History WesternAnimation / ObanStarRacers

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Molly is the only prominent female for much of the series, but she subverts the trope by being TheProtagonist and TheHeroine.

** TheHeroine: Molly

Deciding working for another company would not give him the creative control he needed, creator Savin Yeatman-Eiffel founded his independent own animation studio, spent years raising funds and years more perfecting the animation in cooperation with Japanese studios. Yeatman-Eiffel worked hard to secure the best talent available from both France and Japan, wrote the scripts for all twenty-six episodes in several languages and was personally involved in every level of the project, [[DoingItForTheArt sparing no expense and spending years polishing the final result to a mirror shine]]. Start to finish, almost a decade.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Jordan Wilde becomes the new Avatar, destroying Canaletto and [[WorldHealingWave restoring Ōban]]. However, he does this having just admitted his love for Eva. The last shot of him is one of him [[ManlyTears silently crying]], as the chances of him ever seeing Eva again as the Avatar are unlikely. Everyone else, however, returns home to happier lives - Stan and Koji return to their old boss, who's quite delighted to see them again; Eva failed to bring her mother back from the dead, but she did finally come to accept her loss and reconcile with her father. Aikka parted with Eva on friendly terms and returned home, along with everyone else who survived the Oban races. But behind the scenes, [[GovernmentConspiracy the Earth government]] [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold covers up what happened]], which means that humanity might be even less prepared for the race in 10,000 years, assuming they still exist that far into the future. Furthermore, the government's willingness to resume war early, and their hope to use an Avatar to ensure human supremacy, has illustrated that humanity and the crogs are not that different]].

* CallingTheOldManOut: Very savagely! When Don Wei finally reveals that he's discovered Molly's masquerade, she spends a third of the episode unloading a decade's worth of hurt on him; not only for abandoning her years ago out of grief, but failing to recognizing his own daughter throuout the event.

* LoveTriangle: Molly, Jordan and Aikka; they seem to be a Type 7 in TriangRelations. [[spoiler:[[DidNotGetTheGuy She doesn't pair up with either of them in the end]], as Aikka returns to his people and Jordan, while he becomes the first to confess to her, [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ends up becoming the next Avatar]].]]

* BareYourMidriff: Eva/Molly's Earth Team outfit exposes her stomach and navel.

* PinocchioSyndrome: For all his boasts about mechanical superiority, [[spoiler:Ondai wants to use the ultimate prize to become an organic creature.]]

* DarkSkinnedRedhead: Prince Aikka, whose reserved personality largely averts the [[FieryRedhead standard traits]]. Stan, though, plays the trope pretty straight.

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:Jordan jumps onto the Pyramid of Power and becomes the new Avatar to save Molly from Canaletto, obliterating the latter and [[WorldHealingWave healing Oban]]. He learns the hard way that [[LonelyAtTheTop being the Avatar isn't all it's cracked up to be, as the holder of the position is doomed to outlive all of their loved ones]]]].
* AwesomeMcCoolname: Rick Thunderbolt. Jordan C. Wilde qualifies, too.

* BenevolentPrecursors: The Great Beings. [[spoiler: In short, they made everything that exists and set up a system to keep it safe before they died out.]]

* GogglesDoNothing: Eva wears hers over her eyes sometimes, though they are more of a keepsake/fashion statement than anything else. While they make sense [[BikerBabe while piloting her hoverbike]], the ''Whizzing Arrow'' has a fully enclosed cockpit.

* BadassBiker[=/=]BikerBabe: Molly on her rocket seat, which she grafts on the the ''Arrow'''s steering column. Ning and Skun's star racers are both essentially flying motorcycles - one is a racing bike and the other's a chopper, based on the handlebars.

* AnimeHair: Molly, Jordan and Don Wei all have multicolored hair; Molly's red is really DelinquentHair, Don's white stripes are from old age. Meanwhile, Rick and Maya both have RapunzelHair, with the latter having pink hair.

