Japan is eternally known for it’s street racing culture, and the love for it flows through their veins. We all are conversant with such racing movies and anime series which showcase the intensity of street racing, and the diamond of racing anime “Initial D” still remains on the top
After a long time, we can get to see a potential contender against Initial D – GRIP by Toyota. And if you are unfamiliar with this announcement then you need to gear up and get ready for the race up ahead.
Toyota along with Acura are working on this niche project but it’s a clever move from Toyota to promote it’s car to the car enthusiasts by stepping into the Anime community.
Grip will be a 5-episode series which will release weekly from 26th February, following the same animation style from the OG “Initial D”
This anime is centered around a “Dashing protagonist who will take on the evil soulless automated driving”
What is GRIP All About!
The show revolves around our main character “Jae kang” who is racing along with his crew in a futuristic metropolis city where he faces-off with an evil consortium known as SyntheCorp and Dr. Synth is controlling a vast number of cars who wants to conquer the world according to his evil ideology.
GRIP is produced by a California-based communication agency “InterTrend”. The series will set it’s campaign in a futuristic world where Dr. Synth leads to promote his AI-based self-automated driving with an evil mindset to eradicate the human driving from the world and how our Protagonist Jae Kang will ram into his corrupted corporation.
(The promotion of Electronic Vehicle over normal vehicles is more like propaganda by this anime!!)
Pure Bliss for Car Enthusiasts!!
Following this, viewers will get a delightful scenery of exquisite cars like GR Corolla, The Renaissance Red 2.0 GR Supra GR86 (owned by Kumali Jo, one of the characters) and many more in the futuristic world building.
Let’s get a Sneak-Peak of this One-of-a-Kind Anime!
Inspired by the celestial being “Initial D”, Grip is one of the anime which follows the same footsteps to reach the peak.
Showcasing Toyota cars on an anime platform will amplify the excitement for street racers.
Viewers can have a delightful view of this anime from a 16 second masterclass released by Toyota USA.
Insights and unexpected treats from GRIP
If you have already seen the trailer, you can notice GR which is kind of a surprise from Initial D’s look like anime GRIP. The GR stands for Gazoo Racing which is a mega treat for GR fans. The Gazoo Racing is a motorsport division of Toyota and fans can follow up to their dream cars from this series.
Can GRIP Beat One of The Classics!!
One of the fan favorite manga and anime adaptations by Suichi Shigeno “Initial D” still remains a classic. This series ran from 1995 to 2013 and the series consists of 48 manga volumes with 80 plus episodes in the adaptation.
The series also contains a live-action movie which is based on one from the series. The craze for street racing and the drift culture which already remained there inflated with a big boom and made a long-lasting effect on the fanbase.
With Takumi Fujiwara still one of the most beloved MC, fans hardly get over from this series and Initial D got it’s sequel MF Ghosts with all the characters and new cars in action.
Matthew Choy executive director at InterTrend also noted this series as an inspiration from the ace of racing anime and called it as a product placement with almost same animation style.
Verdict
If you are eagerly waiting for “GRIP” but have zero wheel’s knowledge MF Ghosts, Initial D and Hi-Drivers should be in your watchlist and it’s really an excellent strategy by Toyota for promoting their new cars. Till then prowl on our article about Mashle Episode 6.
