2010 TV Series (episodes 1-12). DVD, bilingual, $59.98. Distributor: FUNimation.
In the world of illegal street racing, Takumi is an expert in downhill courses, and his skills are only getting better. Upon joining the Project D racing crew, who travel Japan challenging other teams and posting results online, Takumi’s reputation is growing. With each new course, new techniques are born, for Takumi believes he was born to race!
We’ll keep this short. Initial D is the pace car of my nightmares. Slow, slow, slow! Seriously, I couldn’t even finish it. And for a racing series, that’s rather ironic, right?
It’s not that I don’t like racing or cars. But you have to be a real aficionado of the technical details that are part and parcel of street racing cars and culture. You have to be ready for dense lectures on the intricacies of certain race courses, the cars best suited to them, and the inner-workings of the dance under the hood.
On top of that, the drama driving character interaction is all about the ego of not just who wins, but who knows more. It’s like a group of baseball pitchers talkin’ trash about their skills via the physics of their curve balls!
Somewhere in between the dissertations, a race actually occurs.
Oh, and Initial D’s attempt to create a romantic subplot in Takumi and his girlfriend’s relationship is lame. The whole “we can’t get married yet because of the higher calling of street racing” is a flat, epic cliché.
Look, I’m sure this level of car information and surface plot structure is someone else’s crack. Oddly, I guess I’m more of a Fast and Furious type – which is a bit depressing, I may add. I just want to see fast shiny cars, action-heavy races, and girls making out with each other
Okay, okay, this is terrible biased!