Team Satomi’s sophomore year in the IG-1 has been a
disaster. Amy is in the hospital after a
dangerous race with newcomers Team White Snow.
Andre has returned to the pilots seat to replace her but he’s not the
legend he used to be. And all the loss
and pressure is putting Takeshi at odds with his teammates and his girlfriend,
Fantine. All the while, from the
shadows, Team White Snow continues to toy with the golden boys confidence,
hoping that the next time they face off, Takeshi will be a shell of his former
self. Is the end nigh for Team Satomi?
So Monday, I was pretty peeved at IGPX.
It was as if the nostalgia goggles I have for
this series being a major moment in Toonami history kind of came off.
As an action series, the show is fine.
As an overall Anime, it can come off as basic
and at times below the par for the course of Sports Anime.
The racing action is great and the Mechs are
rendered nicely in the 3D animation.
The
characters are mostly generic and stagnant with a few exceptions.
Season One was passable in spite of these
flaws.
But the start of Season Two left
me fuming.
Takeshi was throwing hissy
fits left and right and the villains of the Season, newcomers Team White Snow,
were so full of themselves being awesome cheaters that could get away with
nearly killing Amy, it just pissed me off…and the rest of the characters acting
all out of sorts or without any actual sense only made things worse.
This might sound like I’m going into final
thoughts, but we’ve still got one more review come Monday.
No, I’m bringing all of this up because this
penultimate set both emphasized my irritation with Season Two while also
working really hard to redeem it and get things on more stable ground.
In short, it started pretty bad but slowly
got better.
The race against Velshtein was notable because of Andre’s
return to the pilots seat for the first time in years.
The old man made no qualms about the toll it
took on him but Andre still held his own quite well.
As for his little stunt to win the race…well
Velshtein, and Cunningham in particular, can whine about Andre pulling such a
dangerous move but are they really ones to talk?
Sure their little Triple Tornado move was no
longer in use but they’ve used it in the past and you cant tell me that’s a
safe attack to use on anyone.
The match
still ended in a tie, which means both teams will get to face off again
probably very soon.
Hopefully Cunningham
gets over his hurt feelings…or doesn’t.
As much as I love him being voiced by Steve Blum, his character is…well
as everyone says “weird”.
For all his
love of the sport, Cunningham still seems miffed when OP or dangerous attacks
get used and not by him and his crew.
It
paints him as a bit of a self entitled elitist, which he thinks he is cause
he’s been a champ multiple years.
I
doubt Takeshi and Team Satomi end up creating any megaton nuclear bomb attacks
to maintain their championship position.
Moving past Cunningham, Takeshi, yeesh if there was ever
a time to truly be fed up with him, it was the front half of this set of
episodes.
And I wasn’t the only
one.
Liz, Andre, Mark and even River all
had enough of his BS.
I got the biggest
laugh out of River, who flat out told Takeshi, “Why would you think I’d
sympathize with you after how I was treated by Team Satomi?”
I bet Miss Satomi actually regretted letting
River go when she thought she’d have to bench Takeshi to teach him a lesson.
Even Fantine was getting tired of Takeshi’s
pity party but that’s not the sole reason she dumped him.
Fantine has been presented as a genuinely
good person and a major supporter of Takeshi.
His not listening to her kindness and appreciating his cute girlfriend
is all on him and him alone.
And yet,
Fantine ends up breaking up with Takeshi because…well she’s like River: she
feels more into the IGPX being Takeshi’s rival instead of his support
(Oh and she knows Liz needs Takeshi more than
she does…noble I guess).
Strange turn of
events but this seemed to be the thing to get Takeshi’s mind back on straight.
From the moment he stepped into the Skylark Race, he seemed more like the guy
he was at the end of Season One, a better Team Captain and more competent
racer.
The actual race against Fantine
was beautifully choreographed and likened to a dance by the IGPX
Commentators.
And yet, neither held
anything back, with Takeshi taking the win to show he was truly back in the
game.
From here on, everything just started to improve.
Sure White Snow was around to rub Takeshi’s
poor fortune in his face and whine that Team Satomi winning was boring.
But now that the team is acting like a proper
team again, they have a chance to throw White Snow’s arrogance back in their
faces (Takeshi snatching Zanak’s stress ball and doing the over the shoulder
toss without looking was pretty bad ass).
But the true reason to Team Satomi coming back together wasn’t Takeshi
learning his lesson (though it helped).
It was Amy finding her groove again following a near death
experience.
Watching her rebuild her
confidence, face her fears and bring the spirit of unity to her entire team was
the kind of stuff good Sports Anime thrive in.
And it all came together in the match against Sledge Mamma.
Thanks to Amy’s quick thinking and some great
ingenuity from Takeshi and Liz, Team Satomi won as a whole.
Seeing Takeshi and Liz work together, both
being down an arm, was awesome but seeing Amy bring all three Mechs together
into one combined racer was a nice touch to signal that Team Satomi was back
and complete Amy’s confidence arc for the season (thinking she was holding the
team back when she’s the reason they won their race).
Icing on the cake, when Takeshi finally
apologized for his crappy behavior this season, he looked to Amy as a source of
inspiration…and Liz too cause Lord knows Takeshi doesn’t deserve her (Fantine
knows he does though, so yeah, good on her for noticing).
There was actually a bit of a subplot going on with
Sledge Mamma in this set, with Yamma facing the danger of forced retirement if
they didn’t win the Championship.
Seeing
Yamma get in the zone and actually having a blast on the track (Mark Hamill was
definitely having fun in this role), makes me wish we followed more teams
besides Satomi in this series.
Yamma
showed in Season One that he’s a bit more layered than his wicked appearance
would indicate.
We’ve already seen how
River can have an arc of his own even after he moved on from Team Satomi.
How about following Velsthein for a bit or
Edgeraid?
How about checking in again
with Fantine and Team Skylark now that theyre heading back to the IG-2?
Come on IGPX, even the best season of Free
(Eternal Summer) split time pretty evenly between the boys of Iwatobi and
Sumezuka.
Takeshi doesn’t need all of
your attention.
Still no need for White
Snow to have any extra screentime, screw those guys.
Actually, White Snow’s presence was
surprisingly minimal in this set.
Max
did invade Takeshi’s online video game to harass him more…jeez I might not care
for Takeshi half the time but White Snow I’ve never liked from the beginning
and I want them to get what’s coming to them (Life imprisonment for attempted
manslaughter of Amy is still preferred).
So yeah, Season Two seems to be righting a lot of it
wrongs to start the push into the final stretch.
Takeshi, Liz and Amy are more united than
ever and they’ve finally riled up White Snow and aren’t going to take any of
their crap anymore.
BTW, the OP Theme,
“Go For It” got used to great effect at the climax of both races and I wish
this song got actual playtime in the Toonami broadcast.
Maybe we’ll hear more of it in episode during
the last two races of the season.
IGPX
has redeemed itself…for now.
But how
will it all wrap up?
The answers arrive
on Monday with the Series Finale of IGPX right here at the Gundam Anime
Corner.
See ya then.
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