This is a Kick Arse review Angel. I have seen this anime and thought that the story was really interesting. I mean ballet dancer meets robotic motorcycle...makes you think twice as to how this is going to turn out but I have to say I was quite impressed at the beauty of the scenes and the quality of the dubbing. Also the ability of the animators to make a machine move so fluid and human like as to give the feeling that Ridebacks are common place and we have had them around all along. Thanks again for the great review Angel and I look forward to your next one.
Rideback tv Review
Story & Characters
Premier Date: January 2009
Dubbed by: Funimation and appeared on their channel in July 26, 2011
Episodes: 12
Age Group: 14+
Contains: Violence, mild ecchi, perverted references and mild language
For my 10th Review I thought I might do a review on something that I found by accident, once again. It was a great story from the very beginning, so I was most impressed with it. Rideback is one of those anime you can watch in a day.
Plot:
In the near future, an organization called the GGP/GGF (GGP is an acronym for Global Government Plan/GGF is an acronym for Global Government Force) has taken control of the world. An up and coming ballet dancer suffers a serious injury while dancing and decides to quit. Years later this ballet dancer is seen in college, wondering around due to her loss in not being able to dance, so she turns to roaming for a club. So one rainy day she stumbles upon a building to get out of the rain. Once further into the building she comes upon a club, a Rideback club, which is a transforming motorcycle-like robotic vehicle. She soon finds that her unique ballet skills with balance and finesse make her a born natural on a Rideback.
Upon the folding of the story, we find the lead actress, facing many trials as we venture into riding her rideback, as she tries to discover herself once more. She meets new friends along the way and helps old friends in the process. Will the lead actress regain her confidence in herself with the help of her friends, or will she forever search for that light that resides in us all?
Characters:
Rin Ogata: The protagonist (main character) of the series. Her parents were Yuki and Munetatsu, and due to her mother being a talented dancer, she was pretty much forced into dancing herself, having competed since a very young age. She is constantly in the shadows of her mother, always pushing herself to be the star and shine bright like her mother did on the stage. However, in 2017, while in high school, her debut dance solo, she takes a fall upon the stage and injures herself badly, causing her to having to bow out of dancing due to losing her confidence in herself and dancing.
Shōko Uemura: a childhood friend of Rin and is with her through all the trials and tribulations, a real and true friend, that only a few have the honor of having. Even as they head off to college, they get the honor of being roommates together, at first it was considered a large room, until they started adding their furniture. However, even after Rin's rescue of her on her Rideback, she is there for her friend.
Suzuri Uchida: a later friend of Rin. In the dubbed version she has that annoying voice and fangirl attitude of Rin and trying to get Rin to dance again. She has a crush on Haruki and tries to learn how to ride a rideback.
Haruki Hishida: a second year student of the English department and Rin's senior. He is an enthusiast on Ridebacks. Having customized a rideback of his very own and considered a slight nerd and very protective of his customized rideback.
Douta Kawai: a third year student and friend to Haruki. He loves to eat, yet he is often given solid advice by Haruki and he is over weight.
Tamayo Kataoka: third year student in the French literature department and she is the Rideback champion of Japan and the Captain of the Rideback Club in college. I found her character was well written and the creator did a wonderful job of placing her. She is first seen as a cold individual, but starts to soften to Rin's presence, she was mildly upset with Rin at first because she was a natural Rideback rider, and Tamayo had to work so hard to get there.
Tenshirō Okakura: the official founder of the rideback team, having provided the machines for the college kids to ride on, train and practice with. Possessing a strict character and a large nose. At first I found him cold and distant, but as it developed I learned the reasoning behind it.
Differences of words: GGF (manga) GGP (anime)
Misawo Yokoyama: Lecturer at Musashino University's department of literature and adviser to the Rideback team. In reality, however, she is a member of the GGF. One of those women that seems like a total ahem person, but after awhile we learn that she isn't that style, she's really does help in the movement towards the ends of the anime.
Takeshi Tanomura: A member of the GGF and a faithful servant of Yokoyama's.
Romanov Kalenback: one of the commanders of the military force and seen very little of.
Munetatsu Itō: Father of Kenji and Rin.
Keiko Kobayashi: A well-endowed student at Musashino University's department of literature.
BMA is an acronym for Borderless Military Alliance. These are the "terrorists" of the story line.
Kiefer: A soldier of BMA. He is later introduced into the anime and he's the person that helps Rin find herself and figure out the true meaning of the ridebacks.
Kenji Ogata: Rin's younger brother. Not much is known about him other than the fact he likes to get reckless and wild and tries to cause much chaos in the mist of simple things. He also takes the blame for something big to keep his older sister from having to being tortured.
Minor characters:
Nanpuu Kataoka: not much is known about this one, other than he is considered an important person yet rarely appears and father to Tamayo and Ryuunosuke.
Ryuunosuke Kataoka: older brother of Tamayo Kataoka and is seen from time to time, helping out his younger sister and being there for her and giving her sound advice.
Yuki Ogata: is Rin's mother. She was an excellent ballet dancer, thus Rin was also expected to succeed in ballet. Yuki Ogata died in 2014, six years before the action of RideBack takes place.
Kei Yoda: the rogue journalist seen throughout the anime. Not much is known about her, but she is seen from time to time, trying to get the scoop on the next big story, hoping to set/make her career.
