Production
Future GPX Cyber Formula was produced by Sunrise, and was aired on early Friday mornings from March 15 to December 20, 1991 on Nippon TV. The series was Mitsuo Fukuda's directorial debut. When the project was first planned, it was largely intended for children, and the style was that cars with artificial intelligence would run through strange places in an obstacle race-like manner, clashing with each other along the way.[3] It was planned to be like Speed Racer, and the races in the TV series were described as a triathlon of motor sports, as they were not only on circuits and city courses, but also on gravel surfaces and ice. However, the F1 boom led to a change to a full-fledged racing series.[4] The futuristic car designs were done by Shōji Kawamori, known for his Valkyrie designs in the Macross series.
Red Company was involved in the production of the TV series, as it was with Mashin Hero Wataru, and the company's Chōji Yoshikawa was responsible for directing the series structure handled by Hiroyuki Hoshiyama. According to Yoshikawa, the sponsor, Takara, wanted to show races on Friday's broadcast and release the winning car as a toy on Saturday. However, Yoshikawa decided to limit the number of races to one per month, as car racing required more artistic ability than an average robot anime, and thus the number of races was limited to 10 per year. Who would win where, and the final standings were created first.
Jun'ichi Kanemaru was chosen to play the role of Hayato, the main character of the TV series, in his first starring role,[5] but at the time of the audition, few animes had male voice actors playing 14-year-old boys, and since Mayumi Tanaka had played the role of Wataru, the main character in the previous show, Mashin Hero Wataru, it was assumed that Shinobu Adachi, another female voice actor, would also play the role of Hayato. However, there was a suggestion from within Sunrise to have Kanemaru, a male voice actor, participate in the tape audition, and although there were initial objections within the company, Kanemaru was ultimately selected through the audition.[5]