* AnimeHair: Molly, Jordan and Don Wei all have MulticoloredHair; Molly's red is really DelinquentHair, Don's white stripes are from old age. Meanwhile, Rick and Maya both have RapunzelHair, with the latter having pink hair.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Jordan Wilde becomes the new Avatar, destroying Canaletto and [[WorldHealingWave restoring Ōban]]. However, he does this having just admitted his love for Eva. The last shot of him is one of him [[ManlyTears silently crying]], as the chances of him ever seeing Eva again as the Avatar are unlikely. Everyone else, however, returns home to happier lives - Stan and Koji return to their old boss, who's quite delighted to see them again; Eva failed to bring her mother back from the dead, but she did finally come to accept her loss and reconcile with her father. Aikka parted with Eva on friendly terms and returned home, along with everyone else who survived the Oban races. But behind the scenes, [[GovernmentConspiracy the Earth government]] [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold covers up what happened]], which means that humanity might be even less prepared for the race in 10,000 years, assuming they still exist that far into the future. Furthermore, the government's willingness to resume war early, and their hope to use an Avatar to ensure human supremacy, has illustrated that humanity and the crogs are NotSoDifferent]].

Every 10,000 years, teams from all over the galaxy are gathered by the mysterious Avatar to compete in the [[TheBigRace Great Race of Ōban]], a race with much more at stake than just honor or prize money. According to legend, the winner is awarded the Ultimate Prize, [[MakeAWish which is rumored to grant ''any'' wish; from large-scale destruction to, perhaps, the resurrection of a loved one]]. Some want it for glory, others as a means of galactic conquest. However, the true nature of the Prize is shrouded in mystery, and things are not what they appear to be...

Deciding working for another company would not give him the creative control he needed, creator Savin Yeatman-Eiffel founded his independent own animation studio, spent years raising funds and years more perfecting the animation in cooperation with Japanese studios. Yeatman-Eiffel worked hard to secure the best talent available from both France and Japan, wrote the scripts for all 26 episodes in several languages and was personally involved in every level of the project, sparing no expense and [[DoingItForTheArt spending years polishing the final result to a mirror shine]]. Start to finish, almost a decade.

On February 25th, 2017, series artist Thomas Romain [[https://twitter.com/Thomasintokyo/status/835702208746270720 tweeted]] that a SequelSeries to original series was in the works. On February 28th, Savin Yeatman-Eiffel tweeted a [[https://twitter.com/EiffelSavin/status/836753768582680577 piece of concept art]] related to the project, depicting Eva and Prince Aikka [[TimeSkip "a few years later"]].

* CallingTheOldManOut: Quite literally! When Don Wei reveals that he's discovered Molly's masquerade, she unloads a decade's worth of hurt on him.

* InvincibleHero: Averted quite nicely; The Earth team is not only a dark horse at best, they've also spent time at the very bottom of the rankings. When they get to the semifinals, against the likes of Toros and Aikka, they come to Ōban in third place... out of three, and only because Aikka beat the racer who would've taken that spot otherwise. They lose against better racers often, and are dead last for the majority of races on Ōban itself. [[spoiler:In the battle against Canaletto, Molly, Aikka, and Jordan are hopelessly outmatched and end up either injured, or brainwashed into subservience by Canaletto himself. The only reason the heroes won was because [[HeroicSacrifice Jordan crawled past Canaletto while he wasn't looking, and jumped onto the Pyramid of Power and became the new Avatar]]]].

Every 10,000 years, teams from all over the galaxy are gathered by the mysterious Avatar to compete in the [[TheBigRace Great Race of Ōban]], a race with much more at stake than just honor or prize money. According to legend, the winner is awarded the Ultimate Prize, which is rumored to grant ''any'' wish; from large-scale destruction to, perhaps, the resurrection of a loved one. Some want it for glory, others as a means of galactic conquest. However, the true nature of the Prize is shrouded in mystery, and things are not what they appear to be...

* ThreeDEffectsTwoDCartoon: On the star racers, the racetracks, and a small number of the characters. It only really gets glaring on the racers that have exposed pilots, like Aikka's and Ceres'.

* ConspicuousCG: On the star racers, the racetracks, and a small number of the characters. It only really gets glaring on the racers that have exposed pilots, like Aikka's and Ceres'.

