Overtake!

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.

This anime was a pleasant surprise in more ways than one. When I started watching Overtake!, I expected a lighthearted and slightly above-average sports anime at best—one that I would’ve forgotten about a week after watching. Oh, how wrong I was! In fact, this show is one of the best anime I have seen so far. In real life, I have zero connection to or interest in racing, let alone specifically Formula 4 racing. Yet, this anime got me invested in a sport I didn’t even know existed before watching the show, teaching me things about it in the process. As also mentionedin its listing on MAL, this is a drama set in a racing environment, not the other way around. There are quite a few races, and they are exciting, but the focus is on the characters, their relationships, and how they face their struggles together. It’s about passion, chasing your dreams, dealing with loss, and overcoming trauma. The OP is great, the ED is good. The OST fits well and enhances each scene without being distracting. The voice actors do a fantastic job, and the sound design makes you feel like you're really standing next to a race track. The animation is smooth and visually stunning. As a picky viewer with an allergy to CGI, I have to say it works well here. In a fictional work like this, it's possible to use perspectives that real-life races can't capture, allowing for some truly cool shots. The lighting sets the right mood and reinforces the emotional impact of a scene, whether it's the loneliness of an empty apartment or the excitement of a race track on a sunny day. Many dramas suffer from predictable storytelling, making it easy to guess what happens next, which can break immersion (and lose my interest). That is not the case with Overtake!. The technical details and strategies necessary for the plot are explained naturally—not through forced exposition but rather through character interactions that also advance the story. This is great storytelling, following the ‚show, don’t tell‘ principle instead of spoon-feeding information like the audience consists of five-year-olds. While explanations do occur, at no point do they feel like info-dumping. What I love most about this show are the characters and their development. Their natural designs make it easy to connect with them emotionally, yet the art style is distinctive enough to set them apart from other anime. The motivations are reasonable, emotionally relatable, and engaging to follow. The struggle that impacted me the most was that of photographer Madoka Kouya. His trauma is incredibly well thought out and so powerfully executed that it had a stronger emotional impact on me than any other anime before. From all the anime series and movies I have watched (more than 340 completed entries on MAL at the time of writing this review), Overtake! is the first and only anime that has ever made me cry. Seeing the other characters try to understand him and help him face his past while fighting their own demons carried true emotional weight, and I found myself rooting for everyone. The friendships spanning various age gaps were handled well, feeling natural rather than forced or intrusive. For Harunaga and some of the other side characters, I would have liked a bit more background information, but given that this is a short 12-episode anime, it's simply a matter of prioritization. I’d rather have some underdeveloped side characters than have their arcs take away from the screen time needed for the main characters' development. The only ‚complaint‘ I can think of is that there’s no source material to dive into, as this is an original production—so I guess I'll just have to rewatch the series! This show is what other drama or sports anime, like Free!, should have been but failed to achieve due to a lack of emotional depth. Overtake! gets an easy 10/10 from me. I wish more anime were like this. Bravo!

Overtake your greatest enemy, that's you and your own fears and trauma. Overtake have an very different and unique, F4 racing, TROYCA this time choosed to use a lot of real life contents, on Re:Creators they use a lot of real life places, without using an alternative and generic name to them, and this feature made the anime get some incredible immersion and create something that could be a real life story. The narrative is very consistent, the middle of the show works a lot with the moral of the characters and the society judging them about certain past events from one of the protagonists. The background isvery interesting with good explanations that can help people that don't know so much about F racings and cars, at same time can bring a good explanation to someone that know about the theme, unlike a lot of others sport animes that can't mix the reality of the real sport and a fictional story and fail with it. Only one thing that could get the anime score low was intersting to see, that's the 3D animations on the cars and how I can say, they made a nice work on this, we still can see that these cars are 3D models with anime textures, but the animation team made a amazing work with a good mix of the 2D background and the 3D models, the peak of course was on the last racing in the last episode that was perfect mixing of 2.5D enviroment and 3D models. I recommend this anime to anyone that likes F1, the roar of the machines was song to our ears.

"Overtake" is definitely a unique experience and adds its own unique twist to the genre. It's vastly interesting to see things from different viewpoints and it has deep emotions rooted in it also. The story is great and rather straightforward we follow the path of a photographer who happens to discover motor racing and wants to help the team and pilot. It's very refreshing and while you still get some good racing it's definitely not the focus here. The characters and interactions between them are really what's the most important thing here. The art is clean and the animation is decent. It's not the bestfor sure but racing is just one way for the author to convey his message. The animators still did a great job and we come across some good races and some nice moments. There are no flashy or jaw dropping moment but it for sure does the job well ! The opening song is absolutely great as i think the vibe is amazing and fits the anime really well. It's also really catchy as a stand alone too. The sound design is on point overall too with the sound of tires and engines being really realistic. It feels like a real race. The characters are the driving part of this show and really the main focus here. I woudn't say there's a lot of character development (especially for one of the main protagonist). However their interactions and bonds really makes you feel satisfied and feels very natural. It's like a life lesson but with racing as a medium and prism of focus. I found the show enjoyable as it was unique and really conveyed deep feelings and emotions. Also it's a breath of fresh hair from the shounen type hero racing. And more of a slice of life/mature vibes. The difference in age between the two protagonist also makes it feel like a great passing of knowledge of some sorts. And a way for both of them to get to know each other and move forward to the future while keeping their past in check. Overall it's been fabulous for an anime. I highly recommend it if you're here not just for the excitement of racing but for the real aspect around it and also the instrospection it gives us ! Give it a watch then !!!