Here Are 10 Cool Cars That Somehow Found Their Way Into Non-Racing Anime

Hm. I wonder. Are there any cool cars in Japanese animation outside of that definitive trio of famous racing anime? Well, I’m glad I asked! As it turns out, there are plenty of incredible and obscure cars to be found across the myriad of shows comprising your $15-per-month streaming subscription. Many just so happen to be bonafide car enthusiast wet dreams unless you live under a rock or never picked up an issue of Road & Track.

Calling weebs and gearheads alike! If you know, you know. And if you don’t, then welcome to this collection of ten cool cars from a handful of popular anime. Some are unanimously beloved icons of automotive history, while others are a bit more niche. But no matter your tastes or knowledge, all of these cars are sure to make you keep a look out for them the next time you hit Play on Crunchyroll.

RUF CTR “Yellowbird” – JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures: Stardust Crusaders

No shit. A Yellowbird? Seriously? Yup. RUF’s Little Yellow Wonder is probably the most interesting car on this list, and it’s not merely a background piece that the animators inserted because they found its assets lying around. It’s a genuine plot device used to help introduce the episode’s villain of the week. What such a famous rarity among Radwood-era sports cars would have been doing in 1980s Cairo is beyond me.

Most humorous of all are the close-ups and panning shots of the hand-drawn Yellowbird, highlighting the NACA ducts and distinct five-spoke RUF wheels. The driver gawks over how the episode’s villain, a malevolent falcon named Pet Shop guarding the main antagonist Dio’s mansion, flew under something “so low to the ground,” he exclaimed.

Did they need to use that crazy, one-of-29, 3.4-liter, 463-horsepower Not-a-Porsche from that one famous Nordschleife video to pull off this scene? Nope. But I’m glad they did anyway.

Nissan Fairlady Z/300ZX T-Top – JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures: Diamond Is Unbreakable

JoJo cooks once again! This time, it really does serve as nothing more than an accessory for one of the main characters. With Diamond Is Unbreakable set in the late 1990s, it’s appropriate that superpowered mangaka Rohan Kishibe rocks what would be a then-new Fairlady Z or, to us Yanks,  300ZX. Interestingly, despite Rohan living in small-town Morioh, Japan, his Fairlady is left-hand drive, which was actually a lowkey flex for well-off Japanese car buyers of the era.

Extra points for the T-top roof and the detail-accurate interior, even for brief glimpses. Red paint over a red and dark gray cabin is a unique mix for a character of questionable sanity and fashion, but it makes for a bizarre spec, just like the characters’ adventures… Uh, hence the series’ title.

I’m not quite sure what Rohan does with this 222 horsepower (or roughly 276 if he got the Turbo) icon of 1990s swagger since we usually see him walking or never leaving his house, but it’s nice to know he’s spending his money wisely.

Renault 5 Turbo – Dragon Ball

How cute. Bulma drives a chibi-style caricature of a Renault 5 Turbo for no other reason than “why not?” It serves no purpose other than transportation for her, although its minty paint job does reflect her hair color, and uh, yeah, that’s about it. The R5 Turbo debuted a few years prior to the Dragon Ball anime, so it isn’t too far-fetched to feature as a minor hero car, although it’s still an obscure choice. But I ain’t complaining, and neither was Bulma.

Had Goku not destroyed it early in the franchise’s story (like, literally upon first meeting Bulma), Vegeta could’ve had a shot at getting behind the wheel of one of the coolest mid-engined cars ever made. Not that he’d need it, but I’m like 32% sure he’d appreciate the rad factor, even if its power level is far from ever going over 9,000.

The R5 Turbo rocked a 1.4-liter thriller of a four-pot engine pushing 158 ponies to the rear wheels. Rear-wheel drive mid-engined French hot hatch? Now that’s cool. Thanks, Akira Toriyama. Rest in peace.

Toyota 2000GT – Dimension W

I’ve never watched Dimension W, or at least not yet. But you bet your ass it’s on my watchlist now after seeing how this one-season wonder of a cyberpunk action thriller, which has absolutely nothing to do with cars or racing, features the coolest cars anyway. Never in a million years would I expect a hero car in any show to be a multi-million dollar vintage Toyota, rocking drop-dead styling and a 2.0-liter or 2.3-liter inline-six, distant ancestors to the hallowed JZ engines.

Well, if James Bond could do it, then I guess so can an animated drawing.

The apparent reasoning? One of the protagonists, Kyouma Mabuchi, a bounty hunter or “collector” by trade and a car enthusiast by hobby, simply likes old cars unencumbered by excess tech, which he has a great distrust of in his day and age. How he came to find one, let alone afford one, beats me, especially in a dystopian setting where the tax rate on gasoline spiked by 400%. Think of Kyouma as the anime equivalent of Cyberpunk 2077’s Johnny Silverhand and his Porsche 930 Turbo.

Lexus LFA – Dimension W

I guess bounty-hunting must pay a whole metric fuckton in near-future dystopian Japan. The secondary hero car in Dimension W is Lexus’ racing-bred, carbon-bodied, naturally-aspirated V10-powered, halo supercar that the main characters just so happen to have. Even one of the characters can’t help but comment on the real-life-accurate V10 exhaust note as Kyouma sets off.

