"Inisharu D" (1998) TV series

User Rating:

8.6/10   

Creator:

Shuichi Shigeno

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

18 April 1998 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Comedy | Sport

Tagline:

Drift across Second Stage's finish line!

Plot:

The story of a young delivery boy who becomes a drift-racing legend.

Plot Keywords:

Drift Racing | Manga | Motor | Anime | Street Racing

Cast

Steve Blum

...

Keisuke 'K.T.' Takahashi (26 episodes, 1998)

Also Known As:

Initial D (International: English title)
Initial D: First Stage (Japan) (working title)

Runtime:

650 min (26 episodes)

Country:

Japan

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Australia:PG (DVD rating) | Singapore:PG | Australia:M (some episodes)

Company:

Prime Direction

Trivia:

Akina Mountain, the primary downhill course of the series, is actually based off Haruna Mountain in Gunma prefecture.

Goofs:

Continuity: Kenji's 180SX fastback changes from white to red in various scenes.

Quotes:

Bunta Fujiwara: Back when I was actively driving I drove Akina even in my dreams.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya's Drift Bible: A Complete Guide to Drifting (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

Over Drive

Pretty good series, though English dub scrapped its Eurobeat music :(

I like the series ever since I was a freshman at college. Students involved in anime stuff brought different series every week to my college's student center, and one evening I was studying for some exam until I heard some J-pop music; then I peeked at the big screen there and saw some anime figures and then a super-realistic image of a 1983 Toyota Corolla GTS liftback. I thought to myself: What is this thing about? Then I saw further into the series and saw drifting cars. But the most outstanding thing was that the cars appeared photo-realistic, when I then realizes they were relying on 3D graphics to simulate the cars. That's what got me into Initial D. I attempted to rent it at my nearest Blockbuster but found it always missing (or rented out), so I never got a chance to rent it on my own until I went to Dallas TX on some coop practice and subscribed to Netflix. Then I really got my chance to rent Initial D.

But then I discovered an awful thing: The English dub by Tokyopop got rid of the series' Eurobeat-style music by m.o.v.e and instead inserted its own local crappy hip-hop by some unknown DJ Milky with no known album on the market. Solution: Whenever you start playing any episode, set it to Japanese audio to listen to m.o.v.e's awesome opening; then when the opening's over, switch back to English if you want to listen to the dialogs without having to read subtitles. Then when the episode's over and the credits are about to start rolling, switch again to Japanese to listen to m.o.v.e (eps 1-13) or Galla (14-26), then back to English to listen the next ep's preview, then repeat the same cycle for the next episode(s).