Ōban Star-Racers


Ōban Star-Racers is a French-Japanese anime series created by Savin Yeatman-Eiffel of Sav! The World Productions in association with multiple international companies. Originally produced as a short movie titled Molly Star Racer, a television series was developed in cooperation with Jetix Europe, with animation production by HAL Film Maker and Pumpkin 3D, a large portion of which was done in Tokyo, Japan. It aired in more than 100 countries including Japan. In the US, the series aired on ABC Family and Jetix/Toon Disney between June and December 2006.
A potential sequel or spinoff is currently in development.

Synopsis

In the year 2082, Earth has been invited to compete in the Great Race of Ōban, an intergalactic race whose winner can be given "The Ultimate Prize", supposedly granting any wish in the world - even bringing back a loved one. The invitation comes from the Avatar, a mysterious entity who ends hostilities between Earth and the sinister race of the Crogs, in return for Earth's entry into the race. Eva Wei, an Earth student, escapes boarding school to find her father, Don Wei, president of Wei Racing and the best race manager in the world. Having left his daughter in the care of the boarding school for many years without ever visiting, Don Wei does not seem to recognize Eva as his daughter. Unable to tell her father who she really is, she lands a job as a mechanic in his team under the name "Molly", a name chosen from a convenient poster on a crate in the hangar. When Wei Racing is ordered by the government to represent Earth at Ōban, Molly stows away as they are taken to a far-off planet. During the first race, the Whizzing Arrow, the Earth Star-Racer ship, crashes due to sabotage. Its star pilot, Rick Thunderbolt, becomes unable to race. After finding that the gunner, Jordan Wilde, makes a miserable pilot, Molly steals the ship and enters the next race. Don Wei grudgingly decides that the only one who can replace Rick is Molly. Haunted by the death of her mother - a famous star-racer - and the harsh "reunion" with her father, Molly is determined to win so she can be with her parents once again.

Characters

Main characters

;Eva "Molly" Wei
;Jordan C. Wilde
;Don Wei
;Maya Wei
;Rick Thunderbolt
;Koji
;Stan
;Prince Aikka
;Satis
;Canaletto
;The Avatar

Alwas Cycle characters

;Groor
;Flint
;Ceres
;Para-dice
;Super Racer
;Rush
;Spirit
;Colonel Toros

Ōban Cycle characters

;Sul
;Ning Skun
;Lord Furter
;General Kross
;Ondai
;O
;Muir

Earth Team Star-Racers

Whizzing Arrow I: Prototype racer built at Miguel's Garage by Miguel, Stan, and Koji. Purchased by Don Wei for the Great Race. It has very powerful engines but is unsteady and untested. Rick Thunderbolt pilots the Arrow I in the Earth Team's first race on Alwas. Near the end of the race, the port engine explodes causing the racer to crash in a flaming wreck across the finish line. The Arrow I cannot be salvaged.
Whizzing Arrow II: Sister ship to the Whizzing Arrow I. Purchased by Don Wei for the Great Race. Subtle advances over the Arrow I make the ship more stable. The Arrow II also boasts an orange and red flaming paint job, along with the addition of a sharp-toothed rabbit that Molly painted on in 'Surprising Like SuperRacer', compared with the Arrow I's flat green color. The Arrow II serves as the Earth Team' primary racer during the preliminaries and most of the semi-finals on Alwas. It suffers severe damage throughout the competition numerous times but is constantly repaired by Stan and Koji. During the semifinal race against the Fill Ambassador, Spirit, the Arrow II is damaged beyond repair when a crash literally tears it to pieces.
Whizzing Arrow III: New racer built on Alwas by Stan and Koji with the help of native Skrub mechanics to replace the lost Arrow II. The Arrow III is far more advanced than both the Arrow I and Arrow II but maintains the same overall shape of the previous racers. Major upgrades include it being safer, more stable and a good deal faster than the Arrow II while in cruising mode. Also, a new Hyperdrive is developed by Stan and Koji back on Earth but not implemented until after the Arrow II's crash which uses 'clustered turbines' for a far greater thrust that allows the Arrow III to far exceed the Arrow II in speed. The new Hyperdrive is physically very different from its predecessor too, forming numerous turbines and wings all around it. A larger fuel supply also allows the Hyperdrive to be used for longer periods of time. In addition to the much greater Hyperdrive, mechanics Stan and Koji also added in the "Booster Drives", a grouping of five extra turbines that extend from underneath either side of the star racer's main engine blocks, proving to be a massive boost to the racer's speed. In the series, these drives add a much needed edge to some of the more punishing races.

