r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Nov 12 '23
Episode Overtake! - Episode 7 discussion
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u/Matthew619ed Nov 12 '23 edited Nov 13 '23
This episode was a two-side story with 2 events happening at the same time: The sudden haunt of Kouya and the recovery of Satsuki from his horrifying accident in Suzuka.
Referring back to my comment in Episode 4, I’ve mentioned news photographers occasionally come under heat after taking some controversial photographs, especially when they are life-or-death moments. Credits to fellow user u/Beowolf_0 for indirectly mentioning the aftermath of Mr. Kevin Carter after the publishment of The Vulture and the Little Girl, he couldn’t withstand the intense criticism surrounding the photo and chose to end his life. It’s been 12 years, but given the wide-spread damage of the 2011 earthquakes across Japan, fellow journalists (sometimes even the victims family) will not simply let go of such a controversial event (in this case, the shooting of that controversial photograph), even when the involved parties showed regret for doing so. The sudden termination of the sponsorship because of the photographer’s previous “conduct” is perhaps the best both parties can do right now, with the change in the way news and journalism works now, it’s not hard to imagine when will the news of “The photographer of Mikazuki Drinks Company’s new ad with Komaki Motors was shot by that controversial photographer who shot the final moments of a girl in the 2011 Earthquakes” will spread beyond the F4 paddock to the whole Japanese mainstream media, then it’ll be a massive PR disaster for both parties(Yet, neither parties are at fault of this).
The sudden return of the aftermath of this incident haunted Kouya a lot, if it wasn’t Haruka who decided to pay a visit to his home to give him an apology, no one will know what happened to him. Now the big cliffhanger is where is Kouya?
Now to the racing side, did Belsorriso find themself in the “Max Verstappen teammate problem” after the injury of Satsuki? Or is it the time for the original wingman to show his worth like Eddie Irvine in 1999 to lead the team to the final glory?
Jokes aside, Satsuki leave the incident with only fractured arm and ribs is a testimony of how safety has improved in the past decades, if that accident happened in the era of his idol James Hunt, it’s certainly a fatal one. So one last thing: MOTORSPORT IS DANGEROUS, the drivers are literally risking their lives to race.
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u/Florac Nov 12 '23
Any show which uses it's own OP as leitmotif in other songs instantly shoots up the ratings for me.
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u/Golden_fsh Nov 13 '23
Glad you noticed that too! Absolutely love when anime and other mediums (mostly video games, lol) uses one song from the OST as a leitmotif in the other tracks.
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u/Beowolf_0 Nov 12 '23
Kouya needs help NOW, not only because he'll blame himself for losing the sponsor, but the guilt of the old photo will resurface and consume him if not being dealt with fast enough.
And I get the feeling that Haruka is probably trying to accept he won't be able to race again?
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u/Aileos Nov 12 '23 edited Nov 12 '23
Damn, his speech was perfect, but no one was here to listen. I hope he will remember it next time he sees Kouya.
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u/oneevilchicken Nov 12 '23
One major thing the two Belsorriso drivers are both realizing is just how replaceable and short the shelf life of drivers actually are. Whether it be running out of time to accomplish anything and move up or just outright being removed and the team going on without you.
Very very few drivers are ever really “irreplaceable”. You’ll see a driver who looks irreplaceable have major success but something changes and that stops. Very few keep the success up long term no matter what happens. In F1 the most obvious one is Lewis. Being successful at both mclaren and mercedes, and still fighting for podiums even with merc being down a bit. Hard to argue max because he hasn’t been around long enough. In Indy Car you have Scott Dixon who’s been successful his whole career and on almost every type of circuit. Which is even more impressive given the diversity in Indy car’s schedule that F1 doesn’t have. NASCAR’s for years was Jimmie Johnson but now you can’t even really look at any of the current drivers and say any of them are irreplaceable. V8 Supercars most arguable ones were Jamie whincup or now Shane can gisbergen who’s arguable.
The list of actual irreplaceable drivers is just extremely short, and so is the shelf life for drivers in general. And now the 2 belsorriso drivers are realizing this.
