Reviews for Speed Racer X

(I will mainly be talking about the original Japanese dub, "Mach GoGoGo: Restart") Not only is this the best Speed Racer reboot, but it is also definitely one of the greatest Speed Racer media ever made! (The 2008 movie is also a masterpiece too.) And this might be THE MOST underrated anime from the 90s. It is actually insane how underrated this anime is, it's genuinely the best series Speed Racer has ever gotten, and it is simply because it is officially from Tatsunoko Production themselves. Speed Racer Enterprises just fail to capture what made the original 1967 anime great with their crappy reboots, but of coursewhen you have the actual original creators of the 1967 anime make a reboot, they're able to make something as great as the original. But since this is 30 years newer than the original, and made during the time of 90s anime (where some of the greatest anime come from), it is a huge upgrade! The animation is better, the art is better, the sound is better, literally almost everything about it is better! But of course the original is still a timeless masterpiece in its own right. People criticize the original 1967 anime for how dated and goofy it is, but they should really check this series out, cause we've gone from the dated (but also charming in my opinion) nature of the original, to this series with all of it's 90s anime goodness, it literally doesn't get any better than that! The reason why people may not be fond of this reboot is because they probably mainly seen Speed Racer X, which is basically the English Dub for this anime, and it essentially got the One Piece 4kids dub treatment where they had to dumb it down and make it more kid-friendly, while the original Japanese dub has the usual teenage targeted demographic like any other Shonen anime. (Basically the Japanese dub is better.) I wish this series got an English dub where it keeps the teenage targeted demographic, but it is probably due to how Americanized Speed Racer has gotten and the West has sort of only seen it as family-friendly. But even then, this anime is very overlooked, cause I barely see people talk about it. I'm currently rewatching it cause I just love this anime so much.

SLIGHT SPOILERS ABOUT THE PLOT

The story is faithful to the original, yet also very different too. It's a more futuristic take on the original, but done tastefully unlike Speed Racer Enterprises. The story has two arcs, the first arc being focused on Speed's racing career and other adventures along the way, and the second arc being focused on them traveling through time with the Mach 5 to retrieve Ezekiel Wheels, an everlasting power source that is wrapped up in the veil of history. (Might give some Back To The Future vibes.)

They made some changes to the main characters, like Go Mifune (Speed's Original JP name) is now Go Hibiki, and Spritle is now Trixie's younger brother instead of being Speed's younger brother in the original. (Their original names are also changed too, from Kurio to Wataru, and Michi Shimura to Mai Kazumi.) Chim-Chim doesn't come in until later on in the series.

If you're someone who's seen the original anime or the 2008 movie, or even if you're just someone who's looking to find a 90s anime to watch, I can't recommend this anime enough, it is very underrated and deserves a lot more attention. If you're interested in watching it, the only way to watch it officially is through Funimation's Speed Racer Collectors Edition set where they have the series on Blu-Ray. though it is really expensive. Unfortunately this anime has never been released on any streaming services. I was able to watch it on YouTube since a channel uploaded all the episodes to watch it. But it is a great and fun watch, and living proof that Speed Racer can be PEAK! But even with this anime and the 2008 movie, I feel like surface has still only been scratched with the potential of this franchise. (Probably because of how little Speed Racer media there is.) Hopefully there will be a day where Speed Racer's popularity grows back up again, gets more reboots from Tatsunoko themselves, and gets the same kind of respect as all other anime that people watch today.