Goddamn

This interestingly-titled anime is a 2-episode OVA that follows a Japanese driver participating in the world of rally racing. Unfortunately, the title is about the only notable thing about it; the confusing plot, unlikable characters and lack of an ending, combined with subpar technical aspects, make this a frustrating watch. After an “in medias res”-type start, the first episode shifts to the real beginning, in which the main character, Gen, is walking around Paris rather haphazardly. The reason he’s there isn’t explained well, if at all. He gets followed in a car by another Japanese person, a young executive in a major Japanese company. The guy,Rokkoji, introduces himself, treats Gen to dinner, and asks Gen to sign a contract with him to drive for his company in the World Rally Championship, but only on the condition that Gen is able to race up a mountain within a certain amount of time. Due to some odd circumstances, Gen fails, but Rokkoji decides to offer him the contract anyway, because of his “brand image” of being a “survivor.” You see, Gen has a nasty habit of totaling just about every car he drives, but miraculously surviving every crash, as he utters the OVA’s titular expletive. Specifically scouting out and offering a racing contract to a guy who habitually crashes cars doesn’t seem like the smartest business decision in the world, but I guess it had to happen for the sake of the plot. Most of the rest of the OVA is set in Kenya, where the rally is taking place, with brief cutaways to the company’s headquarters in Japan, since there are some executives there who are displeased with what Rokkoji’s doing. Gen has some issues with the people on his racing team, particularly his first co-driver (who’s apparently named Dick Van Dyke), and he gets into a lot of arguments and car crashes everywhere he goes, while also being followed around by a French girl named Cotti (seriously, why is she there?). Can he successfully complete the Kenyan leg of the rally, or will his car-crashing and hotheaded tendencies get the best of him? The plot is confusing and it jumps around a lot. I don’t know anything about rallies, but apparently even people who are rally fans deem this to be an inaccurate depiction of the sport, so having prior knowledge about rallies probably wouldn’t help that much. Events that should be dramatic turning points are presented in an underwhelming manner, and the anime ends rather abruptly (presumably to be continued in the manga). Also, there are some anti-foreign undertones to this OVA, with regards to economics, race and culture. The characters aren’t developed at all, and sometimes it’s not even clear why they’re where they are in the first place. For instance, Cotti is first introduced cutting Gen off in his race up the mountain, and after she crashes her car off a cliff and it explodes, he saves her. But then, she’s down in Kenya as part of the team helping Gen and co. out. Why is she there? She’s the daughter of the founder of a major French company that’s going to partner with the Japanese company, but she’s not exactly an employee or anything. And she was supposed to be a runaway from school, but that whole plot line got thrown out the window as soon as it was introduced. Most of the other characters are barely memorable, except for the fact that they’re unlikable. Gen in particular is mean to just about everyone all the time for no reason. He treats his second co-driver condescendingly, says some inappropriate remarks to a woman in Japanese (so she won’t know what he’s saying), demands that his team feed him steak even though steak is not on the menu (likely due to there being an Indian on the team), etc., etc. The technical aspects are below average. The character designs aren’t bad — they’re typical Kaoru Shintani designs — and the animation is decent during the racing scenes. However, scenes focusing on the characters speaking or moving around look rather stiff. The voices aren’t that memorable, and I felt that the actor for Gen was miscast — he sounded too old and deep-voiced. The ending theme, which is sometimes used as an insert song, is a mostly instrumental piece that sounds more like a flamenco song than something that would be appropriate for a show taking place in Kenya. There is a fair amount of objectionable content here. Besides the titular expletive getting said a few times, there’s a racial slur, some questionable visual depictions of Kenyans and a couple of sexist remarks said by the protagonist. As mentioned above, the OVA has some anti-foreign undertones, and there are also some scenes which could be seen as sexist or mocking religion. Overall, this was a disappointing OVA. It didn’t interest me in rally racing at all, due to the poorly constructed plot and unlikable characters. I don’t recommend watching this.

Note: the following comes from a video review, links on my profile page. The two-episode OVA randomly titled 'Goddamn' doesn't give away much in terms of what it might be about (while it does somewhat touch on religion, that isn't the point or genre, although that moment happens to be of sociological interest). It features scenes of nature in between semi-comedic interactions of a mechanical sort - the weather is also of import, although it doesn't really matter ultimately as the protagonist is almost immune to disasters despite their constant occurrence. It has a similar atmosphere to Nasu despite being set on a different continent and beingabout car, as opposed to bicycle racing, although they are more than a decade apart. It also derives some of its comedy from characters' conversations, and often hammers the point, and uses as a repeated prop, the potential dangers of, say, driving really fast up a mountain (which can mostly be 'funny' confined to an animated medium). The environments here may be of more interest than either the comedy or sport, as in the limited time it doesn't quite establish a consistency that others in the same genre (e.g. Slam Dunk adapted at around the same time) develop over tens of episodes. It is still, though, chilled out somehow despite the accidents that would normally, and in real life, easily turn the comedy into a tragedy. Some may approach this from a technical perspective, but anime isn't usually a documentary, as if it was characters wouldn't end up with only a few scratches, and so it seems it would detract from any potential interest if it was treated as such. In comparison to Nasu it isn't quite as 'existential' as the latter half of the cycling story turned out to be, but as usual all have differing focus (this doesn't then have as much commentary as Nasu's first episode which may be perceived as monotonous). Overall, it may be yet another atmospheric OVA animated in the 90s, as so many seem to have been, when studios were possibly not in the mood for much longer series as in earlier decades, but then not even a few more episodes that became standard later on and in recent times, and as such it is a sort of pilot.

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