refers to two

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series co-produced by

Production I.G is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise, founded on December 15, 1987, by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Japan. The letters I and G derive from the names of the company founders: producer Mitsuhisa Ish ...

and

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

. The first is a "microseries" consisting of five 5-minute episodes, and the second is a 26-episode animated series loosely related to the first. Koichi Mashimo co-wrote and directed the microseries, while

Bee Train , commonly referred to simply as Bee Train, is a Japanese animation studio founded by Kōichi Mashimo in 1997. Since their involvement with '' Noir'', '' .hack//Sign'', and ''Madlax'' (among other series) they have a strong following in the yuri f ...

and

animated it, and Bandai Entertainment acted as the North American distributor. The full-length anime series was handled by director and writer Mitsuru Hongo and was animated by Production I.G, with Bee Train returning for in-between animation. Production I.G president

Mitsuhisa Ishikawa is a Japanese anime entrepreneur, the co-founder and current president and CEO of Production I.G, as well as a producer for the studio. Career Mitsuhisa Ishikawa was executive at Bee Train from 1997 to 2006, Ishikawa acted as executive produce ...

joined on as

producer Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

for the series. It was the first time he had worked on a joint U.S. Japanese production, due to the ''

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...

'' companion franchise. The series' English dub was produced by Williams Street in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

and Bang Zoom! Entertainment in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...

. Both studios collaborated on the English script and casting, Bang Zoom directed and recorded the actors, and Williams Street handled the final mixing for the dub. ''IGPX'' was the first ever Toonami original anime series. An ''IGPX''

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

was released on September 12, 2006, for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

. The program returned to the Toonami block on April 28, 2013 at 2 a.m. ET on

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

. On November 21, 2014, anime distributor Discotek Media announced their license to the TV series and re-released both cuts (including Toonami cut and Production I.G cut) of the series on DVD on February 9, 2016.

''IGPX'' microseries

The Immortal Grand Prix is a tournament between teams of gun-wielding mechs. As Team Velshtein is injured, the random drawing chooses Team Suzaku, led by pilot Takeshi Noa, as the one to face Team Sledge Mamma, a trio of cybernetically-enhanced cyborgs. At first, Team Suzaku does not have weapons because their mechanic U-Matsu forgot them. Amy delivers weapons from Velshtein, but Team Suzaku has a hard time controlling them. Amy's cat co-pilot Luca takes control and knocks Timmer out of his mech. Liz, out of ammo, uses her capoeira image training. She is eventually at the mercy of an opposing pilot and surrenders. The Sledge Mamma mechs shoot at Takeshi, but Amy jumps in to save him and is knocked out of the game. After being kicked around by the Sledge Mamma mechs, Takeshi reveals his plan. Using his

ninjatō The , , or , are the preferred weapon that the ''shinobi'' of feudal Japan carried, usually carried on the persons back, specifically horizontally at a height of around that of the person's waist. It is portrayed by modern ninjutsu practitioner ...

and shuriken, he knocks Dimmer and Yammer out of their mechs and wins. However, the series ends on a bitter note as Velshtein's owner Hamgra blackmails Team Suzaku to merge their teams and allow him to add cybernetic enhancements to their pilots, or else he will make them pay for the weapons they borrowed. This conflict is never resolved due to the end of the microseries.

Cast

* Beau Billingslea – Yammer * Steven Blum – Cunningham * Sandy Fox – Amy * Steve Kramer – Timmer *

Lex Lang Lex Lang (born November 12, 1965) is an American voice actor and voice director, who has provided voices and served as a director for a number of animations and video games. He is best known for voicing Doctor Neo Cortex in the ''Crash Bandicoo ...

– Metoo *

Wendee Lee Wendee Lee is an American voice actress, writer, and director. Biography Lee studied dance and theater and later became a full-time dancer in her teens. According to her interview on the ''Magic Knight Rayearth'' DVDs, she started doing voices ...

– BT * Julie Maddalena – Luca *

Michael McConnohie Michael McConnohie is an American voice actor, writer and director who has provided many voice roles in movies, anime, and video games. He and fellow actress Melodee Spevack run a production company called VoxWorks. Some of his major works includ ...

