Over Drive is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tsuyoshi Yasuda. It was serialized in Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine from May 2005 to May 2008, with its chapters collected in 17 tankōbon volumes. A 26-episode anime television series, produced by Xebec and directed by Takao Kato, was broadcast from April to September 2007. The story revolves around the first year high school student Mikoto Shinozaki and his goal to become the greatest cyclist in the world and winning the Tour de France.

Plot

The story begins with a flashforward to the Tour de France, where Mikoto Shinozaki would become the first Japanese champion. Time before this, and while feeling a deep crush on Yuki Fukazawa, Mikoto then decides to get into a high school cycling club as Fukuzawa's suggestion, even though he has never practiced any sport before. The club's leader is Yōsuke, Fukuzawa's older brother and a renowned road racer from his town. Yōsuke's long time cycling partner and club's vice president Kouichi Terao sees in Shinozaki all the potential and courage necessary to become a road cycling legend. Mikoto Shinozaki becomes interested in cycling and all the ups and downs he must live to get his dream of becoming Tour de France's champion come true.

Characters

Sakuragaoka High School

Other characters

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Tsuyoshi Yasuda, Over Drive was serialized in Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine from May 11, 2005, to May 14, 2008. Kodansha collected its chapters in 17 tankōbon volumes, released from September 16, 2005, to June 17, 2008.

Anime

A 26-episode anime television series adaptation, produced by Xebec and directed by Takao Kato, was broadcast on TV Tokyo, TVA and TVO from April 4 to September 26, 2007. The opening theme song is "WinderBoku wa Koko ni iru" (WINDER～ボクハココニイル～) by Shōnen Kamikaze. The first ending song is "Saihate no Parade" (最果てのパレード) by Merry and the second ending theme is "Koi Suzumi" (恋涼み) by DEL.

Episodes