KANLen09

Overtake!...it's not about overtaking in the literate sense, but rather about overcoming the difficulties in life, with some real-life situations thrown in for some realism. Truth be told, after Studio TROYCA's last offering, which was the rather cumbersome Shinobi no Ittoki from last Fall, the fault doesn't square on the studio itself but rather on the people involved in creating the original series itself, which is, quite frankly, a mess. And if you have ANY reason to doubt the studio's offerings, look no further than the in-house studio chief director Ei Aoki, which this show is his 3rd directorial series after both Summer 2014's Aldnoah.Zero andSpring 2017's Re:Creators, which shows you that Ei Aoki is still the best man to represent the rather small studio that's still flowing with creativity, backed by IDOLiSH7's series composer Ayuki Sekine, with supervision from screenwriter Takayama Katsuhiko. Also, despite the Fall season having two sports (racing) series airing at the same time: this vs. Initial D's successor sequel MF Ghost, I would recommend this show in a heartbeat. In its simplest form, Overtake! is the story of both young and old: an up-and-coming high school student aiming to be a driver in F4, and a freelance photographer who has an episodic slump of his own. The said driver, Haruka Asahina of Komaki Motors, backed by owner Futoshi Komaki and best friend-cum-engineer of his son Kotarou Komaki, the small privateer team is as a clean sheet as it is with no sponsors at all, literally funding by the skin of their own earnings. And being an up-and-coming team, Komaki Motors had to work doubly as hard as compared to the other teams, especially the one team that's had it going for them: the Ferrari-like emblazoned Belsorriso team of lead drivers Satsuki Harunaga (being the ladies' man, backed by his skillful driving talent) and Toshiki Tokumaru (who's always considered as the former's support driver), as well as grid girl Alice Mitsuzawa (who has an interest with Satsuki, despite being Kotarou's childhood friend), with the team's owner, Kyousuke Ena. Also, if this is your first introduction to Formula 4 racing, then congratulations! You most likely know about Formula 1, but F4 is the starting point for aspiring, beginner drivers. With Haruka fighting to achieve victory for his rather empty team to rise up the ranks, this is as typical as it gets for professional racing, laden with the usual issues of self-confidence and support. On the other hand, said photographer Kouya Madoka, along with his chief editor and ex-wife Saeko Yukihira, seems like the usual happy-go-lucky character doing his freelance work, but something beneath him lurks so much that it causes him to sync out of whack. Sure, he can take regular photos for the press, and whilst not knowing anything about F4, he decides to take the opportunity and plunge to overcome his trauma, which is solely referenced to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake incident, just for inspiration and nothing more. Like as mentioned, both the young and old with rather different personalities and a generational gap that still manages to have common inklings between each other, I'd think that the formula may be simple for what both Kadokawa and TROYCA were going for, but it executes rather well for an easy-going series that always has to balance the intricacy between both sports and daily private lives, so you don't need to be an F4 connoisseur just to watch this show. As expected, TROYCA delivers on their impressive animation as one of the show's strongest features, relying on smooth and well-animated 3DCG to show the realism of F4 racing, plain and simple. The music, on the other hand, is decent as well; I quite liked Vtuber Kanae's OP song, as much as Tasuku Hatanaka's ED song is just OK at best. All in all, Overtake! is a rather simple show; while it may not have the "revolutionary revelation" story plot that it offers, what it has is pure adrenaline and simplicity, which I think is a smart move on Ei Aoki's behalf that's accessible for just about anyone interested in the show (compared to MF Ghost, where you definitely need to have some knowledge of the original prequel source material). So, I'll say, go for it if you want some casual sports anime.

Greekie

Frankly my favorite seasonal of Fall 2023, by a mile. And that's saying something considering how great a show like Frieren is in Fall. I feel like prefacing this by saying this completely clear, yet somehow still ignored, fact. Overtake is NOT Initial D/MF Ghost, nor is it trying to be, and thus, it's not fair to compare them with each other, as both shows are completely different. How, you ask? Well, here are some examples I can list off of the top of my head: -Overtake's story is character driven, Initial D/MF Ghost's story is narrative driven, a very poor narrative, but a narrative nonetheless. -Characters in Overtake havenuance and a dynamic relationship between others, as well as inhibiting well written themes that are relevant to the story. Initial D/MF Ghost...has none of that, all the characters are static, and they only form relationships to satisfy the plot. Hell, it might not even satisfy that. -Overtake is focused on open wheel circuit racing. Initial D/MF Ghost is mountain road street racing. -Overtake is realistic, Initial D/MF Ghost isn't. -Overtake is sponsored by the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the governing body for all European motorsports, F1 included), Initial D/MF Ghost is the machinations of someone who thinks what racing is. -Overtake's artstyle is well drawn. Initial D/MF Ghost has an artstyle that is stuck in the 80s and modern animators have to work hard to make it not ugly. -And lastly Initial D/MF Ghost has Eurobeat, and Overtake doesn't. So I suppose that's the dealbreaker for why they prefer those two shows compared to Overtake. I'd honestly go far as to say Overtake is what a proper racing anime should be. A narrative driven and executed by characters with their own personal motivations, goals, fears, troubles and developments. With some good old racing on the side, which I think is great, even if somewhat limited in the CG animation and music. But more than that, it's the first modern anime to depict not only realistic racing, but how racing works outside the track. The protagonists and their cast of side characters constantly have to struggle with the financial side of motorsports and how the sport itself is a bottomless money pit that can only be filled if: A) You git gud enough to win. B) Get sponsors to help you fill that pit enough to support yourself for an entire season. Contrast that to the team of the antagonists, Belsorisso, who have enough money to run in other racing categories, fully equipped and trained teams to keep the cars running and maintained, as well as a driver's program, and you can see clearly in the first few episodes how the odds are stacked against the protagonists. It has moments that are realistic in racing, and for that, I applaud it for. I also applaud it for how it doesn't indulge in the racing unlike other contemporaries. It takes the risk of letting us know the characters and their own motivations, beliefs, and goals and I think it does that pretty well. It's genuinely thrilling and relatable stuff, and it makes all the moments that they do race hit that much harder. Haruka isn't a generational prodigy that drove to deliver tofu. He's a kid motivated to see what his father saw in racing with friends that knew him. And all the other characters have that kind of level of nuance and depth added that makes it compelling to watch even further. Along with themes I mentioned previously about how hard it is to get to motorsports without good financial backing, you deal with themes like loss, trauma and how it affects someone's passion/profession, the pressure added by others, and the need to prove yourself of greatness. It's all rather compelling and it's pretty amazing on how it manages to be on a well paced story of 12 episodes. Would I recommend this to someone though? For a fan of racing and a good story, of course. But to your average weeb who might not/won't be interested in racing? I don't know, it's a hard sell. To it's credit, the show does an amazing job of conveying racing lingo and knowledge to someone who doesn't know it. Hell, one of the two protagonists is basically that, an absolute clueless guy who doesn't know the first thing about racing. But it's honestly hard still to recommend it, especially when it's not something like Initial D. And it's a seasonal, so if it's not popular like Frieren, Bocchi The Rock, or Dress Up Darling, it'll get forgotten, as is the nature of most seasonals. Still though. For me, this is the best seasonal for Fall 2023, and I wouldn't have it any other way. This won my heart from the moment it was teased, and if this somehow opens the door for more racing anime, fictional or grounded in realism, I'll be more than happy to say I was there when it first started. I just hope the animation teams come packing with money because I'm sure having all these sponsors and licenses cost a pretty penny, and that's not including the FIA's official sanctioning, which I'm sure put a hole in their budget.