Grief and anxiety can eat you whole. That's something that both protagonists of Overtake!, a surprise delight from the fall 2023 season, are trying to cope with – Kouya Madoka was a successful photographer when he was trapped in Fukushima in 2011, where what he witnessed and took pictures of drastically changed his life, while high school student Haruka Asahina was a little boy when he saw his father die on the racetrack when his car caught fire. While both of them are working on finding ways out of the fogs they're in, the series never loses sight of how trauma has shaped them, using their emotions as metaphors and catalysts for the racing action of the series to good effect.

The story focuses on the F4 class of automobile racing, an open-wheel format intended for junior drivers and part of the lead-up to the better-known F1 racing circuit. (The nitty gritty of vehicle specifications isn't covered in the show, but there are both chassis and engine requirements, with a limited number of approved makes and models; tires are the only physical component that gets any attention in the plot.) Haruka Asahina became a driver in memory of his father, who died during a race when he was little, and there's a genuine sense that he's working through his grief and trying to capture some essence of his dad by racing. His tiny team, Komaki Motors, is at a severe financial disadvantage; it's a mom-and-pop version of a racing team, run by an old mechanic friend of Haruka's dad Toru and his son. They desperately need sponsors to be able to compete fully on the level of the well-funded teams, and they're thrilled when Kouya, having seen one race and taken a surprise picture of Haruka sobbing after a loss, offers to be one.

This show works for people who don't know car racing (like me) because one of its protagonists is similarly in the dark. Kouya has no idea how much money tires for Formula 4 racing cost, and he's embarrassed when it turns out that he won't be able to support them financially. But that picture he snapped of Haruka after the race turns out to be worth much more than he imagines, in several senses – not only is it an excellent and well-received picture, but it's also the first photo of a person he's taken since 2011. Although Haruka isn't thrilled with Kouya or the surprise picture at first, he comes to recognize that the older man is trying to work through something similar to his baggage, and that's when the show takes off.

Despite the action being racing-based and races featuring in most of the episodes, the actual drive of the plot is emotional. Towards the end of the series, rival driver Tokunaga suddenly realizes that the person he's competing against isn't Haruka or team member Satsuki; it's himself. Racing is both a team sport and a solo one in this conception of it, and that feels very honest. It does take a whole team to support the driver and get them out on the track, but once they're there, it becomes a question of feeling the road and the car and observing other drivers to adjust your actions. This comes through clearly when Satsuki is injured during a race, breaking a leg and several ribs. When he's allowed back out into the competition, the person he's trying to beat is himself as he tries to cope with the pain of pressure on his healing ribs and newly fragile body. Beating Tokunaga and Haruka would be great, but first, he has to get his mind and body to a comfortable place.

While Haruka, Tokunaga, and Satsuki all use their driving to express themselves and work through their physical and emotional issues, Kouya's story is much more internal. We don't get the full story of what happened until episode nine; we know fairly early on that he took a picture of a little girl seconds before the tsunami consumed her. It's a chilling portrait – you can see in her eyes that she knows she's going to die, and even on the screen, it feels like it captures both a moment and the disaster in its entirety. But it's also a picture Kouya paid dearly for; yes, there's the emotional suffering of having been there to actually see it happen, but the social media response was fast and vicious. Why didn't you save her instead of taking her picture? became the litany playing nonstop in Kouya's head, and most of his character arc is both reconciling with this reaction and his survivor's guilt and learning that he can still find fulfillment in his art form. It's effortless for us, on the other side of the screen, to mutter things about how no one in the series has ever heard of a telephoto lens, but the point isn't that no one understands how far away he was when he took the picture. The point is instead that the voices on social media and the news are just saying what Kouya already feels.

The relationship between Kouya and Haruka at this juncture becomes important. Their experiences with trauma aren't the same, and they don't react to them the same way. But Haruka recognizes that what Kouya is dealing with is trauma, and the fact that Haruka is the first person he could photograph indicates that Kouya also recognizes something in him. Their relationship isn't a father/son one; despite their age difference, it's supportive in an authentic way. While seeing Haruka succeed as a driver is a large part of the story, the emotional underpinnings make this series work.

If you're sound-sensitive, there are elements of this series that are a little hard to take; the buzzing sound of the cars is pretty awful. I also don't love Alice's story arc or her grid girl costume, although it's not as sexualized as it could be. Overall, this is a solid piece of storytelling that understands its action and emotional components. It could have done more (and perhaps better) with twenty-four episodes, but Overtake! still deserves the attention it may have missed in a season with many flashier titles.