Toyota is boldly going where few carmakers have gone before: into the anime world.
The Japanese automotive brand is launching an all-new anime content series, centered around a “dashing protagonist who’s taking on the evil of soulless automated driving.” Titled GRIP, the five-episode series will be released weekly beginning on February 26 through toyota.com/grip.
Produced for Toyota by Long Beach-based marketing agency, Intertrend, GRIP riffs off the car brand’s popular Gazoo Racing motorsport division and its current roster of cars in an effort to appeal to a Gen-Z and young, Asian-American audience. Intertrend Executive Director of Strategy/Creative Matthew Choy calls anime the “perfect conduit for this audience, leveraging a storytelling platform that wasn’t an usual, expected ad campaign.”
The series follows lead character Jae Kang and his crew as they race around a futuristic metropolis controlled by the fictictious tech conglomerate, SynthCorp. Per a series description, the full-throttle anime series begins at a time “when the thrill of driving has been all but extinguished” by SynthCorp, with Dr. Synth controlling a “vast fleet of cookie-cutter vehicles, which he has successfully persuaded the public to perceive as safer, more efficient and will lead to a more controlled society.” Of course, not everything is as it appears, and Kang — and his track-built GR Corolla, natch — must (literally) race around the clock to rescue the city from impending doom.
Navkiran Dhaliwal is a seasoned content writer with 10+ years of experience. When she's not writing, she can be found cooking up a storm or spending time with her dog, Rain.