| IGPX | |
| Ja Kanji: | IGPX インモータル・グランプリ |
| Ja Romaji: | Ai Jī Pī Ekkusu: Inmōtaru Guranpuri |
| Genre: | Action, sports, racing, mecha |
| Type: | tv series |
| Immortal Grand Prix (microseries) | |
| Director: | Koichi Mashimo |
| Music: | Ninja Tune |
| First: | September 15, 2003 |
| Last: | September 19, 2003 |
| Episodes: | 5 |
| Type: | tv series |
| Director: | Mitsuru Hongo |
| Music: | Ninja Tune |
| Studio: | Production I.G |
| First: | October 5, 2005 |
| Last: | July 2, 2006 |
| Episodes: | 26 |
| Episode List: | List of IGPX episodes |
| Portal: | yes |
refers to two anime series co-produced by Production I.G and Cartoon Network. 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.
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 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 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.
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/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 60miles track. In the IGPX, two teams of three mechs, high-tech fighting machines driven by humans, race at speeds greater than 350mi/h. 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 anime is Toonami's first ever original television series.
Koichi Mashimo co-wrote and directed the microseries, while Bee Train and Production I.G animated it, and Bandai Entertainment acted as the North American distributor. The full-length anime series was handled by director and writer Mitsuru Hongo and was animated by Production I.G, with Bee Train returning for in-between animation. Production I.G president Mitsuhisa Ishikawa 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 companion franchise.
The series' English dub was produced by Williams Street in Atlanta, Georgia and Bang Zoom! Entertainment in Burbank, California. 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.
The program returned to the Toonami block on April 28, 2013, at 2 a.m. ET on Adult Swim. On November 21, 2014, anime distributor Discotek Media 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.[1] Discotek announced a Blu-ray version on October 17, 2023, which was released on May 28, 2024.[2] Diskotek Media's HD remastered version of the first two episodes of the show were aired commercial-free on Adult Swim on November 5, 2023, as part of the Daylight savings time bonus hour on the Toonami block to celebrate the show's 18th anniversary since its initial run on Cartoon Network and to promote its Blu-ray release. The show returned in full to the Toonami block with the HD remastered version on November 12, 2023.
An IGPX video game was released on September 12, 2006, for the PlayStation 2 by Bandai Namco.[3] [4]