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IGPX Season Two
Season two would pick up a year after Team Satomi won the IG-1. If season one was all about seeing Team Satomi go from a dysfunctional ragtag underdog team to league champions, then this season is following what would happen after that success. Would they still be able to hold their championship position or will they falter? While it’s easy to say that this next round of the Immortal Grand Prix is more of the same, that couldn’t be further from the truth. While the core experience hasn’t changed, with team Satomi still fighting for the top spot in the IG-1, the opponents they face in this season are far more technical and dangerous than anything that popped up in season one. A new team is introduced in this season, Team White Snow who, despite the pure name, are anything but, as White Snow is a group of cheaters. Team Satomi’s first bout with them leaves their team in tatters as Amy is hospitalized and Takeshi questions his place on the team, while Liz begins the season as a nervous wreck, unsure how they’ll do during this next season of the IG-1. It leads to Satomi falling to pieces as they battle with their successes from the first season. It’s great to see IGPX expand to do more, as it could’ve been more of the same from season one, but instead, we see more emphasis put on Team Satomi being the league champs and how that affects them while ramping up drama and tension, which elevates season two above the first.
There’s also a lot of relationship building in this, carrying on from season one. I think one of my favorite storylines in this season is furthering Takeshi’s relationship with Liz. As Takeshi ends up being dumped by Fantine of Team Skylark, he learns to further develop his feelings for Liz which ends the series on the two of them getting together, something Jason DeMarco and the American side wanted. This plot thread was a deep discussion and disagreement that Hongo and DeMarco got into as both agreed that they wanted Fantine to be a “first love” type character; one that strengthens Takeshi as a character but also allows the series to show how at odds both him and Fantine were. They may have seemed like a cute happy couple but it’s clear that Fantine wasn’t happy being in that relationship as she likes Takeshi more as an adversary on the track rather than being his girlfriend. While it does feel like a sad moment for him, it was a great learning experience as it taught him about relationships and it also became a pivotal moment of him discovering his feelings for Liz, not only as a teammate but as someone who he deeply cares about. Hongo wanted the end of the series with what became of Liz and Takeshi being ambiguous but I feel like the way it actually ended was more satisfying. Throughout all of season one, you saw how jealous Liz was that Takeshi was with another girl. It was incredibly obvious that Liz liked him despite their bickering. It wouldn’t have been a great ending if the series didn’t confirm the two of them got together. Season two also brought us more backstory on Andrei. Slight spoiler for a twenty-year-old series, but at the end of season one Andrei is revealed to be the legendary racer Rocket G, Takeshi’s racing idol, and in season two we learn more about him and his rivalry with his former teammate who is now the head coach of Team Velshtein. Both he and Andrei fell in love with the same woman and it basically tore them apart, leading to the events that would lead Andre to quitting the IG-1 and later becoming a coach for the underdog Team Satomi. If I were to nitpick this a bit, I do wish they would’ve expanded this story more. We don’t know why they fell in love with the same woman, what makes her special, or how she ended up back with Andrei by the end of the series as she left him prior to him joining Team Satomi. However, those are very minor nitpicks in the grand scheme of things since the focal point should be placed squarely on the main team members of Satomi. I think for the most part season two does what all good follow ups do: up the ante while letting the characters continue to grow and show more depth than what was explored in the first season.
