Ranked #810

RideBack

Like an artist who can't put down their easel and brush, Ogata Rin is an ex-dancer who cannot escape her desire to soar through the air, to push her body, and to accomplish feats that now come naturally to her after a lifetime of training.

But when this prima ballerina in the making suddenly gives up her vocation much to the public's surprise, what happens to her?

RideBack is a different sort of action anime that follows Rin as she stops dancing due to an injury. But life goes on, and she enlists in university where she finds a new passion almost accidentally. In the near future, Japan has a new vehicle that has become all the rage: the Rideback. Rin is allowed to ride one, and from there ignites a series of events that would not only change her life, but affect most of the country as well.

The anime manoeuvres deftly between two genres that are promoted in the story. One is a character piece in which we learn about Rin through her internal monologues and through her innermost thoughts and dreams. The other is a hefty military action storyline in which terrorism, police brutality and violence permeates throughout the changing Japan through the popularity of the Ridebacks which are being used as weapons instead of vehicles.

As Rin consequently gets caught up in a conspiracy, it is hard not to get sucked into her world and the world of racing. While the more military-based storyline is certainly less intriguing, Rin's character study certainly makes up for it. The downfall in the plotting of this anime is that neither storyline seemed to get much time, however, each manages to skilfully work its way into the other; as much as Rin is affected by the conspiracies around her, they are affected by her and her trying to find herself.

RideBack is a gorgeous anime. The background art is amazing (there are details such as rust seen in old galvanize). The rendering of the sky scenes in particular are breathtaking. It also utilises lighting extremely well, which complements some of the major themes. The Ridebacks are some of the most unusual creations but their designs are rather interesting. They are sort of cross between a mecha and a motorcycle. Character design is considerably weaker than the background artwork. The long, almost bean-like facial structures and simplistic or bland character designs seem to contrast with the magnificent amount of details in other aspects of the art.

However, the anime's biggest mistake in terms of the animation has to be its use of CGI for the Ridebacks. It looks completely unnatural compared to the rest of the artwork, and it certainly does not blend into the backgrounds. It stands out garishly; the lack of detail and slightly choppy animation of the 3D objects slightly ruins the overall effect of otherwise extremely good art and animation.

The anime has a great score, from the techno OP to the pop ED themes. MELL'S 'Ride Back' is an Engrish offering, and it makes one wonder why the Japanese even bother. But the song isn't completely painful to the ear, and it does use its pumping techno attributes and electronically altered vocalisations to set the sci fi/action mood of the anime. Younha's 'Kioku' is a much nicer song, exuding the melancholic aspects of the anime, especially that seen through Rin's character. It's almost as though both theme songs contribute to the duality that exists within this entire anime. The background music is excellent, from the pounding techno beats to the extremely well-orchestrated piano pieces that manage to make the anime a lot more atmospheric.

RideBack's characters can't be said to be a mixed bag, since you stick your hand in and only really pull out Rin. The series is rather short, and given the number of characters who appear (Rin's friends and family, the members of Rin's university, the police, the military, the reporters), not a lot of complexity were given to most other than Rin herself. In fact, some of the characters could have been replaced by motivational posters with slogans such as "Try your best!", "I believe in you!" and "Don't give up!" and the anime would not suffer one bit from it. Despite this, the supporting cast is decent, especially characters such as Shouko (Rin's best friend) who shows us the quality of friendship between the two, and Tamayo, Rin's rival and mentor of sorts who gives the character relationships in the anime a little more electricity.

Rin makes a very different sort of protagonist. Scruffy looking and generally easygoing, she does not seem to epitomise what a composed dancer should be except when she moves. And she certainly does not look like an amazing Rideback racer until she gets on one and dominates the asphalt.

Throughout the anime, she tries to assess herself and figure herself out, which is a lot more than you can say for some anime characters that refuse to look into themselves and grow or change. Her character is certainly one that has the most intrigue, as we watch her take command of the Rideback Fuego with which she forms an almost symbiotic bond. Her agile movements correspond with the mobility of the machine, making her control of it quite easy. The fluidity and grace she is accustomed to while dancing is applied to the Rideback, making Rin quite the natural on Fuego. Watching Rin on the machine is almost like watching art.

And why does she even race? Because it's in her, and there's the immense thrill of being on a Rideback that affects her almost euphorically. Her body can no longer pull of these amazing feats, and so she accomplishes them with the Rideback. Pretty soon, she comes to realise that perhaps Fuego is not so much a new leg for her, but a crutch. And it is this realisation that makes Rin a deeper character worth her salt.

