Anime original by TROYCA
Streaming on Crunchyroll

Premise

Kouya Madoka is a professional photographer who’s haunted by a traumatic incident from his past and unable to take pictures of people anymore. Assigned to cover a Super GT race by his editor, he meets teenage racing driver Haruka Asahina, who’s competing in the supporting F4 series.

Zigg’s verdict: Middle of the Pack

I should probably begin by clarifying that I was born into a family of F1 obsessives and therefore know way more about car racing than any sane man should. The racing angle then was the big hook for me with Overtake!, and I found myself somewhat surprised by how relatively unimportant it is in this first episode. That’s mostly a good thing, as it gives us more time for character-focused storytelling, which is much more important to the quality of a show. The structure here of focusing on a protagonist adjacent to the sport rather than the competitor themself is a good way to revitalize the tired sports anime template, and TROYCA get in some really good character animation tics that do a lot to sell these people as people rather than stereotypes.

Yet despite this there’s definitely something oddly unengaging about the whole package. I think part of it is bland visual design – while the characters look smart and animate well, the rest of the world seems fairly muted and dull. This is especially true of the racing sequences – I understand that CGI is pretty much a necessity to make the show happen at all, but it still looks damn ugly. Also, Kouya’s immediate infatuation with a character who’s still in his mid-teens seems…creepy, at least with so little context thus far. Overtake! seems like a pretty solid bet, and a definite step up over your basic sports anime fodder, but there’s no compelling hook or spark that makes this must watch TV yet.

Iro’s verdict: I mean, sure I guess

Overtake! follows a well-tread pattern of anime shows where it’s about 50% some kind of vague character drama and then 50% intensive explanations of some kind of niche sport or activity. TROYCA puts some solid verve into the character animation, but any conflict or intrigue starts to evaporate once the team owner starts to lay out the various differences between F1 and F4 and the rules of the racing road. There might be something here about regaining your passion for something after previously losing it, but it’s an uphill battle if the show wants to convince me to be passionate about racing.

Gee’s verdict: Just like my first 2 hours of Motorsport Manager

I can’t say I have much familiarity with motorsport beyond the three hot and heavy weeks I spent with 2016’s Motorsport Manager, a PC sim in which you managed a motorsport team (of either the GT or F1 variety). The game had you developing your team’s car, hiring (or firing) your drivers, building up a pit crew stable, and even negotiating sponsorship deals. There was an undeniable allure to this fantasy, similar to the ones I have about the mecha genre, which at its best, also naturally melds the engineering with the human drama. The main takeaway I had from the game was that much of the success of any given motorsport team is as much in what happens off the track as on.

I guess this is to say so far, Overtake seems to be better than most at trying to communicate the appeal of both aspects of motorsports. The first episode throws a bit too much technical jargon and exposition than I’d prefer, but it’s to be expected. At its foundation, this is another one of those, “newcomer discovers their new favorite hobby/profession/craft and wants to ganbare their way to becoming the best at it” types of anime. We’ve seen it happen with brass instruments, airsoft, and even carpentry, I suppose it’s only natural that semi-pro motorsport would get its turn. I think at the end of the day, what will decide Overtake’s staying power is its ability to weave the off the track moments with its on track ones. Similar to more traditional sports anime, you need both the character drama and the actual sports to be enjoyable to watch. I can’t say I’m particularly sold on the cast yet, which all run the usual gamut of familiar anime archetypes. Special attention needs to be paid to Haruka, the stoic and arrogant wunderkind driver who’s postured as the story’s deuteragonist. I fucking hate this archetype of character in sports anime and how he’s handled is going to play a large role in my ability to stay invested. Hopefully the older Kouya stays in focus as the primary protagonist and we don’t have to deal too much with irritating teenage angst.

Artemis’ verdict: What Racing?

Normally I’d say something like “I didn’t like this because I’m not into racing, but racing fans will no doubt be very into it.” In some ways though, the opposite is probably true. Don’t get me wrong, I truly do know absolutely nothing about cars or racing, but as I was watching Overtake!, I was actively wishing for more racing content than the couple of minutes the premiere actually delivered. Meanwhile, I can only assume that at least some genuine fans of the sport came away from the premiere disappointed for exactly the same reason. Based purely on the first episode, Overtake! doesn’t feel like a high-octane sports anime – it feels like a character-driven drama that just so happens to have a car-racing backdrop.

The problem with this is that although I tend to be drawn more to deliberately-paced dramas and slice-of-life material than traditional action or sports anime titles, Overtake’s characters lack the kind of depth or subtlety to make them particularly engaging. They’re not necessarily dislikable, but their thoughts and actions are certainly extremely predictable. To make matters worse, the premiere had so much exposition that at one point, Exposition Character A had to pass the torch to Exposition Character B just to get through the backhalf of the episode. I breathed a sigh of relief when the credits finally rolled – as impressive as the sharp character designs and well-integrated CG is, and as admirable as the background research and attention to detail must have been to create such a realistic (I think?) series, I found myself bored out of my mind. I don’t think this is a bad anime per se, but I also don’t see myself coming back for more.