Initial D: Third Stage (2001)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Noboru Mitsusawa

Release Date:

13 January 2001 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Animation | Romance

Plot:

More races and challenges for soon-to-be-graduate/drift racer Takumi Fujiwara. Of course, with all the bells and whistles of a big screen production.

Cast

Steve Blum	...	Keisuke (voice: English version) (as Steven Jay Blum)
Crispin Freeman	...	Iketani (voice: English version)
Nobuyuki Hiyama	...	Takashi Nakazato
Unshô Ishizuka	...	Bunta Fujiwara
Mitsuo Iwata	...	Itsuki Takeuchi
Ayako Kawasumi	...	Natsuki Mogi (voice)
Takehito Koyasu	...	Ryosuke Takahashi (voice)
Lex Lang	...	Ryousuke "Ry" Takahashi (voice: English version)
Shinichirô Miki	...	Takumi Fujiwara
Kôsuke Okano	...	Kenta Nakamura
Tomokazu Seki	...	Keisuke Takahashi
Wataru Takagi	...	Kenji
Dave Wittenberg	...	Takumi (voice: English version)
Kazuki Yao	...	Iketani Kouichirou

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

English | Japanese | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Trivia:

Given the advancements in CGI technology since the release of Initial D's First and Second Stages in 1998 and 1999, all of the flashback scenes shown in the movie were re-animated with the same high-quality animation used in the movie, as opposed to simply editing in the older, 'rougher' scenes from the TV series.

Quotes:

[While standing amidst a crowded street of people, lights and decorations]
Takumi Fujiwara: [sighs] Christmas is so boring.

Movie Connections:

Remade as Tau man ji D (2005)

Soundtrack:

Space Love

Great movie

Basically you can consider it as the last longer episode of stage 2 or the 1st long episode of Stage 4. It doesn't stand alone like the extra stage with its own story. In this 'movie' version, you will see that Takumi is facing the wind of change. He will need to decide how move on to improvise his driving skills, technique and his knowledge in car.

In this movie, he is graduating from his high school(?), and due to his by far unmatched downhill drifting driving skills, he need to decide on how to move on. In the meanwhile, he was invited to join the Project D, initiated by the two Takahashi brothers to challenge all others skilled drivers from other areas in Japan and re-set the fasted driving time in all those areas, then the team dismissed. Before he came to his decision, he had raced the leader of the lancer evolution team, Emperor team and the son of Takumi's father's old time challenger (who had lost to Takumi's father last time). And at the end, he had also raced with Keisuke for his decision making of joining the Project D or not. Not to forget also, this movie also had showed more development of Takumi's love life. In short, its a very good movie with this time more emphasis on the emotion of the main characters. A must match for the Initial D die hard fans.