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What does a Japanese car fan mean by touge? Literally, a mountain pass. In practice, a narrow road of hairpin turns where street racers met at night, which is the world of Initial D, the manga Shuichi Shigeno started in 1995 and set on the mountain passes of Gunma Prefecture. I could not find the Initial D anime on any US subscription service as of October 2026.
Its sequel, MF Ghost, moves the racing out of the night. Japan has switched to self-driving electric cars, and Initial D’s Ryosuke Takahashi has founded a legal series for gasoline cars on closed-off public roads, run in daylight with sponsors, drones and a worldwide audience. That one streams in the US.
These nine car anime all stream in America in some form, from a 1967 TV cartoon to a 2024 original made with the company that runs Super Formula. Each one is built on a piece of Japanese car life that an American viewer has no particular reason to know: a toll road in Hakone, the ladder from go-karts to Formula 4, a small Italian car, a cab license that takes years to earn. Of the nine, the one I have watched is The Castle of Cagliostro.
The 9 Picks at a Glance
| Title | Format | Length | MBTI | Behind the wheel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MF GHOST | Anime series | 37 episodes (3 seasons) | ISTP | A 19-year-old in a Toyota 86 |
| OVERTAKE! | Anime series | 12 episodes | INFJ | Formula 4 on a family team’s budget |
| HIGHSPEED Étoile | Anime series | 12 episodes | INFP | A former ballerina at 300+ mph |
| Redline | Anime film | About 100 min | ESTP | Seven years of hand-drawn frames, one race |
| Speed Racer | Anime series | 52 episodes | ESFP | Go Mifune in the gadget-loaded Mach 5 |
| The Castle of Cagliostro | Anime film | 100 min | ENFP | Lupin in a cream-yellow Fiat 500 |
| Riding Bean | Anime film (OVA) | 48 min | ESTP | A getaway driver framed for kidnapping |
| éX-Driver | Anime series (OVA) | 6 episodes | ESTJ | Humans chasing runaway self-driving cars |
| Odd Taxi | Anime series | 13 episodes | ISTJ | The cab that never speeds |
MF Ghost, Overtake! and HIGHSPEED Étoile are tied to real Japanese roads, circuits and racing organizations. Odd Taxi, at the end of the list, never races at all.
1. MF GHOST
| Format | Genre | Length | Emotional tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anime series | Racing, Drama | 37 episodes (3 seasons) | Fast, Technical |
In 202X, self-driving electric cars have replaced gasoline engines across Japan. The one place combustion cars still race is MFG, a series held on closed-off public roads around Hakone and Atami, filmed by drones and streamed around the world. Kanata Rivington, a 19-year-old raised in Britain, enters it in a Toyota 86 while searching for his long-lost father.
From Shuichi Shigeno’s manga, the sequel to his Initial D. Felix Film animated three seasons between 2023 and 2026, and a fourth, final season has been announced.
Hakone, Not Gunma
The opening round, Odawara Pikes Peak, follows a real route. It climbs the ANEST IWATA Turnpike Hakone (long known as the Hakone Turnpike), a toll road out of Odawara, and comes down to Lake Ashi, and its name borrows from the hill climb in Colorado. In the story, a volcanic eruption near Mount Fuji has dried up the hot springs and emptied the towns, which is how the organizers get to close the roads. MFG, it turns out, stands for Mount Fuji Ghost.
Fans of the original will find Ryosuke Takahashi running the series and Eurobeat back on the soundtrack. Kanata himself was trained in England by Takumi Fujiwara, the hero of Initial D.
| Service (US) | Status |
|---|---|
| Crunchyroll | Streaming |
| Netflix | Not available |
| Hulu | Not available |
| Amazon Prime Video | Not available |
| HBO Max | Not available |
| Disney+ | Not available |
| Apple TV+ | Not available |
On Crunchyroll in the US.
2. OVERTAKE!
| Format | Genre | Length | Emotional tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anime series | Racing, Drama | 12 episodes | Earnest, Grounded |
Koya Madoka is a freelance photographer in a slump: he can no longer bring himself to photograph people. A job sends him to a Formula 4 race, where he meets Haruka Asahina, a quiet high school student who drives for Komaki Motors, a tiny family-run team, and Koya decides to help them reach the podium.
