Initial D Review (Spoilers)

Plot Summary

A young boy named Takumi and his best friend Itsuki both walk into the first day of high school finally with their driver's license. Itsuki is hyped and ready to spend his days with his license practicing his street racing to be part of a group of racers called the Akina speed stars. Excitedly, Iketani tries to convince his best friend, Takumi, to join him in his journey to become a great racer. Unfortunately for Itsuki, Takumi does not sense the interest in being a street racer on Mt. Akina´s famous racing pass. Little does Itsuki know that Takumi is an excellent driver who can inertia drift and pull off various maneuvers in his Toyota Corolla AE86. His recognition starts off by secretly passing up an RX-7 that belonged to a race group named "Red Suns." Keisuke, the driver of the RX-7, is upset and expects Takumi to show up at the next race meet. However, Takumi is not interested but his dad Bunta, a former street racer, bribes him to beat the RX-7 for a full gas tank. With the date he planned out for on the line, Takumi needs to win for a full tank of gas. Takumi´s knowledge of Mt. Akina is so great that in his race being fast on straights wasn't a problem for him. Ever since he was a young boy, delivering tofu for his dad´s tofu shop was always a pain, so instead of Bunta driving, he entrusted the young underage Takumi to take the wheel for all night deliveries. Night after night his time coming back home kept progressing faster and faster however if it came to damaging the Tofu in the process, Takumi would be severely punished. Regardless of Takumi´s back story, he manages to win against Keisuke on a whim. Everyone dumbfounded, respect for Takumi´s driving becomes well known throughout the region. His progression is noticed and later throughout the series he becomes part of an all star group called Project D where all skilled racers are put together in a group to battle some of the toughest street racers in Japan.

Characters and Plot Development

Some dynamic key elements that keep the show entertaining could be it's fun characters and the partial romance in the series. Though the racing can get tiring time after time, the show likes to give a good amount of time between each long race for a good climax. Iketani and Itsuki are good examples of fun and interesting characters that keep the flow of the show going. Even after Takumi is separated from them, scenes where they reunite feel refreshing and like a throwback to when the first season was aired. Iketani and Takumi are a good comedy duo that many fans enjoy watching. Especially when Mako takes them to a water park both of their women appraisal mentalities are hilarious. Takumi´s rival, Keisuke, also undergoes an interesting character development. Though both Takumi or Keisuke are on the same team, each racer is determined to make sure they beat each other eventually. I think it was a great idea to give Takumi a long term rival because his resolve to becoming undefeated strengthens. Keisuke is the younger brother of Ryosuke, a racing genius for his great technological skills and access to money. Keisuke throughout the series is a hot-headed racer who can only focus strictly on racing. Though he isn't much of a gentleman like Takumi he definitely has his way as a bad boy type character when it comes to women.

The romance portion gives this show a sense of reality and dives into the minds of the young men who go through the struggle of romance. In my opinion, I believe they nailed this part of the show because not only do they tie in female racing characters, but they also bring in the realistic side of winning and losing in love. Every character in the show goes through some form of love hardship that makes it worth watching. One of the best love arcs to watch has got to be either Itsuki´s or Iketani´s. Like I've mentioned before, both of these characters are fun to watch and these stories most definitely make up for it. Both stories are hard to watch because in a sense it can feel relatable to what actually happens in real life. Even though this show isn´t about the drama, they use it as a great opportunity to draw in the audience.