After a traumatic event, freelance photographer Kouya Madoka has trouble taking pictures of people, and his career is suffering for it. However, while working on a story at the Fuji International Speedway, he becomes enamored with the world of F4 racing thanks to the trials and tribulations of high school racer, Haruka Asahina.
After managing to take a picture of Asahina crying after he has to drop out of his race, Kouya dives head on into F4 racing in order to support Asahina and his small F4 racing team, Komaki Motors.
An underdog story in an underdog racing league is a pretty great idea, and this series keeps things interesting by focusing on more than just one character’s story. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Overtake, head on down below.
Anime Like Overtake
For Fans of Racing
Capeta
After losing his mother, Taira Kappeita put on a tough front for his father, but was actually lonely.
One day, his father brings some spare parts home and builds a go-cart. The pair decide to head to a circuit and take it for a test.
There, they discover the frame is bent, yet despite this, Taira’s technique managed to not only drive it, but almost surpass the fastest cart driven by Minamoto Naomi. Seeing this, Naomi’s mother encourages him to enter the official race.
While Capeta starts out as a scrappy go-kart racing anime, it is a rather long series that shows a character growing up with a passion for kart racing that takes him all the way to F-series racing. So, Capeta takes a minute to get there, but both Capeta and Overtake are about F-series racers.
However, while Overtake tells a variety of more personal character stories in its racing plot, some of them not even about racers, Capeta is more focused on the competitive struggle that a novice underdog faces.
F
Gunma Akagi is a fiery teen from the countryside who frequently picks fights and causes a commotion with his turbocharged tractor.
After driving his tractor on the highway with his best friend, they are overtaken by a speeding car, and Gunma takes that as a challenge! While he loses the race against the car spectacularly, the race inspires him to leave the countryside behind and become the next Formula One star racer.
Both F and Overtake are F-series focused motor sports anime. However, while Overtake focuses on drivers who pretty happily dwell in F4 racing, F focuses on an ambitious racer that wants to go from farm boy to F1 racer right away.
Put simply, Overtake is more about exploring character drama while F is more focused on the “rising through the ranks” aspect of professional racing since it follows an absolute rookie.
Initial D
Takumi Fujiwara is a spacey high schooler that works as a nighttime delivery guy. While his friends are car nuts, he doesn’t know a thing about them.
Yet, one night, Takumi driving his old AE86 through the mountain pass of Akina on a delivery manages to blow past one of the drivers in the Akagi Red Suns.
This infamous team of street racers has the plan to conquer every race course in Kanto and they are in disbelief when their aces are shown up by Takumi driving the same tired route he drives every night.
If you have an interest in motor sports racing anime, then there is no more “must-watch” racing anime than Initial D.
While Initial D is often focused on street racing mountain courses, a stark contrast to the profession F4 races on Overtake, it still captures the intensity of motor sports racing in the most addictive to watch way.
MF Ghost
With self-driving electric cars replacing gas-powered vehicles, sports cars became a rarity. In this future, they are only really seen in a racing circuit known as MFG.
Kanata Livington is a 19-year-old Japanese-British racer who has moved to Japan after graduating one of the top racing schools abroad. He moved to Japan to compete in MFG in order to hopefully attract the attention of his missing father – Ken Katagiri.
Borrowing a Toyota 86 from some family friends, Kanata makes it into the top 15 of racers despite being at a disadvantage in specs with his own overwhelming driving skill.
As a spin-off of Initial D, if you enjoyed Initial D and Overtake, MF Ghost is a natural next option.
Alongside Overtake and MF Ghost both being about motor sports racing, they both also happen to be newer anime about motor sports racing, which is excessively rare. You get the good animation AND the racing stories you were looking for.
Of course, while both series are about course-based racing, Overtake is F4-focused while MF Ghost is a competitive form of sports car mountain racing.
For Fans of Slice of Life-Focused Sports Stories
Run With The Wind
Once an elite runner, Kakeru is now only running to escape those accusing him of stealing food.
While fleeing, he meets another runner, Haiji, who persuades him to live in his old apartment complex.
There, Kakeru finds it is full of fellow residents who all have one goal – to enter the Hakone Ekiden Marathon. Unfortunately, aside from he and Haiji, they are all pretty novice.
There is no question that F4 racing is a lot more exciting to watch than long-distance running. However, both Overtake and Run With The Wind make their sports series more about the character stories than the actual sport. Through competing in the sport, you watch them deal with their issues.
Both Overtake and Run With The Wind focus on character stories, but not just for one main character. Overtake has several major characters whose stories it is exploring while Run With The Wind gives time to everyone on a rather large relay race team.
They both end up as sports anime more focused on human drama than the fiery competitive nature of the sports. Furthermore, they both happen to be sports anime that follow – for the most part – adults.
Stars Align
Out-performed by the girls’ club and facing disbandment, team captain of the soft tennis club Toma Shinjou is desperate to recruit members. He immediately targets new transfer student Maki Katsuragi for his solid reflexes.
After a few rejections, Maki joins and quickly shines. This causes complicated feelings among the rest of the team who feel outperformed, but also propelled forward by Maki.
While both Overtake and Stars Align are sports anime where you watch the characters participate in the sport, they both often tend to have their plot more focused on the human stories of their characters.
Overtake is a lot more about racing than Stars Align is about soft tennis. However, while exploring the character stories, you will find that the topics are a little more heavy than the human stories you find in some other sports anime. Stories like PTSD about taking a picture of dying people or getting violently beaten by your parent aren’t usually typical character drama in sports anime. It is the heaviness of those topics that makes the drama overshadow the sport at times, but Stars Align is definitely a lot more heavy with its topics.
The Gymnastics Samurai
Jotaro Aragaki has devoted his life to gymnastics. However, he finds himself no longer able to compete to his own expectations physically due to injury and age.
Despite training every day, even his coach recommends that he quit. However, on a trip to an amusement park where he will break the news to his daughter, he meets a self-proclaimed ninja that renews his vigor.
Both Overtake and The Gymnastics Samurai tell sports stories focusing on older and more serious characters in a professional realm. However, while Overtake is about an underdog F4 racing team and their competitors, The Gymnastic Samurai is about an aging athlete giving it his last shot and a younger athlete looking to him for inspiration.
While the sports are very different, you get to see them on a professional level, and both Overtake and The Gymnastics Samurai are decently animated. The Gymnastics Samurai definitely has a lot more going for it in terms of animation as it uses less CGI, but both series tell interesting human drama stories.
Tsurune
Kyuudo is a modern martial art with a focus on archery. Minato used to be into the sport in middle school, enchanted by the “tsurune” sound made by a releasing bowstring, but gave it up after a certain incident left him with target panic.
This phenomenon resulted in Minato missing every shot he took and crushing his confidence.
Now, forces conspire in high school to bring him into the newly founded Kyuudo club, but can Minato overcome his anxieties?
Overtake is an F4 racing anime that explores the character stories of several main characters. However, if you took Madoka and made him a racer and the main character, it would make Overtake an even more similar experience to Tsurune.
Both series follow, at least in part, characters who simply can’t do something they loved because of a PTSD-like reaction they have while doing it. However, Tsurune has a sort of lack of confidence in his abilities causing the event rather than an actual traumatic incident like in Overtake.
If you enjoy handsome characters whose human stories are the focus, but the sports moments are also nicely animated, then Tsurune has that to offer as well.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Overtake? Let fans know in the comments section below.
