Toyota races into the anime world with new GRIP series: Interview TOYOTAToyota is launching its first-ever original anime series, \u2018GRIP.\u2019 We got the chance to speak with the minds behind this upcoming animated adventure about their inspiration for the show and its unique message in an exclusive interview. \u2018GRIP\u2019 is bringing Toyota\u2019s Gazoo Racing lineup to the world of anime once again \u2014 this time with its own original IP in a high-octane story all about the love of driving. Gearheads might remember Toyota\u2019s previous collaboration with Initial D, which introduced the GR86 into the winding mountains of Japan in a drifting race with none other than Takumi Fujiwara and his famous Sprinter Trueno AE86. Fans of the classic anime were happy to see Toyota celebrate its brand with the show\u2026 and it looks like the sentiment didn\u2019t go unnoticed, as the company is now set to unleash its very own original anime adventure. We got the chance to sit down with GRIP Supervising Director Jae Woo Kim and Matthew Choy, Executive Director of Strategy\/Creative at Intertrend, about the creative process behind bringing Toyota\u2019s cars to the anime world and the lengths they took to ensure car enthusiasts and anime fans alike were left satisfied and keen to put their wheels to the pavement. Toyota\u2019s GRIP anime is a timely tale of tech vs tradition GRIP is a five-episode anime series set in a not-too-distant future, where driverless cars are at odds with motorists hankering for the open road. The show\u2019s antagonist, Dr. Aron Synth, was once a famous driver \u2014 but he\u2019s on a mission to eradicate traditional cars with self-driving replacements after losing his hand in an accident. Enter protagonists Jae Kang, Linh \u2018Nitro\u2019 Lam, and Kumail Jo, who together act as the \u201clast hope for the spirit of driving\u201d alongside their trusty mentor, Master Rugu. GRIP\u2019s premise presents quite a timely dilemma in the age of driverless taxis and nostalgia culture, something that Matthew Choy recognized during our conversation. Choy says we\u2019re in a unique moment in history, where technology is advancing faster than ever\u2026 but at the same time, consumers are yearning for simpler days. It was this dichotomy that ultimately inspired GRIP\u2019s world and storyline. \u201cWhen we looked into themes for this show, one thing that we looked at was our target audience, which is 18 to 34 years old. One thing that we really found curious is this: On one side, you have all this technology pushing us forward, with Apple\u2019s Vision Pro, with iPhone releases, AI, ChatGPT. We have this huge push towards the future, and on the other hand, all these kids want things like Polaroid cameras and record players. There\u2019s these things that are very analog that are also pulling us back. We want vintage everything,\u201d Choy told us. \u201cThere\u2019s these two forces that are existing in a singular space, which is our culture. And so If I were to translate this into \u2018car talk,\u2019 what would these forces be, and how would they move? And so we created a world for this GRIP series.\u201d Choy explained that viewers will see a familiar, yet different, version of the present in \u2018GRIP,\u2019 which highlights the current cultural changes we\u2019re seeing in our day-to-day lives focused around the world of cars and driving. \u201cWe built this world, and then we had these two forces that were amped up to show this difference. On one side, we have the super futuristic, everything\u2019s machine-driven, computer-controlled narrative,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then you have these guys who are driving manual gearbox cars that give a lot of feedback to the driver, and it\u2019s super exciting. We see the tension between these two worlds and cultural forces kind of grinding together.\u201d Bringing Toyota\u2019s GR cars to life It\u2019s no small feat bringing real-world cars into an anime, and that\u2019s where GRIP\u2019s Supervising Director Jae Woo Kim comes in. Kim\u2019s resume spans a jaw-dropping amount of high-profile animated series, from \u2018Avatar: The Last Airbender\u2019 to \u2018Blood of Zeus\u2019 and even \u2018Ben10: Alien Uprising.\u2019 For Kim, maintaining the vehicles\u2019 authenticity was paramount for this series in order to honor car enthusiasts and fans of the GR lineup. \u201cThese GR cars are not imaginary cars that we made up,\u201d Kim explained. \u201cThese are real cars. These cars do exist, and people literally own them. I\u2019ve seen quite a few of them outside whenever I\u2019m driving. One thing I did not want to do was make up something on top of what\u2019s already there, because not only will casual audiences come in and watch our show, but it\u2019s also for the fans of the GR series. They\u2019re gonna watch this show, and I don\u2019t want them to go, \u2018Hey, that\u2019s not my car!