User:USDM420X/sandbox

Initial D is a 1998 anime adaptation of the 1995 manga of the same name.

Plot
Set in the late 1990s in Japan's Gunma Prefecture, the series follows the adventures of Takumi Fujiwara, an eighteen year old who helps his father run a tofu store by making deliveries every morning to a hotel on Akina with his father's Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT-APEX (AE86). It is revealed that Takumi has been driving on Mt. Akina every morning to deliver Tofu to the summit five years before he even had his license. As a result his skills in mountain racing were honed, and is able to drive under adverse weather conditions.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It has some best character and racing animation.
 * 2) Great character designs.
 * 3) This show stays almost faithful to the manga, with some anime-only scenes.
 * 4) Some memorable characters, like Takumi Fujiwara, Bunta Fujiwara, Koichiro Iketani, Itsuki Takeuchi, Keisuke Takahashi, Ryosuke Takahashi, Takeshi Nakazato, Shingo Shoji, etc.
 * 5) The cars are great, including the iconic Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno.
 * 6) The Funimation Dub was great, thus way better than the Tokyopop Dub.
 * 7) The finale of Final Stage was great, which shows the GT86 at the end, and ends this show at a very high note.
 * 8) Catchy Eurobeat songs that were played in some racing scenes, including Deja Vu by Dave Rodgers.
 * 9) The Battle Stages was quite good, with some CGI improvement.
 * 10) M.O.V.E is the best musician artist who made the openings and ending songs of that said anime.
 * 11) It helped to popularize the tuner racing genre internationally.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The CGI on the cars for First Stage was quite awful, thus making it look like an old CGI opening that was straight off from a PS1 game, but however improved in Second-Fifth Stage.
 * 2) The character designs of Fifth Stage was slightly ugly.
 * 3) The infamous Tokyopop Dub is bad as it replaces the Eurobeat with Hip-Hop/Rock music, changed and abbreviated the character names (i.e. Takumi Fujiwara to Tak, Keisuke Takahashi to K.T., Ryosuke Takahashi to Ry, Takeshi Nakazato to Zack, Mako Sato to Maya, Sayuki to Simone, Koichiro Iketani to Cole, Itsuki Takeuchi to Iggy, etc.), removing the scenes, replacing the iconic 4AGE sound effects with a V8, which made the AE86 sound like an American Muscle Car, and added the special effects that ruined the racing scenes, thus it's a lot badder than the One Piece 4Kids Dub, the Dragon Ball Ocean Dub, and the Sailor Moon DiC/Cloverway Dub, and however, Funimation had now owned the rights to Initial D, which not only undo the mess that Tokyopop had done, but hired new voice actors.
 * 4) This anime can have some filler scenes.
 * 5) Itsuki Takeuchi or Koichiro Iketani can be butt-monkeys for sometime.
 * 6) Fifth Stage and Final Stage was never dubbed, even the Battle Stages and Extra Stage 2.
 * 7) Two of Keiuske's uphill battles (Keiuske vs. Atsuro and Keisuke vs. Sakai) didn't appear in the Fourth Stage anime, but only appears in the manga and Battle Stage 2, possibly due to limitations of an episode.
 * 8) Most of the scenes were anime-only but never appeared in the manga, such as Itsuki vs. Shingo, Takumi vs. Ryosuke (Third Stage) and Keisuke vs. Seiji (quite canonical in the manga, but Battle Stage only).
 * 9) It was quite sad to see the AE86 getting it's engine blown up in the race against Kyoichi Sudo.
 * 10) Most of the characters are quite unlikable, such as Miki (who tried to kidnap Natsuki), Shingo Shoji (who often bumped and rear-ended Iketani, and also  Itsuki in anime only), The Lan Evo Jerks (who made Keisuke crash into a curb by an oil spill), Fake Project D (who tried to impersonate Takumi and Keisuke), etc.
 * 11) The infamous shower scene in Extra Stage, which was unnecessary fanservice and out of place for the show.

Reception
This Anime was well received by many critics and fans, which had spawned many memes, such as, "Running in the 90's", "Deja Vu", "Nani? Kansei Dorifto!?", *EUROBEAT INTENSIFIES*, "EXTREME ULTRA SUPER LATE BRAKING", "Cool Vibrations", etc. and spawned the Initial D Arcade Stage series and merchandising.

Trivia

 * Steven Universe has this one episode, "Beach City Drift" which references various aspects of the Initial D anime.
 * "Deja Vu by Dave Rodgers", "Running in the 90's", "Nani? Kansei Dorifto!?", *EUROBEAT INTENSIFIES*, "EXTREME ULTRA SUPER LATE BRAKING", "Cool Vibrations", etc. had became internet memes.