An original series from Kadokawa and the studio Troyca, directed by Ei Aoki. Twelve episodes aired in 2023.
The First Rung
Japanese teenagers usually reach a race car through go-karts first, then Formula 4, the entry level of single-seater racing. In Japan, F4 often runs on Super GT race weekends, so a high school driver can share the paddock with the country’s biggest sports car teams. Haruka moved up from karts the year before the story starts.
The production did years of research with the cooperation of the organizers of Japan’s FIA-F4 championship, and the show features real circuits such as Fuji Speedway and Suzuka. The Komaki garage is set in Gotemba, near Fuji Speedway.
| Service (US) | Status |
|---|---|
| Crunchyroll | Streaming |
| Netflix | Not available |
| Hulu | Not available |
| Amazon Prime Video | Not available |
| HBO Max | Not available |
| Disney+ | Not available |
| Apple TV+ | Not available |
On Crunchyroll in the US.
3. HIGHSPEED Étoile
| Format | Genre | Length | Emotional tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anime series | Racing, Sci-Fi | 12 episodes | Bright, Fast |
Rin Rindo trained to be a ballet dancer until an injury ended it, and since then she has been living at her grandmother’s house, mostly playing video games. Then she is pulled into NEX Race, a near-future series whose cars run on a new energy source called Hyper and reach more than 500 km/h, over 300 mph.
An original series animated by studio A-CAT, from original character designs by Takuya Fujima. Twelve episodes aired in 2024.
Real Sponsors on Fictional Cars
Japan Race Promotion, the company that runs Super Formula, the country’s top single-seater series, worked on this show as a production partner, and the racing engineering company Mugen served as technical adviser. The cars and race suits carry the logos of real companies, among them Yostar, Sega and the cosmetics maker Kose.
Overtake! shows the bottom of the Japanese ladder. Étoile imagines a top rung that does not exist yet, in a future where a new energy source has eased the world’s environmental problems.
| Service (US) | Status |
|---|---|
| Crunchyroll | Streaming |
| Netflix | Not available |
| Hulu | Not available |
| Amazon Prime Video | Not available |
| HBO Max | Not available |
| Disney+ | Not available |
| Apple TV+ | Not available |
On Crunchyroll in the US.
4. Redline
| Format | Genre | Length | Emotional tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anime film | Racing, Sci-Fi, Action | About 100 min | Hype, Wild |
Sweet JP is a driver with a towering pompadour and a mechanic who fixes races for the mob. After a wreck in the qualifying race, he gets into the Redline anyway, on a fan vote, after two drivers pull out. The Redline is the most popular race in the galaxy, and this time it will run across Roboworld, a planet of militant cyborgs whose president has threatened to hang everyone involved.
Directed by Takeshi Koike for Madhouse. It premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in 2009 and opened in Japan in October 2010.
100,000 Drawings
Seven years. More than 100,000 hand-drawn frames. Redline was Koike’s first feature film as a director, and it took so long that it came out several years later than planned.
It did poorly in Japanese theaters and found its audience on home video, which is how it became a cult film. JP’s Japanese voice is Takuya Kimura, a former member of the idol group SMAP and a household name in Japan.
| Service (US) | Status |
|---|---|
| Crunchyroll | Not available |
| Netflix | Not available |
| Hulu | Not available |
| Amazon Prime Video | Rent / Buy |
| HBO Max | Not available |
| Disney+ | Not available |
| Apple TV+ | Not available |
Not on a base subscription. It is free with ads on Tubi, free with a library card on Kanopy, or you can rent it on Prime Video.
5. Speed Racer
| Format | Genre | Length | Emotional tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anime series | Racing, Action | 52 episodes | Retro, Breezy |
Go Mifune, known in English as Speed Racer, drives the Mach 5, a race car built by his father and loaded with gadgets such as jacks that lift it off the road and saw blades in the front. He races around the world with his girlfriend Trixie, his little brother Spritle, Spritle’s chimpanzee Chim-Chim and, now and then, a masked rival called Racer X.
