Speed Racer


Speed Racer, also known as Mach GoGoGo, is a Japanese media franchise about automobile racing. Mach GoGoGo was originally serialized in print in Shueisha's 1966 Shōnen Book. It was released in tankōbon book form by Sun Wide Comics, and later re-released in Japan by Fusosha. Adapted into anime by Tatsunoko Productions, its 52 episodes aired on Fuji TV from April 1967 to March 1968. The anime was later re-broadcast on Tokyo MX from July 1 to September 25, 2008.
Selected chapters of the manga were released by NOW Comics in the 1990s under the title Speed Racer Classics. These were later released by Wildstorm Productions, a division of DC Comics, as Speed Racer: The Original Manga. In 2008, under its Americanized title, Speed Racer, Mach GoGoGo was republished in its entirety in the United States by Digital Manga Publishing and was released as a box set to commemorate the franchise's 40th anniversary, as well as serving as a tie-in with the 2008 film. The television series itself is an early example of an anime becoming a successful franchise in the United States, spawning multiple spinoffs in both print and broadcast media.

Media

Manga

Mach GoGoGo was first created and designed by anime pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida as a manga series in the 1960s and made the jump to TV as an anime series in 1967. The actual manga was inspired by Yoshida's earlier, and more popular automobile racing comics, Pilot Ace. Pilot Ace's main storyline would form the structure for Mach GoGoGo, which followed the adventures of an ambitious young man who became a professional racer.
The characters’ designs in Pilot Ace would set the main ground for the character design in Mach GoGoGo. Yoshida got his idea for the story after seeing two films that were very popular in Japan at the time, Viva Las Vegas and Goldfinger. By combining the look of Elvis Presley's race-car driving image, complete with neckerchief and black pompadour, and James Bond's gadget-filled Aston Martin DB5, Yoshida had the inspiration for his creation. Soon enough, Mach GoGoGo hit shelves in the early 1960s. The central character in the anime and manga was a young race car driver named Gō Mifune.
The name of the series, Mach GoGoGo has a triple meaning: "Mahha-gō" is the name of the car; the name of the main character is Gō Mifune; and finally, it contains the English word, go. In the American adaptation, the Mach 5 stems from the number 5 on the door. Although, in Japanese, go is the word for the number 5, the Kanji character gō which is used in the car name actually means "item number". In addition, gogogo, is used as a general Japanese sound effect for rumble. Taken together, the program's title means, "Mach-gō Gō Mifune Go!"
The manga has several storylines, such as "The Great Plan," "Challenge of the Masked Racer," "The Fire Race," "The Secret Engine" and "Race for Revenge", that were adapted to the anime. However, minor changes occur between both the original manga and the anime series, such as differences between back stories of several characters and places.
A few years after the volumes were released, Yoshida decided to release his manga series as an anime program, adding additional plots. 52 episodes aired in Japan, each one emulating the fast-paced action of the manga.
Selected chapters of the original Mach GoGoGo manga series were reprinted by Now Comics as Speed Racer Classics and by DC Comics/Wildstorm Productions as Speed Racer: The Original Manga. In 2008, a hardcover box set of the complete manga series was released by Digital Manga Publishing as Speed Racer: Mach Go Go Go.

Anime

The manga spawned an anime adaptation which actually became a bigger success. 52 episodes were produced from 1967 to 1968. In 1997, Tatsunoko produced a modernized version of Mach GoGoGo which aired on TV Tokyo, lasting for 34 episodes. An English adaptation of this remake was produced by DiC titled Speed Racer X, which aired in 2002 on Nickelodeon. Only the first 13 episodes were adapted due to licensing disputes between DiC and Speed Racer Enterprises. Mach Girl was a web-based series by Tatsunoko Productions, created by Tatsuo Yoshida's daughter, Suzuka.

