ex-Driver-The Movie
(Geneon Region 1 NTSC DVD)
review by Big McLargehuge

Here he comes
Here comes Speed Racer.
He's a demon on wheels.
He’s a demon and he’s gonna be
Chasin after someone. 

Akira Nishimori’s eX Driver: The Movie owes a debt of gratitude to classic anime Speed Racer in that it uses cars and drivers to emphasize a mystery story and culminates that mystery story in a big chase sequence.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I really enjoyed eX-Driver, one reason I think, is that I always LOVED Speed Racer, even as an adult I found the groundbreaking animation and storytelling to be highly enjoyable. So much so that I have a couple of the “Johnny Lightening” brand die cast cars (The Mach 5 and Racer X’s car) sitting here on my desk.

eX-Driver pays homage to this classic anime by not only following the same sort of story structure, but by also setting it among a race circuit similar to the 60’s grand prix circuit that Speed, Spritle, Sparks, Trixie, Chim-Chim, and Pops called home.

He's gainin' on you
So you better look alive.
He's gonna be revin' up his
Powerful Mach 5.

Only now it’s the near future where virtually everyone “drives” in AI cars that are tied into a central traffic grid. However, occasionally a “runaway” car breaks its system connection and fails to stop (or goes haywire in some other manner) and it takes a team of skilled eX-Driver’s to shoot out the sensors on the runaway vehicle and bring it to a halt.

This is where eX-Driver the movie opens as Lorna, Lisa, and Suichi, the Japanese eX-Driver team, are chasing a runaway car among the crowded streets of Los Angeles. They have come to the US for a big race and are anxious to prove their worth.

They manage to step on a few toes while pursuing the runaway car, namely Kelly and Bill of the American eX-Driver team who are also in pursuit of the runaway car. Inside the car is Angela, daughter of the ex-mafioso who sponsors the American eX-Driver team through his chain of supermarkets.

And when the odds are against him
And their dangers work.
You bet your life Speed Racer
Is gonna see it through

Suichi, who appears to be all of 10 years old and drives a badass Lotus Seven S II, wants to know more about why Angela was driving so recklessly. Adding to the mystery, it appears that someone has installed a complicated third party computer into Angela’s car.

With the race right around the corner the team doesn’t have time to spend worrying about it. Lorna is the premier driver of the team (she’s blond, about 16, with an old-school Lancia circuit car). That gives Lisa and Suichi time to check out Angela and her weirdly threatening father.

When it’s revealed that there might be a gambling ring operating under the radar of the eX-Driver organization, and that Angela’s father has a part in it, the team has to, pardon the pun, race against time to save Angela and solve the mystery of the haunted racetrack…

Go Speed Racer,
Go Speed Racer,
Go Speed Racer go-.

Okay, I made that last bit up, but it is where the story was leading. However, unlike so many other cartoons that draw all of their inspiration from Scooby Doo, eX-Driver actually swerves at the end and throws a few nice, yet still logical, story changes to action up the end.

The character design by Takeshi Ito and Kimichi Hamasaki is very realistic, and for the most part in the model of recent titles like “L/R” so they are both easy on the eyes and easy to distinguish. The action sequences, most of them featuring cars, are excellent and rely heavily on CGI. Meanwhile the traditional animation is excellent as well and although there are a few places where the effect of going from cars to people is jarring, overall they mesh very well and adds to the argument that CGI and anime make a very, very good pairing.

But wait, there’s more!

The DVD from Geneon also offers a single short episode of another EX-Driver show (or something) named Nina and Rei Danger Zone and offers a whole different take on the eX-Driver universe. This one is set in Japan where the EX-Driver’s are an arm of the police whose primary mission is to stop runaway cars (which was established in the movie).

He's off and flying
As he guns his car around the track.
He's jammin' down the pedal
Like he's never coming back.
Adventure's waiting up ahead-.

The character dynamic between Nina and Rei is antagonistic, Nina is loved Rei is not, Nina is the driver Rei is her navigator, so there is a little resentment between them. They demonstrate this by sniping at one another for much of the show. It’s okay though because the dialogue is really funny and adds to the preposterousness of the premise of the show.

When someone starts running miniature AI cars around the city causing traffic havoc, it’s up to the girls to find the little cars, stop them, and bring their operator to justice. Unknown to them, of course, the driver of these little cars is completely infatuated with Nina and is using the traffic mayhem to lure her into a trap.

Yes, we’ve seen it before, but rarely has it been this funny. The villain character here is really silly, a drooling, gum chewing, cross-dresser who wants “to ride in Nina’s passenger compartment!”

Go Speed Racer,
Go Speed Racer,
Go Speed Racer go-

Like the movie, Nina and Rei Danger Zone mixes traditional cell and CGI to good effect and like the movie the driving sequences are excellent, if not a little less complex.

Comparing the two adventures we have here, I sort of liked the short one better because it was really funny, intentionally so, in places and that helped lighten the mood of the anime. Whereas the movie took itself very, very seriously and that made some of the dialogue unintentionally funny, which is never a good thing.

Weirdly, there is also a series of cheeky animatics of little eX-Driver episodes that focus on more robust desires of the Lorna, Lisa, and Suichi characters. One where they visit a hot spring is all about Suichi wanting to see them naked. Another about Lisa designing ultra short and tight costumes for she and Lorna to wear at the next race so they will be the most desired women there.

It’s a pity that none of these little doo-dads made it into the movie as they helped to round out the characters some. I liked the idea that Suichi was sweet on Lisa, and that Lisa was much more frustrated with her ability to be promiscuous. Some of it carries through in the film but it’s so subtle as to almost be lost.

The Geneon DVD is LOADED with cool stuff, which is nice for a film that won the Best Debut award at AnimeExpo 04. We get the movie, the episode, three episodes of “illustration theater”, non credit openings for both, character design sketches, Japanese and English language tracks, English subs, and a VERY COOL menu.

Go eX-Driver,
Go eX-Driver,
Go eX-Driver go!!!