Grief and worry can consume you. That’s what both protagonists of Overtake!, an unexpected delight from the fall of 2023, are trying to solve – Kouya Madoka was a successful photographer when he was stranded in Fukushima in 2011, where what he witnessed and photographed drastically changed his life. As a high school student Haruka Asahina witnessed his father die on the track when his car caught fire. While the two are working to find a way out of the fog they’re in, the series never loses sight of how their trauma shaped them, using their emotions as metaphors and the catalyst for the series’ racing action to work well.
The story focuses on the F4 car racing class, an open-wheel format for junior drivers and a prelude to the more famous F1 circuit. (Detailed vehicle specifications are not covered in the program, but both chassis and engine requirements are included, with some approved make and model restrictions; tires are a component The only physics that gets any attention in the plot.) Haruka Asahina becomes a racer in memory of his father, who died in a race when he was a child, and there is a real sense that he is overcoming his grief. and tries to capture some of his father’s essence by racing. His small team, Komaki Motors, was at a serious financial disadvantage; It’s a simplified version of a racing team, run by an old mechanic friend of Toru and his son, Haruka’s father. They desperately need sponsors to be fully competitive at the level of well-funded teams, and they are delighted when Kouya, after watching a race, takes a surprise photo of a crying Haruka. Sobbing after losing, offered to join.
This show is suitable for people who don’t know about racing (like me) because one of its main characters is also in the dark. Kouya didn’t know how much tires for Formula 4 racing cost, and he was embarrassed to learn that he wouldn’t be able to support them financially. But the photo he took of Haruka after the race turned out to be much more valuable than he imagined, in many ways – not only was it an excellent and well-received photo, it was also the first photo of a person he had taken since 2011. Although Haruka was not initially excited about Kouya or the unexpected photo, he gradually realized that the older man was trying to deal with something similar. like his luggage, and that’s when the movie begins.
Although racing-based action and races appear in most episodes, the real driving force of the plot is emotion. Towards the end of the series, rival racer Tokunaga suddenly realizes that the person he is competing against is not Haruka or team member Satsuki; it was him. Racing is both a team sport and a solo sport in this concept, and it feels very honest. It takes a whole team to support the driver and get them onto the track, but once they are there, it becomes a matter of getting a feel for the road and the car as well as watching other drivers to make adjustments. your actions. This was evident when Satsuki was injured during a race, breaking a leg and several ribs. When he is allowed back into the competition, the person he is trying to beat is himself as he tries to cope with the pain from the pressure on his healing ribs and fragile new body mine. Defeating Tokunaga and Haruka would be great, but first, he has to get his mind and body to a comfortable place.
While Haruka, Tokunaga, and Satsuki all use their driving abilities to express themselves and exercise their physical and emotional affairs, Kouya’s story is much more internal. We don’t get the full story of what happened until episode nine; we learn quite early on that he took a photo of a little girl seconds before the tsunami swallowed her. It’s a cold portrait—you can see in her eyes that she knows she’s about to die, and even on screen, it feels like it captures the entire moment and disaster. But it was also a photo that cost Kouya dearly; yes, there was emotional distress in being there to actually see it happen, but the reaction on social media was swift and vicious. Why don’t you save her instead of taking pictures of her? has become a constant litany in Kouya’s head, and most of his characters come to terms with this reaction and survivor’s guilt and know that he can still find fulfillment. satisfied in his art form. On the other side of the screen, it was easy for us to mutter things about how no one in the series had ever heard of a telephoto lens, but the problem wasn’t that no one understood how far away he was when Take this lens. image. Instead, the problem is that the voices on social media and the news only say what Kouya already feels.
The relationship between Kouya and Haruka becomes important at this point. Their experiences with trauma are not the same and they do not react to them in the same way. But Haruka realizes that what Kouya is facing is psychological trauma, and the fact that Haruka is the first person he can photograph shows that Kouya also recognizes something in him. Theirs is not a father-son relationship; despite the age difference, it’s still supportive in a genuine way. While seeing Haruka succeed as a driver is an important part of the story, it’s the emotional underpinnings that make this series work.
If you are sensitive to sound, there are elements of this series that are a bit difficult to understand; The noise of cars is quite terrible. I also didn’t like Alice’s storyline or her mesh girl outfit, even though it wasn’t as sexual as it could have been. Overall, this is a solid piece of storytelling that understands its action and emotional components. It could have done more (and perhaps better) with 24 episodes, but Overtake! still deserves the attention it might have missed in a season with more flashy titles.