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「鈴鹿, 雨 -I don`t want you to race.-」 (Suzuka, Ame: I Don`t Want You to Race.)
“Suzuka, Rain -I don`t want you to race.-“
Overtake!’s sixth episode takes a downturn as Kouya and Haruka are both confronted with the source of their severe anxiety. But as Haruka narrowly avoids danger, not all of the racers are safe as Satsuki is involved in a nasty crash on the speedway.
DOWNPOUR
I am curious about Haruka considering how he seemed to have had experience with racing in the rain, but had been overwhelmed with the torrential downpour. I know it’s oversharing, but as someone who does have panic attacks on the road, especially when it’s pouring or dark out, I’m wondering if it’s because Kouya kept reminding him of his father’s crash that the panic started to settle in. I find that catastrophizing ahead of time makes car rides far worse for me than when I see it as an ordinary trip from Point A to Point B and back.
I’d like to know if this is something that Haruka has always had in the back of his mind and has had panic attacks in previous races in the rain, or if it was visibility that caused him to panic. I might be overthinking this because I’ve had that very experience before of needing to pull over and quiet down my hyperventilating. But I wouldn’t be too surprised if it is merely because of the visibility issues being associated with his father’s tragedy instead of secretly contending with driving anxiety on his own until now.
On a related but different note, Kouya’s trauma makes far more sense in this episode now that we’ve seen exactly what flashes through his mind when he tries snapping a person’s photo. The glazed look in Toshiki’s eyes in the first episode looked odd to me at first, but seeing the same glare come from Satsuki made instant sense the moment it flashed to the little girl from the tsunami photo. It was such a harrowing yet well-crafted scene to immediately jump from that girl’s horrific glare to Kouya struggling to breathe from the panic it still instills in him.
TAILSPIN
This episode ended on a very intense note for Belsorriso as well with Satsuki’s crash. Every detail from the astroglide to the T-bone encapsulated how terrifying it must be to have to race under these conditions. While it appears that Satsuki’s greater consequences may come from the concussions he’s had to contend with, I’m wondering what it’ll mean for Toshiki.
After all of the instances where Toshiki has tried pushing his way out of Satsuki’s shadow, he might have to be the only Belsorriso racer active for the time being. The horrific crash may force Toshki to have to navigate around races on his own without relying on the rubberband effect that’s secured Satsuki so many races. Whether it means Toshiki will be forced to step up to the plate on Satsuki’s behalf or if Toshiki’s resentment will diminish knowing that Satsuki was in danger will be interesting to see by the time the next episode rolls forward.