Immediatly with the opening credits I was hooked. A somewhat techo-pop song rips through my body, shattering all other introductions, and with its stunning visuals and perfectly blended 3D graphics, grabs my attention like it hasn't been grabbed in a while. The main lead, Rin, tears through Tokyo on an altered motorbike that now looks like a robot. The music pumps on. Now she's dancing, ballet it looks like, in front of thousands. Who is this Rin? What's Rideback all about? I needed answers.
As the credits end, you quickly see that the painstaking efforts put into the art and animation in the opening scene, are going to carry on throughout the series. Jackpot!!! For someone used to bright neons and dull hues found standard in early animation, the crisp lines and shading stand out like a midget on a basketball team.
Each character is beautiful. And unique. The clothes they wear, their hair styles, their movements. No time or money was skimped on when the animation team was put on the task to create something truely beautiful. And then you have EVERYTHING else. In each scene, in each background, you are completely blown away by how perfectly the lighting captures the mood and totally inhances a scene, transforming a simple conversation between two people into an epic dialogue or a high-speed chase around a track into a life and death road race.
After the inital shock of the animation you relise that the plot itself is a true work of genius as well.
You have Rin, a ballet dancing prodigy, who hurts herself somehow. This is a blow to her ego and perhaps her way out of something that she was never REALLY that into in the first place. So she quits and goes off to school instead. There, she finds herself attracted to "the next cool thing" to hit Japan. Ridebacks. They are half motorcycle, half robot. 100% bad-ass. This is the first aspect of the show that I really liked. These Ridebacks, thought not feasable yet, COULD, ONE DAY, MAYBE, exist. And that's an exciting thought.
Somehow, Rin is a born natural on the back of these futuristic machines. You get to see her race her rival and in competitions. But that's not what the show is about. It's about when she Rides against the GGP. You see in the future, the GGP (and organization) takes over every country and every organization and becomes the ultimate rulers of the world. A dictatorship of such. Anyways, when Rin Rides against the worlds superpower, when she Rides for what she believes in, that's when you get that tingily feeling running through your body. That's when you start getting excited.
I'm not going to get to much into the plot, but the great thing about the story is that this normal girl gets put into these situations, reacts the same way any normal person would, and gets deeper and deeper in trouble. This makes the plot very believeable and easy to like.
Until now, I have raved about the series, and with due cause. The one thing that was lacking however was character development. Now I am not one that needs hours and hours of background information pertaining to each and every person. But the ONLY individual to get ANY kind of story relating to her past experiance is Rin. Rin is an amazing lead, no question about that. Her struggle to come to terms with who she is and what she wants, is very appealing throughout. But with the sheer volume of secondary characters, you would expect a little more than a 10 second flashback for each.
Other then the simple, cardboard cut out characters, Rideback, to me was a huge success.
The animation and unique story telling, along with many humanistic emotions that Rideback will throw at you, will easily make this series a fun and exciting watch.
