Oban Star-Racers

Oban Star Racers is a series that succeeds on its quality of world-building, willingness to break away from one singular genre, and family friendly appeal. Any of you who remember watching Jetix, or any of the Disney-backed anime blocks back in the day might remember watching Oban dubbed, on American TV. The reason for this is multitudinous, as Oban was designed as a cross-country collaboration (you'll notice that our homie, show runner Savin Eiffel, is decidedly non Japanese, and neither is his studio Sav the World Productions, who handled the show's CGI spaceship sequences), and from the outset, Oban was designed to air in multiple ... non-japanese countries, targeting the audience of American anime fans on Jetix with a story that would feel familiar to the anime they watched, but with touches of American cartoons as well. Oban breaks from typical conventions of the sci fi genre, with a tone that feels inherently somewhat Shojo esque (anyone who sees the story of our protagonist Molly, might be reminded of classic shojo such as Candy Candy, which I have no doubt that Savin grew up with, and took inspiration from, when crafting this anime, because Candy Candy was famous in his home country of France).
This is a show with multiple genres: Star Wars Pod Racing sports story, space opera epic with world ending stakes, and intimate family drama about loss. But... This space opera and sports narrative isn't going to be for everyone, and Oban's biggest contention, also comes from this multi genre appeal. Much like other niche genre-bending cult classics, such as Brigadoon: Marin to Melan, there is bound to be something of tonal whiplash here. Seeing things like Molly breaking down over her father not being a part of her life for 10 years, can't help but feel a little pedestrian in comparison to the Life or death spaceship racing narrative that we saw minutes prior. Viewers may find themselves confused as to why a teenager with so much emotional baggage is somehow in the driver's seat of the most important spaceship race in the history of the galaxy, determining the earth's future.
Molly has 2 love interests (love triangle). one of her love interests is seemingly a professional mechanic with years long career, but he is actually only 2 years older than Molly, and is 17. Molly's other love interest (and my personal favorite), is an alien prince with that classic anime elf design that reminded me of the elves in series like Zelda, and Lodoss War. The series unique species and world building of aliens is another one of its massive strong points, as one of Molly's rivals in the spaceship racing / sports narrative, is a really awesome anthro cat with a TV head (basically, this show predicted Protogens, the famous furry fan-species that would be created years after this show ended).
Simply put, Oban is just good. It is a genius blend of genres, an inspiring and heartwarming family friendly anime, and has very little in terms of contentious elements that would bother any viewers. I wholeheartedly recommend this show to anyone. The dub is even good, especially the voices of the Mains (though the Japanese opening theme is better than the American theme song which has the same name as a Justin Beiber song. I mean it's no contest, the Japanese OP was composed by the same lady as Cowboy Bebop, with the same singer as Amagi Brilliant Park. GOATED.

I’m not to clear on the storyline much, though it is rather original to a point. It’s about a girl trying to get her father to recognize her when she was pretty much forgotten. The story is actually rather strong, even creating an ending that someone wouldn’t suspect. It’s rather deep and meaningful for a child’s show.

Eva is strong headed and rather pushy, yet she always thinks with her heart and not her head when things should be rather technical. She also seems to be hot tempered as any little thing seems to send her off her seat. Probably because of the Daddy problems. ... She is a lot like Luke from Star Wars in that she has problems with it. She also has a little Yoda character in Satis. He shows up whenever he wishes and gives some good advice.

Unlike a lot of these shows, this one doesn’t have everything go smoothly all the time which means you never really know what is going to happen mostly. It can keep you on the edge of your seat when it happens. Normally in Race type shows, the main character wins without any really big problems or problems he can overcome right away.

I don’t much like racing shows and was about to put this on the dropped folder after about three shows but this did get much better. I urge those who don’t really like sports or racing shows to at least try it out. I think it was after the 5th I felt more like I was watching it for the show and not just to review it.

The artwork is a bit off in a sense, making the characters look like they have no nose even when in profile view. The characters also have very large ears with no detail in them at all. They feel like they are rather flat. Characters pretty much have all spiky hair. I’m not sure where Eva got all the marks on her face, a star and a line. It just doesn’t look right and is rather distracting. The backgrounds aren’t even that well textured. This show is low on artwork but it makes up slightly for it in that it’s original. The racers feel a lot like from Star Wars including the sounds as well. The track also looks like it’s from Star Wars and I can’t get the feeling that I will be seeing Skywalker at any time. Strangely, the artwork and the 3D art work perfectly together.

The English voices are alright though not really standing out to me. They all feel just a little flat. I cringed a little at Eva’s voice, a rather raspy version of a child’s voice. She also seems like she has a small lisp. The jokes make some of this feel a little hard to get into more. The opening on the other hand is actually rather cool sounding in the English dub though I know it’s not the original.

I wasn't going to leave a review but since no one else is mentioning the problem with this anime so here I go.
Spoilers:
The best way to describe this anime is by calling it NTR on steroids. What makes it worst it is being pushed on kids. It could have been one of the best anime out there and they drop the ball. So I am going to talk about the story, its characters and my enjoyment of the anime and what i would change.

Story started of well and I really liked it, villain of the week style and ... inner conflict with in the main characters, than the ending happen and it change how I looked at the story. It went from a story about girl being heroic and trying to save the world while also reconnecting to her father, to spoil brat that is selfish, shallow has daddy issues and needs to grow up.

The MC is selfish she only really cares about herself. She is trying to rebuild her family by bringing back her dead mother. Her father abandoned her for ten years so long that he doesnt recognize her when she shows up at his work. Her thought maybe bring back her dead mother could make dad be a better father. He blames his awful behavior to his lost of his wife which I call BS, because she died because of racing and he is once again is managing racing. He also is fine with children risking their lives for the race but once he finds out she is his daughter he has a problem, let Jordan die speaking of.

My enjoyment of this anime is based on the treatment of Jordan. Jordan sacrificing himself for a girl that doesn't even like him is what the kids call these day an ultimate "simp" move. I would have forgiven the show if they weren't building up his crush episode after episode, have him just be a friend no romantic feelings, or have her like him. She likes the alien prince guy because she find him cute(super shallow), she keep talking about him and seeking out him out in most of the episodes she even told him she would go visit him on his planet in the future. There is a scene of him crying watching her fly off leaving him behind. The better solution would have been for the dad to be the avator. Would have been sadder. Father and daughter finally open up and he is going away again, he put these kids to risk their lives for this race he could have at least done the sacrifice his character wasn't even needed he can't fly or be a machinist. He was just there so there can be useless conflict with the characters. The father knew Jordan like her he could have done the whole Armageddon bruce willis thing, "look after Eva". Eva wanting to bring back to life mommy so they can finally be a family again was weird she is 15 still a child but come on she should grow up and start a family of her own. Her father abandon her for 10 years after her mother's death, he said he had issues still with his wife death but he was doing fine going back to racing it didn't stop him there winning titles smiling in flashbacks. Him staying redeems his character.

In conclusion skip this PG NTR