This Week in Anime

Fast Cars, Anime, and Eurobeat

Nicky
We get two series with similar premises airing in the same season every once in a blue moon. Sometimes, they act like two cars passing in the night, but other times, having two anime targeting the same niche can become a thrilling competition to see which anime could become the victor. Similar to our previous rap battle discussion, this season has not just one but two anime racing to become the #1 anime for today's car lovers looking to fulfill their need for speed. This week, Steve and I will trade our hats to become race commentators. Steve, why don't you go ahead and introduce our audience to the competition?

While we aren't super car nerds, we know it would be wrong to talk about car racing anime without discussing the original 1998 speed sensation Initial D. Created at the peak of Japan's underground street racing scene, Initial D is a testament to '80s and '90s car culture that would later integrate into the professional worlds portrayed in both MF Ghost and Overtake!. Not only did Initial D become popular among anime fans, but it was also able to dig its tires deep into the hearts of car fanatics worldwide for its cutting-edge look at Japan's cars, music, and dangerous mountain roads. Spanning 48 manga volumes, over 80 episodes of anime, followed by movies, a live-action film, several re-animated compilations, and numerous video games,Initial D was crowned the all-time champion competitor.

The Initial D series might be retired, but its legacy remains like the afterimage of Takumi's panda-colored AE86 drifting down the mountainside at night. It was so influential the titular Toyota Trueno went from an affordable little engine that could to a highly sought-after collector's item by wealthy drivers. A price uptick supposedly dubbed "The Tofu Tax" alludes to Takumi's job as a tofu delivery driver for his family business. The Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno was also the favored car of Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya, who not only served as a consultant for the series but also rode a similar path from doing illegal races in the countryside to introducing drifting to pro motorists.

While much of the series remains dated, from the '90s-tactic archetypes, the fanservice, the melodrama, and the polygon count on the cars, Initial D still stands as a technical marvel, being one of the first series to use CG to portray its star vehicles more accurately. Manga creator Shuichi Shigeno took models and traced over them to capture the different angles of each car. Later, the anime would follow suit by utilizing CG to feel closer to the drivers' real movements. Also notable is that while various Eurobeat artists set the soundscape for the races, the revving heard throughout the original anime is also taken from real engines. I was impressed by the sound design in the original after watching the first compilation movie, which, while more modern, swapped out all the Eurobeat for standard J-rock that didn't offer nearly the same adrenaline rush.

While computer graphics have improved over the years, animation techniques such as camera usage, direction, movement, and acceleration have remained the same. Fancy shaders and physics engines don't do darn a thing if skilled animators aren't putting any "weight" into a scene. That's why neither the 2014 Legends series nor MF Ghost feel like they have much of an impact. The animation on them is too floaty and "slow." Plus, even bad CG can be covered by good story pacing.

MF Ghost utterly fails to follow up on what makes Initial D charming. Initial D cruises as an underdog story and features many real mountainous locations popular with drifters, or touge roads as they are called. MF Ghost takes place in the near future, when electric vehicles have largely replaced traditional cars. It follows Kanata, a rookie motorist and graduate from a top racing school in England. MF Ghost doesn't carry the same street cred or coolness factor as Initial D.

Takumi was kind of broody and relatable in that he was anti-social and largely unaware of the world in that '90s teenage way. I would describe him as a protagonist with anti-charisma. Kanata seems like a nice kid, but we don't learn much about him other than his desire to find his father, which highlights the lack of interiority the drivers in MF Ghost have. Rarely are you able to get a sense of Kanata's feelings, and most of the first race was commentary by bystanders that mostly amounted to inside baseball, a classic crime of "Tell and Don't Show," making the whole thing incredibly sluggish.

Yet, I had no problem with Initial D. I felt it tried hard to introduce its audience to some rules by making Takumi a complete alien to the whole appeal. MF Ghost, as a direct sequel, expects its audience to be already deeply familiar with not only cars but most of the characters and events of Initial D, making it very ill-suited as a starting line for people who missed out on the original. Even if I were to try and view MF Ghost as its own thing, its story and characters didn't drive me enough to want to continue watching. The drama is very shallow, and the plot lacks any stakes. Also, the central female character is a piece of eye candy whose only role is to fawn over the MC-kun, which is a sign that the writing hasn't matured much since the '90s.

I don't think every series needs to be for newcomers. Still, the best sports anime succeeds through a combination of high sportsmanship and the more universal qualities of traditional storytelling. It doesn't have to be super complex, but there does need to be an emotional grounding for the cool feats.

Overtake! surprised me because it's pretty much the opposite of MF Ghost. It introduces itself using the characters first and has all the set-up of a traditional drama; only the workplace happens to be on a race track.

It's oddly low-key, with the characters acting all professional, but the lack of danger was replaced with a deep sense of awe and passion that I found equally thrilling. Plus, the presentation is just much better. I like the softness of manga artist Takako Shimura's character designs, and Ei Aoki has always had a touch for atmosphere and human drama, even in his more action-heavy works like Re:Creators and Fate/Zero.

It leans much heavier on the side of being an "inspirational" sports story than one of hot-blooded competition, with most of the conflict stemming from the interpersonal aspects and the logistics of running a race team, stuff that is normally considered more small-scale and mundane. Still, it's got its engine in the right place.

There's definitely more focus on boys. This leads me to believe I am much more the target audience for Overtake! than MF Ghost, with how many modern character-focused sports series cater to young women.

We also mentioned how pro racing isn't as attractive as its riskier underground cousin, street racing, but I think Overtake! passes by portraying the races as almost graceful. There's something very rhythmic about how cars dance around each other on the track, weaving back and forth while their engines hum in unison.

Off the track, the show putters along with pleasant little character moments, trying to endear you to the cast just as much as the sport. The episodes fly by with good company.

Yeah, having compared the new Initial D movie by Sanzigen and Linden Films, I don't think Shigeno's art style adapts well to the digital age. The transfer to the old anime is pretty rough, but the switch to digital in the more modern renditions lacks what makes his rough characters feel charming. Compare Takumi's first rival here; it's less crude but in a way that removes the sense of stylism in the process. MF Ghost has even less detail to work with. While I love Felix Film's rendition of Aharen-san, they haven't done a whole ton of high-profile stuff compared to Troyca, which has done Re:Creators, Bloom into You, and all three seasons of Idolish7.

That said, we've pretty much run our course, so let's get to the results! First, I think it's clear that we vibed better with Overtake! over MF Ghost as people who are more into characters than cars. Still, we also felt that MF Ghost flat-tires as a successor to one of the most monumental motor racing anime of all time, Initial D.

I also think that Initial D is just very "of its time," and that can't be recreated in the modern-day. Much of the appeal draws deeply from the roots of its era. Street racing and car modification saw a huge crackdown in the late 90s, and many would leave the scene, moving on to becoming pros or only using legitimate courses. Comparing it to either series feels like apples to oranges; there's no replacement. Besides, animating cars well is probably one of the hardest things you can do, even with modern CG; it's no wonder we get so few car anime.

However, I hope this gets people to give the rookie Overtake! a chance. It might be in a league of its own compared to other racing anime we've seen in the past, but it's very revved about its subject matter in a way I think most people could enjoy regardless of whether a viewer is new or old to the sport of racing.