Anime Boredom - Initial D manga reviews

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Initial D V. 1

How the mighty have fallen.
Once upon a time people were so hyped about Initial D that even Radio Shack got into the act by offering up the Initial D manga in their stores hoping to cash in on the popularity of the street racing craze.
However with an oversaturation of street racing video games on the market, movies and whatnot that eventually worn down people’s taste of the genre, and finally Initial D which didn’t do as well as people thought it would… well, Radio Shack soon came to regret it’s hasty actions and finally had to practically give away unsold copies of Initial D for pennies in their bargain bin since the books didn’t fly off the shelves as fast as they thought it would. Shame, really, but does that mean the series sucks? Let’s find out.

Volume 1
Ladies and gentlemen? Witness a bad case of street racing road rage that came to the party on the short bus of intellectual defect as evolutionary dead ends drift race their way through a mediocre badly drawn example of road rage gone wrong known as Initial D!
Yeah, forget the Fast & the Furious, I got for you the Drawn Out & the Pedestrian… eh? Whattya mean the timing is ironic… WHAT?!? ANOTHER FAST & FURIOUS MOVIE?!? Damn, the people behind this “franchise” are RELENTLESS!! I mean, really, considering Vin Diesel has walked out of the franchise a long long time ago how can this movie series stay alive as long! But I suppose with the release of Fast & Furious : Tokyo Drift we’re going to be assaulted with an onslaught of Street Racing genre gaming in the coming months… bleah. Somebody please bury the corpse of Fast & Furious movies sometime soon!
But forget about Tokyo Drift… let’s see… movie about Tokyo drift racing… probably going to sell lots of tickets and make a big fortune. Yeah. And then the producers can only do the logical thing and make a fourth movie! Yeah, after Tokyo Drift takes off through the roof we’re going to have a sequel that’ll capitalize on the success of the movie and have Fast & Furious : Hot Asian Girls… yeah, like people are going to see the movie for the racing.

Speaking of things you shouldn’t see. Tak is a badly drawn bum in a badly drawn world with a social misfit for a friend, a hot “popular” girl with seemingly “loose” morals who he’s got the hots for, and hidden talents that he might not even know about! Apparently he works as a delivery driver for a Tofu Delivery company and has, through trial and error, learned the art of drift racing while working his route… so much so that he catches the eye of this group known as the Red Sun and somehow, as the story progresses, gets dragged headlong into the world of drift racing where he has the possibility to become a badly drawn legend.
Badly Drawn Legend, now there’s the name of a mediocre hero… yeah.

As you go through the story you’ll realize that it’s a unjustified and pedestrian delivery system for what could have been a hot story. I mean these days we’ve seen the popularity of drift racing (so much so that geek network G4 has set aside a whole block of time to shows dedicated to hot cars, drift racing, and hotter females in the most revealing outfits… guess what most people tune into these shows for!
But this story is not those shows, or the hot street racing games like Burnout : Revenge, the recently hyped Need For Speed : Most Wanted (which even shows promise in the GBA version believe it or not being it‘s the first rear camera set racing game that doesn‘t look like a Spy Hunter clone game), or the buzz positive hype I heard about newest game in the Driver franchise. This is not a good book, and I kind of doubt the anime is any better unless they improved on it and actually made it better than this slow moving plodding read which just drags onwards without end or a hope of “reward” for the readers.

If I come back to review Volume 2 none would be more surprised than me… though I guess I can at least give it a try. Anyway let’s break this down already.

Initial D Breakdown the 1st
What’s Hot?
I guess something about this title MUST be hot since 30 million or so readers in Japan was seduced by this, but somehow I seem to miss the point as the title seems to lack that spark and drive which would make a drift racing title like this fly off the shelves. And apparently I guess I’m not alone in this opinion since this title wasn’t exactly breaking speed records on Radio Shack shelves, stagnating to the point that they practically had to give the books away just to get them out of stores. So much for the “hot” of this title.

What’s Not
If what I said wasn’t enough of a downer how about this?
This title is so not good to look at! It’s an eyesore artwise, and while I’m at it it’s also an eyesore storywise which just drags on and on without end, providing little if any “reward” for diligent reading unlike other titles I’ve read in the past (or present). That in and of itself is enough to be bad, but there’s more.
I’m sure there’s other titles out there that can deliver drift racing far better than this, seek those out.

Moments to Remember?
I got 3 volumes for $5 or so!

What to Ignore?
I got 3 volumes for $5 or so… so I got what I paid for, basically.

Overall?
The title is a slow ponderous “race” that is ugly on the eyes and senses, a slow clawing fingernail laden hand on the chalkboard of tolerance towards inferior product, and even if it’s about drift racing I am sure there is more powerful and more exciting reads out there that better capture the drift racing lifestyle than a title like Initial D! The title dates from all the way back to 1997 and believe you me the title shows it’s age badly! Please, go find a better “Speed Racer” out there to hang your street duds onto, for this title is not what you should consider as a viable read to feed your Need for Speed. Most Wanted it’s not.
If I’m lucky, however, the title improves over time… if I’m lucky. If not I will have to suffer through two more reviews… hope something happens next review. Nuff said.

Initial D

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Initial D V. 1