"Initial D" by Shuichi Shigeno - A retrospective of the first 10 volumes - updated (Kodansha / ComiXology)

 

Regrets? I've had a few, but one of my biggest book purchasing regrets is that I was stupid, stupid, stupid enough to pass up picking up the entire "Initial D" series by Shuichi Shigeno when they were offered on sale on ComiXology for a mere 99p each. 

I picked up the first volume, then the next 9 but before I could collect the rest, Amazon / ComiXology did what they always do best, whacking the price of all volumes up to just under a tenner, putting the entire 30 volume collection way out of even the most ardent comic fans' price range. AAAARGH!

I've already written about Initial D over at ReadItDaddy but thought I'd write a little more about the 10 superb volumes I did manage to snag, and why this is such a brilliant series. 

Originally serialized in "Weekly Young Magazine" in Japan, Shigeno's masterwork has woven itself neatly into Japanese pop culture and has also developed itself something of a cult following in the west thanks to the publication of the collected works and the huge amount of interest in the Japanese street racing scene. Initial D chronicles the life of 18 year old Takumi "Tak" Fujiwara, an everyday average high school kid who also works at his father's Tofu shop, delivering tofu to various locations in and around Mt Akina. 

Tak has been driving the same mountain routes for so long that it's become second nature to him, and unwittingly he has picked up an almost inhuman set of drift racing skills from performing the same runs over and over again in his father's "Panda" Toyota Trueno AE-86.  Something of a racing legend, heavily modified '86s are still one of the most sought after naturally aspirated hatchbacks in Japanese automotive history. 

The series' trademark, Shigeno's brilliant monochrome car art perfectly captures the cars and characters of the Japanese Mountain / Street racing scene

To Tak though it's a garbage skip on wheels, not exactly the sort of car that's going to win him an ardent following from female fans, but thanks to his father's racing history and mechanical skills, the 86 is tuned to perfection. 

Tak finds himself drawn into the world of street racers who regularly charge up and down Mt Akina in their supercharged cars, but after a chance encounter in the wee small hours, Tak and his car begin to take on an almost legendary status as "The Ghost of Akina" - a mysterious old 86 that can beat just about anything it goes up against. 

Before long Tak finds himself dividing life between studiesl (and a crush from the cutest girl in high school), working at a petrol station and working for his dad, somehow shoehorning in some time to drive for his local racing team, the Speed Stars. 

Tak is often accompanied by his best friend, the nerdy and comical Iggy, as well as other friends who work at the petrol station and also drive for the speed stars. Cole is in love with his Nissan Sylvia, but doesn't seem to have the skills to be the 'captain' of the racing team. Iggy mistakenly buys an AE85 - the inferior version of Tak's car, and is determined to learn some of his best friend's skills. Meanwhile, Tak's love life takes a dive when the girl who has a huge crush on him also fails to mention her involvement with a 45 year old salaryman on the days when she's not making gooey eyes at Tak. Oh dear! It seems the life of a Japanese teenager is filled with drama. 

I make light of it, but "Initial D" hooks you in with the perfect comic for petrol-heads and still finds time to develop its characters in ways that stick in the mind. Tak is aloof, almost dispassionate and robotic about racing despite having almost supernatural and adaptive skills behind the wheel. Iggy is a nerd who aspires to be a great racer and Bunta, Tak's father, still has some of the old passions for driving that he's now living through his son's innate skills. 

As Volume 10 draws to a close, Tak is plagued by mysterious phone calls from 'a friend' telling him all about Natalie's salaryman dalliances, and his unbeaten run as the champion of Mt Akina is brought to a brutal close when he takes his car up against a ridiculously overpowered rally car in the hands of a racing master from Team Emperor, the poor '86's engine blowing up in the process. 

I'm dying to know what happened next but I guess it's a case of waiting (in vain) for the prices of the remaining volumes to drop down to a reasonable level. If you can stomach the prices, this is a fantastic series, just a damned shame it's so expensive. 

Updated

I figured I'd sign up for Kindle Unlimited to finish off the series, from 11 to 48. Round about Volume 30 or so, you could tell that Shuichi Shigeno had no idea how to finish off the series, and ended up chronicling the campaign of Project D to dominate the Japanese mountain racing scene. Every issue seemed to be a long drawn out race (often stretched over several volumes) missing opportunity after opportunity to polish off Tak (and everyone else's) stories in a satisfying way. Instead, the weak ending left a bitter taste in my mouth, for a series I'd loved up till this point. 

I guess I need to read Shigeno's MF Ghost to see if anything happens in there to satisfy my need for the series to finish properly but reading the synopsis it doesn't sound like a direct sequel, so it'll be interesting to dip into that.