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• Initial D Anime Series

The Review

First Impression

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At first, due to the quality of work I saw at the beginning, it was difficult to have much respect for the series. But as I continued to watch, I started getting hooked by the story - it's classic. Smalltown, unknown guy is discovered to have amazing talent in some field, people try to compete with him to test their own skills, main character is reluctant to join in at first but eventually gives in, and as time passes he too becomes hooked by the new hobby. Most of these series end in an open-ended motion.

If I had to name a similar anime, it would be Hikaru No Go. Except this time it's a sport with cars (much more exciting).

The Artwork

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If there was anything disappointing about this series, it was the art. And this was probably its one worst flaw at that. Especially in the beginning.
How to describe it? The figures seem to be bulbous, with traces of ugly mixed in. The faces are almost always rounded and elongated. In general, there is an annoying air of vulgarity around the figures - as if the artist just didn't really care how they looked. This vulgarity is most obvious around the lips - they actually pucker up into crude beak-like things. Wow, I can't believe I said that.
I suppose that in some ways you could call this type of art a "style," but even so, it would be a style that falls short of good quality work.

Even so, the artwork does improve as the series moves from First to Second Stage, to Third, and finally to Fourth. In the last stage, it's hard to tell that the first stage was that disappointing.

I will give credit, hands down, to a few good points in the art: the proportionality of the figures is generally in sync and fairly normal, and the cars are definitely an A+ for 3D accuracy. The cars are probably the best point, and they make no effort to hide the fact that they focused mostly on car artwork. They're sleek, shiny, CG-ed to 3D, and they make you hold your breath (well, I did) as they rush past the screen. Very nice.

Initial D has both the good and the bad points, both of which stand in blatant contrast with each other. Visually, it is so easy to love the cars more than the characters.

The Music

Awkward, silly, and a little overdone. It's not so much that the music was bad, but more the selection of music for certain scenes was bad. The genre might be called techno-futuristic, with obvious evidence of mixing and editing. That kind of style might be fine on its own, but when combined with scenes of cars and racing it created an awkward, laughable, and a horribly mismatched presentation. For instance, in the middle of an intense moment in the race, you would hear typewriters beeping as if a telephone wouldn't shut up...or even a male voice hitting those super low bass notes, muttering who-knows-what and who-cares-what. When you're watching cars and want to focus on the cars, the music should enhance that feeling rather than detract; their selection of music made me think of computers and internet going haywire while watching automobiles race by. Right.

Overall Impression

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Fantastic story. It was thrilling, and made me want to drive like crazy too!

Though it's a twist to think of how the story could have progressed without the all-knowing narration. If you step back for a moment and remember that this is a story about cars racing around a mountain, you'll remember that in reality spectators only get to taste a few split seconds of the showdown, and only find out who won the race after several minutes of waiting. Obviously, a show based only on waiting would be too boring, so the editing cross-cuts between the uber-fast cars and the commentating spectators. And it's the comments that keep your attention.

Overall the whole series was a success, from the first stage to the fourth (and I do hope the fifth will come out sooner than anticipated). There were a few odd decisions made here and there, but they were minimal compared to the overall impact of the story. Lots about slice-of-life and how to pave the road to your own future.

Breaking It Down

The Pros Fantastic character development. Great story, definitely addictive. Gorgeous CG-ed cars.

The Cons Poor artwork (mainly the figures, not the cars). Awkward endings for a few stages. Open-ended is good, but sometimes they just don't tie up the loose ends.

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