Japan Is wonderfully weird

Speed Racer I remember you fondly.  I used to get up at five o'clock in the morning just to watch the thrilling adventures of Speed.  They were indeed thrilling, despite bad animation, incredibly bad writing and horrible comedy (no child above two could like spridle and chim chim, they were a waste of trunk space).  One thing was that it was the first "serious" cartoon I remember that had an on going plot.  Would Racer X ever reveal to Speed that he is secretly his brother?  Actually I shouldn't have put quotes around serious, I still remember clearly their "Drug" episode and Pop having to abuse Speed out of his addiction with pail after pail of ice cold water.  That's heavy stuff to a young kid.

Also, let's be honest, the cars were incredibly cool.  Who didn't want to ride the mach 5? 

Of course, memories are tricky things.  I've tried to watch them again, but the magic wasn't there.  It became something almost hurtful to the memories I grew to like more than the show was, so I stopped.  Some people never learn though and there have been several revivals and one unnamed big budget movie, but they couldn't catch that elusive spark either.