Current Episode Score: 7

And here we have the surprise second racing anime of the fall season. Honestly never expected to see two different racing shows the same season, and honestly I think this might be the better show. At least from first impressions. Plus it is an original show, so that is super interesting.

Visually the show looks very good and modern, everything is very clean and well done visually. Nothing stands out as an issue to me. And the CGI cars and racing looks perfectly fine. Character design looks great, and I love the focus on having very striking and distinctive eyes for the characters, so you can tell them apart while in helmets.

As for the story thus far, well it is a Formula 4 racing series. And this first episode went hard on explaining and giving a general introduction to Formula racing, just general rules and understanding of it. I kinda love the set-up, it works great I think to introduce it to a larger audience who might have never interacted with Formula racing before. Though I also would love to see a Super GT series now as well.

I have to say, I know very little about the F4 series. I know a decent amount about F1, and enjoy watching it on occasion, but not like a massive fan. But F4, yea that is unknown territory for me. All I really know is largely the lower class series have slower and cheaper cars, larger fields of cars with more drivers and teams, and kinda a stepping point to moving up to the big goal of F1. But the idea of following an independent F4 team, who is obviously strapped for cash and running at the bare minimum is interesting. Just stuff like reusing tires and only having a single car and a single mechanic. From the first episode I get a great idea of how this team is working, you have a brilliant driver who is unfortunately being held back by his car and team. The only question left is, why is Haruka still with the team, why has nobody approached this kid and given him a better deal at a team with more resources.

Of course I can’t forget to mention the camera-man Kouya, who it looks we are going to be following for the series. As he works to expand knowledge of F4 and I hope help this team get some actual sponsors by taking some photos. Seems he has some tragic backstory, perhaps took photos of some water tragedy that results in some deaths instead of helping, and has some lasting trauma from that. Probably affected his relationship with the Chief of the office, whom he was dating.

Honestly I’m excited for this show, more than I am for MF Ghost. I think this is a much more unique idea for a racing series. Has more potential to showcase an actual type of racing to a larger audience. And I think it looks better and has better characters.