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「ネバー・セイ・ネバー -It`s gonna be a long race.-」 (Never Say Never: It`s Gonna Be a Long Race)
“Never Say Never: It`s Gonna Be a Long Race.”
Overtake!’s latest episode brings Haruka back into the fold as he decides to forego his newer, luxurious treatment in favor of returning to Komaki Motors. But in a surprise twist, it’s Belsorriso who has to rebuild and regroup as their current lineup without Haruka is rather dire.
BURNING RUBBER
It’s interesting to see that Haruka used his newfound inspiration to return to Komaki Motors rather than try to see if he could potentially be a good fit with Belsorriso. It places him in a tough spot where he’s learned a lot about his own racing style from Belsorriso and how he could make Komaki’s car compatible with this style.
At the same time, he has to do all of this with tires and parts that aren’t quite up to snuff. Without the bottomless pockets to address such issues, he comes to an odd spot where he has to address why the tires especially prove to be an Achilles heel. Since the start, they’ve been robbing him of the winner’s circle, but hopefully, Haruka’s resolution will come to be more fruitful by the next episode.
BURNING RUBBER
Surprisingly, Belsorriso gets the brunt of the suffering in this episode. Satsuki thinks that he’s lagging behind by being injured and rehabilitating, but they’re actually in a far more dire spot without him. Toshiki is carrying the entire team, but constantly cracks under the pressure of being a leader. Whether it be micromanaging the cars behind him or living up to Satsuki’s reputation, he has his work cut out for him, and the pressure isn’t getting any easier.
He tries to learn from his more abrasive mindset by giving his new partner Satsuki’s job. Honestly, that’s huge for Toshiki since it means he’s taking the coach’s advice, and learning to be less focused on his own ambitions in favor of elevating his team as Satsuki did. But his new partner is too slow to keep up with Toshiki’s previous strategy, undoing a lot of the work Toshiki put into his personal growth. Or perhaps, the main resolution for Toshiki is coming to terms with how Satsuki tapped into Toshiki’s synchronicity, and how he can only really excel comfortably with another driver he can mesh with.