I’m finally done watching Stage 4 of Initial D. For the uninformed, Initial D is one of those popular animes that was turned into a movie. The live movie starred the hugely popular (in Asia at least) Jay Chou. I watched the movie early last year and was impressed by the action sequences and the storyline. It tells the story of Fujiwara Takumi who has been driving since he was 11 years old delivering tofu everyday to a nearby hotel. To go to that hotel, he has to go through Mt. Akina with all its twists and turns.
After 5 years of driving to and fro everyday at dawn, Takumi has mastered the mountain pass like the back of his hand. With his mastery and driving skills that he developed along with the driving genes he got from his dad, a legendary driver in their area, Takumi is virtually unbeatable on Mt. Akina.
Takumi however is not so thrilled about becoming a road racer. The first time he raced, it was only so he could borrow his dad’s car so he can go on a date. His dad’s condition for loaning him the car was for him to beat the pants off a road racer who came to challenge the best racer that Akina has to offer. After winning and going out on a date, he still maintains that he does not want to be a road racer although the seeds of racing excitement has been planted in him.
In his second race, it took all of his friends cunning to make him do so. His manager in the gas station where he works had to appeal to his machismo and do a mean reverse psychology number on him, which made him want to race, forcefully at that. The rest is history. Once he was bitten by the racing bug, he never looked back.
If the movie was great (Jay Chou was cool as the oft-spaced out Takumi), the anime was even better featuring a lot more opponents and delving deeper into the other character’s lives. I think the anime was compelling because it did not shy away from the technical details of car racing. Even Takumi who was initially machine-illiterate, was spouting car lingo towards the middle part when he realized that being a road racer is not just driving a car but diving deep into and understanding his car’s mechanics as well.
In so doing, the anime appealed to the general public while ably demonstrating that the creators of the cartoon actually know what they were talking about.
Initial D is for everyone who loves competition and who appreciates the hardwork that goes into mastering one’s skills.
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