– Dimmer * Jamieson Price – Hamgra *

Michelle Ruff Michelle Ruff is an American voice actress known for her work in anime and video games. In her early voice acting career, she used her mother's name, Georgette Rose, as a pseudonym. Some of her roles include Fujiko Mine in ''Lupin the Third'', C ...

– Suzaku *

Joshua Seth Joshua Seth is an American voice actor, comedian, and author. Biography Seth was born in Kent, Ohio, and graduated from New York University Tisch School of the Arts. As a child, Seth attended several experimental programs at Kent State Universit ...

– Takeshi Noa *

Julie Ann Taylor Julie Ann Taylor (born January 29, 1966 in Orange County, California) is an American voice actress who is best known for her role of Ai Tanabe in ''Planetes'', Mutsumi Otohime in ''Love Hina'', Yukari Hayasaka in ''Paradise Kiss'' and Taiga Fujim ...

– PA * Kirk Thornton – Umatsu * Kari Wahlgren – Liz

''IGPX'' TV series

The ''IGPX'' TV series made its hour-long premiere on November 5, 2005, at 10/9c. The series is set in 2049 and revolves around the Immortal Grand Prix, or IGPX, which is a mecha

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...

/battle circuit. The sport is so popular that an entire city has been built for the racing industry, where competitions take place on a huge track. In the IGPX, two teams of three mechs, high-tech fighting machines driven by humans, race at speeds greater than . The IGPX also contains fighting elements; attacking the opposing team to disable their mechs (thus preventing them from winning the race) is not only legal, but also expected. Team Satomi, a crew of amateur pilots, has just won a minor-league championship, the IG-2, vaulting them into the sport's highest level, the IG-1. Now, the untested rookies of Team Satomi must overcome impossible odds and beat the world's most skilled and ruthless pilots. The series was Toonami's first original series.

Cast

Haley Joel Osment Haley Joel Osment (born April 10, 1988) is an American actor and voice actor. Beginning his career as a child actor, Osment's role in the comedy-drama film '' Forrest Gump'' (1994) won him a Young Artist Award. His breakthrough came with the psyc ...

– Takeshi Jin *

Michelle Rodriguez Mayte Michelle Rodriguez (born July 12, 1978) is an American actress. Rodriguez began her career in 2000, playing a troubled boxer in the independent sports drama film ''Girlfight'' (2000), where she won the Independent Spirit Award and Gotha ...

– Liz Riccaro * Steven Blum – Alex Cunningham * Louise Chamis – Jane Rublev * Peter Cullen – Opening Narration * Erik Davies – Ricardo Montazio * Doug Erholtz – Zanak Strauss *

Michael Forest Gerald Michael Charlebois (born April 17, 1929), better known as Michael Forest, is an American actor who provides the voices for many animated titles. Early life Born in Harvey, North Dakota, he moved with his family at a very early age to Se ...

– Hans * Crispin Freeman – Bjorn Johassen * Barbara Goodson – Misaki *

Mark Hamill Mark Richard Hamill (; born September 25, 1951) is an American actor and writer. He is known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the ''Star Wars'' film series, beginning with the original 1977 film and subsequently winning three Saturn Awards f ...

– Yamma * Lance Henriksen – Andrei Rublev * Kate Higgins – Jessica Darling * Megan Hollingshead – Judy Ballasteros * Tom Kenny – Benjamin Bright *

William Frederick Knight William Frederick Knight (December 6, 1933 – November 8, 2022), sometimes credited as William Knight, William Frederick, or Frederick Knight, was an American voice actor who lent his voice to the English dubs of anime and video games. He was ...

– Ichi *

– Dew *

Mela Lee Mela Lee is an American voice actress based in Los Angeles who voices characters on a number of animated series, films, television shows and video games. She is best known as the voice of Jade in ''Mortal Kombat 11''. In anime, she voices lead ch ...

– Max Erlich *

– Sola * Julie Maddalena – Jesse Martin *

Dave Mallow Dave Mallow (born October 19, 1948) is a retired American voice actor. Biography Mallow's father worked in radio and television and was a 30-year on-air veteran at Chicago's WGN. After graduating from Maine South High School, Mallow attained a B ...