Assuming he’s most definitely dead in 2072 when Dimension W takes place, you can bet this universe’s Akio “Morizo” Toyoda is grinning ear to ear from the heavens seeing his creations still kicking.

Paired with the more prominently featured 2000GT, the LFA completes a pairing that earns Dimension W a ribbon for the hottest lineup in any anime so far, racing or not. They could’ve given the heroes any generic gas car or maybe some old, nameless muscle car if they wanted to push the stereotype. Instead, they decided to go for the animated automotive mic drop with an old-and-new power duo of Toyota’s most coveted coupes.

Toyota HiAce manual – Girls Band Cry

Ah, yes, Asia’s cooler, more utilitarian cousin to the Sienna. I’m sure the HiAce and other MPVs have made numerous hidden appearances across various shows, but its cameo in Girls Band Cry stands out for the show’s recent air date and the HiAce’s comedic role in humiliating one of the lead characters.

In its appearance, the leader of the cast’s band, Momoka Kawagari, is taken back by the van sporting a manual transmission, an increasing rarity in late model vehicles, which another character even notes as she points to the gear lever. It serves the practical purpose of shuttling the characters from one place to the next in the dead of night while humorously highlighting their ineptitude at driving stick. 

Hey, at least they got to where they needed to go, even if the band never lets Momoka drive ever again.

Toyota GT86/Subaru BRZ – My Deer Friend Nokotan, Jujutsu Kaisen

Takumi and Kanata don’t get to hog all the fun. Background characters like analog rear-drive sports cars, too, and what better candidate than Toyota and Subaru’s 2.0-liter, flat-four-powered, 200 buff horses-havin’ pride and joy? Unlike MF Ghost, the 86 in these shows don’t have much of a spotlight role. They’re more like blink-and-you’ll-miss set pieces, but pause at the right time, and you’ll see that the resemblance is unmistakable, from the fascias to the shape of the mirrors.

In JJK, Mahoraga throws and destroys a blue 86 in the middle of the fight against Ryomen Sukuna. In Nokotan, it has an even smaller but more peculiar cameo, showing up within the first seconds of the first episode sporting what’s undoubtedly a Rocket Bunny ducktail spoiler and Valenti tail lights. 86 aficionados, look at this thing and tell me I’m wrong.

Someone is clearly an enthusiast at the animation studio and decided to project their interest for only a few frames. Props to you, overworked animator. You win a pack of deer crackers.

Toyota Chaser JZX100 – Grandma and Grandpa Turn Young Again

I debated featuring the Daihatsu HiJet-looking kei truck from this scene since its use is too damn funny to pass up, but the Chaser deserves the spotlight for instigating this scene in the first place. This slice-of-life romance focused on an elderly couple literally recapturing their youth is one of the most wholesome, feel-good shows I’ve watched in some time, which is why the sudden drift battle with a JZX100 took me by surprise.

Said truck finds itself swinging sideways through the family apple orchard as it gives chase to a modified, 2J-powered piss missile of a sports sedan driven by littering delinquents on a blatant Initial D reference. The Chaser’s yellow paint, akin to Keisuke’s FD RX-7, and the subtle art style changes are no coincidence. Hell, even the Chaser driver is a cigarette-smoking, blonde-headed delinquent like Keisuke, and the flashback near the end of the scene regarding the kei truck’s mystery engine is also a hat-tip to Wangan Midnight.

FD Mazda RX-7 Series 8 – Lucky Star

Sugoi, another clear-as-day reference with extra blatancy! If you’re a fan of Initial D and have never seen an episode of Lucky Star in your life, you’ve probably still seen this one clip. For those in need of context, Lucky Star is famous for its frequent pop culture references due to one of the main protagonists being a geek for all things games, anime, and manga.

In one of its more drawn-out references, there’s an obvious tribute scene where one of the characters battles a Yellow Mica FD Mazda RX-7 in an abridged retelling of Takumi vs Keisuke in First Stage. For just this minute-long scene, the cars become CGI, the background characters observing the race appear in Shuichi Shigeno’s art style, and the soundtrack is a Eurobeat song that’s reportedly composed just for this episode.

Talk about committing to the bit. However, unlike Keisuke’s car, this FD vaguely resembles the highly desirable Series 8, which is evident in this iteration’s rear wing and front fascia.

Honorable Mention: Toyota Prius – A crap ton of slice-of-life and drama franchises

Honorable mention! Enter the good old Toyota Prius, a common asset recycled in too many shows and film franchises to count, from Overtake! to FLCL and Detective Conan. They’re almost always background cars, and they almost always appear for no longer than a few seconds at a time.

Are they particularly special? No, not at all. Not in the slightest, unless you like being reminded of Toyota’s valiant effort in the quest for over-50-mpg commuting.

I’ll give the one-season, young adult-targeted romance series 365 Days to The Wedding extra credit for featuring a current-gen Toyota Prius in all its voluptuous, near-200 horsepower glory. At least that Prius is kind of fast and somewhat sporty-ish for a hybrid econobox.

See? There’s more to cars in anime than those seen in the familiar stories of the Wangan Expressway or Mount Akina, and there are certainly far more honorable contestants not mentioned on this list. Perhaps it’ll be worth another dive for a separate article. Until then, farewell, and thanks for coming to my automotive-centric otaku TED Talk.

Published in TV & Films