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Imagine hovercars tearing across gravity-defying tracks at over 1,000 km/h above futuristic cities – for those who never played the games, F-Zero was exactly that. It was Nintendo’s fast and futuristic racing series launched in 1990, known for its insane difficulty and an eccentric mix of alien, human, and cyborg racers. Unlike Mario mapthere were no power-ups or gimmicks, just pure high-speed racing where one wrong move sent you flying off the track into a hilarious flaming wreck.
By the early 2000s, the F-Zero franchise had hit its peak with F-Zero GX and Climax on the GameCube and Game Boy Advance. Around the same time, Nintendo surprised everyone with an anime adaptation called F-Zero: Farukon Densetsu (or F-Zero Legend of Falcon), known in the West as F-Zero: GP Legend, which aired on FoxBox but was abruptly canceled after just 15 dubbed episodes, even though the full 51-episode series ran in Japan from 2003 to 2004. Now, you might assume this was just another forgettable video game adaptation, but it honestly went way harder than it needed to.
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Wait, There Was an F-Zero Anime?
If you weren’t watching FoxBox (which later became 4Kids TV), F-Zero’s anime probably flew under your radar. On paper, it doesn’t sound like a show that needs a deep story – it’s just lightning-fast racing on wild sci-fi tracks, right? But GP Legend went all in and turned this high-speed racing game into a series with emotional arcs, mystery, plot twists, actual character development, and a surprisingly mature plot for a Saturday morning cartoon.
Instead of focusing only on Captain Falcon, the story follows Ryu Suzaku (renamed Rick Wheeler in the English dub), a former F1 racer and cop who gets into a deadly accident while chasing Zoda, a notorious criminal. He wakes up 150 years later in the year 2201 in Mute City, revived by Dr. Stewart and recruited into the Elite Mobile Task Force led by Jody Summer. With teammates like Jack Levin, Lucy Liberty, and the robot EAD, Rick fights to stop Dark Million, an evil organization led by Black Shadow, and crosses paths with the mysterious and legendary Captain Falcon, who’s basically the Batman of the F-Zero universe.
Why F-Zero: GP Legend Deserved More Recognition
The F-Zero games had a bunch of wild and cool-looking racers, but they barely had any real story behind them. The anime changed that by giving nearly every character real personalities, motivations, and arcs that extended across the show’s two major storylines. One of the best examples is Captain Falcon himself, who went from a mystery figure in the games to an actual legend in the show.
Rick, our main character, also had a solid arc – he wakes up in a strange future and slowly steps into a bigger role, eventually becoming a key figure in the fight against crime. But it wasn’t just about Falcon and Rick. The show gave surprising depth to a cast that came from a game with almost no story, with even side characters like Jody Summer, Zoda, Jack Levin, Clank, and Lucy Liberty getting character development, complete with their own motives, rivalries, and backstories.
Compared to other video game adaptations from the time, F-Zero: GP Legend’s animation by Ashi Productions (Macross 7) was also reasonably solid, especially during the racing sequences. Sure, things got a little stiff at times when they relied too hard on CGI, but the blend of 2D characters with CGI tracks and vehicles worked better than expected, with dramatic camera angles and explosive crashes adding to the excitement. Even better, the races weren’t just about who crossed the line first. The writers managed to pack in sabotage plots, personal rivalries, and real danger into each race, turning the Grand Prix into a battlefield.
Right Show, Wrong Time
The anime’s first arc (episodes 1-28) focuses on stopping Dark Million, while the second arc (episodes 29-51) introduces Black Shadow, the true mastermind behind Dark Million’s actions, and centers around his quest to obtain six powerful orbs known as the Reactor Might. The stakes rise dramatically, but sadly, most Western fans never got to see that. Only 15 episodes were dubbed before the anime got pulled off the air in North America due to low ratings.
Truthfully, the series just came out at the wrong time. By 2004, the F-Zero games were fading from the spotlight, and the anime was still somewhat niche. If it had aired today with modern anime quality sensibilities applied during this age of gaming nostalgia, streaming services, and anime dominance, it might have found a much bigger audience or helped generate a proper F-Zero resurgence. Instead, it was buried under poor scheduling, a rushed dub, and barely any promotion.
For a while, you could find some of the full Japanese episodes online, but they weren’t always easy to access or subbed. Thankfully, fans have since stepped up with fan subs and uploads. And as the story only gets better in the second half, the series is absolutely worth a binge if you’re into retro games and old-school sci-fi anime with way more of an emotional punch than expected. It’s not perfect, but it’s way better than anyone gave it credit for.