English adaptation

The English rights to Mach GoGoGo were acquired by syndicator Trans-Lux, and Speed Racer premiered on American television in the fall of 1967. In the series, Speed's full name was Go Mifune, in homage to Japanese film star Toshiro Mifune. His name, Americanized, became Speed Racer. His adventures centered on his powerful Mach 5 car, his girlfriend Trixie, his little brother Spritle, Spritle's pet chimpanzee Chim-Chim, and his mysterious older brother, Racer X, whose real name was Rex Racer.
For American consumption, major editing and dubbing efforts were undertaken by producer Peter Fernandez, who likewise not only wrote and directed the English-language dialogue but also provided the voices of many of the characters, most notably Racer X and Speed Racer himself. Fernandez was also responsible for a rearrangement of the theme song's melody, written and composed by Nobuyoshi Koshibe, and he subsequently also wrote its English lyrics.
A Speed Racer daily comic strip written and drawn by Mort Todd ran in the New York Post from 2000–2001. IGN ranked the original Speed Racer series at #29 on its "Best 100 Animated Series" list.
At Otakon 2015, Funimation announced that it had acquired the license to Speed Racer from Tatsunoko and would release it on Blu-ray for the first time. Funimation would give Speed Racer two separate home video releases: a standard release for the English version on May 30, 2017, and a collector's edition for the Japanese version with English subtitles on November 7, 2017, the first such North American release.

Development

Names

The large red M on the hood of the Mach 5, as well as on Gō's helmet, is the emblem of Mifune Motors, the family business, and an homage to Japanese film star Toshiro Mifune. In North America it was assumed to stand for Mach 5, and in the Latin American version, for Meteoro. His given name, Gō, is a Japanese homophone for the number 5 which is also represented by the yellow letter G embroidered on his short-sleeve blue shirt. The tradition of symbolism on characters' shirts would also be used on Michi and Sabu, who had the letter "M" and "S" on their shirts, respectively.

Audience

The overall purpose of the anime was to please a growing fan base worldwide with exciting stories that involved facing adversity on the race track and beyond. There is some argument over how much was edited from the original series. Some say the original Mach GoGoGo episodes underwent minor editing to reach the form which aired in the US; others say it underwent major editing. Nevertheless, it was considered appropriate entertainment for the whole family.

Characters

Racer family

Speed Racer / Gō Mifune
Spritle Racer / Kurio Mifune and Chim-Chim
Pops Racer / Daisuke Mifune
Mom Racer / Aya Mifune
Racer X

Supporting characters

Trixie / Michi Shimura
Sparky
The Car Acrobatic Team

Vehicles

Many of the show's cars have special abilities in the series. *Note: The names of the cars that have appeared in both the manga and the original anime have been fitted with Bold Italics.

The ''Mach 5''

The Mach 5, Speed Racer's car, is a technological marvel, containing useful pieces of equipment. Gō Mifune/Speed Racer easily deployed these gadgets by pressing buttons marked "A" through "G" on the steering wheel hub. This uniquely designed car, built with a sleek Coke bottle bodystyle, has a white exterior with a large "M" on its hood, the logo for the family business, Mifune Motors. The two-seat car had a mostly red-colored interior. The number 5 is emblazoned on both side doors of the car. In the manga and anime this is the car's racing number; in the film, it is because it is the fifth car built in Pops' "Mach" series of racing vehicles. Although technically inferior to other racing vehicles such as the Mammoth Car and the GRX, the Mach 5 manages to win most races because of Speed's superior driving skills.
The Mach 5 has been stolen from Speed a few times, once when Cornpone Blotch took the car to add it to his car collection in the "Girl Daredevil" saga. However, Speed always gets it back at the end of the episode. At one point, the car was replicated, functions and all, by Dr. Nightcall. However, this replica included other new abilities that would inspire later functions of the car in remakes of the show, one of which were the Aero-Jacks, used as a replacement for the Auto Jacks in Speed Racer X. In manga continuity, the Mach 5 was destroyed and rebuilt. See Manga and Anime Differences for more information on the Mach 5's manga continuity.
In both American comic and movie continuity, Pops is portrayed as having built a "Mach" Series consisting of other variants such as the Mach 4 and Mach 6 in addition to Rex Racer's Mach 1 and the Mach 5.

