Much like how the Mk4 Toyota Supra became famous from the original Fast and Furious movie, the original AE86 Toyota Corolla gained a lot of its popularity from the manga comic Initial D and its subsequent anime (and movie) adaptation. And now that the new-and-improved GR86 has finally begun to roll out, Toyota has decided to celebrate the car by releasing a fun series of commercials starring it that were inspired by Initial D and the original AE86.

This actually isn’t the first time Toyota has commemorated Initial D and its AE86 hero car before, as back in 2016 they released a GT86 show car dressed up in the same black and white tofu-delivering livery as the AE86 driven by Takumi Fujiwara, the story’s main protagonist.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHKm8g3pqag

This time around, Toyota has gone the opposite direction, as instead of bringing the animated car into the real world, they brought the real car into a series of short commercials animated in the style of Initial D. The three commercials are titled “Mastering the Craft”, “Pursuit”, and “The Challenge”, and they all feature the new GR86 drifting alongside the AE86 down a mountain pass, all set to the same iconic Eurobeat music found in the anime.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlVU3OgC1Gk

We always enjoy seeing manufacturers having fun with their commercials like this, especially when paying tribute to such an iconic model as the AE86. However, for whatever reason, the videos are curiously unlisted on Toyota USA’s YouTube channel, though they can also be viewed in Toyota’s webpage for the GR86 FasterClass campaign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Me2pQ9q-ZQ