Initial D

“Single Japanese anime series seeks streetracing otaku to get my motor running. Must love cars”. If Initial D wrote a personal ad, that’s part of what it would say.

What if you were one of the world’s fastest tofu delivery persons? What if you were incredibly fast, going downhill in your car on your way to deliver tofu to local hotels at night? What if your friends were streetracers, and you worked at a gas station during the day? What if their turf and pride were under attack? Would you help them? What if they thought you were clueless about cars? What if your father, once a great streetracer himself, bribed you to do it? All of this is part of Initial D, a show that’s crazy about cars.

I don’t normally comment about changes in an anime from sub to dub, but Initial D is different. While changes in dialog for Initial D are not serious, the musical track has been completely changed. Here and there, I think this is an improvement, but I mostly find the original, more subdued music to be better.

Initial D is a very long series, and, I’m sorry to say, that's mostly because its plot moves at an ironically moss-growingly slow pace. If you really enjoy the topic, you’ll enjoy the series, more likely than not, but I personally find it a bit tedious. There’s just something about the unreal nature of anime that it harder to take the races in Initial D seriously. A good anime could probably get enough of a suspension of disbelief from its audience to pull it off, but Initial D just doesn’t seem to get things right. It doesn’t help that events always seem to turn out like predicted.