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 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, ...

. 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 ...

and Production I.G animated it, and

Bandai Entertainment was a Japanese anime, film production, and distribution enterprise, established by Bandai and a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings. They focused mainly in international distribution of anime properties in North America. Most of the anime and f ...

acted as the North American distributor. The full-length anime series was handled by director and writer

Mitsuru Hongo is a Japanese anime director of television and film. Hongo originally worked at Ajiado as an animator but moved to Shin-Ei Animation where he directed '' Crayon Shin-chan''. He left in 1996 and went on to direct ''Immortal Grand Prix'', ''Outla ...

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 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, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of what each of thos ...

'' companion franchise. The series' English dub was produced by

Williams Street Williams Street Productions, LLC, d/b/a Williams Street and formerly known as Ghost Planet Industries, is an American animation and live action television production studio owned by the Warner Bros. Television Studios division of Warner Bros., ...

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital city, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georgia, Fulton County, the mos ...

and

Bang Zoom! Entertainment Bang Zoom! Entertainment is an audio post-production studio with its headquarters in Burbank, California, in Greater Los Angeles. It has worked on anime, video games, television series, feature films, and original animation projects. Their work ...

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, who ...

. 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 Toonami ( ) is an American late night television programming block that primarily broadcasts Japanese animation and occasionally American action animation. It was created by Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by Williams Street, a divis ...

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 feedba ...

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 ...

. 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'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

. On November 21, 2014, anime distributor

Discotek Media Discotek Media is an American entertainment company based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, focused on distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retro titles fr ...

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 Capoeira () is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality. Born of the melting pot of enslaved Africans, Indigenous Brazilians and Portuguese influences at the beginning of the 16th cent ...

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 John "Beau" Billingslea (born 1944) is an American actor, known as the voice of Jet Black in the critically acclaimed anime '' Cowboy Bebop'', Ogremon in ''Digimon'' and Homura and List of Naruto characters#Fourth Hokage, Ay, the Fourth Raikage ...

– Yammer *

Steven Blum Steven Jay Blum (; born April 29, 1960) is an American voice actor. Known for his distinctively deep voice, his most well-known roles include Spike Spiegel from the anime series '' Cowboy Bebop'', Garazeb Orrelios from the animated series ''S ...

– Cunningham *

Sandy Fox Sandra Marie Fox (née Kessler; born July 13, 1963) is an American voice actress who has had numerous roles in various animated cartoon, anime and video games. She portrayed the live-action Betty Boop and has provided her voice for Universal Stu ...

– 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 Bandic ...

– 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 Julia Maddalena is an American voice actress who has worked on dubs of Japanese anime, cartoons, and video games. Some of her major voice roles are Silvia Maruyama from ''Ground Defense Force! Mao-chan'', Arusu from ''Tweeny Witches'', Hikaru Shi ...

– 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 Jamieson K. Price is an American actor, best known for his deep and booming voice in numerous anime and video games. He is known as the voice of the Count of Monte Cristo in '' Gankutsuou'', Sojiro Sakura in ''Persona 5'', Ovan in '' .hack//G.U. ...

– 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'', ...

– 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 Universi ...

– Takeshi Noa * Julie Ann Taylor – PA *

Kirk Thornton Kirk Thornton is an American voice actor, director and script writer working mainly with English-language versions of Japanese anime shows. Career His major roles include Brandon Heat in ''Gungrave'', Hotohori in '' Fushigi Yūgi'', Klein in ...

– Umatsu *

Kari Wahlgren Kari Wahlgren (born July 13, 1977) is an American actress who has provided English-language voices for animated movies, TV series, and video games. She got her start in anime voice-overs as Haruko Haruhara in '' FLCL'', and would later land ma ...

– 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 go ...

/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 – 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 Go ...

– Liz Riccaro *

– Alex Cunningham * Louise Chamis – Jane Rublev *

Peter Cullen Peter Claver Cullen (born July 28, 1941) is a Canadian voice actor. He is best known as the voice of Optimus Prime in the original 1980s ''Transformers'' animated series, reprising the role many times since 2007. He has also voiced many other ...

– Opening Narration * Erik Davies – Ricardo Montazio *

Doug Erholtz Doug Erholtz is an American voice actor. He is best known for his performances as Inspector Zenigata from '' Lupin the Third'', Kisuke Urahara, Gin Ichimaru, and Rudbornn Chelute briefly from ''Bleach'', TK Takaishi from ''Digimon Adventure 02'' ...

– 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 S ...

– Hans *

Crispin Freeman Crispin Freeman is an American voice actor, voice director, and screenwriter who is best known for voicing characters in English-language dubs of Japanese anime, animation, and video games. Some of his prominent anime roles include Zelgadis Grayw ...