The ''Shooting Star''

The Shooting Star is Racer X's car, colored bright yellow with a black front bumper and numbered 9 on the hood and sides. The car's engine is located in the back, and it is a very agile machine, often displaying abilities akin to and even above those of the Mach Five. Many of its high-tech features allowed Racer X to keep an eye on Speed Racer, who is his younger brother.
In later comics written by Tommy Yune, Rex acquires the car that he names the "Shooting Star" from Prince Kabala of Kapetapek. During his time training with the royal leader, Rex is informed that he is the ninth student of Kabala, hence the number 9. Rex also builds other cars numbered 9 with similar paint schemes and names them with variants like the "Falling Star."
In the 2008 film adaptation, the car makes an appearance but is not named. The car was the only car built in addition to the Mach Five for the movie, and features weapons like machine guns mounted above the cockpit and under the chassis. In addition to this car, Racer X also drives a car built for the competitions in the film, a T180. This car was entitled the "Augury" in the film's video game counterpart. Like Racer X's unnamed street car, it features a number 9 and has the black and yellow color scheme, with a large black "X" on the front bumper. The T180 only makes one appearance in the film, when Racer X competes to protect Speed in the Fuji race after he has rejected Royalton's offer.

The Mammoth Car

Appearing only in the anime, it is supposedly the largest racing vehicle in the world. Similar in design to an extremely long trailer truck, the Mammoth Car is mostly red and is built by Speed Racer villain Cruncher Block. The Mammoth Car was built almost entirely of $50,000,000 in stolen gold bars. This amount of gold, however, would actually occupy only 74 cubic feet, based on the then price of gold of $35 per ounce. By entering it in 'The No Limit World Race', Cruncher wished to smuggle the gold out of the country. The Mammoth Car's main engine has. Each wheel also has an engine with, giving it a total of. It can travel at, on any kind of road or terrain. It makes screeching sounds reminiscent of Godzilla. It has magnetic brakes, and is over long, making the Mammoth Car one of the most interesting cars in the series. It was destroyed after it crashed into an oil refinery and melted into its original gold by the intense heat.
The Mammoth Car makes a small cameo in the 2008 film in the scene where Cruncher Block interrogates Taejo Togokhan after he resists Royalton Industries in the race fixing business. They were interrupted by Racer X, who battles the Mammoth and saves Taejo. The Mammoth Car in this movie is shown to have view ports for its drivers to shoot out of, just like in the original series, and is shown to fire missiles from its grill.
The Mammoth Car also makes an appearance along with Flash Marker Jr.'s X3 in Speed Racer: The Next Generation in the second and third episodes of "The Fast Track" saga, as an enemy program of the show's virtual racing track. Although the Mammoth Car is rendered in CGI after its original anime design, the car is missing its grill and many other details that had appeared in the original anime. The Mammoth Car in this episode makes the same sound as it did in the anime. It pays homage to the original series by using its signature attack of surrounding and circling a rival.

The ''Melange'' and the ''X3''

