Rotaries, limos, American muscle-powered robots, oh my! Once again, I’m using my divine power (this PRNDL account) to force-feed you automotive-centric bites of my ongoing anime obsession. Ten cars wasn’t enough. We must have more. Compliance is not optional. Now, take off your shoes and have a seat, because we’re listing off a handful of other unique four-wheeled cameos in the world of Japanese animation, plus two Western entries from shows that honor it.
Mazda RX-8 – Ace Attorney, Hyper Speed Transforming Gyrozetter, Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective
For once, a rotary-powered sports car made an appearance in anime, not with the intent of humiliating Lancer Evos and Nissan Skylines. The polarizing little faux sedan that was the Mazda RX-8 cameoed in a few franchises, including Hyper Speed Transforming Gyrozetter, where it serves as a component to a Power Rangers x Gundam-like mecha. In Ace Attorney, it’s the car of choice for the fashionable Miles Edgeworth, who is seen using it to commute to the courthouse for a high-profile case.
In its most rotary-accurate appearance, a silver RX-8 appears in the newly aired Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective, where it pays a backhanded homage to its real-life counterpart in the most rotary way possible… By blowing the hell up. Okay, kidding. So, it was actually to be the work of an arsonist’s car bomb, but I’m writing it off as an excuse for “I didn’t premix correctly.”
Rolls-Royce Phantom VIII – The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really Love You
Yes, that is legit the name of the show. It was popular enough to score a second season, and I am totally outing myself by featuring this car. But wow, what a car. Look at how well-rendered this Not-A-Rolls-Royce is, a late-2010s Phantom VIII that prominently appears in a couple of episodes, driven by a maid who chauffeurs the characters with all its 560-plus V12 horsepower exuberance. There are plenty of detailed exterior and interior shots throughout the driving sequence it’s used in. Even the rear seat details are commendable recreations of the real-life cars, complete with visible iDrive controllers, although the badge scripting is written as “LL” instead of “RR,” most likely for copyright.
It’s pleasant when shows that are the furthest thing from being car-centric feature such epic car choices, especially when they’re this well detailed for what’s cumulatively a couple of minutes of screen time in only a few episodes. Still, there are worse choices for transporting the cast than a half-million-dollar luxo barge.
Lincoln Town Car Limo – They Are My Noble Masters
In case you hadn’t noticed in the last listicle, anime absolutely loves to poke fun at Initial D whenever characters embark on car trips for longer than two on-screen minutes, and this is one of the more hilarious examples. Normally, I would’ve chosen the Skyline R32 GT-R for a list like this, a clear reference to Initial D‘s Takeshi Nakazato of the Night Kids. But, I mean, come on! Getting sideways in a stretched second-generation Lincoln Town Car to block both lanes is too ridiculously nonsensical to ignore. At least they kept the showdown true to all-‘90s cars.
It’s not as if you needed any further reminder that cartoons are fictional and that anime is often the peak of unrealism. But just in case, here’s a fair warning that you’re not winning any canyon battle should you rescue one of these from a junkyard or Craigslist ad. I don’t care if it’s rear-wheel drive and long enough to block an entire interstate when that 4.6-liter Ford Modular V8 breaks the ass end loose. Hmm, unless…
Lexus GS – Jujutsu Kaisen
If you’re as deranged of a no-lifer as I am, then you’ll find Jujutsu Kaisen notable for not only its visually spectacular action sequences and emotional weight but also MAPPA’s use of well-detailed car models as set pieces. There are tons of true-to-life car models in JJK, from Toyota 86s to Mazda RX-7s and even a late-2000s Dodge Charger R/T in a blink-and-you’ll-miss scene. However, the most frequently recurring and most well-detailed car is the black fourth-generation “L10” Lexus GS sedan, driven by the assistant managers of Jujutsu High to shuttle sorcerers to and from missions.
Whether it’s a GS350 with the tried-and-true 2GR V6 or any other powertrain is undetermined and irrelevant, but the model is undoubtedly the cushy, rear-drive, sorta-sporty perennial favorite of Asian dads, with a copyright-friendly badge swap, just to be safe. It’s cool, nonetheless, to see that members of jujutsu society still choose to enjoy a little bit of luxury, even when the world is at stake.
Plymouth ‘Cuda – Megas XLR
Not an anime, but the Cartoon Network one-hit-wonder Megas XLR’s homage to Japanese kaiju and mecha media earns it a place here. Behold. A Gundam-like thingamajig sent from the future to combat a malevolent race of aliens and save humankind from their war-torn future. And controlling it? A generic muscle car, dubbed “Cuma,” strongly resembling a Plymouth 426 ‘Cuda, driven (or piloted?) by a guy strongly resembling Guy Fieri blended with a Tony Hawk Underground custom character.
There’s nothing super complicated about this. The mecha loses its head before its journey through time to present-day New Jersey. A guy finds the disabled mech rotting in a junkyard and restores it with a hot rod paint job, using his 425-horsepower, V8-powered relic of a Mopar to pilot it in place of its missing head, which apparently goes well for him thanks to copious amounts of plot armor. Neat stuff if you’re into watching aliens get fed iron-rich knuckle sandwiches delivered fresh from Flavor Town.
T-Car – Teen Titans
Teen Titans is yet another not-anime that snags a spot for its endearingly anime-esque art style and Cyborg’s peculiar oddity of a car, dubbed the T-Car. No, it isn’t based on anything in real life, and in the show’s canon, was built from the ground up by Cyborg, implementing the latest in technology, including a supposed 100,000-horsepower “plasma turbine engine.” Except…
As evident in Cyborg’s thought bubbles, the car parts on the shop floor, and his car’s engine bay, there is a very real heart in this car, lore-accurate or not. Looks quite familiar, don’t you think? It seems an awful lot like a two-rotor 13B-REW from a Mazda RX-7 to me, upgraded with a fat single turbo conversion, and grafted into what appears to be an Infiniti FX45 Concept on C4 Corvette salad spinner wheels. So, 100,000 ponies is quite unlikely, unless that “plasma turbine” is simply the latest HKS turbocharger on sale in the DC universe.
(Sorry if you think VTubers are weird, but this automotive-centric one explains and showcases it best)
Published in TV & Films
