I used to intern for a small software company in Toronto for 16 months from 2017-18 following my third year of university, and there are several things I miss about it. The office building was located near a Catholic parish which offered the Traditional Latin Mass, so on some weekday mornings and evenings I’d have the pleasure of walking down to attend Mass there. As for the actual company: everyone was tight-knit with each other, and our development team meetings would be fun thanks to our manager’s quirky use of mimicking others’ voices, as opposed to the hour-long, pre-lunch daily meetings which took place in a tightly cramped room at our company’s second office. Then came the numerous multi-national food options nearby, where I’d be able to snag either a shawarma, a pack of burgers from Harvey’s, Burger King, or McDonalds, a Vietnamese rice/chicken dish, or a few Jamaican patties, and eat them in my cubicle, sandwiched amidst five others, or the typically empty lounge room, and pull up my phone to watch anime.
Yeah, it was around this time when I became introduced to a lot of new anime, stepping out of the comfort zone of rewatching subbed versions of all the 4Kids-aired flicks from my childhood. I consider this period (and 2019) as the golden age of my anime-consumption days, when life was largely worry-free and I had plenty of time after work to settle into what I wanted, unlike now. F-Zero: Legend Of Falcon was one of them; and amongst many one-time watches which settled into nothing more than a listing on my MyAnimeList profile. Until last summer, when I rewatched it and realized why that was the case!
F-Zero: Legend Of Falcon
The now-defunct F-Zero franchise is a series of Nintendo’s racing video games, which began in 1990 with its first entry on the Super Nintendo console, and last appeared on the Gamecube and Game Boy Advance with F-Zero GX and F-Zero Climax in the 2003-04 campaign. Around that same time, it would also see the coming of F-Zero: Legend Of Falcon, subtitled GP Legend in North America, on the latter console. It was released alongside the anime, featuring an entirely revamped storyline that featured all the characters from the game and a new plot-centric take on what was typically something not known outside of its repetitive, fast-paced gameplay. It is the only piece of extra-game media produced for the franchise, lasting a total of 51 episodes.
This review is the first that features a work by Ashi Productions, a Suginami-based studio which typically handled mecha works such as Macross 7, Cybuster or the Dancouga and Machine Robo series in its heyday. The anime is known in North America for its very short-lived performance, airing only 15 episodes on the FoxBox programming slot (a.k.a 4Kids) before being pulled off-air due to its low ratings; the remaining episodes of the dub are to this day regarded as lost media, although more faithful attempts to recreate it via fandubbing can be found on YouTube.
Plot
The year is 2051; in a world mostly like ours, where speed racing competitions are all the rage and the Maple Leafs STILL probably haven’t won a Stanley Cup. Ryu Suzaku is a New York City-based police officer and a racing champion who is killed in action by Zoda, a prison escapee, on the day he was to propose to his girlfriend Haruka. The resulting accident puts him out of commission and embroiled in a preservation system called “Cold Sleep”, where he remains for 150 years. Waking up in what is now Mute City, he is recruited as part of the Mobile Task Force, a team dedicated to stopping criminals from winning F-Zero racing competitions. His teammates include his superiors Mr. Tanaka and Jody Summer, ace Jack Levin, mechanics Lucy Liberty, Mr. EAD and Dr. Clash, and team doctor Rob Stewart. Later on, a young boy, Clank Hughes, joins them as the team’s technical whiz while also working full-time at the cafe they frequent, the Falcon House, owned by a man named Bart Lemming.
Standing against them is Dark Million, an organization led by Black Shadow, whose troops include an alien-esque version of Zoda, mercenaries Octoman, Bio Rex, The Skull and Miss Killer, who is a brainwashed version of Ryu’s girlfriend Haruka. Along the way, Ryu falls under the tutelage of none other than Captain Falcon, an eminent racing champion whose origin is shrouded in mystery, and takes him under his wing (no pun intended) to understand how to effectively handle his machine, the Dragon Bird, and some skills to help him win races, and ultimately protect the fate of the galaxy.
The story encompasses two arcs:
- The Dark Million Arc from episodes 1-28, which chronicles the team participating in multiple races and off-field operations to prevent Dark Million from getting the prize money, as well as foil whatever destructive plan they have in mind. In addition, Ryu is introduced to various members of the F-Zero community: Samurai Goroh, a good-willed space pirate who he has a slight friendship with; Super Arrow, a flamboyant wannabe hero who shares a loving relationship with his wife and sarcastic owl, and Kate Allen, a world-famous singer while adjusting to his newfound home, and trying to leave his lost time behind.