– Glass Jones, MC * Tony Oliver – Edgeraid Coach *

– Elisa Doolittle * Stephanie Sheh – Bella Demarco, Yuri Jin * Brianne Siddall – Johnny Lipkin * Steve Staley – River Marque *

Karen Strassman Karen Strassman (born June 5 is an American stage, television and voice actress who has provided English language voices for Japanese anime shows, animation, and video games. Some of her major roles are Kallen Stadtfeld in the ''Code Geass'' seri ...

– Fantine Valjean * Kim Strauss – Sir Hamgra *

– Boy A * Kirk Thornton – Mark Ramsay * Cristina Vee – Sage Rublev * Kari Wahlgren – Luca, Michiru Satomi * Hynden Walch – Amy Stapleton * Andre Ware – Dimma * Dave Wittenberg – Frank Bullitt, Jan Michael, Timma

''IGPX'' promotions

*A promotional DVD featuring the Comic-Con early cut of episode 1 ("Time to Shine"), the ''IGPX'' trailer, music, and a screensaver was distributed with Anime Insider v. 26 (November 2005) and

Nintendo Power ''Nintendo Power'' was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Ninten ...

v. 198 (December 2005). *Special editions of the U.S. DVD volume 1 release came with a puff pack artbox, a Team Satomi T-shirt, the first episode from the microseries and team stickers, one for each of the teams from season one.

Allusions

* Fantine Valjean's name is an allusion to the characters

Fantine Fantine (French pronunciation: ) is a fictional character in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel ''Les Misérables''. She is a young '' grisette'' in Paris who becomes pregnant by a rich student. After he abandons her, she is forced to look after their chil ...

and

Jean Valjean Jean Valjean () is the protagonist of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel ''Les Misérables''. The story depicts the character's struggle to lead a normal life and redeem himself after serving a 19-year-long prison sentence for stealing bread to feed his ...

in the book ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...

'' by

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

. Likewise, Team Skylark member Elisa has the same name as the main character of ''

Pygmalion Pygmalion or Pigmalion may refer to: Mythology * Pygmalion (mythology), a sculptor who fell in love with his statue Stage * ''Pigmalion'' (opera), a 1745 opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau * ''Pygmalion'' (Rousseau), a 1762 melodrama by Jean-Jacques ...

'' by

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

and as the leading lady in '' My Fair Lady''. * Andrei Rublev bears the name of a Russian iconographer. * In the episode "Cat vs. Dog", the owner of Team Edgeraid bears a striking resemblance to

Gendo Ikari is a fictional character from the ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' franchise, created by Gainax. In the original anime series with the same name, Gendo is the supreme commander of the special agency Nerv, which is dedicated to the study and annihila ...

from ''

Neon Genesis Evangelion , also known simply as ''Evangelion'' or ''Eva'', is a Japanese mecha anime television series produced by Gainax and animated by Tatsunoko, directed by Hideaki Anno and broadcast on TV Tokyo from October 1995 to March 1996. ''Evangelion' ...

''. The man also sits with his hands crossed over his face, which was notably done by Gendo and has since been done in many other anime series. This character insertion was probably due to Production I.G working on both ''IGPX'' and the ''Evangelion'' movies. * In "Cat vs. Dog", the mecha of Team Edge Raid have ''GITS'' painted on their arms. This is a reference to '' Ghost in the Shell'', a franchise animated by Production I.G, who also animated ''IGPX''. Team Satomi's mechs have the word ''Absolute'' painted on their arms, a nod to the "Absolution" spaceship featured in the Toonami commercial bumpers. * In the final episode of ''IGPX'', Team Black Egg's symbol is shown on the TV located on one of the triple towers that surround the track, which only shows team emblems for IG-1. This suggests that Black Egg has regained their spot in IG-1, replacing Team Skylark after they are demoted to IG-2. * In the eighth episode of ''

Reideen ''Reideen'' (stylized as ''REIDEEN'') is a Japanese animated television series remake of the 1975 Super Robot anime ''Brave Raideen''. It was produced by Production I.G and directed by Mitsuru Hongo. Which was originally broadcast on the sat ...

'', a banner titled "Satomi" hangs in the city that Saiga Junki (the main protagonist) lives in. Production I.G's studio created both the ''IGPX'' and ''Reideen'' anime series. Both series were directed by Mitsuru Hongo.

References

External links

Production I.G official English website ''IGPX'' page
*

*
Japanese ''IGPX'' official website
*
TV Asahi's ''IGPX'' website

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