The Melange was a topless racing car numbered with a "3," driven by Flash Marker. When investigating the mysterious car, Speed recalls the name Melange was the name of Napoleon's horse, who saved his life several times in battles. When Speed recalls his knowledge of French history, a rendition of Jacques-Louis David's painting of Napoleon Crossing the Alps, which depicts Napoleon riding Marengo, is drawn in the episode. Pops Racer, however, identified the name "Melange" as a car driven 15 years earlier by a young driver named Flash Marker. The Melange's chassis was colored with two shades of purple and had an exposed engine on its hood. During the 'Race at Danger Pass', the Melange, along with Marker, was finally destroyed in a crash caused by the Three Roses Club.
Since then, Flash's son, Flash Marker Jr., had plotted revenge on the Three Roses Club by building a car with a sleek, black body marked "X3." The car was driven through remote control and a robot dummy was placed in the driver's seat, broadcasting the phrases "Melange still races" and "Melange is alive" to haunt those of the Three Roses Club. The X3 was used primarily to deliberately crash into and kill those affiliated with the Three Roses Club, leaving behind a card marked X3 to haunt the remaining members. Speed, who had volunteered to help the police, was chasing down the X3 when it narrowly avoided colliding with a train, leaving the robot dummy hanging over the level crossing's boom gate.
Speed noticed its robot “driver” and brought it back to the police for further investigation. Meanwhile, Flash Marker Jr. secretly brought back the damaged car and replaced its body with a replica of the original Melange, placing it over the X3 chassis in his secret underground car factory, to prepare for the next Race at Danger Pass. Since it is the same car with the chassis of the Melange, the car can still be controlled remotely. The new Melange is still numbered “3,” but it has the ability to be changed through remote control to “X3,” making the drivers of the Three Roses Club realize that the "new Melange" is actually the X3. The car, controlled by Flash Jr. in his helicopter, was used to fatally crash into two Three Roses drivers before it was destroyed when it lost control and crashed into the final member of the Three Roses Club.

The GRX

The GRX was technically an engine, but it has become more identified with the gold-colored car that housed the engine in the series episode "The Fastest Car on Earth." The engine was designed by Ben Cranem, and was responsible for crashes and deaths of four test drivers and its inventor due to the impossible speeds it could attain. Cranem died and the GRX engine was buried with him, but Oriana Flub and her men exhumed the engine and placed it into the car with a sleek, golden, and markless body.
Oriana convinced Speed to test drive the car with the GRX and Speed was sprayed with a special serum known as the V-gas to artificially sharpen his reflexes. The V-gas causes its driver to become extremely thirsty and if the driver consumed any compound containing water, they would develop a strong phobia of speed. The car got a new driver, Cranem's son, Curly. Curly was given the V-gas and soon experienced its side effects. The GRX and its engine were destroyed when he fatally crashed the car due to Curly drinking water during a pit stop.
The GRX episodes mark one of the few continuity errors introduced by the English dubbing. In the first episode the GRX's speedometer with a maximum speed of on it is shown in the beginning of the episode, however, due to a continuity error in the Japanese animation, as Speed drives it, the speedometer tops out at This would make the GRX slower than the Mammoth Car by the English dialogue.
In the 2008 film adaptation, the name makes an appearance as a car developed by Royalton Industries and driven by Jack "Cannonball" Taylor. The car retains none of the back story from its anime counterpart. It is numbered 66 and colored purple and gold and was transformed from a two-seater to a single-seater. In the Grand Prix race that closes the film, the GRX is the main competitor for Speed in the Mach 6 and features a secret weapon called a "spear-hook" that is illegal in professional racing. After Taylor deploys the device against Speed during the Grand Prix, Speed uses the Mach 6's auto-jacks to flip the cars and reveal the hook to the track cameras, automatically disqualifying Taylor and aiding the case built by Inspector Detector against Royalton.

Manga and anime differences

Like most manga series adapted to anime, changes occur in both timelines of the Speed Racer series. Besides the obvious Americanization of the original Japanese characters' names, other changes include character's backstory and new characters.