- The Black Shadow Arc covers episodes 29-51. We are introduced to Black Shadow, the true mastermind behind Dark Million’s actions, and centers around his quest to obtain six powerful orbs known as the Reactor Might and harness its immense power. Ryu and his team become embroiled in a race against time to stop him from achieving this, and their fight takes them against Black Shadow’s army of Blood Falcon clones, serving as Captain Falcon’s antithesis, and culminates in the explosive final battle in his Dark Reactor machine between him, Ryu, Zoda and Captain Falcon. Along the way, they go through discovering secrets related to their pasts, or in Ryu’s case, his destiny.
What I Liked
- I’ve complained about how anime blends the 2D and CGI aspects together, only for it to turn out awkwardly, as is the case with Love Live: School Idol Project or Guilty Crown, but here I was satisfied with how they blended together. CGI was kept only to the vehicles, racetracks, and weapons, and did not attempt to mix itself in with the characters; anytime they entered, it would jump back to the 2D frames with little awkwardness; something which the former is guilty of. On top of that, the manner in which it was animated showed a nice smoothness to it, proceeding as if it were a video game promo. Even Ryu’s Boost Fire was cool to watch, and the Dark Reactor weapon near the series finale.
- I find it nice that some episodes put the characters into the everyday spotlight and experience life in Mute City and its surrounding environs, such as hanging out at Bart’s coffee shop pre-races, where he gives them pro tips to their craft, protecting Kate Alen in episode 6, Lucy getting trolled by scam artists in episode 19, looking at the backstory involving Jody’s (apparently) deceased brother in episode 38, or Jack and Ryu’s in-city fight from episode 40.
- I like the short segments run by Bart at the end of episode; granted, you’ll have to wait through or skip the credits, but they go into great detail to explore thing such as the F-Zero lore, such as how the machines operate or the show’s background (episodes 3, 5, 8, and 11, 16 for instance) and brief biographies of the characters (like episodes 12, 32, 40, 46). It’s a really good opportunity for world-building and familiarizing us and those who aren’t familiar with the franchise essentials, and clear up any confusion on their part.
What I Didn’t Like
- In spite of its decently handled CGI/anime mix, the racing action itself suffered from a case of stale-itis, which contributes to the first half’s slow, and slightly clumsy pace. The tracks were mostly the same in format and offered little to no challenges whatsoever, and the lineup offered very little diversity in selection (you’d be hard pressed to see Ryu, Jack, Miss Killer, Octoman or Bio Rex missing). It was too common to see the major character(s) win and leave their teammates in the dust (Lucy and EAD only won once, while captain Jody Summer never does), making for a boring matchup overall where there’s no struggle or sacrifice involved. Even when Captain Falcon shows up, it’s hardly an entertaining arrival and never comes with any fanfare.
- Related to the above is the hefty imbalance of screentime between characters outside of the heroes and villains. Samurai Goroh, probably the most interesting of the bunch, rarely participates in races despite his notorious persona and we have plenty of one-shot characters who appear for no random reason other than filler such as Leon, James McCloud, Iron Man Nielsen, twin scammers Roger and Draq, and Mighty Gazelle, who turns out to be a roboticized embodiment of Clank’s father and a character I wish they’d put more effort into working with Ryu and friends instead of matter for quick disposal.
- The second arc featured a diversion from the relatively light-hearted, and competitive nature of the first half. It saw the focus shift on a more adventure-like setting, with Black Shadow and his disciples plotting their revenge on the universe. It gave the series more depth in having an actual plot to follow, and stunning character revelations at hand, but the only problem is that the buildup to its climax (episode 40 and onwards) was dragged on for too unnecessarily long, with the whole tidbit involving Blood Falcon, Captain Falcon being Berserker, and miscellaneous filler episodes that distracted from the true plot of searching for the Reactor Mights, them being the key to world power.
- Prior to episode 40, before it cuts to a commercial break, the transition clip would highlight one of the characters and their machine, like their own mini trading card. However, on some occasions this doesn’t work well: for example, in episode 4 this causes Samurai Goroh, the lead character, who up to that point was shrouded in mystery, to be revealed early and ruining the surprise. This also turns up in episode 27, when Leon, a human-wolf hybrid, is shown his alternate form before it actually manifested. To be fair, this was hinted at, but still I could have done away with knowing what he looked like beforehand. Sadly, even Bart’s end-of-episode segment early-reveals Black Shadow too, and ruins whatever mystique was around him.
