Man it's really good to see new Cyber Formula stuff, even though SUNRISE has effectively left it up to YNP as of late to continue the series with their games.
If you're unfamiliar with Cyber Formula it's a series about futuristic Formula One -style racing that first aired in 1991 on TV. Basically systems called Cyber Systems power cars that help the drivers obtain crazy high speeds. With this they also have special abilities with their cars (which evolve over the series), and of primary focus early on is the relationship of MC Kazami Hayato with his cyber system Asurada, and challenges they have to overcome.
The first 37 episode season was very Speed Racer -esque in style and featured a lot of crazy antics that made you feel like you were watching a modern Speed Racer. Starting with the second season, Double One, the series moved to an OVA, and with updated production it got more serious into the actual racing aspects of the series and dropped a lot of the crazier antics of the first season. Following that there were three more OVA series, Zero, Saga, and Sin. The final OVA Sin did a fairly good job of wrapping up loose ends, and if you're into the type of stories where you see the characters grow this is a good example of that.
The first game was actually on the Super Famicom and released in the US as "Cyber Spin" by Takara (Takara handled most of the product rights throughout Cyber Formula's hey-day). All of the references to Cyber Formula were removed from the US release, effectively stripping the game of what it was. The first "gaiden" -style game was next released on the PS1, which featured an alternate timeline. Following that SUNRISE produced four games on the PS2 and one on the PSP. Each progressively added more features of all the various seasons including effectively the ability to play through all five seasons of the show and little easter eggs from prior games (including the ability to play as characters introduced in the side-story). Eventually as the article states YNP started creating fan-made Cyber Formula games, with SUNRISE eventually granting official rights to them.
Cyber Formula was very much a product of it's day as Formula One was very popular in the early 90s' in Japan. It also came during the dying era of more "analog" cars, when actual Formula One cars started to become more technologically advanced (such as with active suspensions and electronically controlled gear boxes), so it's futuristic storyline was not completely out of place. It never seemed to penetrate the US market until well after it finished up, but it was very popular all over Asia. Many VAs whom worked on Cyber Formula also went on to do other big roles or had this as their break-out role. In particular Kotono Mitsuishi, who voices Sugo Asuka, had Cyber Formula as one of her first roles and would go on to voice notable roles as Usagi in the later Sailor Moon series (including the recent Crystal series), Misato from NGE, and Excel from Excel Saga, just to name a few of the utterly dozens of roles she's had.
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