\u2019 We have to keep them in the exact look. I would say the most challenging part was that I had to figure out a way to make these cars look badass within our show. But at the same time, it was fun. Although I\u2019ve seen these cars so many times out there, I\u2019ve never really kind of focused on these GR cars until I started working on the show, and I just found them quite intriguing.\u201d Finding the right studio to tell GRIP\u2019s story It\u2019s safe to say that GRIP is in good hands, as the show is animated by none other than South Korean anime studio DR Movie. This studio has contributed to an eye-popping number of iconic anime series, including the likes of Satoshi Kon\u2019s \u2018Paprika,\u2019 \u2018One Punch Man,\u2019 \u2018Megalobox,\u2019 and much more. For Kim, finding the right studio to bring GRIP to life was the key to creating an authentic anime series for Toyota\u2019s GR-inspired story. \u201cWe were really struggling with trying to find the right studio to do this, and we actually interviewed and talked to lots of studios out there. I\u2019ll be honest, cost is definitely one of the things at the same time \u2014 but at the same time, we really need to look at the quality of the animations, and we found DR Movie,\u201d Kim explained. \u201cThey\u2019ve worked on so many Triple-A titles in Japanese anime. So I\u2019m like, \u2018This is it. It\u2019s got to be it.\u2019 And luckily, we got a contract with them. We talked to them, and they were so excited about the show. They\u2019re very very nice and very humble people with lots of experience. When we started getting some of the works from them, I mean, they\u2019re just fantastic.\u201d GRIP is focused on quality and authenticity, and there are quite a few Easter Eggs tucked throughout the series for car lovers to spot. Choy teased a few that eagle-eyed viewers can expect to find in the show, including the progenitor of the GR lineup. \u201cOne thing with Toyota and GR Racing is that it\u2019s not new to Toyota,\u201d Choy said. \u201cAnd so, we wanted to build in a lot of Easter Eggs that hearken back to true car enthusiasts. If you\u2019re a hardcore car enthusiast who\u2019s really deep into the history of Toyota, you\u2019ll see little things \u2014 specific wheels, minute little things in the background that may just look like set dressing. But all of those things have really, really deep meaning.\u201d \u201cThe one car that started GR Racing was actually not even a Toyota; it was a Lexus in some markets. It\u2019s a Toyota, but it\u2019s an Altezza. It\u2019s known in the US as a Lexus Altezza, and it was the very first car that Toyota raced under the GR banner. It was just called \u2018Gazoo\u2019 back then. We have a replica of that car in the background of the series. We think that there are a lot of hardcore fans of Toyota and car history that will scrub the video really slowly and pick up all these little Easter Eggs.\u201d For the love of driving Ultimately, GRIP is a series about the love of driving \u2014 the pure passion for getting behind the wheel and putting the pedal to the metal. In a world where self-driving cars and driverless taxis are becoming more and more commonplace, GRIP presents an extremely timely message as technology continues to advance at a rapid pace. \u201cOne thing that made me want to work on this show was the love of the cars,\u201d Kim admitted. For me, it\u2019s all about driving. And here in our show, that clearly comes across. I mean, AI cars are nice and I\u2019m not opposed to them, but for someone like me who just loves driving \u2014 when I see these characters, I see a little bit of a projection of myself. Our world is set in the future, but I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s that far out there. These AI-driven cars are not far in the future anymore. It\u2019s in front of us, right now. Our story is in a certain spot where it\u2019s gonna help our audience to attach to our story even more easily.\u201d GRIP races onto screens on Monday, February 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Toyota races into the anime world with new GRIP series: Interview TOYOTAToyota is launching its first-ever original anime series, \u2018GRIP.\u2019 We got the chance to speak with the minds behind this upcoming animated adventure about their inspiration for the show and its unique message in an exclusive interview. \u2018GRIP\u2019 is bringing Toyota\u2019s Gazoo Racing lineup […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}