The premise of Oban Star-Racers is a simple one: Racing to save the world. The appeal of this show is not in it's premise, but in the execution.
The execution is by no means perfect. The editing is rather weird and the story is quite predictable at times, but the way the story is told is what keeps you there.
A lot of anime, even fan-favorites like Code Geass have the problem of an excessive need to have characters explain things. It ignores an important rule in any visual medium: show don't tell. It's rare to see this rule applied in an anime, even rarer to see it applied in an anime presumably intended for kids.
11 episodes in, Oban Star-Racers shows without telling. There is no music to tell you how to feel(if there is any I didn't notice it), and the explanation in it is very minimal sans the opening. The characters evolve through interacting with each other and through the progression of the plot, not by another character noticing the changes and explaining them through monologue. The dialog is natural for the most part, and the English voice acting is extremely well done.
The characters themselves are rather interesting, with a good back-stories and good development for the main characters. The side characters get a decent amount of development as well. They're not developed much, but enough so that they don't feel like cardboard cutouts. The animation is wonderful, with creative races that are rather unique hence not boring, The reason I don't want to give this show a full ten is because of the story is quite predictable and the editing is botched in some scenes, though it certainly has earned it's 9 stars for the excellent interactions between the characters and overall execution.
This is a must watch, especially for anime writers who could learn a thing or two about storytelling from this show.
