editors
JERRY BECK (LA)
AMID AMIDI (NY)
Tailenders
by jerry
August 6, 2009 12:05 am


Move over, Speed Racer! Here comes the trailer for Tailenders:

The plotline here: A serious accident requires a driver to have his heart replaced with the engine of his own racing car. And I thought Turbo Teen was wild!

| Trackback URI

Adam C. says:
08/6/09  1:18am

It still unnerves me how similar this project is in both style and content to Takeshi Koike’s Redline:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFkkNxXuqQ0

 
Professor Widebottom says:
08/6/09  1:45am

Once again, Japanese animation puts me on the edge of feeling like I’m losing my mind… and it’s really interesting at the same time.

 
Christina S. says:
08/6/09  1:54am

So I know that a lot of people are probably going to dismiss this as over-stylized animu garbage… but I don’t care. This looks AWESOME.

 
Charlie says:
08/6/09  2:30am

That looks nuts.

 
Tim Drage says:
08/6/09  2:41am
 
vzk says:
08/6/09  2:45am

That looks like a cartoonier version of IGPX.

Cool.

 
Royston Dann says:
08/6/09  2:48am

The style is a little reminiscent of that of Takeshi Koike, whose movie Red Line seems at least superficially to involve similar themes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFkkNxXuqQ0&feature=related

Takeshi Koike’s work is incredible, and I understand that he draws most of the key frames for the animation he directs, which may explain why Redline has been in production for four years or more.

Does anybody know the status of Redline? I haven’t heard anything about it in some time.

Thanks!

 
Krepta says:
08/6/09  3:15am

This isn’t the kind of thing that will bring anime to the forefront of American critical discussion. Nor will it convince anyone new that Japanese animation is more than just incomprehensible ultraviolence.

It will, however, make a million ten-year-olds scream “AWESOME!” I know this because the ten-year-old me who lives in my heart just did so.

 
Gagaman says:
08/6/09  4:32am

I think I saw a pilot or test animation for this once.

Was sold the moment I noticed the pink Dinosaur on ROLLERBLADES.

 
Benjamin James Wigmore says:
08/6/09  4:44am

I like this! Good clean animation fun for all the family…

 
tohoscope says:
08/6/09  5:24am

Strange, it reminds me of Wacky Races.

 
Dead End says:
08/6/09  5:35am

Reminds me of Red Line, which looks even wilder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw-SbsZTc3w

 
Iritscen says:
08/6/09  5:56am

Wow, the style reminds me of Dead Leaves. Anyway, it looks outrageous and awesome.

 
darin m says:
08/6/09  6:04am
 
Aaron H. Bynum says:
08/6/09  6:24am

Looks like something GAINAX would produce.

 
Oluseyi says:
08/6/09  7:44am

Muddy visuals and audio. The prognosis is not good.

 
Steve Gattuso says:
08/6/09  8:09am

None for me, thanks. I’m driving.

 
startend says:
08/6/09  8:27am

Here somes TAIL-GATER– I mean, TAILENDERS!!! I thought it said that before I really read it.

Yeah who’s the studio? It looks like GAINAX. The only thing I don’t like is how the cars and race courses are in 3D, but they, it’s inconspicuous.

 
Kitschensyngk says:
08/6/09  8:35am

Smells like FLCL or Gurren Lagann.

 
cartoon says:
08/6/09  8:42am

It’s like my brain just went WAAAUUGHH PEW PEW PEW CRASH BRRRRLLRGGLGLLGL

 
James T says:
08/6/09  8:51am

Wow. I’m usually put off by cel shaded CGI, but this makes it look so slick and stylish. I’d love to see how they made the show.

 
Tim Drage says:
08/6/09  8:52am

Reminds EVERYONE of Redline apparently. :)

Worth noting by the way that this is an independent production, tho I haven’t read enough about it to know quite how homemade or otherwise.

 
Tim Drage says:
08/6/09  8:53am

Oh and it looks nothing like Gainax.

 
Adam says:
08/6/09  9:33am

Struck me as very similar to that short in the animatrix, with the track runners. Also sort of reminds me of Afro Samurai. Evidently everyone else immediately thought of Redline, though.

 
Scott says:
08/6/09  9:49am

Another japanese kiddie cartoon with little story or character. Graphics look ok, if derivative.

 
Rodrigo says:
08/6/09  10:00am

Roller skating T-Rex sold me.

 
tohoscope says:
08/6/09  10:00am

Nobody but me thought of Wacky Races? How old are you kids?

 
Turbo Teen Forever says:
08/6/09  10:09am

That main title Turbo Teen human-to-car morphing scene was animated by John Kimball.

 
VGREER says:
08/6/09  10:29am

Wow…that looked pretty bad ass.

 
Baron Lego says:
08/6/09  10:47am

What- no cute, talking animals? Do the characters learn some moral lessons about stuff (like how lying is bad)? At least have the decency to throw in some overly-expensive celebrity voice talent!

See, this why Japan doesn’t know what it’s doing when it comes to animation. Not like us!

