Genre: Action
Company: Bandai Visual
Format: 6 OVA
Dates: 7/25/2000 to 9/25/2001
One hundred years in the future, means of transportation have changed drastically. People no longer drive their own cars and instead use automated vehicles known as AI cars that drive themselves and are completely safe… or so it was thought until several of the cars started going out of control. To stop these renegade cars, two specially chosen girls, Lisa and Lorna, are trained to drive old fashioned gasoline cars in order to chase them down. These girls are éX-Drivers.
summary by Keitaro
Reviewed: 02/19/2003 by
Grade: 63% 
Highs: Stunning visuals; great racing scenes
Lows: Unconvincing character interactions; where is the plot?
With Initial D gaining huge popularity worldwide, street racing anime are all the rage these days. In fact, it was the fast-paced racing scenes that originally attracted me to éX-Driver. It quickly became apparent that this anime is little more than fast cars, and the novelty wore off quickly.
The whole purpose of éX-Driver is to showcase hot girls driving fast cars. That’s it. While I am a fan of both, the combination does not make a very stunning basis for an anime. The plot is absolutely terrible, and all six parts of this OVA are filler. There are no plot twists and little character development, and the character interactions seem terribly forced and unrealistic. What you see is what you get, and the term “style over substance” comes to mind. Because of this, éX-Driver has a very small target audience. The only way to really enjoy this anime is to be able to overlook a long list of problems and just have fun with the high-speed action scenes.
But to be fair, those high-speed action scenes are very well done. The animation throughout the anime is high quality, making for fast-paced fun. With great character designs done by Fujishima Kosuke, fans of Ah! My Goddess and You’re Under Arrest! will know exactly what to expect. Racing scenes are accompanied by great music that helps set the mood. There is also a bit of comedy throughout the series, which I will admit made me laugh on more than one occasion.
Overall, this one is mediocre at best. I really cannot recommend it to anyone besides racing nuts. éX-Driver is an entertaining way to kill a few hours, but not a particularly memorable experience.
éX-Driver can be downloaded legally in the United States HERE.
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