Characters
There definitely were bright spots among the characters – Samurai Goroh, Octoman, Super Arrow had some nice character-establishing moments that gave me a positive impression of them. For Ryu (whose character arc and pronouncement as the galaxy’s impending saviour calls Esther 4:14 to mind, “And who knows whether… thou might be ready in such a time as this?”), Jody, Clank and Miss Killer, the latter an example of evil-turned-good, they were given treatment which explored their ambitions thoroughly and gave them a life beyond their role. Others, like Black Shadow, Blood Falcon and Zoda were anything but intimidating – the latter comes off quite goofy especially at the what’s-meant-to-be dank second half, and Ryu’s comrades within the Task Force like Commander Tanaka, EAD, and Lucy Liberty, who were given plenty of chances to evolve past nothing more than side characters, but instead stayed stock and uninspired.
Finally, Captain Falcon, the franchise’s staple character, is someone I have mixed feelings about here. I was hoping to see him play a larger role in the plot; he does that somewhat subtly, and a little on his personal life is shed, whilst also giving him a decent personality upgrade, but was disappointed with how ineffectively the series used him. Instead, he spends a majority of the series either doing convert spy work that’s never premised well, making surprise last-second appearances to win races, or saving him for his epic Falcon Punch. Beyond that, perhaps the only other iconic moment with him is in episode 22 when he teams up with Ryu to… Spin Boost their way to fixing a dimensional warp gate. Quite frankly, this Captain Falcon had about as much to offer as his Smash Bros counterpart, and that was a fighting game!
However, as monotonous and video-gamey their dispositions may have bee, I appreciate the effort put into highlighting some substance of their character interactions, like the acquaintanceship of Ryu and Samurai Goroh, the father-son bond in Bart and Clank, or moments of contentious rivalry between Zoda and Miss Killer or Ryu and Jack. We at least get to see them grow and have some interesting moments of conflict to set up a scenario, but again, to a smaller degree that could have been expounded more, especially the middle group (which was my favourite and the most wholesome of the bunch).
Music
The inclusion of the modernized versions of the Mute City and Big Blue tracks from the video game was one of the nice things packaged in the anime. I would also say that the opening and ending songs were excellent, and always exciting to anticipate: especially the former, HIRO-X’s The Meaning Of Truth which I have to say has one of the most fantastic chorus arrangements out there, rocking especially hard during Ryu’s greatest race moments, while Ai Maeda’s (of Digimon fame, yay!) Resolution showcases amidst a credits montage of the heroes vibing off-duty. The background music also had its fair share of decent tracks for its intense racing moments and when things got sentimental – hard for me to argue with how well they accompanied the intended mood the scenes were trying to convey.
My only complaint would be that the music that played for the races is so limited, not only is it easy to anticipate what the song pattern will be like, but the lack of variation also becomes stale after a while. Sure, they’re hook to emphasize the adrenaline-filled action from the matchups, but certainly they couldn’t have been a limited number of tracks to toy with for different environments, just like the game it was based on?
Favourites
Favourite character: I enjoyed watching Clank grow over the course of the series. The son of a deceased cop who died heroically in action, he turns from a resentful low-life to a cheerful, mature, and level-headed assistant to the Mobile Task Force after Captain Falcon rescues him and leads him to work at Bart’s coffee shop (make that of what you will, hmmm). I consider him one of the few characters aside from Ryu, Miss Killer or Captain Falcon that I’d consider complete. A sequel, if made, would have done best to show how he goes about filling Ryu’s role as the Dragon Bird’s ride.
Favourite race: The race where villainous nice-guy Octoman, against all odds, came out on top as the winner (episode 24) thanks to a last-second pile-up was fun and entertaining one to watch, making a great, comical way to end what was otherwise a series of wacky events.
Favourite moment: This needs no introduction. It’s what got me to watch this series in the first place: the famous Falcon Punch scene from the very last episode – coming also as Captain Falcon’s goodbye. Witness how raw the lines were dictated, the passion and energy from this scene, and how utterly epic the result was. No doubt this scene catapulted Captain Falcon to the legendary meme status he now possesses. Not bad for the only time this move is conjured up in animated style.
Favourite quote: First quoted in episode 30, is Captain Falcon’s second-most iconic line from the series:
He who surpasses the Falcon, can become the Falcon.
Captain Falcon, unwittingly foreshadowing his own death and sacrifice
Conclusion
If you ask me: move along from this. After scoping through it, I now fully understand why 4Kids dropped it after 15 episodes: because nothing remotely screams excitement about it. Outside of the races and maybe some vestige of semblance to the latter counterpart, F-Zero: Legend Of Falcon had little to offer that was engaging, and sacrificed having a high-quality cast for an unbalanced use of action sequences. Its storyline was so poorly paced, that it left me wrangling to decipher what it was truly about. Whatever strong points this series had only ended up being buried underneath its pile of flaws, and it’s not worth sitting through just to find them.
SCORE: 6.1/10
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