Anime DVDs You May Have Missed: “Future GPX Cyber Formula”

Japanese Title: Shinseiki GPX Cyber Formula (New Century GPX Cyber Formula)
Publisher: Bandai Entertainment (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles
Length: 37 episodes x 24 mins
Production Date: 1991
English Version Release Date: 18 November 2003
Currently in Print (as of writing): No

Although not explicitly stated in the TV series, “Future GPX Cyber Formula” is set in the year 2015 where motor racing has changed substantially. In many classes of motor sport, heavily computerised cars are the norm. One such class is Cyber Formula. One of the smallest teams in  the competition, the Sugo Team, are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their new car, the Asurada GSX. Transporting it are the team’s boss, Tetsuichirou Kurumada, and 14 year old Hayato Kazami, the son of Hiroyuki Kazami who designed the car including the creation of its highly advanced artificial intelligence system. En route to the Fujioka circuit to order to qualify for the Japanese Cyber Formula season, they are suddenly swooped on by an unknown helicopter. It soon becomes apparent that the men inside the cockpit are trying to steal the Asurada GSX using a claw mechanism attached to the underbelly of the helicopter. Kurumada attempts to flee but ends up crashing the transporter. Injured, he tells Hayato to drive the Asurada GSX to the Fujioka circuit. What Hayato doesn’t realise is that in doing so the AI system has registered him as the sole driver of the vehicle.

Hayato manages to evade the Asurada GSX’s captors and arrives at the track, where the team make the discovery that they need 10 days to reset the system to allow the team’s driver, Akira Hiyoshi, to actually be able to drive the car, as the AI system currently rejects any other driver except Hayato. However the time trials to qualify for the race begin in less than a day’s time. Akira becomes so frustrated that they can’t bypass the Asurada GSX’s reset that he quits the team. In a real bind, the rest of the team mull over what they should do next and eventually come to the decision to run the time trial with Hayato as the driver rather than pulling out altogether and waiting until the next season, a year away. Although Hayato does have some limited experience in motorbike racing, he is naturally unprepared for Cyber Formula racing. The G-forces the car generates are initially too much for Haytato to take. However with the assistance of the Asurada’s AI, Hayato almost manages to qualify for the race. Unfortunately he places one position behind the cut-off point. But lady luck soon shines on the team when another team is disqualified. They have barely scraped in to end up on the starting line of the Fujioka circuit.

Hayato still has difficulty competing in the race, even with the constant mentoring by the team and the AI system in the race car. However an adaptation of his skills he uses in motor bike racing improves his abilities as does his constant practicing. Hayato does exceptionally well in his first race despite being a complete amateur at the sport and also being 14 years old, the youngest competitor in the race. Late night training for the next race in Hokkaido attracts the attention of the group that previously attempted to steal the car via a helicopter. A number of cars try to force him off the road, however a fellow racer Hayato recently befriended, Johji Otomo, saves him from his attackers. On the race day we learn that if Hayato places within the first three places in the Hokkaido race, the team will earn a super licence which means they’ll be able to complete in the world grand prix. Following the lead of Otomo who grew up in the area and can sense changes in the weather, Hayato goes into the pit to change to wet weather tyres just as it rains and manages to secure a third place win and the super licence due to fact the other drivers are unprepared for the unforecasted wet weather conditions.

The Sugo Team compete in their first global race on the Grand Canyon circuit. While Hayato does quite well in this race, by the second he becomes a little conceited, pushes the car beyond its limits and is forced to retire. Along with him snubbing the fans after the race in a fit of anger, this leads fellow racers and public alike to believe that his success is all down to luck and he is unskilled as a racer. Hayato relises what he has done, changes his attitude and makes his way through the rankings over the course of the next few races and even manages to accumulate several points on the drivers’ championship leader board. Later a skilled racer from England named Knight Schumacher, warns Hayato to watch out for Missing Link Team racer Edelhi Bootsvorz, a half cyborg racer who was mechanised after a crash which almost killed him. During the next race, Bootsvorz tries to run Hayato off the road. It is revealed to the audience that the shadowy group behind the attempted theft of the Asurada GSX is a mysterious man named Mr Smith who manages and owns the Missing Link Team. In later races Schumacher ignores the race to intervene and save Hayato from Bootsvorz’s underhanded tactics. Hayato is curious as to why Schumacher is looking out for him. Sometime after team member Asuka Sugo makes contact with Schumacher and afterwards comes to the conclusion that he is her older brother Osamu Sugo whom her family lost contact with more than a year ago.

Due to the basic setting of the series and also the physical attributes and personalities of some characters, it’s really hard not to make comparisons between this show and “Mach GoGoGo (Speed Racer)”. Sugo team manager Tetsuichirou Kurumada is pretty much a dead ringer for Daisuke Mifune (Pops Racer), Hayato Kazami substitutes for Go Mifune (Speed Racer), Asuka Sugo is similar to Michi Shimura (Trixe) and of course Knight Schumacher doubles for the Masked Racer (Racer X). The mechanic in “Mach GoGoGo”, Sabu (Sparky), is replaced by three characters; mechanics Ryouhei Sumi and Miki Jounouchi as well as computer expert Shinsuke Maki. The monkey Sanpei (Chim-Chim) makes way for a more realistic pet; a dog called V-8. In the initial episodes several gadgets in the Asurada GSX are introduced, which are much like the seven mechanisms in the Mach 5. But most of these gadgets are used sparingly in subsequent episodes and aren’t key features of the Asurada as they are in the Mach 5 in “Mach GoGoGo”.

