Initial D
Takumi and Itsuki are two high school students who work part-time at a gas station. Due to the latter's unbridled passion for motor racing, they become friends with the Akina Speed Stars, a team of young local drivers who usually meet on Akina's pass on Saturday nights to test their skills. The entry into the scene of the fearsome Takahashi brothers, leader of the rival team Red Suns, throws havoc among the Speed Stars, technically inferior and completely unprepared to face a challenge. Only one person could overturn the result in favor of Akina's team; he drives a low-powered car and delivers tofu every morning before dawn... Who will be the mysterious tofu seller with an exceptional driving technique?
The "Initial D" anime is based on the homonymous manga by Shuichi Shigeno published on the pages of Kodansha's Young Magazine for at least ten years. At the time, the success was resounding enough to allow the production of the anime in question, as well as a multitude of gadgets.
A true forerunner in the massive use of computer graphics, this product sees the light in Italy, about ten years late, thanks to the excellent work done by Shin Vision which has proposed a very good edition. Let's get to the story.
Set in an unknown town at the foot of Mount Akina in Gunma prefecture, the story features a young high school student (Takumi) who, despite him, gets involved by his friend Itsuki in the world of Drift racing by car.
Takumi and Itsuki as well as being classmates work at a gas station where they have a part-time job. While carrying out their duties as petrol stations Itsuki, passionate about cars and in particular about drifting races, manages to convince senpai Iketani to take them to the Akina pass to participate in the meeting of the local team of which he is the boss or the "Akina Speed Stars”.
Despite being practically newly licensed Takumi, talking to Itsuki about the world of drift racing, he says he finds that world very boring, thus unleashing the rage of his talkative classmate. In truth, for the past 5 years, the boy still without a driving license has been delivering tofu every morning to a hotel at the top of the pass on behalf of his father's shop.
Arriving at the gathering which is usually held every Saturday night, the local driver team has a bad visit, in fact the famous Takahashi brothers appear with their complete "Red Suns" team. The fame of these two brothers is now known to all fans of the genre since every challenge they have launched against the strongest riders and teams in the prefecture has been won with ease, thanks also to the enormous economic resources at their disposal. Now between Akagi's team and the Speed Stars it is open war and an agreement is stipulated for a Time Attack race on the descent of the Akina pass, to be held the following Saturday.
The candidate for local representation could only be senpai Iketani, who will have to deal with the younger, but very good, of the Takahashi brothers, Keisuke, or the number two of the Red Suns. During the following days Iketani trains assiduously to be able to counter the excessive power of the opposing drivers, unfortunately however, he suffers an accident and in addition to destroying his car he is injured in such a way that he can no longer participate in the challenge. The boss of the Speed Stars does not give up and seeks information on a legendary driver who drives a "Trueno" which is said to be the fastest of all time in the Akina area.
By some coincidence she discovers that Takumi Fujiwara's father, Bunta, has the same type of car that he uses for his shop's deliveries. Believing that his colleague's father is the legendary pilot, the boy begins to put pressure on the manager of the "Tofu Shop" by begging him to participate in the challenge with Akagi's fearsome opponents. The old Bunta has no desire to participate in a dispute between brats and with a subterfuge tries to convince his son to participate in the challenge against the fearsome Keisuke Takahashi.
Takumi finally agrees to race against the number two driver of the Red Suns, so on Saturday evening at 10pm he shows up at the pass to carry out the time attack. The challenge is now launched, who will emerge victorious?
If you are passionate about cars, if the legend of Takaya Todoroki kidnapped you as a child, then this anime is an absolute must. At the time of its production a large budget was approved, given that it was preparing to revolutionize the technical standard of television series thanks to the massive use of computer graphic, however the final result was far from great, indeed it can be safely said that the digital sequences are very rough, clashing in a very striking way with those made in traditional animation.
The scenes, in which the three-dimensional backdrops and the two-dimensional characters appear, are treated in a very superficial way, in this case you can see some showy jagged edges on the edges of the sprites due to the low resolution of the rendering. The difference in quality is very noticeable even if the drawings of the cars are compared, those designed in a classic way are decidedly well done and full of details while the 3D counterparts are very sparse especially in the interiors; obviously we must take into account that at the time the computing powers did not allow great things, therefore the courageous choice to combine two completely different graphic styles is certainly to be appreciated despite a result that is barely sufficient by current standards.
Be careful, don't underestimate "Initial D" for an unspectacular visual aspect, in fact even if the character design and animations can remain indigestible to fine palates, it must be taken into account that they exactly reflect the style of their creator S. Shigeno, a bit rough, but very explanatory and with a discreet scenic impact. They manage to make the most of the excellent characterization of the characters, in particular Takumi who doesn't really seem like a great driver, but who also manages to hide his talents very well. Like it or not he looks like a sleeper on his feet, damned apathetic and without any interest in cars. The only thing that can move him is his classmate Natsuki Mogi with whom he seems to have established some relationship; however, the girl is very strange (and even a little unpleasant), she often speaks of herself in the third person for no apparent reason and the relationship with the person who should be her father appears somewhat murky.
