GRIP - Season 1

Toyota was struggling - losing relevance by the minute. Especially for young Asian Americans who were increasingly dismissing Toyota as their “parent’s car.” To them, Toyota was too boring, too safe, too predictable. And everyone was constantly talking about AI, autonomous cars, and what the future would look like. Can Toyota reclaim its relevance to the younger generations?

Toyota had to prove that it deserved the attention of Asian American youth. To do that, Toyota needed to be an active driver of the cultural zeitgeist for Asian American youth by being a part of what they cared and talked about in a format they loved. The answer was anime; no long-form storytelling medium in Asian youth culture today is more unskippable than anime. Toyota couldn’t just mimic the anime aesthetic; to be a part of the obsession, we had to put genuine storytelling at the center.

Enter "GRIP," Toyota’s first original anime series, where an elite team of GR drivers battles against soulless, machine-driven cars. With each driver having a unique Toyota GR car, the crew is able to outmaneuver the machine- and conglomerate-run vehicles–then heralded as a symbol of a far superior, controlled future.

This wasn’t just another conventional :30 second spot; it was an immersive story—a gripping man versus machine saga told over ten one-minute episodes that brought to life Toyota’s voice, perspective, and character in vivid color.