Project D's Expedition

In an attempt to put some perspective on Project D's expedition, we created this map to help you understand the scope of the project. Before Ryousuke formed Project D, he was doing this "Fastest in Kantō... Project" with his brother Keisuke. Kantō is a region which consists of seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. As of 2010, the population in Kantō region is 42.6 million, or about one third of the total population of Japan (!)

As you can see, Initial D First Stage and Second Stage took place inside Gunma prefecture with the exception of the last battle. The 86 vs 86 battle with Wataru in Shomaru took place in Saitama prefecture. In third Stage, we started to explore Tochigi prefecture as that's where Irohazaka (Emperor's home base) is.

Fourth Stage took place mainly in Tochigi and Saitama. The Purple Shadow's God Arm and God Foot races were in Ibaraki prefecture. And then now we are in Fifth Stage, starting races in Kanagawa prefecture. It is said that this prefecture will have "four line of defense." So far, we have only seen Team 246, what awaits Project D next?

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kant%C5%8D_region
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefectures_of_Japan

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Recreating Fifth Stage Ep.1 Cut Scene

Without a doubt, there are many talented artist among us Initial D fans. Recently, we came across this YouTube video that literally blew our mind away. Going by the username "Zozze," Jone is a very talented Finland... Initial D fans when it comes to vectoring art. He spent three hours, get this, recreating that entire cut scene where Takumi pose with his AE86. Combined with fast-paced Eurobeat background music, the 14 minutes video is very enjoyable to watch.

Link to the video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=CAfL3uvrDyo
Jone's channel: https://youtube.com/user/Zozze

Subscribe to him and tell him that you want to see more virtual tutorial like this!!

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A classy challenge invitation

Do you still remember how Ryousuke challenged Takumi for a battle in First Stage? Let's refresh our memories a little. He sent a bouquet of roses to Takumi with a note inside stating the place and time. It was a very classy... move and I don't think anyone does it that way. Imagine you want to challenge someone to a race, do you send them a bouquet of roses (from a guy to another guy, no less)?

We had a long discussion on the forums about this strange phenomena. Most people thinks it's Ryousuke's personality. He fits the classic bishounen (beautiful boy) in anime and they usually do very classy things. Some even says he could be curious and because of that scene, a lot of fan fictions spawned over night. Some people mentioned maybe it could be a cultural thing but as far as I know, Japanese culture doesn't tend to do this when challenging others. Some chalk it up as another subtle clue the author is trying to hints at the whole "racers don't need girlfriends" theme. Right, they don't need girlfriends, but what about a boyfri... Ehm! Let's not go there, Shigeno-san.

Thus far, the most plausible explanation for Ryousuke's behavior is that he's trying to incite some sort of reaction from Takumi. He probably wanted to make him nervous, so he doesn't know how to react when they race. It's a psychological trick and Ryousuke is good at that. Remember how he set up the Project D. website and basically gloat how good they are in order to incite anger in their next opponents in Fourth Stage?

Tell us what you think of this scene by either commenting to this post or continue the ongoing discussion in this thread: https://idforums.net/index.php?showtopic=29084


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電車でＤ (Densha de "D")

You know a series is popular when it spawn parody that actually look legitimate. 電車でＤ (Densha de "D") is a good example of this. It is a PC game / manga. The characters in the Densha de... "D" is practically identical to Initial D. It is a case where the parody actually gained some traction.

This title is actually really old dating back to 2002~2003. Old school Initial D fans know about this. Apparently there was a PC demo floating somewhere on the net. You can probably find it if you look hard enough. Click the links below to learn more about this parody!

https://idforums.net/index.php?showtopic=927
http://goo.gl/mcVau

To all the US Initial D fans, have a happy thanksgiving!!


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Team 246

Let's learn a bit about the background of Team 246. So why is it call Team 246? Why not Team 135? 'html/emoticons/laugh.gif' Well, contrary to popular belief, it is... not just a random string of number and they are definitely not obsessed with even numbers. So what is it?

Turns out the Yabitsu Pass (ヤビツ峠) shown in Fifth Stage Episode 2 is near the National Route 246 which is a major highway in Japan. It originates in Chiyoda, Tokyo (東京 • 千代田区) and terminates in Numazu, Shizuoka (静岡県 • 沼津市) which also happens to be where Team Sidewinder is based in. Team 246 is the "First Line of Defense" because they are based in Hadano, Kanagawa (神奈川県 • 秦野市), which is pretty much the first city you would encounter coming from the Gunma direction.

