I'll be honest - I'm not a huge Initial D fan. There's only so many
CGI car racing scenes (most of which seemed to be repeated) I can
stomach -besides, if you want decent racing scenes, get a bruckheimer
movie... Anyway, I wasn't looking for much out of the manga, which
is of course stripped of CGI and the soundtrack of the anime. So,
does it hold its own as a manga?
First up, may I say that the drawing style is monumentally ugly. Yes
I may. (Its my review after all). This is by far the least appealing
set of characters I've ever seen grace paper, and the tree that died
to make it must be planning to come back and haunt the artist...
The basic plot, for those unfamiliar with the series, revolves around
Takumi and his ugmo mate Itsuki. Itsuki is obsessed with the local
boy-racers and wants to join their team, whilst Takumi simply isn't
interested. When the local team is challenged by a bunch of out-of-towners,
things start to hot up and Takumi is dragged into proceedings...
Throw into the mix a mysterious old Trueno that appears out of nowhere
in the early hours that can outrace the most modern souped up racers,
Takumi's Dad, a legendary racer, and you start to realise that despite
his ambivalence to the sport, Takumi may be more of a racer than anyone
had realised.
The storyline is pretty trite, and many of the "shocks"
simply aren't surprising at all, as they're flagged up a mile away...
There's almost nothing here to keep you reading, unless you're particuarly
harsh on yourself. With so many other great titles in the 100% manga
range, you'd be mad to spend your cash on this.
3/10 – Dull, trite, ugly. Only hardcore fans are going to
take to this...
Don't fancy yours much... The cast of Initial D, something to scare the
kids with...
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