Immortal Grand Prix
Encyclopedia
refers to two anime
series co-produced simultaneously by Cartoon Network
and Production I.G. The first is a "microseries" consisting of five 5-minute episodes, and the second is a 26-episode animated series loosely related to the first.
Koichi Mashimo
co-wrote and directed the microseries, while Bee Train
Animation and Production I.G animated it, and Bandai Entertainment acted as the North American distributor. The full-length anime series was handled by director and writer Mitsuru Hongo
and was animated by Production I.G, with Bee Train returning for in-between animation. Production I.G president Mitsuhisa Ishikawa
joined on as producer
for the series. It was the first time he had worked on a joint U.S. Japanese production.
The series' production was managed by Williams Street
in Atlanta, Georgia
. Bang Zoom! Entertainment
in Burbank, California
produced the English dub for the series, as well as adapted the scripts alongside Williams Street.
An IGPX video game was released on September 12, 2006, for the PlayStation 2
.
). At first, Team Suzaku do not have weapons because their mechanic U-Matsu (Kirk Thornton
) forgot them. Amy (Sandy Fox
) delivers weapons from Velshtein, but Team Suzaku has a hard time controlling them. Amy's cat co-pilot Luca (Kari Wahlgren
) takes control and knocks Timmer (Steve Kramer
) out of his mech. Liz (Kari Wahlgren), out of ammo, uses her capoeira
image training. She is eventually at the mercy of an opposing pilot and surrenders. The Sledge Mamma mechs shoot at Takeshi, but Amy jumps in to save him and is out of the game. After being kicked around by the Sledge Mamma mechs, Takeshi reveals his plan. Using his ninjatō
and shuriken, he knocks Dimmer (Michael McConnohie
) and Yammer (Beau Billingslea
) out of their mechs and wins.
/battle circuit. The sport is so popular that an entire city has been built for the racing industry, where competitions take place on a huge 60 miles (96.6 km) track. In the IGPX, two teams of three mechs, high-tech fighting machines driven by humans, race at speeds greater than 350 mi/h. The IGPX also contains fighting elements; attacking the opposing team to disable their mechs (thus preventing them from winning the race) is not only legal, but also expected. Team Satomi, a crew of amateur pilots, has just won a minor-league championship, the IG-2, vaulting them into the sport’s highest level, the IG-1. Now, the untested rookies of Team Satomi must overcome impossible odds and beat the world’s most skilled and ruthless pilots. The series was Toonami's first and only original series.
Lap one is basically a "setup" lap. Teams set up their positions on the track and troubleshoot any problems that the mechs may be having. In the second lap, also known as the "battle round", the teams now fight their way to the finish line. The pit machines, also known as the "running skeletons", are only employed during this lap. Each skeleton is designed to hold two people, one being the mechanic that fixes the mech, and has an open center that allows the mech to be held between the two cockpits while the parts for each mech are stored along the sides for quick replacement. However, the running skeleton can only be called on once for each team throughout the race. In the third lap, pilots are allowed to set their mechs into speed mode. Speed mode allows the mech to achieve maximum speed, and make a quick sprint to the finish line.
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series co-produced simultaneously by Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
and Production I.G. The first is a "microseries" consisting of five 5-minute episodes, and the second is a 26-episode animated series loosely related to the first.
Koichi Mashimo
Koichi Mashimo
is a well-known Japanese anime director and the founder of the animation studio Bee Train. Since the creation of the studio, Mashimo directed or otherwise participated in all its works, for example, as a member of art or sound department...
co-wrote and directed the microseries, while Bee Train
Bee Train
, commonly referred simply as Bee Train, is a Japanese animation studio founded by Kōichi Mashimo in 1997. Since their involvement with Noir, .hack//Sign, and Madlax they have a strong following in the yuri fandom for being involved in series portraying strong female leads with speculatively...