* ObviouslyEvil:
** The Crogs. [[DarkIsEvil Pitch-black skin/fur?]] Check. [[GoodColorsEvilColors Red clothes?]] Check. [[EvilSoundsDeep Deep voices?]] Check. [[GlowingEyesOfDoom Yellow eyes?]] Check. [[SpikesOfVillainy Love of sharp, pointy weapons?]] Check.
** BigBad [[spoiler:{{C|reepyCrows}}analetto]], as well.

* PlayfulHacker: Paradice.

* PettingZooPeople: Paradice, sort of. She's very catlike in appearance and mannerisms, but her head looks like a computer screen.

* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:Canaletto. He was behind the events of the entire series, subtly manipulating Molly so that she would win the title of Avatar, but knew she would turn it down, allowing him to be freed.]]

Every 10,000 years, teams from all over the galaxy are gathered by the mysterious Avatar to compete in the Great Race of Ōban, [[EpicRace a race with much more at stake than just honor or prize money]]. According to legend, the winner is awarded the Ultimate Prize, which is rumored to grant ''any'' wish, from large-scale destruction to, perhaps, the resurrection of a loved one. Some want it for glory, others as a way of galactic domination. However, the true nature of the Prize is shrouded in mystery, and things are not what they appear to be...

Eva Wei is caught in the middle of it all while trying to find her father, who had abandoned her after the death of her mother. Under the name of "Molly", she joins her dad's racing team to the outer reaches of space, where they take part in the Great Race. Having learned of the Ultimate Prize, she hopes to win it to bring back her mother and put her family's life back together.

* EpicRace: The whole premise of the show is the "Spacecraft" type, since the Great Race is a multi-planet event that involves several contestants from multiple races. The main prize is a wish from the Avatar that would grant anything the winner would ask for, and because the stakes in getting said prize is so high, Great Races often turn into a DeadlyGame as competitors are willing to kill their rivals for the sake of winning. [[spoiler:The stakes get even higher once everyone learns that the real prize is becoming the Avatar itself.]]

* InvincibleHero: Averted quite nicely; The Earth team is not only a dark horse at best, they've also spent time at the very bottom of the rankings. When they get to the semifinals, against the likes of Toros and Aikka, they come to Ōban in third place... out of three. They lose against better racers often, and are dead last for the majority of races on Ōban itself. [[spoiler:In the battle against Canaletto, Molly, Aikka, and Jordan are hopelessly outmatched and end up either injured, or brainwashed into subservience by Canaletto himself. The only reason the heroes won was because [[HeroicSacrifice Jordan crawled past Canaletto while he wasn't looking, and jumped onto the Pyramid of Power and became the new Avatar]]]].

* LivingShip: G'dar (Aikka's giant beetle), Spirit (he IS his ship), Muir's ship, and O's ship.

* MadeOfIron: On top of their amazing strength, Crogs seem almost impossible to hurt bordering on them being NighInvulnerable. An assassin is shown completely ignoring a barrage of military-grade lasers hitting him on all sides, and Kross caught a sword strike in the palm of his hand. [[spoiler: It took being in the center of a crushed exploding Crog Trident to kill Kross.]]

* MidSeasonUpgrade: After ''Arrow II'' gets trashed during the race with Spirit, it gets rebuilt with the help of the Alwas locals... and of course gets a few upgrades in the process!

* MissingMom: Maya Wei, who died when, during a race with Spirit, her ship crash-landed and burned due to a gas leakage, right in front of her daughter and husband.

* {{Necromantic}}: Molly and Muir both want to bring back a loved one with the ultimate prize. [[spoiler:When it's revealed that this isn't possible, Muir drops out of the race completely. Muir does at least survive the finale.]]

* OptOut: [[spoiler:Molly and Muir]] before the final race.

* SleepCute: Molly and Jordan, three times. First, on Rush's ship with blankets, second, sunrise at the Grand Temple, and third when they're unconcious.

* TournamentArc: Two; the Alwas cycle and the Oban cycle.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The events of the series take place in the year 2082 AD, but aside from some of the technology and making contact with aliens, Earth is exactly the same as it is now.

* WackyRacing: Very much so.