, sometimes referred to as , is a 1997 remake of the 1967 series of the same name (aired as ''

Speed Racer ''Speed Racer'', also known as , is a Japanese media franchise about Auto racing, automobile racing. ''Mach GoGoGo'' was originally serialized in print in Shueisha's 1966 ''Shōnen Book''. It was released in tankōbon book form by Sun W ...

'' in the U.S.) by

Tatsunoko Production and often shortened to , is a Japanese animation company. The studio's name has a double meaning in Japanese: "Tatsu's child" (Tatsu is a nickname for Tatsuo) and "sea dragon", the inspiration for its seahorse logo. Tatsunoko's headquarters are i ...

s, the original producers. The show aired in Japan in 1997 on

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certifie ...

and lasted only 34 episodes of a planned 52. In 1998, Speed Racer Enterprises planned to release an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

dub of the series in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

as ''Speed Racer Y2K'', though the project did not succeed and only the third episode, "Silver Phantom", was dubbed. Another English adaptation, ''Speed Racer X'', was produced by

DIC Entertainment Corporation DIC Entertainment Corporation (; also known as DIC Audiovisuel, DIC Enterprises, DIC Animation City, DIC Entertainment, L.P., and DIC Productions), branded as The Incredible World of DIC, was an international film and television production comp ...

and aired in the United States on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

's short-lived action block, "SLAM!", in 2002. This show was quickly taken off the air (with only 13 episodes dubbed) due to a lawsuit between DiC Entertainment and the Santa Monica-based Speed Racer Enterprises, the company which owned the American rights to the franchise at the time. The series got a

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

release in Japan on April 21, 2017.

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

released the series under the name ''Mach Go Go Go: Restart'' with English subtitles.

Differences from the original series

In this version, Rex Racer does not run away, but is presumed dead after an accident while testing out the Mach 5. His father, Pops, later rebuilds the Mach 5 with a new safety system called "Safety Seven", seven functions built into the car to protect the driver, marked by the letters A through G on the steering wheel. Rex's younger brother and Pops' second son, Speed, decides to follow up on his brother's footsteps. Trixie appears in this series as a reporter who befriends Speed, with Spritle being her younger brother (as opposed to being Speed's younger brother in the original). There are also differences that exist even in the original Japanese version. Aside from Gō's different surname (Hibiki), other characters were replaced entirely, but have similar roles. For instance, Mai Kazami is the "Michi Shimura" (the original Trixie) of this series, with her younger brother Wataru representing "Kurio Mifune" (the original Spritle). Although Pops is still called Daisuke, Mom Racer (Aya Mifune in the original) is now known as Misuzu. In Episode 20, a baby gorilla named Rocky joins the cast, taking the role that in the original series was held by Sanpei, or Chim-Chim in the English dub. Sabu, Pops' apprentice mechanic and friend to Go in the original series has been replaced by Takumi, who has the same role. The English dub uses the same names from the original ''Speed Racer'' English dub, though the family's team is still called "Hibiki Motors". The first 21 episodes form a story arc focusing on the Earth Grand Prix and the events leading up to it. The next 13 episodes formed a new story arc involving

time traveling Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a ...

. When the Mach 5 hits 555 km/h, it sends Speed and his friends to the year 2555 where the world is ruled by a blue-skinned alien named Handler, who plans to use a device called the Ezekiel Wheel to rule time.

Voice cast

Japanese

Kōichi Tōchika is a Japanese voice actor who works for Haikyo. Notable voice roles Anime *Lance in ''07 Ghost'' *Brindo and young Hody Jones in ''One Piece'' * Check Mate and Ilioukhine in ''Kinnikuman Nisei'' (''Ultimate Muscle'') *Arizona Governor in '' E ...

- * Kazusa Murai - *

Motoko Kumai is a Japanese voice actress employed by 81 Produce. She played Takao Kinomiya in ''Beyblade'' and Syaoran Li in ''Cardcaptor Sakura''. From December 21, 2006 to October 2007, she had a hiatus from her career due to an illness requiring medical tr ...

- * Minoru Inaba - * Yōko Sōmi - *

Toshiyuki Morikawa is a Japanese voice actor, narrator and singer who is the head of Axlone, a voice acting company he founded in April 2011. His name is also sometimes mistranslated as Tomoyuki Morikawa. In 2003, he and Fumihiko Tachiki formed the band "2Hearts", ...

- / *

Kaneto Shiozawa Toshikazu Shiozawa ( ja, 塩沢敏一, Shiozawa Toshikazu, January 28, 1954 – May 10, 2000), better known by the stage name Kaneto Shiozawa ( ja, 塩沢兼人, Shiozawa Kaneto), was a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator from Tokyo. At the ...

English

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 ...

- Speed Racer *

Dan Woren Dan Woren is an American voice actor who is known for providing voice work for anime, television, and video games. His role was voicing Roy Fokker in the ''Robotech'' series in the 1980s. Other major voice roles include Jagi in ''Fist of the No ...

- Pops Racer * Tifanie Christun - Trixie, Spritle * Michelle Ruff - Mom Racer * Joshua Seth - Sparky *

Richard Epcar Richard Epcar is an American voice actor, voice director, and writer who has voiced over 1,200 characters in animation, video games and anime. Some of his major roles include Raiden in the ''Mortal Kombat'' franchise, The Joker in several proje ...

- Racer X/Rex Racer

Episodes

Other media

A two-volume manga adaptation was published on

CoroCoro Comic is a Japanese monthly manga magazine published by Shogakukan, established on May 15, 1977. Its main target is elementary school-aged boys, younger than the readers of shōnen manga, shōnen manga. Several of its properties, like ''Doraemon'' and ...

in 1997. It is a

kodomo manga and refer to manga and anime directed towards children. These series are usually moralistic, often educating children about staying in the right path in life. Each chapter is usually a self-contained story. History ''Kodomo'' manga started ...

aimed at a younger audience. A

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 ...

based on the series was developed by

TOSE () (also called Tose Software) is a Japanese video game development company based in Kyoto. It is mostly known for developing Nintendo's Game & Watch ports and remakes#Game & Watch Gallery series, ''Game & Watch Gallery'' series, various ''Drago ...

and published by Tomy Corporation, exclusively in Japan for the

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...

. The game also has

Super Game Boy The is a peripheral that allows Game Boy cartridges to be played on a Super Nintendo Entertainment System console. Released in June 1994, it retailed for $59.99 in the United States and £49.99 in the United Kingdom. In South Korea, it is calle ...

support.

References

External links

Anime Admirers
* * {{Tatsunoko Production Speed Racer 1997 anime television series debuts Japanese children's animated action television series Japanese children's animated adventure television series Japanese children's animated sports television series Action anime and manga Funimation Shōnen manga Tatsunoko Production Television series by DIC Entertainment Television series by DHX Media TV Tokyo original programming Animated television series reboots Animated television series about auto racing TV5 (Philippine TV network) original programming