– Bjorn Johassen *

Barbara Goodson Barbara Goodson is an American voice actress who has done voice-over work in cartoons and shows. Her best-known role was providing the English dub voice of the main villain Empress Rita Repulsa in the ''Power Rangers'' franchise, starting with ' ...

– 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 ...

– Yamma *

Lance Henriksen Lance Henriksen (born May 5, 1940) is an American actor. He is known for his works in various science fiction, action and horror films, such as that of Bishop in the ''Alien'' film franchise, and Frank Black in Fox television series ''Millenn ...

– Andrei Rublev *

Kate Higgins Catherine Davis Higgins is an American voice actress, singer and jazz pianist. Career Music career Higgins earned a degree in music from Auburn University in 1991. She is a trained pianist who studied with the jazz artist Bob Richardson. She rel ...

– Jessica Darling * Megan Hollingshead – Judy Ballasteros *

Tom Kenny Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for voicing the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media. Kenny has voiced many other characters, including Heffer Wolfe in '' ...

– 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 c ...

– Max Erlich *

– Sola *

– Jesse Martin * Dave Mallow – Glass Jones, MC *

Tony Oliver Tony Oliver is an American voice actor best known for voicing Rick Hunter from '' Robotech'', Lancer from ''Fate/stay night'', and Arsène Lupin III from '' Lupin the Third''. He helped produce the live action shows '' Mighty Morphin Power Ran ...

– Edgeraid Coach *

– Elisa Doolittle *

Stephanie Sheh Stephanie Sheh is an American voice actress, ADR director, writer and producer who has worked for several major companies, including Cartoon Network and Sony. She is often involved with work in English dubs of anime, cartoons, video games and fi ...

– Bella Demarco, Yuri Jin *

Brianne Siddall Brianne Siddall (born August 25, 1963 in Encino, California), also known under her stage names of Jetta E. Bumpy, Ian Hawk, Murray Blue, Jetta Bird, and Brianne Brozey, is an American voice actress. She is known for voicing Tommy Himi, Korom ...

– Johnny Lipkin *

Steve Staley Steve Staley, also known as Steve Cannon, is an American voice actor known for providing voices for Japanese anime and video games. Some of his notable roles include Shūhei Hisagi and Tōshirō Hitsugaya in ''Bleach'', Daisuke Aurora in ''Hea ...

– 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'' se ...

– Fantine Valjean *

Kim Strauss Kim Strauss is an American voice actor and best-selling author with his children's book ''Kalan the Mighty Warrior: Book One – Braxus the Owl: Guardian of the Forest And He is The Voice of Ninjor in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" History He is ...

– Sir Hamgra * Julie Ann Taylor – Boy A *

– Mark Ramsay *

Cristina Vee Cristina Danielle Valenzuela (born July 11, 1987), known by her stage name Cristina Vee, is an American voice actress and voice director. She provides voices for English dubs of anime, animation, and video games. Vee's roles in anime include ...

– Sage Rublev *

– Luca, Michiru Satomi *

Hynden Walch Hynden Walch is an American actress. She is best known for voicing Starfire in the ''Teen Titans'' franchise and Princess Bubblegum in ''Adventure Time''. She also voiced Penny Sanchez in ''ChalkZone'', Amore and Lockette in the Nickelodeon ver ...

– Amy Stapleton * Andre Ware – Dimma *

Dave Wittenberg Dave Wittenberg, sometimes credited as Dave Lelyveld, is a South African-born American voice actor and scriptwriter. Early life Wittenberg was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was raised in the Los Angeles area. Career Wittenberg voices ...

– 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 ''Anime Insider'' was a monthly magazine published by Wizard Entertainment, consisting of news and entertainment pieces relating to the Japanese anime and manga subculture. In its earliest incarnation it was published from Fall 2001 till Fall 20 ...

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 chi ...

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 origin ...

'' 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'' 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 ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play '' Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons ...

''. * 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 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 ''Ghost in the Shell'' is a Japanese cyberpunk media franchise based on the seinen manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga, first serialized in 1989 under the subtitle of ''The 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'', 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

References

External links

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

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

* * * * {{Navboxes, list= {{Mitsuru Hongo {{Bee Train {{Cartoon Network co-productions {{Production I.G {{Williams Street {{Toonami Cartoon Network 2003 anime television series debuts 2005 anime television series debuts Action anime and manga Anime with original screenplays Bandai Entertainment anime titles Bee Train Production Mecha anime and manga Fictional motorsports in anime and manga Production I.G Shōnen manga Cartoon Network original programming Toonami TV Asahi original programming Television series by Williams Street Discotek Media Animated television series about teenagers