Overtake!

Overtake! is a Japanese anime television series centered on the F4 Japanese Championship. It is an original production by Kadokawa Corporation, animated by Troyca, with direction by Ei Aoki and scripts by Ayumi Sekine. The series aired from October to December 2023.

The story follows Haruka Asahina, a quiet high school student who drives for the Komaki Motors team in Formula 4. He is voiced by Anan Furuya, with Kana Ichinose voicing his childhood self. Kouya Madoka, voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi, is a freelance photographer struggling with a slump due to a personal reason.

Komaki Motors’ crew includes Kotarou Komaki (voiced by Tasuku Hatanaka), the team mechanic who grew up like a brother to Haruka, and his father Futoshi Komaki (voiced by Kenta Sasa), the team owner of this small privateer outfit.

The rival team Belsorriso fields two F4 drivers. Satsuki Harunaga (voiced by Kengo Kawanishi) is a cheerful, talented driver with many female fans, admired for his potential and being groomed for higher classes; he looks up to former F1 driver James Hunt. Toshiki Tokumaru (voiced by Taku Yashiro) is the second driver, seen as equally talented but hired as Satsuki’s support driver after crashing into Haruka during his audition, leaving him resentful.

Alice Mitsuzawa (voiced by Reina Ueda) is a Belsorriso grid girl who admires Satsuki but is too shy to speak to him; she is also a childhood friend of Kotarou and attends the same high school as him and Haruka, supporting Komaki Motors on the side. Team owner Kyousuke Ena (voiced by Masayuki Katō) runs Belsorriso, which focuses on Super GT’s GT500 and GT300 classes, but he personally leads the F4 team to develop young drivers. He also recognizes Kouya’s photography skills and informs him about F4.

Other characters include Saeko Yukihira (voiced by Ayumi Tsunematsu), chief editor of the women’s fashion magazine Monthly Kyouka and Kouya’s ex-wife, who helps him recover from his trauma by offering work and introduces a beverage company, Mikazuki, as a sponsor for Komaki Motors.

Production was assisted by Naoki Hattori, who ensured realistic F4 racing scenes. Original character designs were by Takako Shimura, adapted for animation by Masako Matsumoto, with Katsuhiko Takayama supervising. Music was composed by Kana Utatane.