Over Drive

Mikoto Shinozaki is a high school student lacking in social awareness. In addition, due to his untidy appearance and low self-esteem, he is an easy target for bullies. Regardless, any misfortune that falls upon Mikoto is partly his own fault—at least, that is what Yuki Fukuzawa, the most popular girl in class, believes. With this assumption, Yuki invites Mikoto to join the school's bicycle club, in hopes he can improve himself and gain new friends. Motivated by feelings he has for Yuki, Mikoto has no reason to decline her offer—except for the fact that he does not know how to ride a bicycle.

Despite his lack of even the fundamentals, Mikoto cannot get over the image of himself on a bicycle. Eventually, he succumbs to his curiosity and sneaks into the school grounds at night to practice. This begins Mikoto's journey as he pedals his way through the vast world of cycling, where the scenery of his life changes in ways he never thought possible.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shinozaki, Mikoto Main

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Yamato, Takeshi Main

Taniyama, Kishou Japanese

Fukazawa, Yousuke Main

Yasumura, Makoto Japanese

Fukazawa, Yuki Main

Nazuka, Kaori Japanese

Terao, Kouichi Main

Nojima, Kenji Japanese

Hyoudou, Naoto Supporting

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Asahi, Kaho Supporting

Yahagi, Sayuri Japanese

Sakurai, Yoneko Supporting

Yuzuki, Ryouka Japanese

Suzuki, Yukiko Supporting

Honda, Youko Japanese

Kurata, Maki Supporting

Hisajima, Shiho Japanese

Chino, Takatoshi Producer

Kumagai, Takuto Producer

Takahata, Yuuichirou Producer

Nishizawa, Masatomo Producer

Reviews

May 25, 2020

Doutei-kun

Recommended

I love CYCLING, travelling to different places. :D

OVER DRIVE is a show based on Professional CYCLING.

What happens when a fundamentally coward, weak guy gets involved with something simply because of a person he has a crush on? His only motivation is his dream to ride with her on a bicycle in the near future. Let's see if he has enough guts to move forward. "The first step is the hardest" they say. LET'S CHEER HIM UP ON HIS JOURNEY TO GET HIS DREAM GIRL. Even if our friend doesn't get his desired girl, he may at least get something of equal importance, at ... least a motivation to move on.


STORY (9) :
A guy decides something & dedicates his being to change himself just to be liked by the girl he has crush on. His path to become number one is not an easier one & he is not the first one to start either. Yet he will do every possible thing & there are partners who will follow the same path with him.
The Anime has no Romance element, but Manga has Romance element in it. Though, it doesn't really feel like it lacks romance.

ART (9) :
Character Expressions of SHINOZAKI are the highlights of this Animation. His "character animation" as a "dull guy" is very well executed. He is the most adorable character you will see in the anime.
YUKI is beautifully animated as a mature girl. Her Flustered expressions when she is thinking about SHINOZAKI are very good. YUKI in SHINOZAKI's fantasies is really Erotic.
Every other characters are well drawn with good art and expressions.
The animation during racing is also satisfying.

SOUND (8) :
SHINOZAKI is voiced by YUKI KAJI as a childish and adorable character. His lines are comedic & is my favorite VA from this Anime. It's something to brag about.
YUKI is voiced cute by KAORI NAZUKA. You just kinda like their voices.
The OP song is what gives the Sports feel than the ED, but it is not to my liking. The ED song is loud, but i personally really like it.

CHARACTER (10) :
I give 9 to MIKOTO as a character, just for his resolve and dedication to the subject (YUKI as a woman & CYCLING as a sport). Him undergoing change for his good is what i like in his character.
Despite his careless personality, his naughty personality is what i like the most.
MIKOTO really made me laugh the whole time.
I don't really care much about the personality of side characters ; not that they aren't good. I just want the protagonist to be mentally strong.

ENJOYMENT (9) :
OVER DRIVE was really an entertaining journey to me & i was done with the anime quickly. I am now gonna try reading the manga.

