Posted on: Apr 14 at 16:29:48
Initial D tells the story of a 17-year-old tofu delivery boy named Tak who suddenly finds himself caught up in the heart-stopping world of street racing.
Tak drives an "Eight-Six," a street term for the Toyota Trueno AE86. When chance puts him up against street racing's most notorious driver and he actually wins the race, the lure is too much - he's hooked. Word quickly spreads about the famous "Eight-Six of Mount Akina", and more and more rival racers appear to challenge Tak and his friends in a series of white-knuckle contests.
Spoken Languages: English, Japanese, English Subtitles.
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Grades
Video: B+
Audio: A
Dub/script/VAs: B+
Theme song/opening credits: n/a (see below)
Story: A
Overall: A-
Chibi-review
(This review covers the first 26 Episodes of
Initial D - known as First Stage)
I have a thing for guilty pleasures as of late. Initial D is an interesting release, and one I never expected to grab me ... I'm not much into street racers. (Or "ricers" for that matter.) At least I wasn't. After checking out one episode on Comcast "On-Demand" I decided to Netflix the rest. I've been really happy with what I found.
This thing has action, action, action and more action. It's all about the races. Well, almost. There is a good bit of characterization in it as well, even if some of the characters can be dumbasses from time to time.
Based on the manga of the same name, the
Initial D revolves around Takumi "Tak" Fujiwara, a tofu-delivery boy who, though he does not realize it, has incredible natural skill as a streetracer. His old man was one of the best on Mount Akina years ago, and without knowing it, Tak is following in his footsteps. On the way home from a tofu delivery one night he passes one of the top street racers in the region. Keisuke "KT" Takahashi, defeated by a 10-year old car driven by an unknown racer, sets out for revenge in seeking the Ghost Eight-Six of Akina.
And a legend is born.
Initial D has some real edge-of-the seat action. It's really interesting watching Tak grow as a racer, especially since he seems so uninterested in the whole idea to start. The races are done in CG, while most of the rest of the release is traditional animation. The CG is quite good considering the age of the release (circa 1998). However, it will take some getting used to the character designs of the traditional animation. It's well drawn and fluid, but the characters are about as butt-ugly as they come ... EVEN the women! Get past it, the rewards are too great to be stopped here.
A word/warning on the sub/dub difference. Tokyopop made a very controversial decision when they made this release. There are two versions on the DVD. The "Classic" is the Japanese sub as broadcast (note: there is some debate about a toned-down translation), the "Tricked Out" version is the dub that has some video enhancements. On the "Tricked Out" version, Tokoypop changed some of the names of the characters to more "American" names, and redid the entire soundtrack in hip-hop and pop. Many people HATE it. I may get throttled for saying this, but really enjoyed watching it in English ... with the exception of some of the video enhancements and some of the music. I'm not a fan of Hip-hop, but I understand why they made that choice and, for the most part, it worked for me. The acting on the dub is solid, and I like being able to focus on the animation. YMMV, choose whichever you think you will enjoy more... but I bet you will like at least one of the two versions.
Recommended.
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Contains 