Animation and Production I.G animated it, and Bandai Entertainment acted as the North American distributor. The full-length anime series was handled by director and writer Mitsuru Hongo
Mitsuru Hongo
is a Japanese anime director of film and television who directed animes such as IGPX, Outlaw Star, and The Candidate for Goddess.-References:...
and was animated by Production I.G, with Bee Train returning for in-between animation. Production I.G president Mitsuhisa Ishikawa
Mitsuhisa Ishikawa
is Japanese anime entrepreneur, the co-founder and current president and CEO of Production I.G, as well as a leading producer for the studio. He was also a former executive at Bee Train from 1997–2006, and as of 2010 is expected to join Tatsunoko Productions company as a part time director.Ishikawa...
joined on as producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
for the series. It was the first time he had worked on a joint U.S. Japanese production.
The series' production was managed by Williams Street
Williams Street
Williams Street Productions, LLC, operating under the name Williams Street, is a division of Cartoon Network, which is owned by Turner Broadcasting, an operational unit of Time Warner...
in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. Bang Zoom! Entertainment
Bang Zoom! Entertainment
Bang Zoom! Entertainment is an audio post-production studio, located in Burbank, California, that has worked on several anime, video games, feature films, and directly-to-DVD projects...
in Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
produced the English dub for the series, as well as adapted the scripts alongside Williams Street.
An IGPX video game was released on September 12, 2006, for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
.
IGPX microseries
The Immortal Grand Prix is a tournament between teams of gun-wielding mechs. As Team Velshtein is injured, the random drawing chooses Team Suzaku as the one to face Team Sledge Mamma, a trio of cybernetically-enhanced cyborgs. The lead pilot of Team Suzaku would be Takeshi Noa (Joshua SethJoshua Seth
Joshua Seth Freedman is an American entertainer and voice actor. He was born in Kent, Ohio and attended the New York University film school. He has voiced dozens of well known anime characters and is sometimes credited as "Jeremiah Freedman", but has retired from voice acting in 2005...
). At first, Team Suzaku do not have weapons because their mechanic U-Matsu (Kirk Thornton
Kirk Thornton
Kirk Thornton is an American voice actor.-Bio:He is known for playing tough or grouchy men in English-dubbed anime and video games. His career includes Hotohori in Fushigi Yūgi and Jin in Samurai Champloo...
) forgot them. Amy (Sandy Fox
Sandy Fox
Sandra Marie "Sandy" Fox is an American voice actress who has had numerous roles in various animated cartoon and Japanese anime series, and video games....
) delivers weapons from Velshtein, but Team Suzaku has a hard time controlling them. Amy's cat co-pilot Luca (Kari Wahlgren
Kari Wahlgren
Kari K. Wahlgren is an American voice actress who has provided English language voices for dozens of anime titles and video games. Her debut role was as one of the main characters of FLCL, Haruko Haruhara. She had a live-action role as Tinker Bell in the 2003 Damion Dietz film Neverland...
) takes control and knocks Timmer (Steve Kramer
Steve Kramer (actor)
Steven M. Kramer is an American voice actor for many anime titles. He has also done voice acting for various Power Rangers series in the past, with the best-known of those roles being the voice of Darkonda in Power Rangers in Space. His wife, Melora Harte, is a voice actress...
) out of his mech. Liz (Kari Wahlgren), out of ammo, uses her capoeira
Capoeira
Capoeira is a Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, sports, and music. It was created in Brazil mainly by descendants of African slaves with Brazilian native influences, probably beginning in the 16th century...
image training. She is eventually at the mercy of an opposing pilot and surrenders. The Sledge Mamma mechs shoot at Takeshi, but Amy jumps in to save him and is out of the game. After being kicked around by the Sledge Mamma mechs, Takeshi reveals his plan. Using his ninjatō
Ninjato
The , also known as or , is the most common name for the sword that the ninja are portrayed to have carried by ninja in television and movies. Historically, there is no physical evidence for the existance of this weapon. In reality, the katana was probably the ninja's weapon of choice...
and shuriken, he knocks Dimmer (Michael McConnohie
Michael McConnohie
Michael D. McConnohie is a voice actor and is the President of the Nevada-based Voxworks voice-acting corporation. He is known for his recognizable deep booming voice and is generally known for playing more charismatic characters...