OVERALL (10) :
This is really special to me. I was hesitant, whether to give it 9 or 10, because i am really into the ideal stuff. So, as an exception i gave it 10, because its just that special to me.
This Anime is blessed with Adorable Characters, Dedicated Main Guy & Spirited Main Guys.
I wouldn't argue with the fact that this is Underrated, despite being a good anime. But that might just be me.
There are Moments and special Scenes in every episodes that are Hilarious & sometimes erotic to watch. So, don't drop this Anime if you like the mentioned stuff.

Thank You :)

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Apr 17, 2017

Zurokyn

Mixed Feelings

So, I haven't done a review on MAL and I feel like I should have done this a while back after how many times I have put animes I completed after I watched them. I just felt like doing this one because this was to be fair, my friend recommended this to me for months and I thought it'd be alright, and well... actually it was pretty bad.

Overall, the story in the least spoiler way possible but telling you the basic ways of it works is, the main character is the typical shounen anime character (especially in certain sports animes) who isnt particularly good at ... anything, but can cling to one thing. and thats biking. The main character, Mikoto, has a crush on the girl Yuki, and ends up riding the bike because he was persuaded into joining a club so she could get some money. The whole show is a pretty big jumbled mess.

For starters, the beginning of the show wasn't actually bad, it has some very good comedical essences and especially good for its time that it was made. Although after the race starts the show actually drags out. The race took place from around episodes 13 till the end of the series and from that point of the series you're in for flashback mania to go in depth with the characters and their experiences and even about characters that have little to NO impact on the story whatsoever.

The goal of the "Tour de France" was made apparent at Episode 1 but in reality was never hashed onto for the rest of the show which also makes the purpose of the show kinda bad and was never followed through.


Art wise, the character designs in my own opinion, were actually pretty good. However, the animation and bike scenes were pretty bad overall and considering when the anime was made there is actually a lot more that could have been done to make it more visually appealing, but then again, that didn't happen.


The audio in the show was probably the only thing that I didn't really mind, I kinda somewhat liked the opening, and the ending was okay also but as for the actual sounds from voice actors, and some of the music in the anime was just garbage. Very overused music, the voice acting for some of the characters just made you sick of the characters themselves (the main character)

The characters actually were in my own opinion, the worst part of the whole show. The story was a good premise, plot idea, etc. but quite frankly the characters actually ruined the show for me. The main character was as I said earlier, the typical shounen character, and its the same for the rest of the characters. The worst character in the show was probably the main female lead, who the MC has a crush on. She leaves a very crappy impression at the start and actually almost makes up on it somewhat during the race and a bit prior, but seriously, way to go and ruin every bit of buildup at the end, much applause.

and whats sad is, even the characters that made a GOOD impression, had the same downfall, and I ended up just honestly hating myself for admitting but the main protagonist is actually the only good character in the series and he isn't even a very good character.


Overall enjoyment level would be a LOT LOT higher, but because of the horrendous last couple episodes (the race episodes) that ruined everything that I liked about the show and made it dragged on and boring and made me skip half the episode and go onto the next episode only to do the same thing because it was a constant occurrence every episode of flashbacks that have absolutely NOTHING that benefits the story in anyway possible.

The manga is very slow to update, and the anime came out a bit after the manga ended if I recall, and the time spent FLASHBACKING useless characters, could be used to fill the series with stuff that would catch the series up because my enjoyment level plummeted especially near the END and BECAUSE of the lackluster ending. I would have definitely enjoyed this series a lot more if that was the case because the ending was by far one of its weakest points.

Overall, I think the anime isn't THAT bad, and I have friends and met other people who like this series, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. There was quite a bunch of things that in my opinion would be good if changed but overall the anime can be enjoyed if you can ignore some certain things. I definitely would try to watch the series, because its a very mixed opinion, but then again it wouldnt be a bad idea skipping past it either

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 15, 2014

elleyonce

Not Recommended

Ah, the puberty. A time in which we obsess over teen idols, or get angry about nothing, but above all, a time where we want to be acknowledged. So how does one get acknowledged? The best way, of course, is to prove anyone to be the best in something. After all, victors write history.

