Initial D

"SlickMcRick" (slickmcrick) 05/02/2015 at 16:40 • Filed to: None

4

9

This series as a whole was quite amazing.

My favorite car based anime coming up was Speed Racer. I’m not old enough to have seen it’s original running but we had some VHS tapes and had a number of episodes on them. I think the first one I saw was the GRX then it was the Mammoth Car episode. Come to think of it I was quite cultured coming up watching movies and shows from different eras and countries. My parents also had us (brother and I) watching the old “Godzilla” flicks and the little known show “Johnny Socko and The Flying Robot”.

Anyways back to Initial D.

If you haven’t seen it as a Jalop I recommend that you do. It’s almost your duty to do so. Other than the wide array of affordable cars featured I loved the character development and the great detail in the car aspect. This show is nowhere near all about drifting which I assumed the “D” in Initial D stood for. There is much more to driving than sliding around corners at high speeds and they showed that. They emphasized tire management, engine revs, braking lines and much more. Heck they even broke down the advantages and disadvantages of different drivetrains including the forever hated FWD platform.

If Fast and Furious could be replaced with this in movie form I’d be there opening night for each film. It’s a show truly about cars and driving. You can actually learn a thing or two to improve your driving technique. I may or may not have implemented things learned on some choice back roads to see if what they taught on the show was factual.

All in all the reason I love this show is because it breathes the joy of driving back into you. It makes you want to go out and drive everywhere. It also made me miss my first car because of the attachment Takumi has to his 86. Ahhh that 1990 Escort GT....fun times were had...many fun times were had....

Just a few of the many featured cars on this show.

djmt1 > SlickMcRick 05/02/2015 at 16:46

5

I enjoyed the nonsense in that show but this was too much.

SlickMcRick > djmt1 05/02/2015 at 16:53

1

It is still an Anime and derived from Manga first so it was to be expected. That scene made me think of this for some reason.

Burrito de EJ25 > SlickMcRick 05/02/2015 at 16:56

1

I couldn’t stand all of the inner-fucking- monologuing. The show was fine at first but season after season of typical anime bullshit really grated on me.

djmt1 > SlickMcRick 05/02/2015 at 16:57

1

Gundam Wing was the first anime I ever watched. When I was little I was just excited to see giant robots fight but holy shit that show is dark.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > SlickMcRick 05/02/2015 at 16:59

1

I love this show and defend it to the hills, but the amount of fanboys it made for the AE86 and the sheer hyperbole generated by this show gets to me sometimes........Seriously, the AE86 is not that amazing of a chassis. This show is really good up until the fourth season. They even start to admit by that point that the AE86 can’t win, even with Takumi’s skill. With the exception of the evo driven by a toolbag, a barely modified IS300, and the miata in the first episode of that season, Takumi won none of those battles on skill. All luck. The civic type-R? A cat ran out in front. The cappucino? Rain saved his ass. The S2000? The driver was sick. Amazing races because he was on that knife edge. I was hoping in the fifth season he would have to start using the WRX but would occasionally pull out the AE86 because of a specific reason.

.....But then fifth stage comes out and he stomps all over everyone again with the 86? And the ultimate boss of the whole series is another 86?.......The ending was appropriate IMO. It was the creator going “Aaaaaaaaand it’s officially ‘fuck-this-shit-o’clock’ so let’s wrap this up”. Sorry for the rant and I know it’s just a show but it started out taking itself somewhat serious with regards to physics and devolved into “If you have an 86, you win”.

SlickMcRick > djmt1 05/02/2015 at 17:03

1

Yea I also rewatched it just last year. Man did I miss a lot growing up. It was crazy how deep with plot twist and government corruption that show got. I loved every moment of it though and the fights were often and amazing. Much better than the talk fest DBZ would have for one episode of fighting.

SlickMcRick > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 05/02/2015 at 17:09

1

Hahaha. This is also true. Keisuke became the much better driver at the end of it all. Takumi’s 86 must have been built from a rabbit’s foot because the luck he experienced was unparallel. I also like how they admitted the 86 wasn’t all that good and the only reason it was winning was either luck or the fact he’d been driving the thing daily since middle school.

I was really hoping the WRX got some love. Could have given life back into the series. Also I was waiting for the plot twist that the last racer was actually his brother or something. Come on it was so easy to do. Same mannerisms., same car essentially, same single parent upbringing....

SlickMcRick > Burrito de EJ25 05/02/2015 at 17:12

0

I won’t deny that. At times it got far too deep but they have to make the episode stretch and also be true to the Manga series which often has a lot of inner conflicts and monologues. Just the nature of the beast. At least they were doing this during the action sequences mostly so it would cut back to the racing to keep the excitement going.

 V8 Rustler > djmt1 05/07/2015 at 00:29

0

That is what made me stop watching it.