) and Yammer (Beau Billingslea
Beau Billingslea
Beau M. Billingslea is an American actor and voice actor. He is best known as the voice of Jet Black from the popular anime Cowboy Bebop. In addition to voice acting, Billingslea has appeared in many popular TV series as a prolific guest actor...
) out of their mechs and wins.
IGPX TV series
The IGPX TV series made its hour-long premiere on November 5, 2005, at 10/9c. The series is set in 2049 and revolves around the Immortal Grand Prix, or IGPX, which is a mecha racingRacing
A sport race is a competition of speed, against an objective criterion, usually a clock or to a specific point. The competitors in a race try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time...
/battle circuit. The sport is so popular that an entire city has been built for the racing industry, where competitions take place on a huge 60 miles (96.6 km) track. In the IGPX, two teams of three mechs, high-tech fighting machines driven by humans, race at speeds greater than 350 mi/h. The IGPX also contains fighting elements; attacking the opposing team to disable their mechs (thus preventing them from winning the race) is not only legal, but also expected. Team Satomi, a crew of amateur pilots, has just won a minor-league championship, the IG-2, vaulting them into the sport’s highest level, the IG-1. Now, the untested rookies of Team Satomi must overcome impossible odds and beat the world’s most skilled and ruthless pilots. The series was Toonami's first and only original series.
Rules of the IGPX
An IGPX race consists of two teams of three pilots: a forward (usually places first or second), a midfielder (usually places third or fourth), and a defender (usually places fifth or sixth). They compete on a 60 miles (96.6 km) track, going at speeds upwards of 350 mi/h. The overall objective is to make it to the finish line and accumulate more points than the opponent. 1st place receives 15 points; 2nd receives 7 points; 3rd gets 5 points; 4th gets 3 points; 5th gets 2 points and 6th gets 1 point. No points are awarded to pilots who are unable to finish the race.Lap one is basically a "setup" lap. Teams set up their positions on the track and troubleshoot any problems that the mechs may be having. In the second lap, also known as the "battle round", the teams now fight their way to the finish line. The pit machines, also known as the "running skeletons", are only employed during this lap. Each skeleton is designed to hold two people, one being the mechanic that fixes the mech, and has an open center that allows the mech to be held between the two cockpits while the parts for each mech are stored along the sides for quick replacement. However, the running skeleton can only be called on once for each team throughout the race. In the third lap, pilots are allowed to set their mechs into speed mode. Speed mode allows the mech to achieve maximum speed, and make a quick sprint to the finish line.
Characters
The pilots making up Team Satomi are forward Takeshi Jin, defender Liz Ricarro, and midfielder Amy Stapleton. The other members of Team Satomi include team owner Michiru Satomi and coach Andrei Rublev. The other teams in the IGPX are Black Egg, Edgeraid, Skylark, Sledge Mamma, Velshtein, and White Snow. Benjamin Bright is the announcer for the IGPX races.Episodes
| Episode # | Season 1 | Season 2 |
|---|---|---|
| |
Time to Shine | A New Challenge |
| |
Win or Lose | Feeling Lost |
| |
Black Egg | Vulnerable Mind |
| |
The Ghost | White Snow |
| |
Come Together | Puzzled |
| |
Cat Vs. Dog | Moving On |
| |
Spring Has Come | Comeback |
| |
I Like You, I Like You, I Love You | Decision |
| |
Holiday | Function, Not Fashion |
| |
Showdown | Fate |
| |
And Then... | Winner's Circle |
| |
The Final Battle | Hostile Contradiction |
| |
Into Tomorrow | The End and the Beginning |
Team Satomi race record
In both seasons, Team Satomi begins with a 1–1–1 record and finishes with four victories, including a win in the final against the team that they previously lost to.IGPX promotions
- A promotional DVD featuring Episode 1 ("Time to Shine"), the IGPX trailer, music, and a screensaver was distributed with Anime InsiderAnime InsiderAnime Insider was a monthly magazine published by Wizard Entertainment, consisting of news and entertainment pieces relating to the Japanese anime and manga subculture....
v. 26 (November 2005). - The same was released with Nintendo PowerNintendo PowerNintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
v. 198 which was the December 2005 issue. - Special editions of the U.S. DVD volume 1 release came with a puff pack artbox, a Team Satomi T-shirt, the first episode from the microseries and team stickers, one for each of the teams from season one.