But it’s losers like Shinozaki Mikoto who are history.

Over Drive follows the protagonist and his journey on the bike, alongside the other members of the Sakura Bicycle Club. Their big dream is to participate in the Tour de France. But of course, it’s a long way until then – first, there ... are 11 episodes about Shinozaki learning to ride a bike and swooning over his crush Fukuzawa Yuki, introducing Yamato as well as the captain and Yuki’s brother Yousuke. Needless to say, it’s too long, and in my opinion a chore to watch. Once we get to the race – which is pretty much the rest of the show – the pace picks up, very slightly so though, because not only that the race is dragged on, there are also flashbacks which make the race even longer. There’s even a meaningless filler which takes the entire second half of one episode, and that goes too far for me.

The race itself was pretty unrealistic in my eyes, especially when I take Shinozaki into regard. In the first two episodes, he wasn’t able to ride a bike, and twenty episodes later, he is suddenly able to win a checkpoint. What’s even worse is that it is mentioned in a flashback that Shinozaki used to ride a bike as child. That makes the whole beginning part illogical. And how was he able to evolve into such a good rider in such a short amount of time? There is only one thing I consider to be kind of realistic, and that is the way the race ends for him – but that’d be a spoiler.

The other racers are very generic character for a sports anime. We have Yousuke, who’s an arrogant captain who thinks he doesn’t need a team, and of course he changes his ways over time. There’s Shinozaki’s friendly rival Yamato, who’s the usual cool and aloof character with, of course, the corresponding flashback. There’s the inconsistently written crush Yuki as well as the antagonist Hyoudou, who’s also pretty generic. And then there’s Yousuke’s assistant Terao, who gets fleshed out and developed only in the very last part of the show, and it’s truly a shame because by the time he does get fleshed out, we see that he isn’t really a generic assistant. The whole cast and their interactions feel awkward, and by the time the cast is likeable, the show is over. At this point I can’t even determine what the worst part about Over Drive is, but the cast plays a big role in my low enjoyment.

The soundtrack is not very good either, mostly because no tracks quite fit to the mood, save the fiery guitar riffs that weren’t often played, sadly. The soundtrack sounds like it came straight from the 90s. 90s sound is generally not a bad thing, but if it’s a background music to something what’s supposed to be a fiery battle, then it is a bad choice. The opening is very good, the endings were alright as well, but what’s truly worth mentioning is something else. In Yamato’s flashback, he is supposed to be in France and have language problems. In France, people speak French, right? Not in Over Drive, because they were all talking Japanese. So it made it look like Yamato has trouble processing what he hears or him simply being deaf. Needless to say, it was ridiculous, very much so. The other aspect that had poor budget was the animation. It was from 2007 and the animation is aged, yes, but the CG still looks awkward and bad.

My enjoyment level was, as previously mentioned, not the highest. The first eleven epiosdes were plain boring to me. The race was a tad more enjoyable and I genuinely enjoyed the flashbacks between Yousuke and Terao. The theme of being the strongest and the desire to be acknowledged by friends and elders is not the most unique, not even to sports anime. The way it was presented was good at times, but not very much for the most part.

Overall, Over Drive is a sports anime that sounds average in theory and sub par in practice. The characters are generic and average at best for the most part, some developments simply unrealistic, and the sound not very fitting. Its themes are nothing new and the CG animation bad. There are very little redeeming values to this show, such as a tad more enjoyment in the race and some character development for one character only as well as a nice opening. Should you watch Over Drive? No. There are better anime out there, and certainly better shows in this genre. Because sadly, even though losers are history, there’s a reason why they’re forgotten.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Over Drive Episode 18 Discussion Trie - Oct 20, 2007	16 replies	by EsieEyen »» Feb 16, 2:08 AM
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