The drivers must catch up to the runaway cars first and then manage to disable the four sensors on each car in order to disable their AI programming.  This involves high-speed marksmanship along with keen driving skills.

Lisa originally drives a Subaru Impreza WRX until she wrecks it

Lorna and Lisa are two expert eX-Drivers and work as a team.  They're both high school age girls and have very different personalities.  Lorna is a lovely girl who has a big heart and drives a Lotus Europa.  Lisa is a hot-head who is always taking chances in her Subaru Impreza.  When not tearing up the streets in their cars the pair are hitting the books at the local academy.

Lorna aims to take out a runaway AI car's sensor

A new eX-Driver joins the team and Lisa is up in arms!  He ends up being a snot-nosed kid who thinks he can drive as well as she can.  The kid's name is Shouchi and he's a prodigy at racing along with academics.  He not only drives with the two girls, but he's also in their school classes.  He drives a Caterham Super 7 and does his own mechanics on it.  Shouichi and Lisa are headed for a showdown while poor Lorna tries to smooth the bumps in the road.

Lisa races Souichi while he's driving a modified Daihatsu Midget II

Can the two rivals make nice before someone gets hurt?  They must deal with a documentary film crew, a rogue eX-Rider (the equivalent of an eX-Driver on a motorcycle), and then the true enemy appears.  The trio of young drivers must work as team and pull together as they face their greatest challenge yet!

Souichi catches a ride with Rei, the eX-Rider

Pros: Very solid and clean animation, great depiction of older modern cars, some humor, good characters, a little fan-service with Rei the eX-Rider, that Shouichi is one lucky kid to have two cute girls as his teammates, decent music, some extras

A closer look at Rei, the eX-Rider!

Cons: This is purely PG rated aside from the tiny amount of fan-service with Rei, not a lot of action, ending was a bit boring, the sci-fi setup with the AI-controlled cars running amok seemed silly, short series which didn't gain a lot of traction for the story

Lorna and Lisa get ready to drive into action

Mike Tells It Straight: I decided to check out eX-Driver because it was inexpensive and I haven't seen many anime titles about car racing.  The cars in the show are depicted really well and include some nice classics including the Lotus Europa, Lancia Stratos HF, iconic Subaru Impreza, and the rare classic Caterham Super 7 JPE.  They even have a Daihatsu Midget II.  The producers obviously enjoy their cars and it shows in the anime.

A rogue group of gasoline-powered car drivers with a
mysterious link to the eX-Drivers

The story itself is mildly futuristic with AI controlled cars, but I could never really accept the concept of having a group of teenagers driving gas-powered cars go chasing down rogue computerized vehicles.  I kept thinking "Why don't the car designers just create a remote 'off' switch when the AI cars malfunction?"  I liked the characters and it was a lighthearted show geared for somewhat younger audiences.  It had very broad appeal and only the mild fan-service with Rei, the eX-Rider, brought the show up to a PG rating.

Souichi behind the wheel of his Caterham Super 7

I felt the show was a little boring due to the simple plot and lack of any major action.  The ending was really bland and quite a letdown.  This short OVA series was followed up with a movie and I'll probably end up checking it out, but I'm expecting more of the same .  Both the OVA and movie are available for an inexpensive price which is kind of telling of the story quality.  It's a cute show with good characters and a nice message.  Not terribly memorable and a very lukewarm rating, but a fairly solid offering and good for younger viewers.


TO BUY and Recommendations:

Appleseed Anime Movie Review

Appleseed
Appurushido
Geneon (Pioneer)
Movie - 105 mins. - 1 disc
$39.98 (2010) Blu-Ray
$19.98 (2009)
$19.98 (2005)
$29.98 (2005) Limited Edition (2 disc)
$49.98 (2005) Limited Edition (2 disc) w/figure
$19.98 (2005) UMD (PSP)
ISBN 013023252790
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Shinji Aramaki
Studio - Micott & Basara/Digital Frontier

Synopsis: The world has been broken apart by consecutive World Wars and the majority of land is lawless.  Warring factions battle for turf supremacy only to have other factions show up to challenge them.  Humanity is on the brink of self-annihilation, but hope exists in the form of Olympus, a seemingly utopian city where peace and prosperity reign.  Technology has advanced considerably with perfected bio-engineering and cyborg enhancement processes.  The secret to Olympus' success is a population comprising mostly bioriods - bio-engineered humans who govern the city without the influence of strong emotions like love and hate.  The bioroids' mission is to protect and nurture humanity from it's own destructive nature.  Aiding and guiding them is the supercomputer Gaia.

