In 2006 I remember watching Oban Star-Racers on the Disney channel on Sunday mornings when I could catch it.  I ended up not watching most of it so I was excited to see it on Netflix Streaming the other week.  I decided to watch it here and there to finally finish the story, I ended up devouring it, it is that good.

The premise is The Avatar (a great all-powerful mystic being) has invited humanity, and their enemies the Krogs, to participate in the great race of Oban.  The winner would receive the ultimate prize (although the Avatar is vague about what this is).  A rag-tag team is made from the best racers and support staff from Earth and sent to the planet Alwas to race in the pre-qualifiers.  Eva (the main protagonist) tags along and changes her name to Molly.  Eventually she replaces the current champion as pilot.

As far as the quality goes, the art style is passable, with the 3d parts being very good.  The thing that irked me the most is the characters do not have noses.  On the aliens this looks alright, but it makes the humans look kind of weird.  The voice acting was great and added some depth to the characters.

Where this show really shines is in the story.  Each of the main characters had many layers of complexity that came out as the show progressed.  The story grabbed me so much that when I finished watching the show I was saddened that I would not get to see them again (until I re-watch the show of course).  At times the plot was somewhat predictable, but that did not detract from my experience.  Another great thing about this show is it is PG so it is fairly kid-friendly.

Bottom line, if you are an anime fan I would whole-heartedly suggest this show to you.  The production quality is high, the story is amazing, and you will probably get hooked on it as I did.  It’s Geektime rates Oban Star-Racers a heart-racing 10 on the d10 of Sunday morning cartoons.