However the big difference in the two series is that while “Mach GoGoGo” soon ditched the focus on racing and became far more interested in Go’s adventures off the track, “Future GPX Cyber Formula” focuses purely on racing. Initially conceived as a sports anime where the racers go through a “motor sports triathlon” (where the cars raced on three types of circuit in one race), the increasing popularity of Formula 1 motor sport made studio Sunrise rethink the direction of the series. This is also reflected in the names of some of the drivers which are obviously inspired by Formula 1 drivers of the time. From what I understand the series was conceived by Sunrise and Red Entertainment after their successful collaboration on the TV series “Mashin Hero Wataru” Several big names worked on the series including Shoji Kawamori who designed the Asurada and other cars, and director Mitsuo Fukuda who would later go onto direct “Gear Fighter Dendoh” and “Gundam Seed”.

A 50 episode series was initially planned, but by the midway point the main sponsor, Takara, pulled out of the show due to poor sales of “Cyber Formula” toys which it was the exclusive manufacturer of. Due to the fact Sunrise had to shorten the storylines in order to wrap up the show by episode 37, the action and story became more intense and the series captured the interest of many high school aged kids. This resulted in good home video sales after the series ended. Interestingly most of these fans were female, perhaps high as 80% according to some demographics based on the video format sales (in which VHS sales were surprisingly dominant. Apparently most female Japanese anime fans preferred VHS tapes while laserdisc was the domain of mostly male anime fans). The show became so popular that it won the Animage magazine Grand Prix in 1991, surprisingly beating out fan favourite “Nadia of the Mysterious Seas”. Due to the belated rise in popularity, Sunrise produced a further four OVA series from 1992 to 2000 which followed Hayato Kazami’s progress as a driver right up to his early 20’s. Naturally none of these series ever had commercial English language releases of any kind.

The first half of the series mostly focuses on Hayato’s struggles with becoming a diver, Missing Link’s underhanded tactics to get the Asurada so they can use the AI for militaristic purposes and the mystery behind Knight Schumacher. The second half changes focus to Hayato’s rivalry with two new drivers; Bleed Kaga, a veteran from the brutal but lucrative “crash race” motor sport series and Karl Lichter von Randoll, a spoilt rich boy the same age as Hayato, who conquers and dominates any professional sport competition he enters. A sub plot is also introduced with formerly dominant racer Naoki Shinjyo finding himself in a slump with newer and more talented drivers, including Hayato whom he initially mocked, overshadowing him. Adding to Naoki’s woes is ruthless team owner, Kyoko Aoi, who tires of Naoki’s underperformance and creates a new rival team with Bleed Kaga as the driver who also acquires his mechanic team. But despite all of this, Naoki rises to the top of the field once more.

While at its core the series is a shonen sports drama, it mostly manages to avoid the usual clichés seen in the genre. The character designs are also quite good and are similar to others of that era. Most of the male characters with their spiky hair seem to be influenced somewhat from “Dragon Ball”, as you’d expect. The cars themselves seem to be partly influenced by Tamiya’s Mini 4WD miniature racing kits which were quite popular in Japan, as well as Le Mans race cars. The animation is bog standard TV series quality of the era, though in a couple of episodes the character animation can go off model quite badly. Also of note is Hayato’s burgeoning relationship with Asuka Sugo, which doesn’t really take off until the follow up OVA series. In the team Asuka doesn’t have much of a role, except as a timekeeper (she is the daughter of the Sugo family who own the race team), which seems an odd fit. In terms of plot I think she is just there as potential love interest for Hayato. While supposedly the vast majority of fans of the series were female, unsurprisingly the only modern merchandise I can find in terms of figures is of Asuka, usually in revealing Race Queen outfits.

I suspect that Bandai Entertainment received some quite worn out masters to create their English language version. Occasionally the music in the next episode previews can sound rather wonky like a damaged or warped analogue magnetic audio tape. The artwork used for the box set is sourced from earlier Japanese DVD rental releases which look really nice. But the eight disc set is really bare bones with no extras whatsoever. Being an early DVD release, the set comes in two massive DVD cases which only hold four DVDs each. They’re pretty thick, with each case the thickness of two and half regular sized DVD cases. The two cases are held together with a thin cardboard sleeve. Bandai Entertainment went cheap for this set and couldn’t even be bothered making a proper box for the two DVD cases. The subtitles are fine for the most part, but have some glaring grammatical errors, the most blatant one; using “break” instead of “brake”.

In conclusion, this is a really interesting anime series from a genre that rarely gets made, let alone released in English. Sometimes Hayato can act like an annoying brat, but the action and the sub plots and stories of the other drivers make up for any shortcomings. The franchise does have its fans outside of Japan, however most of them reside in Asia. There seems to be very few fans of “Cyber Formula” in the west, hence this rather low key release from Bandai Entertainment. Though it has been out of print for more than a decade, there are still a few copies available to buy in the second hand market. Most copies are rather inexpensive and cost around US$45, about a half of the original retail price.