In all of this there is also Itsuki Takeuchi in the middle, the classic good friend, pedantic, insistent and with a very annoying voice but ultimately a good guy who tries to involve Takumi with his unbridled passion for cars, tuning and racing of drift. Too bad that in the end he is totally denied and despite being a "obsessed" he doesn't even notice his friend's abilities. To accompany the group of characters Bunta Fujiwara makes his way with arrogance, who despite having a marginal role (for now), rises from the pile of supporting actors for the air of mystery that surrounds him, for the wealth of experience he carries with him and for some pleasant humor. Mr. Fujiwara's past currently remains a mystery. The Takahashi brothers who in this context assume the role of the main antagonists of our heroes are a well-matched couple, Ryosuke (the eldest) a fanatic of racing analysis in all aspects, very thoughtful and equipped with an excellent driving technique. Keisuke is the exact opposite, despite being a very valid driver, he only relies on his innate instinct, so much so that he is potentially better than his brother, but his immaturity and lack of knowledge of driving theories make him not very constant and in the end a step below the eldest son of the rich Takahashi family.
A special note for those wishing to delve into the subject of "Drift Style" racing: the supervision of "Initial D" was entrusted to the inventor of controlled drift techniques, i.e. Keichi Tsuchiya, a professional driver who raced and won for years in the Japanese Touring Car Championship driving the Honda Nsx, also obtaining a podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the fabulous Toyota GT-One. Tsuchiya is also part of the editorial board of the video magazine Best Motoring for which he published the DVD "The Drift Bible" a true masterpiece in the genre. If you think that a small car like the Toyota Trueno driven by Takumi cannot beat cars with much higher power then you just have to see Keichi “the King of Drift” Tsuchiya at work with the same car!
As I said at the beginning, "Initial D" gave way to a real passion in Japanese boys for drift racing, so much so that in the end it got so big as to make it necessary to organize a national championship of professionals, the "D1 Gp”, currently landed with great success also in America. But this is only one aspect of the "Initial D" phenomenon, the merchandise baked for this title is sensational, ranging from video games to models of the protagonist cars, up to the creation by car manufacturers of perfect replicas of the cars that appeared in the anime , such as Toyota Trueno Ae86 Shuichi Shigeno Version!
Since we have entered the topic of cars, for clarity it is worth dwelling on the fact that in the anime cars are called by the name of the engine version and not of the car, for example, Keisuke Takahashi's Mazda Rx-7 is called FD3S from the version of its Wankel Rotary engine. Now this isn't a post production error or anything else, but it's just the use of young Japanese to call cars that way. The only term that makes me turn up my nose a little is the use of the word "corner" instead of "curve" but it is probable that it was already originally borrowed from English given that it is also the word in the racing world most spoken language.
Speaking of the work performed by Shin Vision, one can only say one word, "Excellent!". When you open the package, you will already be positively impressed by the care given to the tachometer type serigraphy on the disc, furthermore the booklet contains an exhaustive introduction to the world of "Initial D" with an effective description of Takumi, some technical terms, and the most important sequence of this DVD, in this case a brief description of the "feint motion" or "pendulum maneuver".
Exploring the DVD, one can admire the excellent work done in the care and graphic rendering of the menus, which are immediate to use. And if you want the best, go to the extras and admire the fabulous music player with all the OST selectable song by song! This extra does full justice to the splendid soundtrack, spot on like never before at this juncture, involved, pounding and with an absolutely enthralling rhythm that transports you directly into the cockpit of the speeding car.
The most engaging one of this excellent sound track undoubtedly seemed to me "no one sleep in Tokyo" without detracting from the excellent opening and closing theme songs interpreted by the Move. As good as the soundtrack is, fortunately left unchanged by the Bologna company, we must also give credit to the excellent mastering, which offers us decidedly good image quality with rather warm and sharp colors and a very good average bit-rate. without uncertainties in the frame-rate or problems related to video compression.
Shin Vision has not in the least thought of placing a poor product on the market, in fact, thanks to the splendid work done by the Sefit CDC studio, the Italian audio track turns out to be a small masterpiece, both for the quality of the general translation and for the choice of the cast of voice actors. proved, in some cases, perfectly fitting to the personality of the animated counterpart. An example above all, Massimo Lodolo on Bunta Fujiwara, perfect!
Summing up, I can warmly recommend this anime to all audiences, while for car enthusiasts it is a must-buy, being the only real revolution in this particular sector of automotive series since the time of Takaya's myth. The excellent work done by Shin Vision makes everything even more enjoyable.