Grandmother: Rin and Kenji's grandmother seen throughout the anime, not much is known about her, but she is the person that raised her grandchildren. She seems depressed and sad due to her losing her grandchildren and all she really had is her dog and living in a house without the grandchildren due to them growing up and moving out.
a few minor characters held no name but just faces in the crowd, which did help the story along as they normally do.
Rating:
Art
The artwork was outstanding ! I was hooked with the opening credits by how beautiful it was. The details to the butterflies, the television and the shows on the television were outstanding. I was greatly impressed with how detailed the characters were, however that annoying red lines under their face representing flushing? was ignored after awhile, but it was annoying until then. I rather liked the detail to the robotic motorcycle, the guns and characters themselves. Even the waves upon the beach, the dress flying in the breeze, was just breathless. I was also impressed the fillers weren't all that bad, granted there are some due to some anime having them, but they were well done and were beautiful. I was greatly impressed with the snow falling, petals from the cherry blossoms and the wonderful detail to everything. There wasn't much detail to the food and minor moments of the anime that wasn't really all that impressive, but it was made up by the bombs, smoke, explosions and military/mecha moments.
Rating:
Sound
The sound was equally impressive so I was not neglected by the sound. It wasn't detailed enough for snow falling or the sounds of the wind blowing, but there was great sound effects all the same. The barrel effect was not placed, so I was thankful not to endure hearing things in mono. The soundtrack and score was most impressive, the opening and ending themes were crisp, clean and most enjoyable. I liked the detail to gunfire, explosions and even at the beach in the summer. Traffic noise was most impressive and I liked the detail to the motorcycle noises. What impressed me as well was the well known sound of the cicadas and the most impressive background noises that completed the scenes like a man playing on the beach with his dog, with the sound of the ocean and the dog barking. Nothing was spared in the sounds in this anime either.
As I watched the Funimation version (dubbed) we encounter voice acting talents of:
Tia Ballard as Rin Ogata
Bryan Massey as Tenshiro Okakura
Chris Burnett as Dota Kawai
Cynthia Cranz as Kei Yoda
J. Michael Tatum as Ryunosuke Kataoka
Jason Douglas as Romanov Kalenback
Jennifer Seman as Misawo Yokoyama
Josh Grelle as Kenji Ogata
Kristi Bingham as Shouko Uemura
Leah Clark as Yuki Ogata
Micah Solusod as Haruki Hishida
Robert McCollum as Kiefer
Stephanie Young as Tamayo Kataoka
T.A. Taylor as Nanpu Kataoka
Trina Nishimura as Suzuri Uchida
with additional voice talents of (minor characters):
Bruce Carey as Yamamoto
Chris Ayres as Race Announcer
Christopher Bevins as Sato
Cris George as Gatobu
Jeff Johnson as Kizaki
Judy Keith as Miyuki
Kent Williams as Suzuki
Maeghan Albach as Sasaki
Rating:
Presentation
Overall I am greatly impressed with this. I am often not impressed with this sort of theme, motorcycle, military and mecha, but I am a person that is willing to give anything a try regardless of what it might contain or theme. I liked how this anime flowed, the plot, character developed and the style. This anime can be watched online in many places but I found this on netflix so it can be streamed. I liked how the creator did such a remarkable job and it left me asking for more after the 12th episode. As there might never be a second season, this anime is an outstanding one.
This anime contains mild romance, a lot of action, violence, motorcycles and sadness as the anime develops. It also contains mild ecchi and perverted comments here and there so that's why I think 14+ might be wise to encounter this one, in my opinion at least, however I believe that is the rating on the streaming. This anime will cause you to cheer on the edge of your seat scenes, cry with the sadness and sorrow and stand up and cheer when the scene went just right.
Even though this is a very new one, as opposed to some of my other reviews, I never base a review on such a thing, I base it on the actual anime and what I take from it. I would recommend this anime to anyone that is interested in finding something new, different and a unique style to it.
Rating:
Final Verdict
8.0000 (good)
Reviewed by angelxxuan, Feb 13, 2012
Comments
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UberDog Feb 13, 2012
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shunyoo Feb 20, 2012
Thanks for finding the time for this review. Beautiful job.
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SnickerdoodleNinja Retired Moderator Feb 25, 2012
Hmm, this is a bit late, but I still wanted to drop by and comment. :)
Overall, I'm not a huge mecha fan, but I have to admit this one sounds pretty intriguing, so I might have to check it out sometime. And it looks like Chris Burnett is in it, which is always a plus. *__* lol. Anyways, nice work on the review! It's great to be able to read reviews for series that don't usually get much spotlight. :)
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CyanideBlizzard Retired Moderator Feb 28, 2012
I have to admit, it's always nice to get a second opinion on a series and with both you and Weskalia giving this series a good review, I definitely plan on checking this out!
As Snicker and Uber said, great job with your reivew! You've got a very unique style going on in here, and you kept things straight and to the point as well. It's a breeze to read, but at the same time there's plenty of substance behind it which makes it enjoyable.
Great work, Xuan!
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angelxxuan Banned Member May 20, 2012
thanks for stopping by and dropping a reply. I haven't been feeling like doing reviews and haven't been feeling like taking the time to really watch much. but it's always nice to read and reply all the same :)
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