Continuity changes

The show's mainstream success in the United States spawned an ongoing Speed Racer franchise, ranging from comics, video releases, merchandise, a live-action film, and newer series either rebooting or continuing the original series. The franchise began in the early 1990s when a company, Speed Racer Enterprises, acquired rights to the original series. At the time when the series was originally released, very little merchandise was released in the United States. However, during the series' re-airing during the 1990s, Speed Racer Enterprises was responsible for the creation of actual Speed Racer merchandise, ranging from small collectible die-cast cars, to action figures, to home video releases of episodes from the original series. Speed Racer Enterprises was also involved in creating original American takes on the Japanese series such as The New Adventures of Speed Racer and Speed Racer: The Next Generation.
Due to Speed Racer Enterprises, the original 1967 series made a comeback through reruns on MTV, broadcast in the early morning hours. In 1993, the series was rebroadcast in syndication concurrently with a new American-created remake. Since all the rights were now under Speed Racer Enterprises, all references to the original rights holder, Trans-Lux, were removed. Therefore, the opening sequence included an entirely recreated logo, which most people are familiar with today; however when Speed Racer Enterprises authorized Volkswagen to use Speed Racer in a July 1996 GTI commercial, J.J. Sedelmaier faithfully replicated the look of the original episode title cards, including the original logo.
This is the version that later aired on the Cartoon Network in the late afternoon programming, and is also the version released on Region 1 DVD. This version can also be seen on the streaming video service Hulu.
In December 2013, Tatsunoko gained all rights to the Speed Racer franchise, retroactively as to May 2011, as part of a settlement of lawsuits between Speed Racer Enterprises and the animation studio. Tatsunoko had claimed that SRE had exceeded its contractual rights in continuing to license the property after 2011.

American comic adaptations

launched an American Speed Racer comic book series in 1987. The series became a hit with the high production values of airbrush artist Ken Steacy. The comics continued for nearly 40 issues and included a spin-off Racer X series and crossovers. A miniseries adapting The New Adventures of Speed Racer was also released, which included art by Oscar González Loyo. IN 1993, NOW Comics and Antarctic Press also published a four-issue intercompany crossover between Speed Racer and the characters of Ben Dunn's Ninja High School.
In 1999, DC Comics/Wildstorm Productions released a new Speed Racer limited series, which became the #1 pick of industry publication Wizard magazine. The manga style of writer/artist Tommy Yune recaptured the look of the original anime, which was soon followed by an industry-wide revival of comic adaptations of other classic animated series. The limited series was collected as the trade paperback Speed Racer: Born to Race,and a Racer X limited series featuring the artwork of Chinese manga artist Jo Chen.
In 2008 IDW Productions re-released the Wildstorm series as Speed Racer/Racer X: The Origins Collection, and previously published issues from NOW Comics as Speed Racer Vol. 1–5. A new limited series, Speed Racer: Chronicles of the Racer, was also produced.
Seven Seas published an adaptation by Dwayne Alexander Smith in 2007 with art by Elmer Damaso.

Latin American comic adaptation

Editorial Abril, an Argentine company of César Civita, published a Spanish-language comic book in 1970s, soon after, his brother Victor Civita publish a magazine in Brazil by Editora Abril, In 2000, Editora Abril published a series of Tommy Yune.

American TV series

In 1993 an American produced series called The New Adventures of Speed Racer had a much more contemporary art style. It was not a direct continuation of the original series; therefore, it is considered a reboot. While the original series had more realistic themes such as gang violence and family ties, this series introduced science fiction themes such as robots and mutants. The series was off the air after only 13 episodes. Tatsunoko did not authorize the production of this series.
For the original series' 40th anniversary in 2006, a flash-based series of "webisodes" entitled Speed Racer Lives was released. This series was depicted as a continuation of the original series, taking place many years after it. The series was made available on the Internet solely to promote a new line of toys made by company Art Asylum.
In 2008, a new series was released entitled , which airs on Nicktoons. Like Speed Racer Lives, this series was conceived as taking place years after the original. It focuses on the sons of the original Speed Racer. Its premiere coincided with the live-action feature film in May 2008. Peter Fernandez voices a middle-aged version of Spritle, Speed's younger brother from the original Japanese series. The show's protagonist, also named Speed, and one of Spritle's nephews, is voiced by New Jersey native Kurt Csolak. Larry Schwarz is the creator of the TV series, which is produced by Animation Collective, the creators of Kappa Mikey and Three Delivery. Like the 1993 remake, this series was not authorized by Tatsunoko. Pangea Corporation has been working with Speed Racer Enterprises for over 20 years and has created several new show iterations.
The original series was also revived on MTV for a short period of time in 1993, then moved to Cartoon Network in 1996, and again to its sister network Boomerang until 2005.

