あのテーマソングと共によみがえる思い出

By Barry Kawaguchi, Asahi Weekly

　日本のテレビシリーズ『マッハGoGoGo』が、映画『スピードレーサー』となって帰ってきた。主人公が乗る、ボンネットに鮮やかな「M」が描かれた「マッハ5号」にあこがれた少年時代がよみがえる。

　Like most boys growing up in America in the late 1960s, I ran home each day from school to watch my favorite “Speed Racer” cartoon.

　I didn’t want to miss a second of the catchy opening theme song, so familiar to American boys of my generation: “Go Speed Racer, Go Speed Racer, Go Speed Racer, Go!”

　Then, for the next half-hour, time seemed to be traveling at 200 MPH as I watched Speed Racer and his “powerful Mach 5” race car win races and beat the villains.

　I had no idea that “Speed Racer” had originally started in Japan as the manga-anime series “MachGoGoGo,” although I did notice the Japanese names on the credits at the end. It wouldn’t have mattered if I had known that it wasn’t an American creation --- “Speed Racer” was the coolest show on television.

　And after the show ended, I would haul my model car racetrack out of the closet and spend the rest of the afternoon playing “Speed Racer.” The white car in my set represented the gleaming-white “powerful Mach 5,” and it always seemed faster than the others.

　Millions of other American boys like me grew up watching and loving “Speed Racer.” But like all little boys, we grow up, and the cartoons of our youth are forgotten.

　Recently, I sat in a press preview of the new U.S.-made live action “Speed Racer” movie, which opened in Japan on July 5.

　All those memories of that wonderful cartoon from almost 40 years ago raced back to me. I was 7 years old again, dreaming about being Speed Racer behind the wheel of the Mach 5.

　“Speed Racer” fans will enjoy the new movie, although I found myself wishing that Japanese filmmakers would have wrote and produced it. That was left to the Wachowski Brothers, creator of the science-fiction “The Matrix” movies.

　So, Speed Racer is filled with Holly-wood computer-generated special effects, perhaps a little too many. It also has a more complex plot than the 1960s 30-minute cartoon.

　The cast is good, although it’s difficult for actors to portray the cartoon characters exactly as we remembered. And “Speed Racer” fans will wish they would have put more scenes in with the Mach 5, and his new Mach 6 race car.

　As I left the theater, I suddenly remembered my shiny-white Chevrolet Cavalier Z-24 sports car with huge racing tires that I bought in my 20s, that held a strange spell over me. I loved that car, and would spend every weekend waxing and polishing its gleaming white finish until it sparkled.

　For the first time, I knew why. That was MY Mach 5. “Go Speed Racer, Go!”