For its 10th Year anniversary project, Japanese animation studio Troyca (Aldnoah.Zero, Re:Creators) works together with publishing giant, Kadokawa, to produce an original anime series called Overtake!. The anime’s official website, along with Kadokawa’s official YouTube channel, released the second teaser trailer for Overtake!, along with a release date of Fall 2023.
Overtake! is an anime about car racing. The story begins when a freelance photographer named Kouya Madoka, who’s been in the slump for quite some time, decided to visit Fuji International Speedway. Madoka is there for a quick story about a Formula 4 (F4) race that is currently underway. And that is when he witnessed the daring and mesmerizing drive of a young driver named Haruka Asahina from Komaki Motors youth team. Madoka’s passion and excitement as a journalist and photographer is instantly reawakened at that moment. So he begins to cover and also support the journey of the prodigious high school F4 driver, Haruka Asahina.
This collaborative project will be directed by Ei Aoki, the man behind highly popular series, such as Fate: Zero, ID: Invaded, and also the two aforementioned iconic anime from Troyca, Aldnoah.Zero and Re:Creators. Original character design by Takako Shimura (Aldnoah.Zero, Battery The Animation), while the series composition is handled by Ayumi Sekine (IDOLiSH7, Makura no Danshi). The voice actor for the main character Haruka Asahina is Anan Furuya, and the voice actor for Kouya Madoka is Katsuyuki Konishi.
Based on the two teaser trailers that have been released thus far, Overtake! seems to be using a mix of traditional animation for its characters and their everyday activities, and then alternates to CGI animation for the racing sequences. This seems to be the most popular and efficient approach for most Japanese anime studios right now. After all, traditional animation is perfect for character interactions, while CGI is superior in presenting smooth and intricate mechanical movements of the cars. This is basically the same approach that the Gundam franchise has used for quite some time.
Despite being one of the most famous sports in the entire world, there’s not much anime about car racing out there. The two most popular ones are the street car racing series Initial D (1998), and the sci-fi movie Redline (2009), both of which achieved quite a huge success and have become cult classics among fans. So Overtake! will be a new car racing anime after more than a decade. We can expect more information, and also a full trailer, to be revealed as we get closer to its release date, October 2023.
Source: Overtake! Official Website