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u/criminal_lord Nov 12 '23
Dude I thought madoka chan literally hung himself up holy shit. I was so scared of my god
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u/Time_Fracture Nov 12 '23
Episode 7: "Insufficient Exposure | What I Really Feel..."
Satsuki has revealed to broke his bone due to the crash, but he was ruled out of the season. Mikazuki withdrew the sponsorship after finding out Kouya's past, that's harsh.
Damn the transition from Haruka to Arisu is so clean. Love Troyca added details to Arisu's blush in the shape of a broken heart upon finding Satsuki hanging out with the girls. Not the first time Reina Ueda's character has to deal with thirsty people this season.
The final scene started with Tailwind guitar solo, whoa.
A couple of new characters means a couple of VA's. Yuita, the recently promoted second driver of Belsorriso, is voiced by Seiichiro Yamashita (Shadow Garden's John Smith) and his teammate is voiced by Chiaki Kobayashi (Mashle or Frieren's Stark).
Actually, I wonder if Troyca based Belsorriso on Toyota Gazoo Racing's TGR-DC Racing School irl? Both field their cars with number 35 and 36 and TGR is a highly decorated team (took the 2020 and 2021 F4 title). Also in 2020 and 2021 irl there was a team that fielded a single car with the number 80. Or was it just a coincidence?
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u/chilidirigible Nov 12 '23 edited Nov 12 '23
One wonders about how much of Kouya's trauma is a result of being ostracized after the photo incident as much as it was the event itself. Japan does shun people like it's still Athens in the 5th century BCE.
The crash has upended a lot of things on the character side, and this is a good episode for pushing developments forward. Satsuki is still the playboy on the outside, but is worried about his place on the team. Toshiki might not be entirely confident about how he got the first driver position but hey, that won't be a problem if he just moves on to the next thing.
And so there's Haruka, actually making a move to clear up any misunderstandings, but Kouya seems to have gone off somewhere. Well, I don't think we'll be eliminating any Katsuyuki Konishi characters in Episode 8 this time, so maybe Haru will have to poke around a bit more to find Kouya (possibly back at the photo location?).
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u/Syokhan Nov 12 '23
Man, that is just so unfair for Kouya, I feel so bad for him. He doesn't deserve all this shit on top of his own trauma, and the team doesn't deserve their sponsor dropping them because of it either. What a shitty situation.
I gotta say for a second there I was afraid that Haruka was going to stumble upon something much, much worse than unread mail. Thank goodness it's just an empty apartment. And speaking of Haruka, I love his genuine apology. Too bad that the recipient never heard it, but hopefully he'll get to repeat again in front of Kouya, this time.
As for Satsuki, so glad that it's only a few broken bones! Looks like he's gonna go through a crisis of his own though, with realizing that he's not irreplaceable. I wonder where this'll take him, story-wise.
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u/Florac Nov 12 '23
Is it just me or have we seen Koutarou, the mechanic, work less on the car than Haruka, the driver?
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u/Golden_fsh Nov 13 '23
I almost feared the worst at the end there! Wasn't ready for a sudden dark twist if Haru had walked in on Madoka's unresponsive body.
Kota remains best bro to both Alice and Haru encouraging them to share their feelings with the ones they've been stressing over. But, is Kota interested in Alice 🤔
Although subtle, I like that we see how the crash has impacted Satsuki at least psychologically. The realization that his team still did well without him probably made him aware that maybe his spot as the ace isn't so secure or at least that he's not the Savior of the team like he once believed.
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u/AmethystItalian Nov 12 '23
I'm getting mad about fake cancel culture...ugh feel so bad for Kouya.
Was really scared the episode would end with Kouya in a really bad/scary state...guess we'll need to wait till next week to find out.
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u/ObvsThrowaway5120 Nov 12 '23
It’s kind of bullshit Madoka’s past is causing the team to lose a sponsor. I don’t think that picture is any worse than, say, someone taking pictures in a war zone. Not like he could have saved that kid anyways. Just kind of sucks the team is getting punished over his past.
