Frankly my favorite seasonal of Fall 2023 by a mile. And thats 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 its 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: Overtakes story is character driven Initial D/MF Ghosts story is narrative driven a very poor narrative but a narrative nonetheless. Characters in Overtake have nuance 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 isnt. Overtake is sponsored by the FIA Fdration Internationale de lAutomobile the governing body for all European motorsports F1 included Initial D/MF Ghost is the machinations of someone who thinks what racing is. Overtakes 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 doesnt. So I suppose thats the dealbreaker for why they prefer those two shows compared to Overtake. Id 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 its 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 drivers 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 doesnt 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. Its genuinely thrilling and relatable stuff and it makes all the moments that they do race hit that much harder. Haruka isnt a generational prodigy that drove to deliver tofu. Hes 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 someones passion/profession the pressure added by others and the need to prove yourself of greatness. Its all rather compelling and its 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/wont be interested in racing? I dont know its a hard sell. To its credit the show does an amazing job of conveying racing lingo and knowledge to someone who doesnt know it. Hell one of the two protagonists is basically that an absolute clueless guy who doesnt know the first thing about racing. But its honestly hard still to recommend it especially when its not something like Initial D. And its a seasonal so if its not popular like Frieren Bocchi The Rock or Dress Up Darling itll get forgotten as is the nature of most seasonals. Still though. For me this is the best seasonal for Fall 2023 and I wouldnt 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 Ill be more than happy to say I was there when it first started. I just hope the animation teams come packing with money because Im sure having all these sponsors and licenses cost a pretty penny and thats not including the FIAs official sanctioning which Im sure put a hole in their budget.