Highspeed Etoile

With the introduction of Hybrid Performance Exceed Reactor (HyPER)—a technology that injects new life into racing—race cars can now reach incredible speeds of up to five hundred kilometers per hour. Five years after the inception of the NEX Race, a competition where the cars are enhanced by HyPER and even AI, one man stands as the undisputed champion. Having won every title since the inaugural NEX Race season, Lorenzo M. Salvatore is the king of the racing world.

Unexpectedly entering the tournament is a former ballet dancer, Rin Rindou, who has been given a chance to become a real racer after setting a world record in a racing video game. Forced to give up dancing, Rin shifts her focus to chasing a new goal, despite her lack of experience. Making the most of her peculiar skill set and the NEX Race innovations, the young newcomer may just be the one to dethrone the absolute king.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Rindou, Rin Main

Izumi, Fuuka Japanese

Hinata, Hikari Supporting

Funato, Yurie Japanese

Komachi, Towa Supporting

Izawa, Shiori Japanese

Salvatore, Lorenzo M. Supporting

Toriumi, Kousuke Japanese

Liu, Youran Supporting

Suwa, Ayaka Japanese

Tokitou, Sophia B Supporting

Horie, Yui Japanese

Summerwood, Alice Supporting

Mizuki, Nana Japanese

Asakawa, Kanata Supporting

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Kagura, Chitose Supporting

Inoue, Marina Japanese

Hinata, Genjirou Supporting

Koyama, Tsuyoshi Japanese

Motonaga, Keitarou Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Ebina, Yasunori Sound Director

Sakuno, Kenichirou Episode Director

Mizuki, Nana Theme Song Performance

Reviews

Jun 22, 2024

otakuarmy2615

Recommended

Funny

A Thrilling Ride with Room for Improvement

Highspeed Étoile, the latest anime series from Studio A-Cat, has finally arrived, and it's a wild ride that promises to deliver high-octane action and excitement. Set in a near-future world where vehicles can reach speeds of 500 km/h, the show revolves around the NEX Race, a cutting-edge racing event that brings together both human and AI drivers. The story is straightforward, focusing on the rivalry between the reigning champion, Lorenzo "The King" M. Salvatore, and his closest challenger, Alice "The Queen" Summerwood. The series also introduces a new rookie driver, Rin Rindo, who joins the fray with her trusty ... AI companion, Ami.

Story
The narrative is engaging, with a clear focus on the racing aspect. The pacing is well-balanced, with each episode providing a mix of high-speed action and character development. The show does an excellent job of setting up the stakes and the tension between the top drivers, making it easy to become invested in their struggles. While the story is predictable at times, the excitement and suspense generated by the races keep viewers on the edge of their seats.

Art Style
Visually, Highspeed Étoile is a treat. The CGI animation is impressive, capturing the speed and intensity of the races with stunning detail. The character designs are also noteworthy, with intricate details and expressive facial animations. However, there are some issues with the animation, particularly with the non-racing scenes, which can feel stiff and lacking in fluidity.

Character Development
The characters in Highspeed Étoile are well-rounded, with distinct personalities and motivations. Rin Rindo, the main protagonist, is a great example of this. Her backstory, which involves a past injury that forced her to give up her dream of becoming a ballet dancer, adds depth to her character. The supporting cast, including Lorenzo and Alice, also have their own arcs and conflicts that drive the plot forward. While some characters may feel a bit one-dimensional at times, the overall character development is strong.

Realism
The show does an excellent job of portraying the racing aspect realistically. The commentary and explanations of the racing mechanics are detailed and engaging, making it easy for viewers to understand the intricacies of the sport. The characters' reactions to situations and events are also believable, with Rin's determination and Ami's AI logic adding a layer of realism to the story.

Overall Enjoyment
Highspeed Étoile is an enjoyable series that will appeal to fans of racing and action anime. While it has some flaws, such as the occasional stiffness in the animation and the predictability of the story, the show's strengths far outweigh its weaknesses. The pacing is well-balanced, the characters are engaging, and the racing action is intense and thrilling. With its unique setting and exciting plot, Highspeed Étoile is definitely worth checking out.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jun 21, 2024

KANLen09

Mixed Feelings

Highspeed Étoile - Studios utilising full-on 3DCG with dense stories always (and obviously) never end up doing well...but somehow, this show did, and surprisingly, did not crash and burn.

3DCG in anime is always criticised in one form or another, from the intentional (i.e. last Spring's Kaminaki Sekai no Kamisama Katsudou a.k.a KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World) to the outright bad (i.e. 2021's abominations of Winter's Ex-Arm and Fall's Tesla Note, and the like). For one such studio by the name of Studio A-CAT, this is their bread and butter for producing the projects that they've been given, and from bad animation to ... even worse implementation of 3DCG, you can already tell that if a work gets animated by the studio, there's NO chance that it'll do well with lower-than-average scores. Even if the stats don't lie, however, I find myself in a rather conflicted position to tell you that the studio's newest work of the full-on 3DCG show that is Highspeed Étoile...is actually decent, colour me surprised.

The show, being an abode to the domestic Japanese Super Formula Championship's 50th anniversary (the 2nd fastest facing series in the world behind Formula 1), tells a plot of a futuristic Japan where race cars are injected with the Hybrid Performance Exceed Reactor (HyPER) technology to reach incredible speeds, and are qualified for the said NEX Race that puts the technology pedal to the metal that's enhanced by AI. Racers from all walks of life compete in this enthralling race...except one: Rin Rindo, the rookie newcomer who came out of nowhere being a failed ballerina of a dancer, and seemingly having been thrown into the fire into becoming a full-fledged racer. And despite her complete lack of knowledge about racing, her skills will be the story of her life as she threads down the numerous tracks of speed.