Development

Dissatisfied with his previous experiences as a screenwriter in the animation industry, Savin Yeatman-Eiffel wanted to create a distinctive kind of show, one that would revive the type of emotions he had felt as a kid watching the classic Japanese anime series of the 70's. To put it short, he wanted to stress the emotional side of his characters and story, something that he felt had totally disappeared from Western animation productions. Working on that idea, he created his own company "Sav! The World Productions", which released in 2001 a short movie entitled "Molly, Star Racer", produced in part by Sparx Animation Studios and set to a Y&Co. remix of Ayumi Hamasaki songs. The trailer already showed a mix of 3D and 2D though at the time 3D was still predominant. It featured many of the characters with unfinalized designs including Jordan, Don Wei, Maya, Aikka, Satis, Toros, Sül, Ondai, Ning & Skun, Furter and of course, Molly racing across various places in the Oban landscape featured later in the series. This short movie won the 2001 LEAF Awards and was nominated for best editing in the 2002 Imagina Awards. Leaked on the internet, it quickly became extremely popular among animation fans, generating hundreds of thousands of downloads on various sites - a rarity at the time.
In spite of the success of the trailer, the search for financing for the series was a long process since Yeatman-Eiffel had a clear vision of where he wanted to take the show - more realistic and more emotional than the original trailer - and refused to negotiate with a party that would have tried to bend or change the artistic choices at a later stage. Savin was also dead set on producing the series in Tokyo in collaboration with Japanese animators. This was the best choice according to him technically and a logical one too in view of the inspirations that had fuelled the creation of the series.
Savin Yeatman-Eiffel succeeded in the end, involving major financial partners like Disney and Bandai without surrendering his control of the artistic elements. But it took him a total of nine years to complete the series from initial idea to delivery of the final episode.
While this is Sav! The World's first TV series, the company has previously existed as a maker of various short films.
The English voices were recorded by Airwaves Sound Design in Vancouver, Canada. The voice director for the series is Michael Donovan.

Music

The opening and ending theme songs of Ōban Star-Racers were composed by Yoko Kanno, and the musical score is composed by Taku Iwasaki. The series has one official soundtrack only available through the official site which include extended versions of "Chance to Shine" and other songs.
In the US broadcast, the opening theme song was replaced by an original rock oriented theme song entitled "Never Say Never", which was also used for international broadcasts outside of Europe when Disney XD launched in February 2009. The closing song had also been replaced during the first broadcasts, but now features "Waratteta", the original closing song is composed by Yoko Kanno. This is the first song to retain its original Japanese lyrics to be featured on Jetix USA. European broadcasts feature a remixed version of "Chance to Shine", but replaced the ending theme with an instrumental version of the opening theme. The German and French broadcast used respectively a German and a French version of "Chance to Shine". The lyrics of the French version, titled "Envole-toi vers l'infini", were written by Oban creator Savin Yeatman-Eiffel.
;Opening Themes
;Ending Theme
Molly Star-Racer
Oban Star-Racers
An art book including a presentation of the Ōban universe & characters, as well as an interview of the creator on the development and production process of the series in Paris and Tokyo, was published in France in March 2009 by publisher Carabas. An English version of the art book was released by Titan Books in November 2009. A novel adaptation was also published in France at the end of 2008 by publisher Hachette.
A vinyl collector figure of Molly has been released by Muttpop in June 2008. Several special limited editions have followed since.
Two volumes of French-language DVDs have been released by WildSide Vidéo long with a limited edition full series box set. In the United States the series has been released on DVD by Shout! Factory and the first episode appeared as a bonus sneak peek on the company's DVD release of Medabots season one. The US release contains the uncut episodes in English, similar in content to those found on the French DVD release. The series has also been released on DVD in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands by other companies.
Volume 1 of an original soundtrack for the series is also on sale, as well as two series of three collectible T-shirts available from the Oban Fan Shop. The full version of "Waratteta" was included on Yoko Kanno & The Seatbelts's album, "Space Bio Charge", released on May 27, 2009.
A mobile phone game, produced by Sav! The World, was made by award-winning game studio DeValley Entertainment. According to the series' official fansite, there was to be a video game based on the series to be made for the Nintendo DS by an unnamed developer, but the project was later cancelled due to artistic differences.

Possible sequel and spinoff

During a series of Oban Star-Racers related events at the Japan Tours Festival at the end of February 2017, creator Savin Yeatman-Eiffel indicated he was working on a potential sequel and spinoff with co-director Thomas Romain. In a Twitter post on March 2, 2017, Savin Yeatman-Eiffel later posted concept art showing the characters of Molly and Prince Aikka as young adults.