Allusions
- Fantine Valjean's name is an allusion to the characters FantineFantineFantine is a character in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables.- Backstory :"Fantine was one of those beings which are brought forth from the heart of the people... She was called Fantine because she had never been known by any other name...""All four were ravishingly beautiful. As to Fantine,...
and Jean ValjeanJean ValjeanJean Valjean is the protagonist of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables...
in the book Les MiserablesLes MisérablesLes Misérables , translated variously from the French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims), is an 1862 French novel by author Victor Hugo and is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century...
by Victor HugoVictor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
. Likewise, Team Skylark member Elisa has the same name as the main character of PygmalionPygmalion (play)Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...
by George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
and as the leading lady in My Fair LadyMy Fair LadyMy Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...
. - Andrei Rublev bears the name of a Russian iconographerAndrei RublevAndrei Rublev is considered to be the greatest medieval Russian painter of Orthodox icons and frescoes.-Biography:...
. - In the episode "Cat vs. Dog", there is a man who looks exactly like Gendo IkariGendo Ikariis a fictional character from the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise. He is the commander of Nerv. While all of the English versions romanize his given name as Gendo, Gainax's website romanizes it Gendoh, and some fansites romanize his name as "Gendou"....
from Neon Genesis EvangelionNeon Genesis Evangelion franchiseThe franchise is an umbrella of Japanese media properties generally owned by the anime studio Gainax. It has grossed over 150 billion yen since 1995. The central works of the franchise feature an apocalyptic mecha action story which revolves around the efforts by the paramilitary organization...
. The man also sits with his hands crossed over his face, which was first done by Gendo and has been done in many other anime series. This character insertion was probably due to Production I.G working on both IGPX and the Evangelion movies. - The leader of Team Velshtein, Sir Hamgra, is an exact lookalike of Patrick Zala from Mobile Suit Gundam SEEDMobile Suit Gundam SEEDis an anime series developed by Sunrise and directed by Mitsuo Fukuda. As with other series from the Gundam franchise, Gundam SEED takes place in a parallel timeline, in this case the Cosmic Era, the first to do so...
. - In "Cat vs. Dog", the mecha of Team Edge Raid have GITS painted on their arms. This is a reference to Ghost in the ShellGhost in the Shellis a Japanese multimedia franchise composed of manga, animated films, anime series, video games and novels. It focuses on the activities of the counter-terrorist organization Public Security Section 9 in a futuristic, cyberpunk Japan ....
, a franchise animated by Production I.G, who also animated IGPX. Team Satomi's mechs have the word Absolute painted on their arms. - In the final episode of IGPX, Team Black Egg's symbol is shown on the TV located on one of the triple towers that surround the track, which only shows team emblems for IG-1. This suggests that Black Egg has regained their spot in IG-1, replacing Team Skylark after they are demoted to IG-2.
- In the eighth episode of ReideenReideenis a Japanese animated television series remake of the 1975 Super Robot anime Brave Reideen. It was produced by Production I.G and directed by Mitsuru Hongo. Which was originally broadcast on the satellite network WOWOW in 2007....
, a banner titled "Satomi" hangs in the city that Saiga Junki (the main protagonist) lives in. Production I.G's studio created both the IGPX and Reideen anime series. Both series were directed by Mitsuru HongoMitsuru Hongois a Japanese anime director of film and television who directed animes such as IGPX, Outlaw Star, and The Candidate for Goddess.-References:...
.