Rideback

I finished watching an Anime series called Rideback on Netflix. I was interested in watching this series after I saw an Anime Music Video (AMV) at Connecticon. From what I saw in the clips of the series, it looked like an interesting concept.

 

(This image is from http://lilacanimereviews.blogspot.com/2012/09/rideback-review-english.html)

The series takes place a future where the world is run by an organization called the GGP. Rideback is about a girl, named Rin Ogata, who had dedicated most of her life to ballet, but she quits after sustaining an injury at her performance. By a strange coincidence, she happens to come upon the Rideback Club at her college, where the members work on and ride these vehicles called Ridebacks. A Rideback is a hybrid of a robot and a motorcycle. Rin takes a special Rideback for a test spin and ends up joining the club.

The action scenes where Rin is on a Rideback are awesome. It is obvious that her movements on the Rideback are influenced by her years as a ballet dancer. The Ridebacks are able to ride with the legs spread out in a split much like a ballet dancer might, and when the Ridebacks are in standing position, they are much like ballet dancers balancing on their toes. There are other characters that also have some interesting action scenes.

Unfortunately, there is a long period of dreariness in the series. At a certain point, Rin stops driving on Ridebacks and the episodes focus on everything else going on in the government with the GGP. Terrorists are shown using the Ridebacks, but they are nothing like Rin. She rides one in the finale, but for a series that is only 13 episodes long, it is weird that it takes so much time to see her ride again.

(This image is from http://www.weeatfilms.com/tv/anime-review-gungrave-setting-standards-surprisingly-high/)

This series caught my attention more than Gungrave. I began watching the first episode of that Anime series and began to feel bored with it. The characters are not that interesting, the action has been seen better elsewhere, the designs of the guns look like the same in other series, and monsters shatter like glass when they are shot which is just ridiculous.

Rideback at least has better characters and it caught my attention from the start. Usually I don't care for the use of both 3D and 2D animation in a series because it doesn't match up, but Rideback pulled it off nicely. 

Rideback and Gungrave are owned by Funimation. In fact, most of the anime I have watched on Netflix are all owned by Funimation. There are not that many other companies that will translate Anime, and even fewer that have agreed to work with Netflix.

I think I might cancel my Netflix subscription soon. After finishing season seven of "Supernatural" and since I am almost done watching what they have of "The Walking Dead," there really isn't much left I want to watch. I heard from someone that Netflix has lost a lot of stock and has cut the number of anime series. I have definitely noticed that.