 
Royston Dann says:
08/6/09  11:22am

Adam; Redline, World Record (Animatrix) and the original Afro Samurai pilot are all directed by Takeshi Koike at Madhouse, so it’s interesting that this trailer brought those things to mind for you.

Iritscen: Takeshi Koike was also key animator for Dead Leaves, so it seems many people are having a similar response. Okay, I promise I won’t mention Takeshi Koike again.

 
Gagaman says:
08/6/09  11:58am

Haha my bad, by a pilot animation I must of meant Red Line, I just presumed this was that getting a series. Guess they really are similar.

 
RacattackForce says:
08/6/09  2:33pm

That was a seriously messed-up mind trip. The anime seems like it will have wonderful eye candy, and reminds me of my own art style.

 
Scotty A says:
08/6/09  2:45pm

YEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!
Stinger Nose and PingPongBall Head FTW!!!

 
Graham says:
08/6/09  4:29pm

Wow thanks for showing me that Redline trailer! I don’t usually like anime but that was awesome!

 
Jose Manuel says:
08/6/09  5:15pm

well I love miyasaki but I`m not a big anime fan, this trailer shows what I thing About mainstream anime : 98 percent style 2 percent nothing else

 
Jack says:
08/6/09  5:40pm

Wacky Races!!! Got a bit of a Paul Pope flavor to it, non? Dig it!

 
Isaac says:
08/6/09  9:59pm

Baron Lego, maybe both (US CG films and Japanese anime films) are derivative nonsense, each pandering to a different group’s lowest common denominator. There’s nothing inherently wrong with making a product that pleases a large audience by being simple, but we don’t need to pretend that it’s genius.

“Tailenders” looks like an animated action melodrama for teens, a popular genre in anime. CB’s Jerry did just toss it on the front page without much editorial work, and he left everyone guessing at his intentions.

Christina S, glad to oblige! Saturated with fast-slow-fast timing tricks; scant personalities; fixed and repetitive gestures, poses, and expressions; flapping mouths with no lip-sync; long-winded and ridiculous dialogue.

 
Christina S. says:
08/6/09  10:32pm

Okay, so after watching that Redline trailer… yeah. Something’s up. There is no way the two look so similar without any kind of connection.

And Isaac, you are of course entitled to your own opinion, but I think calling Tailenders a melodrama is a mistake. I mean, there’s a pink dinosaur rollerskating. It’s obvious that whoever’s in charge of this is trying to make it as ridiculous as possible.

 
Royce Day says:
08/7/09  5:50am

And yet the concept is still not as wierd as FLCL…

 
Tim Drage says:
08/7/09  9:20am

this trailer shows what I thing About mainstream anime : 98 percent style 2 percent nothing else
Aside from that sentence being pretty much incoherent, this is not really ‘mainstream’ anime, it’s an indie pilot.

Anyway for people who are actually interested in animation business worldwide and not just posting to make sure everyone knows how proud they are to be willfully ignorant about anime, here are some interesting related links:

‘Anime Innovation Tokyo’ who are producing this and other creator-driven independent works:
http://anime-innovation.jp/about/index_en.html

Here’s their youtube channel with more trailers and making-of from Tailenders and other projects: http://www.youtube.com/DOGAKAKUMEI?gl=JP&hl=ja

We now return you to our scheduled OMG SO WACKY JAPAN DURR CAN’T UNDERSTAND ANIMES MAKE NO SENSE LOL BIG EYES

 
Tim Drage says:
08/7/09  9:22am

scant personalities; fixed and repetitive gestures, poses, and expressions; flapping mouths with no lip-sync; long-winded and ridiculous dialogue.

….MUCH LIKE YOUR POSTS! *ZING*

 
red pill junkie says:
08/7/09  9:56am

Isn’t this the trailer for the new Mario Kart videogame? ;-)

 
Tony Mines says:
08/7/09  11:10am

Actually, even though I assimilated this days ago, it wasn’t until everyone here pointed out the similarity to Redline, that I realised it WASN’T Redline.
I actually thought this was a second trailer for that other thing that I had watched the previous week (Redline), but hilighting the cel-shaded filler instead of the kurisuma hilights. Didn’t twig it was a seperate project at all.
I’m such a goon.

 
:: smo :: says:
08/7/09  6:05pm

haha that WAS nuts! and i’m really glad you gave turboteen props!!!

 
Baron Lego says:
08/7/09  8:44pm

Issac: Genius? Hardly. But that thing caught and held my interest more than a lot of what we’re cooking up on this side of the planet, animation-wise. Maybe some North American studio could make a cheap, stilted-looking Flash version (but with full lip-sync, of course) and show ‘em how it’s done.

 
doctorwhom says:
08/7/09  9:28pm

I’ll join the club. Reminids me of uh, Cars! And Robo Geisha.

 
Ridgecity says:
08/9/09  8:38am

japanese animation tends to get stale every few years, but everytime it comes back, man… It makes me fall in love with watching cartoons again.

 
Name: (required)
E-mail: (never shown publicly, but comments without working address will be deleted)
Website
Comment: