Anime

It's kind of weird being excited about watching CG cars statically vibrate across the screen in the guise of racing cars rumbling across tarmac, but that's how I feel about what the racing action consists of.

This NEX racing series has a couple of virtual idols who do all the announcements, pre-race build up entertainment, and so forth, but they oddly look more realistic than the racers themselves.

When they first show up, I wondered how magical girls figure into this story (they don't)

The first 2/3 of the episode is the last race of a season that we're just launched into.

The series title is sewn up, nobody really doubts who will win this race either.

For a non-event competitively speaking, it's not a bad watch. There's overtaking, crashes, pit strategy, although I'm sad that they've discarded human pit crews in favor of nondescript automated tire changing bays.

The worst part is watching the CG characters walk and talk. The character designs are nice to look at when still, but they're overwrought and non-functional. As are the cars themselves.

The idea that the Champ wins because he's the best, and not because that his team's car has some hidden technological advantage, is a slap in the face to how actual racing works.

Then we jump forward to qualifying for the first race next season, and are introduced to our future heroine who, other than her pink hair, seems pretty generic and indistinguishable from the other racing girls, and there's no explanation of how she was chosen to drive a very expensive racing car.

The writers played it smart by showing us the best of what this show has to offer: The racing.

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