IGPX Part 6 Episodes 22-26

It’s been a difficult season but Takeshi and Team Satomi continue to persevere.  With Amy back in action, the team is back to full strength and just in time.  Velshtein returns as Satomi’s runner up opponents and it’s more than just Takeshi and Cunningham who have a score to settle, so do Andre and Sir Hamgra.  And then, the final race arrives against Team White Snow.  Team Satomi’s last match with them ended with Amy injured and Takeshi’s confidence devastated.  Will this deceptive team of racers be the ones to put Team Satomi in the ground once and for all?  Or will Takeshi, Liz and Amy do the unthinkable and pull off a second consecutive title win in a row?

With the checkered flag in sight, IGPX rolls into its final lap here at the Gundam Anime Corner.  I’ve been having a bit of déjà vu with Season Two in that it reminds me of the second season of Code Geass.  The first half has been a bit of a mess with a mean spirited story and character flaws that have always been present in the series but I just couldn’t ignore anymore for the sake of nostalgia.  But the back half of last weeks set started righting some things to take us into the home stretch.  The question now is, does IGPX pull of a Code Geass Finale level win?  Or is it just ok…which is better than a bad one at least.
 
We started things off with a minor detail for another IGPX Festival that felt mostly forgettable.  The real story there fell to Liz who has continued to grow as the most consistently likeable character in the show.  Seeing her attempt modeling might’ve been a bit weird but then again I’ve always thought Liz was cute.  The dress she rocked though, before and after the wardrobe malfunction, was a definite wake up call for Takeshi.  Sometimes the guy has been so dull and unlikeable it’s been hard to see what Liz sees in him.  Call her a saint or don’t, Liz cares a lot about Takeshi and has always had his back even when he wasn’t listening.  Even Fantine knew this and felt it best to let Liz be for Takeshi what she couldn’t be.  Which brings us to that kiss.  Wow…Season Two has had its faults but that Takeshi/Liz kiss isn’t one of them…damn, they’ve been holding that in since probably before the start of the series I’m sure before they even knew they liked each other.  Takeshi might be in a better place and might even be likeable now but Liz has always deserved a happy ending in IGPX and she got it…way to go both of you.
 
As cute as Takeshi and Liz’s new romance is, I know youre wondering about the last races of the season.  Well we actually got three…and one of them had nothing to do with Team Satomi for once.  This is something we should’ve seen more of throughout the show.  Sledge Mamma might notve been destined to take on Satomi in the Final race…and honestly that’s kind of a shame.  I’ll be letting loose on Team White Snow in a little bit but suffice to say, I’d rather Sledge Mamma have had the final race so we could see Takeshi, Yamma, River, Liz, Amy…and whoever else runs on Sledge Mamma, have a blast racing each other.  Next to Velsthein, Sledge Mamma has been Team Satomi’s biggest competitor, the first they ever took on in the IG-1. Of course, it had to be White Snow in the end.  But one do over IGPX needs is better focus on the other teams.  It would’ve been refresing to follow Cunningham, Yamma, or Fantine for an episode cause Takeshi at his worst in Season Two nearly torpedoed the entire season. 
 
The big two races were Team Satomi taking on Velsthein and White Snow.  Both had their highlights from Satomi fight Velsthein pretty evenly to the “are you kidding me?” spectacle White Snow had to bring in cause they wanted to make a show out of crushing Satomi.  The White Snow match maybe had more of a “F YEAH” feel cause God knows White Snow had it coming.  But the Velsthein match continued to show why these guys are some of the best rivals for Team Satomi.  Without using any underhanded super or kamikaze tactics, Satomi and Velsthein went toe to toe in a grueling fight to the finish line.  Mechs spin like Beyblades, fight on top of one another and engage in no holds barred DBZ fights that tear the Mechs apart bit by bit, chips flying everywhere with every blow.  This was a solid brawl and a good cap off to a series long rivalry.  This is how an IGPX race should be run if you want to get super serious and still have a blast.  No Hadoukens, Terrible Tornados or Illegal Hacks…just good old fashion speed and hard punches. This is the way.
 
