Speed Racer

Speed Racer, originally released in Japan as Mach GoGoGo, is an anime series from Tatsunoko Production that first aired on Fuji Television between April 1967 and March 1968. It reached American audiences in syndication around the same time. The story follows Gō Mifune, a young man who becomes a professional racer, and was shaped by Tatsuo Yoshida’s earlier racing comic Pilot Ace. Yoshida drew inspiration for the character design and concept from the Elvis Presley film Viva Las Vegas and the James Bond movie Goldfinger, blending Presley’s race-car driver look—complete with neckerchief and black pompadour—with Bond’s gadget-laden Aston Martin DB5.

The series ran for 52 episodes. In 1997, Tatsunoko produced a 34-episode modernized version for TV Tokyo, which was adapted into English by DiC as Speed Racer X; only 13 episodes aired on Nickelodeon in 2002 due to licensing disputes. A web series called Mach Girl was later created by Yoshida’s daughter, Suzuka.

The English-language rights were acquired by Trans-Lux, and the show premiered in the U.S. in summer 1967. The protagonist’s name was Americanized to Speed Racer, with his full name Go Mifune paying homage to actor Toshiro Mifune. The series centers on Speed’s Mach 5 car, his girlfriend Trixie, his little brother Spritle, Spritle’s pet chimpanzee Chim-Chim, his father “Pops” Racer, and his mysterious older brother Racer X (real name Rex Racer). Producer Peter Fernandez handled major editing and dubbing, writing and directing the English dialogue while voicing many characters, including Racer X and Speed.

He also rearranged the theme song’s melody, originally by Nobuyoshi Koshibe, and wrote its English lyrics. The opening sequence features an early anime example of bullet time: as Speed leaps from the Mach 5, he freezes mid-jump while the camera arcs around him. A manga adaptation, written and illustrated by Tatsuo Yoshida, was serialized in Shueisha’s Shōnen Book magazine in 1966. It was released in book form by Sun Wide Comics and later re-released by Fusosha.

Manga adaptation

The manga includes storylines like “The Great Plan,” “Challenge of the Masked Racer,” “The Fire Race,” “The Secret Engine,” and “Race for Revenge,” which also appear in the anime, though with minor differences due to the anime using earlier drafts. Selected chapters were published in the U.S. by NOW Comics as Speed Racer Classics in the 1990s, and later by Wildstorm Productions as Speed Racer: The Original Manga. In 2008, Digital Manga Publishing released the complete series in a hardcover boxed set as Speed Racer: Mach Go Go Go, marking the 40th anniversary and tying in with the 2008 film.

Anime

A Speed Racer daily comic strip by Mort Todd ran in the New York Post from 2000 to 2001. IGN ranked the original series #29 on its “Best 100 Animated Series” list. At Otakon 2015, Funimation acquired the license and released the series on Blu-ray: a standard English version on May 30, 2017, and a collector’s edition of the Japanese version with English subtitles on November 7, 2017—the first such North American release. On May 2, 2024, Shout! Studios took over U.S. distribution rights from Crunchyroll, starting with a digital release of both the English and Japanese versions on June 1, 2024, and planning a Blu-ray re-release on August 25, 2026.