Jump to content

Initial D

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 207.232.204.254 (talk) at 17:03, 9 May 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Initial D
File:Initial D Logo.gif
Initial D franchise Logo
Genreracing, Drama
Manga
Written byShuichi Shigeno
Published byKodansha
Anime
Directed byNoboru Mitsusawa
StudioStudio Gallop, Pastel
Anime
Initial D Second Stage
Directed byShin-ichi Masaki
StudioPastel
Anime
Initial D Extra Stage
StudioPastel
Anime
Initial D Third Stage
StudioPastel
Anime
Initial D Battle Stage
StudioPastel
Anime
Initial D Fourth Stage
Directed byTsuneo Tominaga
StudioFrontline, Gainax

Initial D (頭文字D Kashiramoji D or イニシャルD Inisharu Dī, pronounced i-'ni-sh&l 'dE) is a manga by Shuichi Shigeno which has been serialized in Kodansha's Young since 1995. It has been adapted into an anime series by Avex and a live-action film by Avex and Media Asia.

The anime and manga focus on the world of illegal Japanese street racing, where all the action is concentrated in the mountain passes (called Tōge) and never 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, more specifically on several mountains in the prefecture and in and their surrounding cities and towns. t3h 86' r00lz0rZ

List of Releases

Manga

  • Initial D Manga Japanese Release - 32 Volumes (1995 - new volume released every 5 months)
  • Initial D Manga Tokyopop Release - 22 Volumes (2002 - new volume released every 2 months)

Anime

File:Initial D Extra Stage 1 DVD.jpg
DVD box art for Initial D Extra Stage

Avex has released the anime in several parts called Stages. One noticeable feature is that it uses Eurobeat music as background music in race scenes.

  • Initial D First Stage - 26 episodes (1998)
  • Initial D Second Stage - 13 episodes (1999)
  • Initial D Extra Stage OVA - 2 episodes side-story focusing on Impact Blue(2000)
  • Initial D Third Stage - a 2 hour movie (2001)
  • Initial D Battle Stage - a 50 minute movie.(2002)
  • Initial D Fourth Stage - 24 episodes

http://avexmode.jp/animation/initial/initial.html] [1] (2004—2006).



Movie

Games

Numerous arcade and other platforms video games have been released.


  • Initial D Arcade Stage Version 1 (Arcade)
  • Initial D Arcade Stage Version 2 (Arcade)
  • Initial D Arcade Stage Version 3 (Arcade)
  • Initial D (Saturn)
  • Initial D (PS1)
  • Initial D Special Stage (PS2)
  • Initial D Mountain Vengeance (PC)
  • Initial D Street Stage (PSP)
  • Initial D Gaiden (Game Boy)
  • Initial D Another Stage (GBA)
  • Initial D Collectible Card Game (Collectible Card Game)

Common Rules of the Touge

"Code of Touge:" (aka "Initial D style") has been explained in Best Motoring International. Power isn't everything, one mistake can prove fatal. Races occur in all weather conditions, with street-legal all weather tires, following the best driving lines, and often with dangerous hazards present on the roadways. Usually a tail-to-bumper start. In one method the front car wins if lead is spread, the rear car winning if gap is decreased; in another the front car must "lose" the rear car to win, and the rear car must overtake to win. If neither condition is satisfied the cars switch places and go again.

TOKYOPOP alterations

The manga and anime have also been licensed by TOKYOPOP for an English release. Many fans questioned TOKYOPOP's intent when it changed some characters' names and gave others Americanized nicknames while not changing other names. For instance, the main character, Takumi, became Tak (this is a nickname many Japanese-American change their names to), and his best friend Itsuki became Iggy; Takumi's father Bunta retained his name though, and so did an opponent by the name of Shingo. Viewers are able to view the episodes with the original Japanese 5.1 track should they wish. In addition, TOKYOPOP cut out a character's enjo kōsai relationship with another character and edited sex scenes in manga. In addition, "street slang" has been interlaced in translations, and there have been accusations that Tokyopop has put out wrong spec sheets on the characters' cars in the manga. The company also changed the music to originally developed tracks of rap and hip-hop via an in-house DJ called DJ Milky from the series' staple eurobeat tracks. [2] Here a complete listing of the Initial D Eurobeat Song Selection is available. The massive editing has been attributed to rumors that TOKYOPOP was hoping to cash in on the growing Import Scene brought about by The Fast and the Furious with edits that would conform to American broadcasting standards (Americanization) on TV.

For the most part, it is accepted that "hardcore" or devoted Initial D and anime fans prefer the original versions. This is due in part to the renaming of the characters. As a result fans have accused both TOKYOPOP and Avex of "selling out" and betraying classic anime fans in favor of money. Fans reacted negatively, feeling that the changes in story line were done in bad faith, for the purpose of "dumbing it down" for a broader casual audience. Most fans have also voiced that they feel that the name changes were unnecessary and were upset by the storyline alterations. TOKYOPOP even altered the storyline when the episodes are viewed with the original Japanese soundtrack. The subtitles are intentionaly mistranslated to preserve the same storyline changes that were made for the English language version.

As a result of these alterations and the ensuing dissent by fans, a number of fans have opted to obtain illegal fansubs in boycott of the TOKYOPOP releases. Normally the use of fansubs is considered acceptable by most fans only if there is no licensing of a series by an American company, or announced American release or translation plans.

Template:Spoiler

Background

Keisuke vs Takumi, the first battle.