The post-apocalyptic utopian city of Olympus

Deunan Knute is a young soldier who has survived the global wars only to be abducted to Olympus.  She awakens and is educated about Olympus society by a girl named Hitomi, who happens to be a bioroid.  Deunan is reunited with her friend Briareos who she thought was killed during the wars.  The two were more than just friends, but now Briareos is 75% cyborg with a mechanical visage.  Deunan reels from the startling revelation and new life in Olympus.

Deunan has an awkward moment with Briareos

She joins the ESWAT (enhanced SWAT) team which combats urban terrorism primarily from dissenting military factions bent on removing the bioroids from political power.  They want to return power to the humans and do away with Gaia.  Deunan gets a crash-course in operating a landmate and put to the test in a real firefight.  She's an incredibly skilled warrior and learned from her father, a renowned military leader during the global wars.

Hitomi talks with Briareos about Deunan

What secrets do Olympus and the bioroids hide?  Gaia seems like the ultimate benefactor, but it predicts humans will annihilate themselves within three generations.  What lengths will be taken to save humanity from themselves?  How does Deunan fit into the grand scheme of Olympus and what is the Appleseed?

Deunan and Hitomi bond over drinks

Pros: An impressive amount of CGI (computer graphic images) work, great techno musical score (including Paul Oakenfold and Basement Jaxx), fairly decent science fiction plot, lots of intense action, cool mecha designs based on Masamune Shirow's work, okay character developments

A bunch of creepy old guys help run Olympus from behind the scenes

Cons: CG character movements look unnatural, character acting is very stiff and bland (facial expressions and body language), the film is missing the comedy aspects of the original manga, Briareos' optic sensors are red which make him look antagonistic (guess that's somewhat intentional)

Briareos battles a cybernetic assassin

Mike Tells It Straight: Not just a simple remake of the original 1988 film (reviewed here), this newer version is a complete re-visioning of Masamune Shirow's (known for Ghost in the Shell, Dominion Tank Police) manga series.  Several major plot points are changed such as Briareos coming to Olympus before Deunan and her thinking he was dead.  Hitomi's character is much smarter and less ditzy in the new version.  I really liked the changes and explanations of the bioroids - they finally made sense.

Deunan and Briareos suit up to face a terrorist crisis

This movie is 100% CG and has practically none of the traditional animation feel to it.  I didn't really like the visuals as much and felt the backgrounds looked too blatantly artificial.  Kind of felt like a souped-up video game CG clip.  The character acting and body language were incredibly stiff and unbelievable.  I'm still not convinced of full-CG acting yet and this movie is a prime example (Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is another).

Deunan and Briareos are confronted by military dissidents

I'll admit the action and sheer visual accomplishment kind of distracted me to the poor CG acting.  There is a lot of action and this film finally does Shirow's source material justice vs. the poor and simplistic 1988 feature.  Shinji Aramaki is a  legendary director and mechanical designer (Genesis Climber Mospeada, Gasaraki) who presents an interesting science fiction tale.

Briareos needs some repairs.  Ouchie :(

If you like Shirow's work and are curious about CG then this film will be very interesting to check out.  I certainly don't think full-CG is going to replace traditional-looking (i.e. hand-drawn in appearance) animation any time soon.  This film spawned a sequel, Appleseed Ex Machina, and a series, Appleseed XIII.  I'll review those in the future and look forward to seeing how the CG animation evolves.  Stay tuned!

An image from the original manga by Masamune Shirow

TO BUY and Recommendations: