Initial D

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Initial D is a Japanese street racing manga written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno, and its hero starts each day delivering tofu. Takumi Fujiwara is a high school student. For years he has made those early morning runs in his father Bunta's aging Toyota Sprinter Trueno, known as the AE86. Nobody around him realizes what those runs have taught him about driving. Then that old car begins beating machines with far more power. How does a delivery routine turn into a racing education? Why did a story about sliding through mountain corners grow into cartoons, arcade cabinets and a feature film? And what happened when it reached North America and was reshaped for Western audiences?

  18887

• 2. Gunma's Mountain Roads

  ›

  Gunma Prefecture, in Japan's Kantō region, is where Initial D plants its tires. Shigeno centers the story on several mountains there and on the cities and towns around them. Almost all of the action happens on the mountain passes, and city streets rarely appear. Some place names are fictionalized, but every location in the series is based on a real place in Japan.

  The racing is illegal street racing, and the style the story emphasizes most is drifting. Keiichi Tsuchiya, a professional race car driver and a pioneer of drifting, helped with editorial supervision. One of those mountains, Mount Akina, is where the first big challenge arrives.

  18382

• 3. The Gutter Run

  ›

  Koichiro Iketani leads the Akina Speed Stars, a local racing team. He is also the supervisor of Takumi and his friend Itsuki Takeuchi at the gas station where both work part-time. The local scene is shaken when the Red Suns, a formidable team from Mount Akagi, challenge the Speed Stars to a downhill race on Mount Akina. Their leader is Ryosuke Takahashi. After watching the Red Suns perform, the Speed Stars lose heart.

  That same night, Keisuke Takahashi, the Red Suns' second-in-command, drives a high-powered Mazda RX-7 and is unexpectedly beaten by a mysterious Sprinter Trueno. Suspicion falls on Bunta. When Iketani crashes during practice, he begs Bunta for help. Bunta refuses, then quietly arranges for his son to race in Iketani's place.

  Takumi wins with an unorthodox technique called the "gutter run." He puts the car's wheels into the road's drainage channels so that he can hold his speed through hairpin corners. Keisuke is soundly defeated.

  The win earns Takumi the name "Legendary Eight-Six of Akina" and draws challengers from across the region. At first he is indifferent, but a passion for racing slowly grows. The Emperors, a team specializing in Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions, test him next. Their leader, Kyoichi Sudo, beats him, and Takumi blows his engine in the process. The Red Suns step in, defeat the Emperors and protect Gunma's racing reputation.

  Bunta replaces the AE86's engine, and with help from friends Takumi sharpens his technique. After graduating from high school he keeps racing. He beats Wataru Akiyama, who drives a Toyota Levin. He also avenges his loss to Kyoichi on Kyoichi's home course, the Nikko Irohazaka. Then he defeats the son of Bunta's old rival, who drives a Toyota MR2.

  Off the road, Takumi's girlfriend Natsuki Mogi is kidnapped, and he stages a dramatic rescue at Lake Akina in winter. Their relationship later ends amicably. Still chasing bigger tests, Takumi accepts a place on Project D, an expeditionary team founded by Ryosuke and Keisuke Takahashi with the aim of proving he is the fastest driver in Japan.

  1828385

• 4. Project D

  ›

  Todo Racing School, the Northern Saitama Alliance and the underhanded Tsuchisaka Lancer Evolution team are among the opponents Project D meets. The most humbling loss comes from Takumi's own father. Driving a Subaru Impreza WRX STI, Bunta beats him and forces him to learn how a four-wheel-drive car behaves.

  Takumi also begins a relationship with Mika Uehara. Meanwhile Ryosuke confronts a bitter rival whose grudge is tied to a past tragedy.

  The campaign peaks in a race against Shinji Inui of Team Sidewinder. Takumi blows his engine in the middle of the race. He still wins, by coasting backward across the finish line.

  Afterward he retires the AE86 from competition and chooses to restore it gradually. Ryosuke disbands Project D and reveals what its name means, then turns to mentoring new drivers. Keisuke goes after a professional racing career. Takumi returns to his old morning routine, now driving his father's Subaru. Years later he moves into rally racing and eventually becomes a world champion.

  18685

• 5. From Page to Screen

  ›

  On the 17th of July 1995, Weekly Young Magazine, a seinen manga magazine from Kodansha, carried the first installment of Initial D. The serial ended on the 29th of July 2013, after eighteen years and 719 chapters. Kodansha gathered the chapters into forty-eight tankōbon volumes, released between the 6th of November 1995 and the 6th of November 2013.

  The first anime series, later called First Stage, was produced by Avex Entertainment and animated by Studio Gallop and Studio Comet. Fuji TV broadcast its 26 episodes from the 19th of April to the 6th of December 1998. Second Stage, animated by Pastel, followed on Fuji TV with 13 episodes from the 15th of October 1999 to the 21st of January 2000. A two-episode original video animation, Extra Stage, came out on the 10th of November 2000.

  The 104-minute film Third Stage, animated by Studio Deen and distributed by Toei Company, premiered on the 13th of January 2001. Fourth Stage, animated by A.C.G.T, ran for 24 episodes on the SKY PerfecTV! pay-per-view service from the 17th of April 2004 to the 18th of February 2006. Fifth Stage, animated by SynergySP, ran for 14 episodes. It was previewed on Animax on the 4th of November 2012, then ran on SKY PerfecTV! from the 9th of November 2012 to the 10th of May 2013. Final Stage, also from SynergySP, was four episodes on the Animax Plus video on demand service, from the 16th of May to the 22nd of June 2014.