Tatsunoko Production made fifty-two episodes for Fuji TV in 1967 and 1968, from Tatsuo Yoshida’s manga Mach GoGoGo.
Why the Number Is 5
In Japanese, the hero’s name, Go, sounds like the word for five, which is why the number is painted on his car. The M on the hood stands for Mach, and also for Mifune Motors, the family business. The family name itself is a nod to the actor Toshiro Mifune.
The English version reached American TV in 1967, almost as soon as the show aired in Japan, and for decades it was what many Americans pictured when they heard the word anime. Shout! Studios took over the US rights in 2024 and released the original Japanese-language version digitally as well.
| Service (US) | Status |
|---|---|
| Crunchyroll | Not available |
| Netflix | Not available |
| Hulu | Not available |
| Amazon Prime Video | Streaming |
| HBO Max | Not available |
| Disney+ | Not available |
| Apple TV+ | Not available |
Included with a Prime membership. Tubi, Pluto TV and The Roku Channel carry it free with ads.
6. The Castle of Cagliostro
| Format | Genre | Length | Emotional tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anime film | Adventure, Comedy, Heist | 100 min | Playful, Romantic |
Fresh from robbing a casino, the gentleman thief Lupin III and his partner Jigen discover that the money is counterfeit, and follow the trail to the tiny European country of Cagliostro. On the way in, they come across a young woman in a wedding dress being chased by armed men.
Hayao Miyazaki’s first feature film as director, released in 1979 and based on Monkey Punch’s Lupin III. Its full title is Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro.
The Car Miyazaki Chose
The big chase comes early, and nobody in it is driving anything expensive. Lupin has a Fiat 500 with a supercharger he switches on with a lever, and the woman they rescue is escaping in a Citroën 2CV.
That was a choice. Earlier Lupin stories had put him in cars like a Mercedes-Benz SSK. Miyazaki said Lupin sides with the poor, so he had to drive a Fiat Nuova 500. Miyazaki has owned a 2CV himself, and the film’s animation director, Yasuo Otsuka, owned the same model of Fiat when the film came out.
| Service (US) | Status |
|---|---|
| Crunchyroll | Not available |
| Netflix | Not available |
| Hulu | Not available |
| Amazon Prime Video | Rent / Buy |
| HBO Max | Not available |
| Disney+ | Not available |
| Apple TV+ | Not available |
Rent it on Prime Video, or watch it free: with ads on Tubi, or with a library card on Hoopla.
7. Riding Bean
| Format | Genre | Length | Emotional tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anime film (OVA) | Action, Crime | 48 min | Loud, Kinetic |
Bean Bandit is a courier for hire who will deliver anything if the price is right, and his partner Rally Vincent handles the guns. One day the two of them are framed for kidnapping the daughter of a company president, and they spend the rest of it on the run from the police while the real kidnapper slips away.
A single original video release from 1989, written by Kenichi Sonoda. A full series was planned, but only this one episode was made.
Where Gunsmith Cats Came From
One episode. Forty-eight minutes. The series it was meant to open never came. Sonoda went on to draw the manga Gunsmith Cats, made Rally its lead and brought Bean Bandit along, still a driver for hire.
AnimEigo released Riding Bean in the US on VHS in 1990, as one of the company’s first titles. Watch the Shelby. In Gunsmith Cats, the 1967 Shelby GT500 becomes Rally’s car, and here it belongs to someone else, a character named Percy.
| Service (US) | Status |
|---|---|
| Crunchyroll | Not available |
| Netflix | Not available |
| Hulu | Not available |
| Amazon Prime Video | Not available |
| HBO Max | Not available |
| Disney+ | Not available |
| Apple TV+ | Not available |
Streams on RetroCrush, and free with ads on Tubi.
