Toyota Grip is an all-new anime series produced by the automakers in an attempt to revive its GR brand of cars. “Grip: A Toyota Story” is a five-episode series that will stream online, launching on the 26th of May.
Fans of anime will no doubt make the connection between this show and the roots of Toyota in anime with the legendary Toyota AE86 being heavily featured in the anime and popular manga, Initial D.
The AE86 was catapulted to the mainstream and till this day, we still see cars with the black and white colours of the AE86 with the Japanese lettering: Fujiwara Tofu Store.
We hilariously even saw a Honda Civic wrapped in the Toyota Sprinter Trueno paint. The owner probably didn’t realise the irony of putting the decal on Toyota’s bitter rival.
In Grip you’ll be able to see the GR Corolla, GR Supra, and the GR86 in action against soulless autonomous vehicles.
The protagonist, Jae Kang, battles the “evils of soulless automated driving.” Set sometime in the future, the premise of a fictitious tech company controlling a fleet of cookie-cutter autonomous vehicles, all in the name of safety and convenience, really isn’t that far-fetched.
We won’t say who this evil tech company is but it does sound familiar. Need a hint? It rhymes with Besla.
In Grip, Jae Kang is joined by girl racer, Linh “Nitro” Lam, complete with pink hair so you know that’s the girl; Kumail Jo, the strong type; Master Rugu, who is the Miyagi type; and the evil villain Dr. Aron Synth who wants to eradicate human driving because he blames racing for the loss of his hand.
It’s all a bit of a silly gimmick, but considering its recent troubles with Daihatsu, Toyota needs all of the good press it can get.
All 5 episodes of Grip are now out on Toyota’s website.