''Speed Racer: The Movie'' (1993 film)

In 1993, the episodes "The Car Hater" and "Race Against the Mammoth Car" were combined into a feature-length film and briefly released in theaters. It was later released on VHS and DVD, and has been available on Hulu. The film also featured old commercials for Bondex ready-mix cementing, National Forest Service, Flit insecticide spray, and Pure-Pak milk cartons, and a bonus cartoon, The Treacherous Pirate, starring Colonel Bleep.

Live-action film

wrote and directed a live-action adaptation of Speed Racer, released on May 9, 2008. It was poorly received by most critics and was a box office failure, making just under $93 million worldwide against a production budget of at least $120 million.

One-act play

In 1994, Pangea Corporation wrote and produced a one-act play entitled, Spritle: A One Man Show, which debuted at the San Diego Comic Con and was a huge success. It chronicled what happened to all the Speed Racer characters after the show was canceled, following the concept that the characters were real and had private lives. Spritle, Speed's younger brother, relates the tell-all confessional piece as a disgruntled grown-up who is now sour that his career floundered after his celebrity status on the show. It was cited by Wizard magazine as one of the top 10 best sessions at Comic Con 1994. The show was written by John Schulte and John Besmehn, produced, directed and moderated by Cheryl Ann Wong.

Other appearances

Sequences from the original TV show were used for the entirety of Ghostface Killah's music video for "Daytona 500."

Merchandise

Toys

The first major toy line of Speed Racer was developed in 1992 by Pangea Corporation for Ace Novelty Toy Company. Products focused on both the classic Speed Racer anime program from Tatsunoko, plus a whole new line based on the Fred Wolf series, The New Adventures of Speed Racer. Lego released new Speed Racer construction sets to coincide with the release of the Speed Racer film. These include a 242 piece Speed and Snake Oiler set, a 237 piece Racer X and Taejo Togokhan set, a 367 piece Racer X and Cruncher Block set, and a 595 piece Grand Prix set, which includes Trixie, Pops, Speed, Spritle, Chim-Chim, 2 racers, and a racing announcer. Mattel had the master toy license for the 2008 Speed Racer film, including action figures, related vehicles, and accessories. Mattel's Hot Wheels division produced miniature replicas of the Mach 5 called the Second Wind, and their Barbie Collector division released a collector doll set featuring Trixie and Speed as they appeared in the film. Also, a Mattel product called UB FunKeys got a new patch, which included a Speed Racer zone.
Jada Toys held the rights to produce die-cast replicas of the Mach 5 from the original animated series.
Playing Mantis released a wide range of the Speed Racer die-cast miniatures, including replicas of the villains' cars and mini-dioramas under their "Johnny Lightning" line. A limited-edition release of the Mach Four from the Wildstorm comic series remains one of the hardest-to-find collectibles to this day. In 1998 Playing Mantis acquired the rights to the "Captain Action" action figure line, a vintage line about a crusading adventurer who disguises himself as famous super-heroes. Playing Mantis had planned to produce new costumes of Speed Racer, Racer X, and Captain Terror for the revamp of the line, but they were never produced. Control art for the Speed Racer costume appears on the packaging of some figures, and pictures of the prototypes are available online.
Resaurus produced two series of five-inch action figures, rich with articulation and accessories; as well as a full-sized Mach V in 1999. A third series of figures and a full-sized Shooting Star were planned, but the line folded before this could happen. Toynami is currently releasing a large-scale version of the Speed Racer vehicles, including a Mach Five playset complete with all of its gadgets. The company Polar Lights is currently manufacturing two 1/25-scale model kits in standard "glue" and snap-together variations. These can be built with or without the waterproof bubble canopy at the modeler's discretion. The kits feature a homing robot and separate jacks; and a rear engine.
RC ERTL has produced Speed Racer's Mach 5 in 1:18 Die Cast Form with many features of the animated car, including pop out saw blades, ion jacks, opening doors, hood and trunk. It includes Spritle Racer and Chim-Chim figures. Special variants were made with decals celebrating Racer X and other characters from the series as part of the 35th Anniversary Edition in 2001. A similar die-cast version of Racer X's Shooting Star was produced as well. It has now been retired from production and is a sought-after collectible.
Art Asylum made a line of toys consisting primarily of their block-figure Minimates in 2006.