In Fifth Stage Episode 1, Takumi mentioned that driving to Kanagawa is a long tiring drive. To put things in perspective here, driving from Gunma Prefecture to Kanagawa Prefecture is about 75 miles (120 km) It's a 1.5 hour to 2 hour drive assuming no traffic congestion. For comparison, Saitama Prefecture (where Mika is from) is only 35 miles (56 km) away from Gunma. It's a short 40 minutes drive for Takumi to meet Mika. 'html/emoticons/cool.gif'


Google Map source:
http://goo.gl/maps/hNYTQ

Website source(s):
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%A4%E3%...%83%84%E5%B3%A0
http://ameblo.jp/sakimono-hasha/entry-11400905792.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_National_Route_246


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Fifth Stage Anime vs Manga

The burning question many fans have is just how many episodes are in Fifth Stage? Animax did not say anything regarding the number of episodes at this point. We do know that there will at least be 8 episodes though because the... expected air date for ACT. 7 & 8 (February 8th) coincide with the album release date of Fifth Stage D SELECTION Vol.1 which is supposed to consist of 15 songs from Fifth Stage.

Even though we don't have anything official at this point, we can try to make an educated guess by looking at the manga. Fifth Stage Episode 1 & 2 covered from Chapter 424 to Chapter 461 (Spanning from Vol.32 to Vol.34) The latest Chapter from Initial D is currently 689. Assuming Fifth Stage anime will finish the current race in the manga, we will have about 14 episodes of anime IF they are going to cover the chapters at this same rate. Of course, there is no telling they will go so fast in later episodes. There are a lot of side stories in Episode 1 & 2 they needed to cover to bring us up to speed with the plot.

It doesn't make sense if they end the season at 14 or 16 episodes. It is unconventional to say the least. We are hoping that Fifth Stage will be a 24-episodes full season like Fourth Stage.

Only time will tell at this point.

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HiBiKi presents Initial D Radio Stage

HiBiKi Radio Station recently (November 11) published a radio segment called Initial D Radio Stage with Takumi (Shinichiro Miki 三木 眞一郎), Itsuki (Mitsuo Iwata 岩田... 光央) and the radio DJ Oda Chiho. (織田 千穂)

Initial D Radio Stage is about Fifth Stage the anime, the original artwork and even information about 86. Told vividly by Takumi's and Itsuki's seiyuu, this 34-minute long segment is very enjoyable to listen to even if you don't understand Japanese. (It's a plus if you like hearing a cute girl giggling non-stop.)

Here's the link to listen to it, click on the button with the word "聴く" to play it!
» http://hibiki-radio.jp/?radio_id=295

(...maybe it's a good time to learn Japanese.)


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Sideways' AE86

There had been a couple dozens of battles in Initial D. We had battles in the rain; while snowing; and even on leaves (Third Stage) But all of them were done on asphalt. Has anyone ever wonder how Initial D would be like on... gravel like in Rally? One of our moderators (sideways) did just that.

We are featuring his car for this post. It is a very clean corolla and he has lots of fun fixing it up and driving it. For more information, please visit his build thread: https://idforums.net/index.php?showtopic=26978 The AE86 really is a good car to train the driver, as Bunta always say. 'html/emoticons/happy.gif'


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Kanagawa, holy land of street racing

As mentioned before, one of the cool things about Initial D is that the places shown in it are taken from real life locations. In fact, the author would go to the actual mountain pass and take photos of scenery and landmarks and... draw them on paper later on. It's one of the very important elements that make Initial D realistic.

For example, the mountain pass shown in Fifth Stage Episode 2 is Yabitsu Pass (ヤビツ峠) among the highest point in Tanzawa mountains. (丹沢山地) The most notable landmark being the observation tower that's been shown numerous times throughout Episode 2 (And at the end of Episode 1) They refer this battle as the first line of defense because it is a mountain range at the border of the Kanagawa Prefecture. This is the holy land of street racing in Japan because of its geographical area. Mount Fuji and Fuji Speedway are located in this area, it attracts many street racers, amateur and professional alike.

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Initial D Fifth Stage Music

By now, majority of the Initial D fans had already seen both Fifth Stage Episode 1 & 2. Judging at the view count of one of the episodes we uploaded on YouTube (as of this posting, it's up to 220,000+ views) Fifth Stage... had created a very large reaction for the fans. For an anime series that went on hiatus for over six years, this is not bad at all. I foresee an even bigger response from the fans as the series develop.

Speaking of response, did you like the music from Episode 1 & 2? If so, head on to our Music Section (https://idforums.net/index.php?showtopic=44886) and get the music from Fifth Stage. My favorite so far is "Runaway" by Leo River, it really suits that scene perfectly. Don't you agree?


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