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One of the highlights of the Big Apple Anime 
Festival was the premiere of TOKYOPOP’s popular series Initial D’s first movie, a supercharged extension, of the adrenaline rush cult television series. And I have to say I was really pleased by the anime movie and I finally understand what all the hype is about!
If you don’t know what Initial D is, the story, popularized in two series, a manga collection and even a trading card game, is about 18-year-old Takumi Fujiwara who, since middle school, has been delivering tofu in his dad’s Toyota Tueno AE68 (Toyota Corolla) down Mt. Akina. Going down the same route over and over again, he masters everything about his car and starts beating away challenges from street racers looking for a drag race. Takumi wins all the time, even against the ultimate rival, Ryosuke Takahashi, and learns to love racing, deciding to be a top racer while remaining humble to the masters he defeats.
The movie takes place right after the events of the first and second stages of the series and is based on the original manga series by Shigeno Shuichi. As Takumi nears the end of his high school career, he must decide what he wants to do with his life; work full time at the gas station like his friend strangely wants to do, accept his emotions and be with Mogi Natsuki, the troubled girl he loves that is trying to do the right thing with her life, or join his old rival Ryosuke and create the ultimate racing team. Normally, one would say choose the girl, but these decisions are hard for the expert racer with the natural ability and therefore, it takes close to two hours to decide his fate.
Initial D: Third Stage is a fantastic movie for so many reasons. The music was perfect for this with pulse pounding beats that pumped my adrenaline as I watched a car race with full CGI effects down a track. Don’t put this soundtrack in your car, because it will make you speed, but if you can get your hands on it, buy it!
Next, the animation is well worth the costs of this movie. While the character cel-animation is just ordinary and not spectacular at all, the CGI effects used for the drag racing makes for a perfect blend of the two artistic styles. The cars look like the real thing and move across the screen so vividly and realistically across beautifully rendered tracks and backgrounds, which makes you feel like you are in the car making every hairpin turn and struggling to keep it all together to finish as the winner.
In addition, the story is very well done. I really liked the emotional struggle going on in Takumi’s head as he uses his races to make up his mind about his future. Each race brings him to a new discovery about himself, even a race to save Mogi from a pervert who won’t take no for an answer. It is after he saves her that his true feelings emerge, but it’s the fact that his driving helps guide him, not only on the real roads he races, but on the path to ultimate truth, that eventually leads to his life-changing decision in the end.
I enjoyed this film, but I felt it dragged in a lot of places. There were times where there was just one race after another, and after a final coup over the son of Takumi’s father’s old rival, there turns out to be much more left to the movie. The film then shifts gears focusing more on the Takumi and Mogi love saga, it was almost as if the film was split in half, with one part focusing on Takumi’s love of racing and the other half for the love of Mogi. A better interweaving of the two plots leading to the ultimate conclusion would have made for a more streamlined and cohesive story.
Despite a simple plot, Initial D: The Movie brings closure to loose ends from the first two series while providing fans with the possibility of new exciting twists and turns to come. Initial D: Third Stage is a definite crowd pleaser. Strap in, sit back and enjoy the ride.
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