And the answer is: Yes!, with a big explanation mark, for a slow sport as cycling, they made it very interesting while still keeping a lot of realism, it surprised me, no super powers, the sport itself, comedy and drama made this in one hell of an anime.
The story closely follows our protagonist Shinozaki Mikoto, an unpopular and non-athletic student, who gets bullied by some guys from his school, this all ends when his love interest Fukazawa Yuki walks in the classroom and asks whether he wants to join the cycling club, he initially refuses, but later joins anyway. As a cycling fan myself, I was intrigued by the realism shown, it perfectly explained what kind of cyclist there are and in what part every character excels, while most cyclist don't especially are good in downhill, it didn't matter to me, those are the small details.
The story could be divided in two parts, the introduction and Mikoto finding himself in the cycling world and the second part, a single race, while most people would be surprised that there is only one contest, it is not all that weird, races usually take between the 4 and 6 hours depending on the course. The first part has lots of comedy and drama attached to it while Mikoto learns cycling and regrets not being strong enough. While the second part is pure action as far as cycling goes, which entertained me a lot, the characters within the race, all the sprints and the helping each other to finish and possible victory.
Lastly as a point of critique, this anime was set up to nicely for something long running, it had a good introduction, a slow build up towards the first race and the race was very nice itself, but just one race might be a bit low, not to cut the episodes for a race, but one was low and with that I want to say the dividing of episodes could have been better.
As far as sound goes, this part is very strong, a catchy opening song, the soundtrack within the anime isn't overpowering and is perfect on the moments where it gets serious. Voice actors are all fairly well known, including the recently very active Kaji Yuki.
Art is decent, the characters designs are nothing special and are good as they are. The animation is well done, although they could have done some more shots from scenery and not just looking at faces, but at the cyclists as a group, how they are cycling, could have been better.
While Overdrive has a small cast, which isn't very detailed in MAL's character database, they keep the character entertaining and lots of development has the room for it to occur. The character include a normal, energetic and somewhat comical protagonist, a violent bossy bad-ass leader, a helpful kind and caring one, the rival of the protagonist who is silent and to himself, but slightly perverted. And the main girl who the protagonist is in love with, a girl who would be typical for this age, done very realistic. And the guy who seems unbeatable, who the main team have to overcome to win the race.
Overall Overdrive was a very enjoyable anime, caused by its interesting characters and strong development of the protagonist, which left everybody with a smile when he accomplished something great.
Strong points:
- Realistic cycling made very enjoyable.
- Strong characters which develop in a entertaining way.
- A fitting soundtrack which matched the theme of the current situation.
Weak points:
- A story which might have had a too long introduction, 6 eps of introducing, 7 eps of the training and rival encountering, 12 eps of actual action and racing and 1 closing episode.
- Lazy animation, which could have been more entertaining if it would have focused on the whole body of a cyclist.
A small trivia, on the date of this review the Tour de France ended, which isn't completely coincidental, I started this anime because the Tour got a bit boring for me when my country's riders all retired. Although I didn't plan it, I thought it was a nice date for it.
So if you are a sports fan or an anime fan who likes the sports genre, this is a must watch.
Life lesson learnt: It is never too late to start doing something you want.
