eX-Driver

ex driver is an anime and always will be something that is very close to my heart because its being one of the "first animes" that i have ever watch in my whole life it was in 2005 that i laid eyes on anime and lucky for me that this was a "gem" to me and made me inseparable to anime that was the time that anime became "a part of my life" a fantasy that will never end.for me this was a re watch and was i a happy camper to find this again in net.everything was the same it was just perfect with ... a lot of fond memories.

story-it simple to get.full of action,filled with comedy,new feelings of romance also drama to explain things properly it was a complete package after watching you can raise your finger and say "hey they missed something here"everything is explained fully and "i love it especially because this plot and this story could actually become a reality in near future not that far away from us."i love it,this much because of how realistic the story is"the technology that is used and the things happening in the series can happen to us.especially is very simple to understand and complicated enough to make you guess "that's why this is a balanced show"there is nothing unimportant happening.

animation and art -well is was done in the 90's and it was the art that i loved and fell for in the fist place so it was superb for that time.everyone had unique looks to them"you know everyone didn't look the same"they were so different from each other.from looks,facial expressions to fantastic personalities.also my favorite character "soichi" was soooooooooooooooo........cute and sexy.i just wish they made more episodes.

sound-i remember every beat of every song that was playing in the show.opening theme song get you pumped up and in the mood for the action to come and comedy to come.op theme says everything that has to be said about the show and what are the characters like.ed theme was so great making you to watch more.

characters-i love "soichi" he is my favorite.Lisa is awesome Lorna is fantastic.they make this show a success.this team is so great.the things they do,the things that happens to them is so unreal sometimes you worry for them and sometime you burst out laughing that cant be stopped and you miss some of the dialogs because of it and you repeat things.(well it happen to me)there is romance blooming if you take notice and you will.love in this is very enthusiasm after all they are kick ass drivers and they are good.how i know this? is beaus of the great animation.it was swift and beautifully done so you know "how good the riders are" the technical terms used are very accurate and done very well as well.it end ended the appropriate way too i have to mention this because some animes mess the ending but this was just pure gold just like the beginning.
dialogs-i always forget to mention this the dialogs were hilarious at times but sometimes it give you an impotent message.also the dub actors were just like "icing on the cake"they were brilliant.
i loved it years back,i love it now and always will love this story for days to come...i already miss the characters so much."they were like a sun shining after a gloomy rain".i just hope you will watch this epic anime story that is easy going but at serious when it needs to be..so go and enjoy it wont take you long its only 6 episodes of Action,comedy,fun and love which makes me say again "i wish there were more episodes" so enjoy :3

When I first heard about this anime I thought It was going to be similar to Wangan Midnight, with street racing and tons of cars. I was wrong.

Story: A future where cars are controlled by computers, and a team of gasoline powered classic car drivers chase them down when they go haywire, sounds like a very repetitive plot. But it turn out it's not, I wont ruin the plot, so ill just say there's events that keep the plot going.

Art: The animation has a very 'mid-90s' feel to it, which isn't a bad thing. The thing I like most is the cars. The ... animators did very well making the vehicals realistic.

Sound: Now, I don't know if it was the copy I had or the series itself, but the quality at times was, not the best out there. To me it sounded fuzzy and almost like the voice actors where talking through a thick foam pad. But like I said I don't know if it was my copy or not so don't take the sound to seriously.

Characters: Each character has there own defined personality and unique style to how they get the mission done. (Not much to say on that one)

Enjoyment: For a six episode series (plus a movie) it's not a bad watch in your down time between other anime.

When I saw that this series was written by Kosuke Fujishima, creator of the "Oh My Goddess!" and "You're Under Arrest" anime series, and with me being a fan of "You're Under Arrest" and hearing good things about "Oh My Goddess!" before I watched series, I became interested in checking it out. After seeing that it wasn't as popular as his other works and getting some less than good, I went into eX-Driver with moderately set expectations that I would get at least some entertainment out of the six episodes knowing what the creator was capable of. And after watching it, I can easily see ... why this wasn't as well remembered or well reviewed as his other works.

Set at some point in the 22nd century, people no longer drive cars themselves, instead relying on cars with an artificial intelligence to drive for them. But when the AI systems in these cars started malfunctioning, causing the cars to lose control, a team called eX-Drivers (or eX-D for short) were formed, driven by actual drivers, to chase down the cars that have gone crazy. I don't know why the group of people who actually drive cars are the ones called eX-Drivers, but whatever.

The series follows three such eX-Drivers, Lorna, Lisa, and new addition to the group, Soichi. Soichi is the youngest of the group at 12 years old, and the other two are in their teens. I imagine that making them younger was to appeal to a younger audience, and I don't really mind having three kids as the main characters since this is more geared to a younger audience, but it just raises questions to me, like how does a 12 year get a license, especially for such a dangerous job. But I'm guessing this is going off of Pokemon rules, with how children are often put into dangerous situations but somehow never get hurt, with this series relying on the same set of convenient rules.

eX-Driver does bring up some neat concepts to explore, such as an underground community of drivers mentioned in the first episode where characters have a boost button in their car and have modified the cars programming, and later in the series, there are characters with gasoline cars that can't be tracked by the same system as the AI cars and are off the grid. It would have been neat if the series explored this stuff, but unfortunately due to it being only 6 episodes, it never really gets to do that.

And that's not taking into account other stuff that it could have brought up. Is there no one would doesn't trust the automated systems of the cars, and even cites statistics of AI failures, or at least talks about all of the news stories of failing AI as a reason to not have an AI car? Or even just dislikes the idea in general, based purely on personal preference. What about people who simply can't afford the AI cars, or simply don't care about what car they drive, and just want a way of getting to where they're going? And I'm pretty sure there are car enthusiasts out there who would want to drive, tune, and build their own cars, or just want to buy and deal with classic cars. You could have even had an episode where a mentor once shows his skills of to the kids, who hope to be as good of a driver as him one day.

There could have even been an episode where the characters didn't have access to cars, like being stranded somewhere where they didn't have access to the system, or being forced to take a break since the job is clearly stressing them out, and it ends up being a bonding experience. There was enough here for it to expand out to a 12-episode series at least, but unfortunately we got stuck with what we have.

All of these could have been good ideas for episodes, and could have easily broken up the repetitive monotony of the series and at least taken the series from a completely forgotten for good reason series to a beloved cult classic with a few neat ideas.

The series also came out at that time when anime was transitioning from traditionally done animation cels to digital animation, and it obviously shows. Characters look flat and overly bright at times and the whole thing just looks mediocre at the best of times.

Which is unfortunate, because the series clearly shows off Kosuke Fujishima's love of cars, and by extension, motorcycles, and seeing it either be done a few years earlier with cel animation or a few years later when studios were more experienced with digital animation and the detail of the cars would have really popped out more, it would have at least made it worth watching for the eye candy.

And it seems like such a waste to not let Kosuke to show off his love of said vehicles and let him stretch his creativity a bit for a sci-fi series with cars we haven't seen before. If this couldn't have been continued as an anime, it would have been nice to see Kosuke continue it as a manga at least.

The only interesting thing about this series is just how predictive of self-driving cars it was. But since it never goes that in-depth with the concept either, so there's no real reason to watch the series based on that alone.

While eX-Driver is nowhere near the worst thing that I've watched, I doubt that anyone is clamoring for a re-release. But considering some of the stuff that Discotek have picked up, I wonder how long it would be before they get their hands on a release for this. Unless this get some sort of new series that actually expands on the concepts of the series, I can't really recommend it.