Video games

In 1992, Accolade made Speed Racer in The Challenge of Racer X for DOS. Two years later, that company made Speed Racer in My Most Dangerous Adventures for SNES, Which developed by Radical Entertainment.
In 1993, Pangea Corporation created and authored a CD-Rom title that featured game elements, a video clip creator that allowed players to make a classic Speed Racer mash-up moment, along with other themed interactive content. It was marketed under the name "The Compleat Speed Racer."
Namco created a Speed Racer arcade game in 1995.
Speed Racer game was released for the PlayStation. It was published in Japan by Tomy and in North America by Jaleco.
A video game based on the 1997 series, simply titled Mach Go Go Go, was released by TOSE and Tomy for the Game Boy in Japan.
In 2006, a joint production of enterthemonkey.com and blitinteractive.com, entitled Speed Racer — The Great Plan, was released as a Web browser game to Shockwave.com. The game stays very true to the original television show, with all the original voices, sounds, and Mach 5 controls. The game featured the operational steering wheel buttons from the original animated series. Each button activated a customized accessory to avoid obstacles and take on rough terrains.
A based on the movie was created for the Wii, Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2 platforms. Stars Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci and Matthew Fox reprise their roles.

DVD releases

Artisan Home Entertainment/Lionsgate Entertainment released episodes 1 through 11 of the original series in DVD format in the U.S. and Canada on April 22, 2003. This turned out to be the first in a series of five DVD re-releases of the show. The second volume, containing episodes 12 through 23, went on sale on May 18, 2004. The DVD came in a special package where one could push a button on the cover and the Mach 5's headlights would light up, while a portion of the show's English theme song played. Volumes 1 and 2 were re-released as a two-disc set on April 20, 2010. The third volume came out on May 24, 2005, with the discs packaged in a round metal box made to resemble the steering wheel of the Mach 5. It contains episodes 24 through 36. This volume was later released to promote the live action film in a standard keep case. Lionsgate Family Entertainment released the fourth volume, which featured episodes 37 through 44, on March 14, 2006; this volume included a die-cast toy Mach 5. The last episode, "Race the Laser Tank", was time-compressed, similar to when Cartoon Network would air the series in the mid-1990s. Although nothing was removed from the episode, the higher-pitched voices of the characters and the diminished quality of the episode due to the time-compression upset some fans. The fifth and last volume was released on October 31, 2006. This volume included episodes 45 through 52 and for a limited time it came with a miniature license plate with the inscription, "Go-Speed Racer-Go!"
The entire anime series was released in Australia on April 30, 2008 and in the United States later that year, on October 7. The U.S. release of the entire anime series is a repackaging of all five individually released volumes into a comic book style box set, in homage to the Mach GoGoGo manga. In addition, a bonus disc containing special featurettes and an episode of Speed Racer: The Next Generation is included. These discs, six in total, were packaged in an exclusive die-cast casing modeled after the Mach 5.
All previous DVD releases went out of print after Tatsunoko gained worldwide rights to the franchise.
After FUNimation garnered the rights, they released the English version on separate DVD and Blu-ray sets on May 30, 2017. On November 7, they released a Blu-ray + DVD Combo Collector's Edition of both the English and Japanese versions, as well as the Japanese version of Speed Racer X, known as Mach Go Go Go: Restart on DVD. It has a bust of Speed Racer with sound effects, as well as a key chain and an exclusive interview with the voice actress of Trixie and Spritle, Corinne Orr.

Footnotes