Let's get the elephant out of the room: you CANNOT do the ever-illusive 3-episode rule on this show. It's the catharsis for being a snail's pace of a slow-moving race from the get-go, where, rather than bringing the audience into the series, it instead does the complete opposite to draw you out of the experience...that is, until the titular MC Rin shows up as a tour de force in the making, being the beginner who's racing knowledge is no more than playing racing simulator games. If you intend to truly have a decent time with the show, my answer to you is to be patient with it, and let it run its wheels to define its own version of greatness.

As much as Rin Rindo is kind of a klutz from the get-go, this show is her entire oyster, evolving from the dream of a dancer into a racer of her own style. And together with her fellow racers, I wouldn't say that this is the most fleshed-out character cast, but it certainly makes for interesting races whilst Rin goes from zero to hero over time, it gets addicting to see her journey manifest into an entirely different being and, for the better, for the other racers to cheer her on towards the finishing line.

Being entirely in 3DCG, I've already said my piece about Studio A-CAT and their approach towards CGI in anime. And even after a few years of getting used to the studio's style, I can't say that I like it; I can only get used to it as time passes. Most particularly for this show, it's still quite janky, but surprisingly, it does its job rather decently, so I can say that it actually isn't all that bad.

The music does its job as well, though it's rather underwhelming and is just like any 3rd-rate anime project work. Nana Mizuki's OP surprisingly slaps like the usual, and it's an addictive banger of a song that truly fits the adrenaline theme of the show. Scandal's ED works...as white noise, unfortunately.

I'm not saying that Highspeed Étoile is good, but it's a matter of it being a rather tough show to sit through its paces, plus with the 3DCG, it's an instant switch off where people just give this the crap treatment like all CGI anime naturally fall into. If you're willing to sit through it however, as they say: the grass is greener on the other side, that perfectly sums up Highspeed Étoile as a whole, it grows from being down bad, to actual decency.

Try if you so wish, I can promise that if you stick all the way to the end, it will not disappoint.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 19, 2024

L01MK

Not Recommended

Funny

Preliminary (3/12 eps)

Lowspeed Toilet

Somehow the makers of this show managed to make an ultra-high speed racing series unbelievably boring. There are multiple things that cause this, from the commentators sounding bored out of their mind, to us not knowing anything about the characters since we get tossed into the races right away without any buildup, to there being no music for a lot of the driving, which means that most of the racing shown is cars going down a straight with no BGM with only the low hum of the engines and a commentator droning on about something while sounding like a robot.

I really cannot stress enough ... how bad the commentator VAs in this show are. The male one at least tries to sound somewhat enthusiastic, but the female one sounds like she’s reading sales figures at a weekly business meeting. As you can imagine, this is extremely detrimental to building any sense of excitement and really doesn’t do the series any favors.

Our MC Rin is ditzy to an unbelievable degree. She is supposed to come from (sim?) racing games, but when she’s finally in the car she’s as clueless about everything as a person who doesn’t even know what a car race is. She also doesn’t know who one of the top two racers in the series is. This joke is the basis for the whole of episode 3, btw.
I have a hard time identifying if this show is trying to be a comedy or not. You have factors pointing towards it (basically everything to do with our MC), but then you have the rest of the show where it’s not really present.

The other characters just ... exist. Since the first two episodes were nearly all race scenes, there really is nothing to say about them so far.

There have been some blatant animation errors, like a large object popping in too late and someone’s hair changing colour. The cars in this series go way too slow around the track for the supposed speeds they are traveling at. Using Ep2 they are supposed to be going at an average speed of 640 kmph (400 mph) over a lap, yet when we see them drive they seem to be going f1 pace at best, which is 250 kmph at the high end.

I also have some personal nitpicks as a racing fan, like everyone being obsessed with a regular ass overtake she performed (while using a boost), direction arrows pointing the wrong way, showing footage of a certain turn while highlighting another turn on the circuit, but these are really minor compared to the overall boringness problem.

If the makers want this to succeed in any way, they NEED to make the next few episodes focus on the characters, since then there will at least be something to care about. If they don’t do this and the next episodes will keep the racing focus, I don’t recommend watching this. Watching Verstappen win by 30 seconds in F1 every race would be more entertaining.

The one positive thing I can say about this show is that it’s not as blatant of an advertisement as the Gran Turismo movie that came out last year, which has loosely the same premise.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Highspeed Etoile Episode 8 Discussion Aversa - May 24	12 replies	by ELuck42 »» Nov 17, 8:00 PM
	Poll: Highspeed Etoile Episode 2 Discussion AkeZZZ - Apr 12	34 replies	by ELuck42 »» Nov 10, 12:23 PM
	Poll: Highspeed Etoile Episode 12 Discussion KANLen09 - Jun 21	21 replies	by Otakupervert890 »» Aug 26, 10:26 PM
	Poll: Highspeed Etoile Episode 10 Discussion Aversa - Jun 7	12 replies	by FireRifle64 »» Jul 28, 12:32 PM
	Poll: Highspeed Etoile Episode 11 Discussion Aversa - Jun 14	12 replies	by FireRifle64 »» Jul 28, 12:23 PM