It gets you with the noise first, the flat 1984 engine drone and the wobble of a bike leaning into a corner, and then it quietly turns into a Mitsuru Adachi story while you weren't looking. Two riders, one near-fatal moment on the track, and the slow dawning realization that they answer to the same name. That's the whole joke in the title: Futari Daka, two hawks, one Takashi too many. Adachi never lets the rivalry stay a rivalry, and this is him doing that trick with helmets instead of baseball mitts, which means the biggest reveal about what these two share doesn't get shouted, it gets dropped in a lull between races and left there to sit. Thirty-six episodes of deadpan silences, throttle, and a bond nobody in the show is willing to say out loud.

Sawatari Taka and his mother are heading home from dinner when a motorcycle gang attacks them, and a mysterious young man comes to their rescue. The next day Sawatari learns that his rescuer is Toujou Taka, a professional racer who shares his first name. During a race, Sawatari loses control going into a curve and nearly kills Toujou. After that incident the two become rivals, both skilled riders testing themselves against each other on the track. As they compete, they find that a love of racing and a name are not all they have in common. The 36-episode sports series adapts Shintani Kaoru's manga, which ran in Shounen Sunday from 1981 to 1985.