8. éX-Driver
| Format | Genre | Length | Emotional tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anime series (OVA) | Racing, Action, Sci-Fi | 6 episodes | Light, Zippy |
In this future, nobody drives. AI computers do it, and when one of those systems loses control, an éX-Driver is sent after the runaway car in an old mechanical car with no AI in it. The team in Japan is Lorna in a Lotus Europa, Lisa, who moves from a Subaru Impreza to a Lancia Stratos, and Soichi, the youngest, in a Caterham Super Seven.
An original video series from 2000, planned and designed by Kosuke Fujishima, the manga artist behind Oh My Goddess! Six episodes, followed by éX-Driver the Movie in 2002.
The Self-Driving Future, Again
Japanese car anime keeps imagining the day people stop driving. éX-Driver did it in 2000, MF Ghost does it in 202X, and both hand the wheel back to a human in an older car. Here the team drives old mechanical cars with no AI in them, and the chases turn on drifting.
On the team’s training course, Soichi drives a Daihatsu Midget II, a pocket-size Japanese kei truck. Kei cars are a Japanese legal class with a 660 cc engine limit and lower taxes, and most of them carry yellow license plates.
| Service (US) | Status |
|---|---|
| Crunchyroll | Not available |
| Netflix | Not available |
| Hulu | Not available |
| Amazon Prime Video | Not available |
| HBO Max | Not available |
| Disney+ | Not available |
| Apple TV+ | Not available |
Not on a subscription service in the US. The series and the movie are both free with ads on Tubi.
9. Odd Taxi
| Format | Genre | Length | Emotional tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anime series | Mystery, Drama, Comedy | 13 episodes | Dry, Tense |
Hiroshi Odokawa is a 41-year-old walrus who drives his own taxi in Tokyo, keeps the radio on and talks as little as he can. His passengers talk instead, and their stories begin to connect to a missing high school girl, until both the police and the yakuza are following his cab.
An original series by OLM and P.I.C.S., directed by Baku Kinoshita and written by Kazuya Konomoto. Thirteen episodes aired in 2021.
A Car That Never Races
A hand goes up on a Tokyo sidewalk, the cab pulls over, and the rear door swings open by itself. In Japan the driver works that door with a lever, and nobody tips. Odokawa is a kojin taxi, an independent owner-driver, and that is a license Japanese cab drivers earn only after years of professional driving with a clean record.
Odd Taxi has no race in it. It stands for the other half of Japanese car life: the driving people do for a living in a city where most commuters take the train.
| Service (US) | Status |
|---|---|
| Crunchyroll | Streaming |
| Netflix | Not available |
| Hulu | Not available |
| Amazon Prime Video | Not available |
| HBO Max | Not available |
| Disney+ | Not available |
| Apple TV+ | Not available |
On Crunchyroll in the US.
US Streaming Comparison at a Glance
| Title | Crunchyroll | Netflix | Hulu | Amazon Prime Video | HBO Max | Disney+ | Apple TV+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MF GHOST | ◎ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| OVERTAKE! | ◎ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| HIGHSPEED Étoile | ◎ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Redline | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | △ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Speed Racer | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ◎ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| The Castle of Cagliostro | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | △ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Riding Bean | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| éX-Driver | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Odd Taxi | ◎ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
Checked in the US region on October 6, 2026. ◎ means included with the base subscription, △ means rent or buy, and ✕ means that service does not carry it. Crunchyroll has four of the nine. Tubi, which is free with ads and not in this table, has five: Redline, Speed Racer, The Castle of Cagliostro, Riding Bean and éX-Driver.
Picking a Lane
If you searched for Initial D and landed here, MF Ghost is the nearest thing to it that a US subscription gets you. Same author, same world, and the hero learned to drive from Takumi Fujiwara.
Overtake! needs the least suspension of disbelief: its races are Formula 4 races, its circuits are real circuits, and the team at its center is a tiny family garage in Gotemba, not a factory outfit.
And if two wheels were what you had in mind, two motorcycle anime stream in the US as well: Tokyo Override on Netflix, a 2024 original about couriers on motorbikes in an AI-run Tokyo, and Two Car on Crunchyroll, about two high school girls who race a motorcycle with a sidecar.
Streaming information was checked in the US region on October 6, 2026 and can change without notice.