  Compilations filled the gaps between series. Battle Stage, released on the 15th of May 2002, gathered the 17 races from the first three Stage productions. It reanimated and remastered scenes and added a new original race. Battle Stage 2 collected Fourth Stage with new scenes on the 30th of May 2007. A second original video animation, Extra Stage 2, arrived on SKY PerfecTV! on the 3rd of October 2008. Battle Stage 3, released on the 5th of March 2021, combines Fifth Stage and Final Stage but adds no new scenes or character dialogue.

  The story's beginning was also retold in a film trilogy, New Initial D the Movie, animated by Sanzigen and Liden Films. Awakening premiered on the 23rd of August 2014, Racer on the 23rd of May 2015, and Dream on the 6th of February 2016. A compilation of the three, Battle Digest, was released on the 7th of January 2022.

  1562223

• 6. Lost in Translation

  ›

  In 2001, Tokyopop licensed both the manga and the anime for North America, and it changed a great deal. Character names were altered in the anime, and the manga later adopted the same changes. Those names matched the ones Sega introduced in the Western releases of its Initial D Arcade Stage video games. Tokyopop also censored the manga's brief scenes of nudity and wove street slang into the translations.

  Thirty-three volumes appeared between the 21st of May 2002 and the 13th of January 2009. In August 2009, the company announced that its manga licensing contracts with Kodansha had expired. In April 2019, ComiXology and Kodansha USA released volumes 1 to 38 digitally, and volumes 39 to 48 followed that July. In August 2023, Kodansha USA announced an omnibus edition with new translation and lettering. Its first volume came out on the 19th of March 2024 in three cover variants. One was a new Kodansha USA cover, one was a Crunchyroll and direct market exclusive, and one was a Kinokuniya Books edition. By the 2nd of December 2025, eight volumes had been released.

  The anime met a similar fate. Tokyopop's DVDs of First Stage, Second Stage and Extra Stage filled fourteen discs, released between the 16th of September 2003 and the 8th of November 2005. The company modified names, added slang, and replaced the series' characteristic eurobeat music with original rap and hip-hop tracks. Stu Levy, known as DJ Milky, is the name attached to that production.

  On the 29th of August 2003, an English-subtitled Third Stage screened at the Big Apple Anime Fest. Tokyopop never released it on DVD. In 2006 it had mentioned plans for a "theatrical movie-length animated feature."

  Also in 2006, Funimation announced it would distribute the Tokyopop DVDs. It put out First Stage on the 13th of March 2007 and Second Stage on the 16th of October 2007. At the New York Anime Festival 2009, Funimation announced something bolder. It would re-release the first five productions with a brand new English dub and the original Japanese music, uncut. Those releases ran from May 2010 to February 2011. When Funimation was unified under the Crunchyroll brand, the series began streaming there in May 2022, though the episodes are no longer available.

  1114171820

• 7. Arcades and Film

  ›

  Initial D Gaiden, released for the Game Boy in 1998, opened a long run of video games. A Sega Saturn title and a PlayStation game followed in 1999. Some releases were unusual. Ryosuke Takahashi's Fastest Typing-theory came out for PC, Mac and PlayStation 2 around 2000 and 2001, and Second Stage: Fastest Typing in Kanto Project followed in 2001.

  The arcade line began in 2002 with Initial D Arcade Stage on NAOMI 2 hardware. It moved through Lindbergh and RingEdge boards, reaching Arcade Stage Zero in 2017 and The Arcade in 2021. Other releases include a collectible card game in 2003 and a free-to-play Nintendo 3DS eShop game, Perfect Shift Online, in 2014. There was also an RPG for Sony Ericsson mobile phones, plus a pachislot machine in 2021.

  On the 23rd of June 2005, a live-action Initial D film opened in Asia. It was jointly produced by Japan's Avex Inc. and Hong Kong's Media Asia Group. Andrew Lau and Alan Mak directed it, a pair whose credits include the 2002 Hong Kong blockbuster Infernal Affairs. Taiwanese singer Jay Chou played Takumi Fujiwara, Edison Chen played Ryosuke Takahashi, and Shawn Yue played Takeshi Nakazato.

  The film changed much of the original plot, yet reviews were generally positive. It was nominated for multiple awards, including Best Picture, at both the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Horse Awards, and it won many of them. In October 2023, actor Sung Kang said he was working on developing another live-action film and was "trying" to direct it.

  718473

• 8. Reception and Legacy

  ›

  By July 2013, the collected volumes of the manga had sold 48 million copies. By April 2021, more than 55 million copies were in circulation, which places Initial D among the best-selling manga series in history.

  The Anime Review rated the anime A-minus, and its reviewer called it "simply the best show I've seen in a long time." Bamboo Dong of Anime News Network gave it a B-minus. She wrote that it "is the first time in a long while since I've been so fired up about a series, so I recommend to everyone to at least check this out."

  Tokyopop's version drew a sharper response. Some fans reacted negatively to the extensive editing of the English manga, to the script and voice acting of the English dub, and to the removal of the original music. Tokyopop said it was trying to Americanize the series so it could be aired on television, while keeping the Japanese spirit of the story. Reviews of the Funimation re-release noted a marked improvement. Most complaints there concerned the lack of anamorphic widescreen on the DVDs.

  The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, released in 2006, invites comparison, as the wider Fast and Furious franchise, which debuted in 2001, often does. Keiichi Tsuchiya, the consultant on Initial D, served as the stunt coordinator on Tokyo Drift. He also appeared in it, in a cameo as a fisherman.

  Shigeno's own story has successors. MF Ghost ran from 2017 to 2025 and connects to Takumi's later career. Subaru and Subaru began in 2025.

  8586875594