Otaku Review

Rideback – Ep 2
Studio: Madhouse
Air Date: 1/18/09
Genre: Mech

A pretty race is not enough to keep an audience coming back and apparently little else in this series is either.

The Story

In the second episode of ‘Rideback’, Rin , her friends and members of the Rideback club are still buzzing over the moves that Rin showed in episode one (while audience members are busier working on Rin’s happy (excited? psychotic?) face). So much so that Rin has caught the eye of the club’s president who challenges her to a race. Meanwhile, more terrorist attacks have been occurring against the ruling government.

Good and the Bad

As with the first episode, there are a number of little things that are continuing to make this series very difficult to get into. I really thought that I would be past the character designs by now but now there are even more things that bother me. For instance, what is up with Rin’s hair? What are those spiky bits that stick up no matter what she is doing?

The story in ‘Rideback’ is also taking a very long time to set up its primary story. Spending all of their time with the Ridebacks, the story is already starting to feel like it’s going to move in fairly predictable directions. It certainly feels like they could have sped this process up quite a bit by now. With only a few moments here and there spent on the political nature later in the series, I can’t help but think that ‘Rideback is wasting a lot of time early on.

The time that they do spend with the Ridebacks isn’t an entire waste however. In this episode the audience is really given a chance to see what these machines can do via a fairly well put together race sequence. The sequence lasts for most of the last act and is really the only part of the episode where the animation returns to the same shine that the first episode contained. From start to finish, the Ridebacks and the race itself really does a good job of getting your attention.

After sitting in front of this review for awhile, I finally realized that this is the biggest fault of the series; there is quite a bit that has happened within these first two episodes but the audience has yet to be given a reason to care. While the characters have been introduced, no one has been developed nearly enough for solid opinions to be based. The staff behind this series has to have a lot of hope that fans are going to stick around long enough to see the big pay off story hook but it will be interesting to see how much longer the fans stick around to see it.

Music

The background music in this episode usually has a very sharp house techno beat which helps push the futuristic angle of the series. The race in particular has a very nice driving beat that helps keep things intense and gearing the audience for the nasty crashes that will follow. Beyond the few scenes however, the music in the series tends to be very simple with little to grab your attention. The few classical pieces that are thrown in for Rin’s ballet scenes are all traditional pieces so there’s nothing original to listen for on that end so far either.

Cast

No one in the cast so far has stood out as particularly interesting or above average. No one in the cast really feels like they have settled into their roles yet and with the back stories yet to really take any real shape, there’s little in terms of emotional output for the characters.

Overall

I really want to stick with ‘Rideback’ for at least long enough to see the political aspect to this series. They really aren’t selling that aspect nearly enough though which makes me worry. There really is only the barest amount of potential here with absolutely nothing to keep audiences coming back beyond hope of a genuine conflict. ‘Rideback’ is down to its last chance to impress me with something big or else this one is going to get dropped in a hurry.

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