Editing Speed Racer (section)

==Media==

===Manga===
[[File:Mach GoGoGo manga covers.jpg|150px|thumb|left|Tatsuo Yoshida's ''Mach GoGoGo'' manga.<br />'''Top Row''': Volume 1, Volume 2 <br />'''Bottom Row''': Volume 1 (reprint), Sun Wide Comics release]]

''Mach GoGoGo'' was first created and designed by anime pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida (1932–1977) as a manga series in the 1960s and made the jump to [[television|TV]] as an anime series in 1967. The actual manga was inspired by Yoshida's earlier and more popular automobile racing comics, '''''Pilot Ace'''''.<ref>[http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2008/04/20/racers-start-your-engines/ "Racers, Start Your Engines!"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808203439/http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2008/04/20/racers-start-your-engines/ |date=2017-08-08 }}, ''Sci-Fi Japan'' 20 April 2008.</ref> ''Pilot Ace'''s main storyline formed the structure for ''Mach GoGoGo'', which followed the adventures of an ambitious young man, who soon became a professional racer.

The characters' designs in ''Pilot Ace'' 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 (film)|Goldfinger]]''. By combining the look of [[Elvis Presley]]'s race-car driving image, complete with neckerchief and black pompadour, and [[James Bond]]'s [[Aston Martin DB5#James Bond's DB5|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 (''Mifune Gō'').

The name of the series, ''Mach GoGoGo'', has a triple meaning: {{Nihongo|"Mahha-gō"|マッハ号}} 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, Mach 5 stems from the number 5 on the door. Although, in Japanese, {{Nihongo|''go''|五}} is the word for the number 5, the Kanji character {{Nihongo|''gō''|号}} which is used in the car name actually means "item number" (i.e. it is an ordinal suffix). In addition, gogogo, is used as a general Japanese sound effect for rumble. Taken together, the program's title means, "Mach Number Five, Go!"

The manga (compiled into two deluxe volumes for Fusosha's re-release) 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. Fifty-two 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 two volumes of ''Speed Racer Classics'' (1988–1989), and by [[DC Comics]]/[[Wildstorm Productions]] as ''Speed Racer: The Original Manga'' (2000).<ref>{{cite book |last=Yoshida |first=Tatsuo |translator-last=Gertler |translator-first=Nat |title=Speed Racer: The Original Manga |year=2000 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wBnsAAAAMAAJ |publisher=[[WildStorm]] |volume=1 |language=en |isbn=1-56389-686-9}}</ref> In 2008, a hardcover box set of the complete manga series was released by [[Digital Manga Publishing]] as the two volume ''Speed Racer: Mach Go Go Go''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Yoshida |first=Tatsuo |editor-last=Kuxhouse |editor-first=Daryl |translator-last=Aurino |translator-first=Joyce |title=Speed Racer: Mach Go Go Go |date=February 2008 |volume=1 |publisher=Digital Manga Publishing |location=Gardena, CA |language=en |isbn=978-1-56970-731-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Yoshida |first=Tatsuo |editor-last=Kuxhouse |editor-first=Daryl |translator-last=Aurino |translator-first=Joyce |title=Speed Racer: Mach Go Go Go |date=February 2008 |volume=2 |publisher=Digital Manga Publishing |location=Gardena, CA |language=en |isbn=978-1-56970-731-9}}</ref>

===Anime===
{{Main|List of Speed Racer episodes{{!}}List of ''Speed Racer'' episodes}}
The manga spawned an anime adaptation that actually became a bigger success. Fifty-two episodes were produced from 1967 to 1968. In 1997, Tatsunoko produced a modernized version of ''Mach GoGoGo'' that aired on [[TV Tokyo]], lasting for 34 episodes. An English-language 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tatsunoko.co.jp/machgirl/ |title=マッハガール |website=Tatsunoko.co.jp |access-date=2016-01-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115192350/http://www.tatsunoko.co.jp/machgirl/ |archive-date=2016-01-15 |url-status=live }}</ref>

====English-language adaptation====
The English-language rights to ''Mach GoGoGo'' were acquired by syndicator [[Trans-Lux]] and ''Speed Racer'' premiered on American television in the summer of 1967.<ref>"Television," ''New York Times''. (Sep 22, 1967) Page 95.</ref> In the series, Speed's full name was Go Mifune, in homage to Japanese film star [[Toshiro Mifune]]. His name, Americanized, became '''Speed Racer'''.<ref>{{Cite news|title= Return Laps for the First Voice of Speed Racer|work= New York Times|date= May 10, 2008|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/movies/10speed.html?scp=28&sq=astro%20boy&st=cse|access-date= 2010-08-12|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151017140134/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/movies/10speed.html?scp=28&sq=astro%20boy&st=cse|archive-date= October 17, 2015|url-status= live}}</ref> His adventures centered on his powerful [[Mach Five|Mach 5]] car, his girlfriend [[Trixie (Speed Racer character)|Trixie]], his little brother Spritle, Spritle's pet chimpanzee Chim-Chim, his father "Pops" Racer, and his mysterious older brother, Racer X,<ref>CD liner notes: Saturday Mornings: Cartoons’ Greatest Hits, 1995, MCA Records</ref> whose real name was Rex Racer.

{{external media
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| audio1 = [https://archive.org/download/cd_televisions-greatest-hits-volume-3-70s-80_various-artists-al-burton-alan-thicke-ally_0/disc1/04.%20%E8%B6%8A%E9%83%A8%E4%BF%A1%E7%BE%A9%20-%20Speed%20Racer_sample.mp3 Sample] [0:18] [https://archive.org/details/cd_televisions-greatest-hits-volume-3-70s-80_various-artists-al-burton-alan-thicke-ally_0/ via]
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For American consumption, major [[editing]] and [[Dubbing (filmmaking)|dubbing]] efforts were undertaken by producer Peter Fernandez, who likewise not only wrote and directed the English-language dialogue but also [[voice acting|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 music|theme song]]'s melody, written and composed by Nobuyoshi Koshibe, and he subsequently also wrote its English lyrics.<ref>{{Cite news|title= 'Americanizing' a cartoon classic|work= Japan Times|url= https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2008/07/03/films/americanizing-a-cartoon-classic/|access-date= 2021-07-04|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190108051557/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2008/07/03/films/americanizing-a-cartoon-classic/|archive-date=2019-01-08|url-status= live}}</ref>

A ''Speed Racer'' daily comic strip written and drawn by [[Mort Todd]] ran in the ''[[New York Post]]'' from 2000–2001.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2011_07_17_archive.html |title=Stripper's Guide: 7/17/11&nbsp;– 7/24/11 |website=Strippersguide.blogspot.com |access-date=2016-01-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304191356/http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2011_07_17_archive.html |archive-date=2016-03-04 |url-status=live }}</ref> IGN ranked the original Speed Racer series at #29 on its "Best 100 Animated Series" list.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

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.<ref name="Anime News Network">{{cite web | url = https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-07-25/funimation-licenses-speed-racer-noein-anime/.90893 | title = Funimation Licenses Speed Racer, Noein Anime | work = Anime News Network | date = 2014-07-25 | access-date = 2015-07-25 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150726050332/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-07-25/funimation-licenses-speed-racer-noein-anime/.90893 | archive-date = 2015-07-26 | url-status = live }}</ref> Funimation gave ''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.