The weakest aspect of the characters undoubtedly lies in the antagonists of the anime: the terrorists and the military. Both leaders of each faction are driven by some sort of selfish motivation but neither is dealt with other than on a surface level.

There are also a few recurring ideologies in the anime. The thematic development is not shoved in the viewer's face, but given to us accordingly so that we do not forget that these things are what drives the characters and what motivates the plot. Visual symbolism exists as well. For example, as seen in the closing sequence of each episode's end where we see a young Rin reaching out to grasp her mother's shoulders. When you understand how much Rin becomes emotionally and psychologically reliant on Fuego, the images will make a lot more sense.

RideBack seems to be an anime that exists for the purpose of existing, however, that cannot be said to be a bad thing at all in this case. While it does not present us with a short series that shows us an amazing character drama about the broken dreams of a ballerina, and while it does not present us with a complicated short series about the government and the corrupt armed forces in 2020 Japan, it gives us a bit of both and manages to be an enjoyable anime about Ogata Rin and the Ridebacks.

With heart-poundingly good race sequences, intensely impressive riding skills and tricks, some amusing commentary from some of the characters, actual moments of heartfelt sorrow based on losses and regrets, and the grand effects of scheming politics, RideBack is a pretty good anime that it worth a watch, being just a little more than eye candy.

And it always is nice to see a promising artist find her medium all over again. read more

Rideback tells the story of Ogata Rin, a ballet prodigy who, due to an injury, was forced to stop practicing ballet. Rideback also tells an alternate future story about a world government, the GGP, against the terrorist group BMA. These two seemingly unrelated plotlines come together and quite possibly make Rideback one of the best show to come out of the Winter 2008 anime season.

The first thing that caught my eye when I saw Rideback was the quality of the animation. The CG work in this show is amazing. From the very first episode to the very last episode, the Ridebacks were given extremely fluid animation and modeling, almost to the point of realism. I found it very neat to not have to suspend my disbelief too much at the Ridebacks, since they were animated so well. The character designs and movement were also done quite nicely, and having the show air in HD helped a lot. Madhouse did a fantastic job of creating a living, breathing, alternate universe Tokyo in the year 2020.

The second thing that caught my eye, or in this case, my ears, were the sound and the music. Music composer Takafumi Wada went all out, mixing techno, classical, and heart-thumping action pieces throughout the show. The music really coordinated with the scenes, especially during the action sequences along with the soliloquy sequences. The opening song is a jumble of Engrish, but once you figure out the lyrics, it creates a nice motif to the show. The ending song is a slow ballad, which goes nicely with the slideshow of solemn redemption scenes.

The characters, given the time constraint of the show, were given enough development for the audience to care for. We get to see Ogata Rin's desires and motivations, the BMA's desires and motivations, and we are able to empathize with them. However, many secondary characters were one dimensional and only appear in the show to create plot devices. Sadly, with only 12 episodes, these characters were unable to become fully fleshed out. We can only see the police chief as only "the police chief," the reporter as only "the reporter," and the Rideback club members as only "the Rideback club members."

The story is also a mixed bag. Frankly, Rin's soliloquies were much more fascinating than the game of cat and mouse between the terrorists and GGP. Madhouse, however, did a fantastic job to meld the two storylines together. I can see why some people would scoff at sudden climax in the last episode, or at the disregard for physics in some of the action scenes. But all in all, the story provides a nice tinge of sentimentalism, which is not overbearing or underwhelming. The allegory between Rin's Fuego and her desire to continue ballet is done very well, I must say.

When I started watching Rideback, I didn't know what to expect, other than awesome animation. After finishing it, I found out that it had a little of everything: political intrigue, amazing action scenes, intense ballet, and lesbian tendencies. On Anidb's comments for Rideback, some people have complained that this show is all animation, no quality. I must politely disagree. Most shows hit you over the head with repeated symbolism. Rideback, however, does it with style, by layering the symbolism with multiple story backdrops. I recommend this show highly to those who enjoy action and mecha series in general, and to those who like to see quality coming-of-age stories.

I forgot to mention that the voice acting in this show is superb, especially commendable is Nana Mizuki as Ogata Rin. I want to end by imploring whoever is reading this not to get discouraged by Anidb comments, and give Rideback a chance. I was quite glad I did. read more