White Snow…White Snow, White Snow, White Snow…SCREW YOU GUYS!!!!  From their first appearance in Season Two I hated them and it only grew as the story went on.  Cudos to that at least, I wanted to see them lose and Satomi come out on top.  Every word out of their mouths was utter crap from their false sincerity to their “we’re better than you so why even try” mentality.  And then we learned that Max is actually a hacker who was actually almost arrested for hacking government servers as a kid…and she’s allowed to race with this knowledge in mind?  WHY?  No one in the League ever thought to look into that after Andre came to them about the Puppeteer attack that nearly got Amy killed?  It didn’t even matter that the Puppeteer attack got banned cause White Snow wasn’t gonna let that stop them from cheating their way to the finish line.  Thankfully, Takeshi’s actually grown along with his team and they were ready for some payback.  First, Takeshi schooled Zanak and Judy in a Kendo fight (Max holding a sword to him at the end doesn’t count, Takeshi totally kicked their asses solo).  Then, Luca took Takeshi into the Mech servers via a digital avatar (the little Dog/Duck guy he uses in the video game he plays) to smash Max’s evil Teddy Bear avatar to let her know she isn’t getting a second shot at ruining them that way.  And lastly, teamwork prevailed over Max’s win at all cost methods as Takeshi, Liz and Amy took on a three Mecha tall Kaiju racer…and tore it to pieces cause that’s what they do.
 
And yet…I think White Snow gets off easy.  Watching Max devolve from a overconfident cheater to a brat who whined about things not going her way, even calling Takeshi mean for trashing her virus program when she tried to have Satomi’s mechs again, was pretty satisfying.  But I don’t think White Snow should be allowed to continue racing.  Every team has their own way of making the race more one sided but White Snow is absolute trash, barely able to race without their hacks or the element of throwing off their teams psychologically on their side.  And then we learn that Max did all of this because she’s a big Takeshi fan and wanted to prove she could race alongside him…ahem SCREW THAT NOISE!!!! Takeshi might be a lucky Maverick but he doesn’t cheat you little brat.  In my mind, Team Satomi should’ve been building a long case against White Snow to get them banned from the IG-1 after kicking their ass themselves in the Final race.  White Snow pissed me off everytime theyre on screen and they don’t deserve a second chance or an even ok ending.  Takeshi is a better man than me though, giving them some lessons he hopes they’ll take to heart rather than just telling Max, Zanak and Judy to GTFO and go pester some poor kids on Fortnite or something…damn they really got me worked up.
 
And so, we reach the end of IGPX.  As I said in my last review, I think my overall nostalgia memory of this show kind of faded during this rewatch and I’ve been able to see the flaws more than ever, one could say I’ve been doing the same with Gundam Wing the last few years too.  Toonami clearly wanted an action show first and foremost and you can tell a lot of the effort went into making the races as exciting and unique as possible.  In that regard, this show succeeded.  The Mechs looked fantastic, the track kept changing and getting bigger and Season Two stepped up the spectacle after the test runs in Season One.  Plus the rivalries were entertaining too.  However, the characters might have a Grade A voice cast but the fact of the matter is, IGPX is pretty basic and generic when it comes to them and the story around them.  Takeshi isn’t anything more than your standard Sports Anime protagonist who barely shows true growth until right before the end of the series.  Liz and Amy faired better because they were way more likeable (Liz gets an A+ thanks to Michelle Rodriguez acting the hell out of her).  River was the most sympathetic character when he wasn’t even the main focus.  Everyone else was generic manager, mechanic, mentor and even the villains (yes White Snow were baddies even if they try to act otherwise) were standard infuriating jerks.  Season One and Two even shared similar story beats right down to Satomi’s win/loss record across both Seasons and Takeshi being given a hard reset at the beginning of Season Two to stack all the odds against him and watch him squirm.  However, much like Gundam Wing, I can still say that IGPX has its good points and as a piece of important Toonami history, it’s worth at least one watch.  It might not have aged too well but its not the worst Sports/Mecha Anime out there.  But from a network that was opening a lot of doors for Anime in the US…IGPX could have been a lot better. 

Final Score for IGPX is…a 6/10.