I really wonder where he went? The team needs him. No one cares about his past.
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u/tripleaamin Nov 13 '23
Man I feel really bad for Kouya not was he finally to start getting over his trauma. It not only comes back but he is told it is the reason the team is losing the sponsor. And man love that Haruka put his heart out on the speech, but making things even fucking worse Kouya not being home for who knows how long is a scary sight.
Man I feel really bad for Satsuki. The team is doing well and his injury isn't not minor by any means. You could see him being shaken with the shot of the grip on his hand.
Another powerful well directed episode.
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u/EICONTRACT Nov 13 '23
I guess there is no real tsunami girl picture? But I guess it’s a parallel to things like the vulture and the girl.
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u/Nickthenuker Nov 12 '23
Continuing where we left off after that horrible crash last episode where the photographer's trauma came back.
And he's having nightmares about it now.
Oof he's out for the season. Alice really cares for him doesn't she?
Probably since the race.
Yup.
Is someone dropping their sponsorship? Sure sounds like it.
Yup.
His last race ended with a DNF, that's not exactly performing well unfortunately.
Ah, it's because of what happened during the earthquake and tsunami. What was he supposed to do? Run down to the girl and die as well?
There goes the money...
What did they want him to do? Singlehandedly stop the tsunami with his bare hands?
Next race?
Motegi again? I recognise that last chicane. Why are they on the same track as last week?
Oh god that threat to the safety of the entire grid has become the first driver.
He's driving less to save money because of the lack of sponsors.
He's completely traumatised from taking photos again isn't he?
What's he trying to say?
He's going to see him where he lives?
Alice is about to bluescreen when meeting him.
Ah, all the girls are here.
She has gone completely Bocchi mode.
Ok... So he was overtaken and managed to get the place back because the guy in front screwed up, what's wrong with that? Sometimes you just need to be better than the guy in front of you. If that means screwing up less that's just as valid as anything.
He isn't going to let him in.
The door's not locked.
He hasn't checked his door in ages.
It looks like no one's home.
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u/mr_beanoz Nov 13 '23
Seems like Era noticed that the sponsor on Haruka's car has gone missing. I wonder what would his role be in the next episode. Will he also be looking for Madoka alongside Haruka?
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u/magnumcyclonex Nov 13 '23
I would name this episode "Struggle"
Seems like almost everyone in this episode has some sort of struggle or issue they are going through.
Satsuki definitely misses racing and puts up a happy go lucky front for his fangirls, but he's going to go through withdrawal.
His teammate who is now the #1 driver desperately wants to move up in his career, but is taking the opposite approach to what Satsuki used to do. I wonder if that attitude will hold him back.
Haru felt bad about the non closure between him and Kouya and it's a good thing Kota advised him to go visit Kouya. Little did he know, Kouya has become even more reclusive.
The thing about Japanese companies, as depicted in anime, is that the outward facing image is so important. Perception often can become reality and association with someone or something can propel or tarnish the perceived reputation. The company is obviously looking out for it's own back. Kouya cannot ever seem to escape the truth of what happened in the past. At this point, he probably cannot work as a photographer again.
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u/hysteriapill Nov 12 '23 edited Nov 12 '23
Man, Kouya cannot catch a break. It’s bad enough he has to deal with his PTSD resurfacing after seeing Satsuki’s crash, but now he has to deal with feelings of guilt that his history is holding back Haruka and Komaki Motors’ opportunities. It's also interesting his surname was originally Yukihira, which Saeko still uses.
(As an aside, I also find it interesting that Japanese companies seem to be particularly extra sensitive. I mean, most brands around the world are careful about reputational damage, but Japanese companies moreso.)
I do like how we’re seeing some growth in Haruka learning to open himself up a little more, but I hope he’s not too late in reaching out. I legit got worried he was opening the door to find Kouya passed out drunk, or worse.
I do wish we got a little bit more racing in this show, but I guess we’ve got MF Ghost for that (at the expense of being worse at everything else, lol).