OVERTAKE!
a review by nxtperfect
a review by nxtperfect
Overtake is an anime about F4 racing team that's underdog, compared to their rival team, that has all the technology and money to win each time.
The story that we can experience is very cliche and doesn't make you think a lot. It's all fairly linear, we learn about the story of main character, the only other story we learn about is of the photographer, everyone else is more or less unknown to us. In the last scene we get a reference to the MC (main character) story, but only a minor one that doesn't really have much impact. From the very first scene you can easily take a guess how the anime will end, there are no turnarounds or any moment where the story gets deeper.
Characters are surface-level, no one besides photographer and MC matters, and they feel more like a filler than actual humans. If you removed every character besides two antagonists, and aforementioned two protagonists, the story wouldn't change it's heading.
Visuals however are probably the best part of this anime, the character's faces are draw in a renewed and slightly unique way, they have a sprinkle of disney-ness in them. Where the visuals shine is the detail on the bolides which are looking exceptionally good. There's one scene where we get a 3d like movement, with each part of the scene turned into 2d image facing the camera, as it lunges forwards, which looks amazingly.
When it comes to our audio experience, there's not a lot new in it, the race cars have engine sounds, we lack tire screech, gearbox sounds or wind. Music is okay, it doesn't interfere with the action, but isn't anything to remember when the anime ends.
The flow of each episode is predictable, with first half being slow, story part where we have some conversations between characters or generally we have that part building up. The other half is meant for the actual action of racing, which in itself isn't that nerve wracking. The pacing itself is rather slow, there isn't a lot of action in the races.
Next up is originality, the idea of car racing was already done in Initial D, and we also see someone going from a bad/new racer, to going to the top. What is something new is that it isn't street or touge racing, but an F4 team, which you'd think F1 is the next most exciting to pick, so it's not an obvious choice.
Worldbuilding is mediocre at best, as stated in characters there's not a lot of story about why each character is in their current place, we don't get any explanation as to why they couldn't be in any other place.
Emotional Impact is minimal, the only part where you can feel any emotions would be in photographers side story, main story is so linear and clearly defined you don't feel it exciting at all, and the progress feels non existant.
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