Set in the late 1990s, it follows the adventures of Takumi Fujiwara, an eighteen year old who helps his father run a tofu shop by delivering every morning to a hotel over Mount Akina in Gunma Prefecture with his father's Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT-APEX. Having driven the mountain pass every morning to deliver tofu (for five years before his first race), Takumi's driving skill is highly developed.

In mountain pass racing, power is not the only key to winning. Balance, skill, and courage are what is needed to win. Mountain pass racing (also known as "touge") is divided into two areas, either Downhill or Hillclimb (Uphill). The hillclimb relies more on the car's power and the driver's acceleration control. The downhill depends primarily on the driver's braking and steering techniques, and requires less raw power from the car..

The story begins when racers of the Red Suns (a team from Mt. Akagi *NB: The town found at the foot of here is Maebashi so it is safe to assume the team take residence here*) come to challenge the local Speed Stars into a "friendly" race. Not wanting to be humiliated, the Speed Stars take this as a challenge and decide it to be a race for pride; however, when the Speed Stars' team leader Iketani has an accident during a practice run, they are immediately in a bind for a new racer on the downhill.

After appealing to the man known as Bunta Fujiwara (Takumi's father) to take his place, Iketani is confident that the old man (who is reputedly known as the "ghost of Akina") will come to save the day. But when the race day comes, Takumi appears with the eight-six (the Trueno) instead. And so begins the new legend of Akina's legendary eight-six.

Each car is referred to most often by its chassis or engine code. For example 86 is the chassis number for the Toyota AE86 Levin/Trueno.

Initial D follows the development of Fujiwara Takumi into a racer. From the beginning, Takumi was able to win on training alone. As the racers get harder, Takumi is forced to change, and evolve with each race. Takumi is forced to think, learn new driving methods, and find news limits of himself and his car. With every race, Takumi finds himself slowly evolving into the skill level of a professional racer.

Template:Endspoiler

Characters

Main article: Initial D characters and teams

Games

There are several games that are based on the anime. The most famous is probably Initial D Arcade Stage published by Sega, which is for arcade.

Initial D Arcade Stage casts the player as a racer starting out in mountain racing. The player races on several courses of progressing difficulty, although they can be played in any order, with a car of choice, and battles characters from the anime. With teams for each mountain, and cars with homecourses, the player races through :

  1. Myogi (Beginner),
  2. Usui (Medium),
  3. Akagi (Hard), *Appeared in Ver. 2
  4. Akina (Hard),
  5. Irohazaka (Expert), *Appeared in Ver. 2.
  6. [Snow Condition]Akina (Expert), *only snow stage in the game, appeared in Ver. 3
  7. Happogahara (Expert),
  8. Shomaru (Expert), *appeared in Ver. 3
  9. Tsuchisaka (Expert), *appeared in Ver. 3

Almost every stage offers wet/dry, day/night and either uphill/downhill or inbound/outbound options. The only exceptions are Akina Snow and Happogahara, which are both always at night, and naturally there is no wet/dry option in the snow.

The arcade machines runs on a card save system where information is saved on a card. The player may keep tuning his or her car with points earned based performance, which are tracked by the card. The game features a player vs. player interface, so that two players may choose to battle each other for points and reputation.

Currently, the game is in its Third Version, though there are consistent rumors of a Fourth Version. Sega also released Special Stage for home use on the PlayStation 2. The Arcade version has some characters and cars from at least one stage farther in its numerical equivalent in the anime. As such, the 1st stage game features Happogahara, which does not show up as a course until much later in the anime, presumably fourth stage.

Sega also recently released a PSP version of Initial D called Initial D: Street Stage on February 23 2006. The game is loosely based on Ver. 3.

The game is often criticized by simulation racing fans and fans of the Wangan Midnight games for having what some consider a fatal flaw. Despite the game's realism praised by it's fans, many cars in the game are excessively faster than even a modified AE86 in real life, so the stats of the higher-performance cars (such as the Nissan Skyline GT-R, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and Mazda RX-7) are watered down heavily to create fair races (in reality, most of the high-end cars can reach speeds of up to 260 km/h). This makes the game unrealistic to a point, and creates a situation where making the game more realistic would make it impossible for the game's flagship car to win, contradicting everything.

The Toyota Trueno AE86 from the series also appears as a special car in various Japanese racing games including Shutokou Battle (1999), Battle Gear 2 (2000), Battle Gear 3 (2002) and Gran Turismo 4 (2004), badged as the AE86 Shuichi Shigeno version in the latter game. The car features the same exterior modifications as the car of the anime (the Fujiwara tofu store sign on the side excepted), as well as an upgraded engine, also similar to the one from the anime series. Also featured in the game is the Sileighty, a car conversion in Japan, somewhat popular with drifters, made by fusing the front end of a Nissan Silvia with the rear of a Nissan 180SX.

Movie

Main article: Initial D (film)

A live-action movie based on Initial D was released on the 23rd of June, 2005 in Asia. The movie, jointly produced by Japan's Avex Inc. and the Hong Kong Media Asia group is directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, whose credits include the 2002 smash hit Infernal Affairs and 1999's The Legend of Speed, a previous street racing melodrama.

International Release

The film was released straight to DVD in Australia on October 21 2005 and has recently made its North American debut at The Imaginasian Theater in New York City. The film is also slated for release in the United Kingdom at selected theatres on April 28, 2006.

Cast

See also

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Initial_D&oldid=52336925"