Showing posts with label Initial D. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Initial D. Show all posts

Jan 12, 2010

Initial D: Extra Stage

Source taken from AniDB.net



The Lancer EVO-driving group "Emperor" have defeated every racing team they've met in the Gunma region. Now they're out to challenge the duo of Mako and Sayuki and their SilEighty - the Impact Blue of Usui Mountain.

Dec 19, 2009

Initial D: Battle Stage OVA

Source taken from Wikipedia.org

Initial D Battle Stage 2 summarizes the major street races from the recent Fourth Stage TV series. While the first Battle Stage had every battle re-animated from scratch, the only episodes altered in the second version were the early races in stage 4, to match with the visual style of the latter portion of Stage 4.



Additionally, two races that were previously seen only in the manga were animated specially for the feature. The first race is Takahashi Keisuke vs. Atsuro Kawai's Nissan Skyline GT-Turbo (ER34), and the other is Keisuke vs. Smiley Sakai's Honda Integra DC2. Both races are noticeably shorter than the other races in the feature.

Initial D: Fourth Stage

Source taken from Wikipedia.org

This series focuses on the exploits of the new team founded by Ryosuke, Project.D, which is comprised of Ryosuke (leader and strategist), downhill specialist Takumi, uphill specialist Keisuke, and a staff consisting primarily of members of the Akagi Red Suns. The team travels the region, challenging other teams and posting the results of the battles on their website. Each race is intended by Ryosuke to develop a specific area of his drivers' skills. By this time, Takumi matures slowly into a more confident and knowledgeable street racer, while Keisuke improves on his technical driving skills.



Takumi instinctively develops many new techniques through his own ingenuity after some prompting by Ryosuke, such as passing with his headlights off so that his opponent is unable to see him coming and block him, and using weight shifting to execute maneuvers similar to the gutter-hook technique on Akina. Ryosuke also formed the team because in a few months he is headed for medical school, and this is his last chance in a long time to indulge in street racing. Takumi, on the other hand, contends with the "Four-Wheel Drive Complex" when he was overtaken by a Subaru Impreza WRX STi, a 4WD car, on one of his delivery runs. It is later revealed that his father was driving the car. Bunta then allowed Takumi to deliver Tofu, as well as practice, in the Impreza (alternating with the Trueno) to improve his skills as a driver and to get a feel of what modern cars can do.

Initial D: Second Stage

Source taken from Wikipedia.org

A group of street racers called Team Emperor, all using Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions, appear in the Gunma area, defeating anyone in their path, until one of them, Seiji Iwaki, was defeated by Takumi, breaking their winning streak. Their leader, a professionally-trained driver named Kyouichi Sudo, challenged Takumi to a race to “teach him some things” and as a sort of cover event for his race with Ryosuke, his primary target. This race saw Takumi's AE86 blow its engine.



While it may have been a defeat for Takumi, Kyouichi did not consider it a race instead considering it more as a seminar to show Takumi how much he needs a better car as he believes the 86 is far too old to match Takumi's skill level. Kyouichi, believing in his street racing philosophy that professional circuit techniques were adequate to conquer the mountains passes, races Ryosuke who had the opposing philosophy that somehow, the fastest street racing required more than just what the circuit could teach.

Initial D: First Stage

Source taken from Wikipedia.org

Initial D (Inisharu Dī?) is a manga by Shuichi Shigeno which has been serialized in Kodansha's Young Magazine since 1995. It has been adapted into a long-running anime series by Pastel, Studio Gallop, and OB Planning, which premiered in Japan on Fuji TV and Animax, and a live action film by Avex and Media Asia. Both the manga and anime series were licensed for distribution in North America by Tokyopop; the Tokyopop version of the manga is out of print as of August 31, 2009.



The anime and manga focus on the world of illegal Japanese street racing, where all the action is concentrated in the mountain passes and rarely in cities nor urban areas, and the drift racing style is emphasized in particular. Keiichi Tsuchiya helps with editorial supervision. The story is centered around the Japanese prefecture of Gunma, (mostly Shibukawa where Takumi's home is) more specifically on several mountains in the kanto area and in and their surrounding cities and towns. Although some of the names of the locations the characters race in have been fictionalized, all of the locations in the series are based on actual locations in Japan.

Dec 10, 2009

Initial D: Third Stage – The Movie (2001)

Source taken from Wikipedia.org

With his reputation growing, Takumi gets an offer of a lifetime from Ryosuke. Undecisive of his decision, Takumi tries to find his answers by requesting a challenge to battle the leader of team Emperor at his own homecourse.



The battle doesn’t end there, as another challenger arrives immediately prior to the previous race. Kai Kogashiwa with an MR2 also wants a shot of Akina’s Eight-Six, as he has a loose connection to Takumi’s father.