Back in the ’80s, toy manufacturers like Hasbro and Tonka produced cartoon shows to market thousands and thousands of toys from Transformers to Gobots to G.I. Joe. If you’re a child of the ’80s, perhaps you even remember the Inhumanoids.

The shows sold the toys, but some storylines were sophisticated enough to have millions of viewers invested in the characters as time went by. I mean, who didn’t shed buckets of tears when Optimus Prime died in The Transformers: The Movie, right?

Today, free TV is practically dead and YouTube is where most people are watching the latest videos, covering anything and everything from conspiracy theories to cooking shows. In what may be seen as a brilliant marketing move a few years from now (or a dud, if it sucks), Toyota USA is debuting its very own GRIP anime series.

In the spirit of Initial D, this modern anime is an original production with a plotline involving real drivers versus drones. The subtext about how Toyota’s performance cars are still all about soul and the joy of driving is all too evident.

The series will feature several characters with distinctly Asian (and not exclusively Japanese) names.

Jae Kang is the hero, and he drives a GR Corolla. Linh “Nitro” Lam is a fiery woman who can drive the wheels off her GR Supra. Kumail Jo is a hothead who can make his GR 86 dance. Their mentor is Master Rugu, a wise old racer who has been there and done that.

The bad guy is Dr. Aron Synth, the CEO of SynthCorp who apparently lost a hand in an accident and now wants to eliminate all human driving (beginning with ADAS?).

That’s pretty much all we can tell from the sparse description on the Toyota website, but the animation in the trailer looks impressive.

We don’t even know how many episodes GRIP will have, but if it adds to the Toyota fanbase and helps with pushing the brand’s cars off showrooms, then it’ll be a success.