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The story
A post on 5ch’s Livegalileo board (a general live-commentary board) arguing that Initial D deserved to be more popular than it was sparked a wide-ranging discussion. The thread covered everything from opinions on the AE86 and Ryosuke Takahashi, to the romance subplot and mixed feelings about the later Project D arc, to how fans feel about the spin-off MF Ghost.
What people said
You need some high school romance in there though
Even decades later, rewatching it doesn't feel dated at all
Man, that was way ahead of its time…
Takumi's AE86 isn't even really an AE86 anymore at that point
A BMW is faster
than a Corolla
An AE86 is an AE86
Showa-era scrap metal
Hard to say since the art style changes by season
The character designs are actually good in the 3rd and 4th Stages
That's why I'm binging it right now — it's so good I can't stop
Burning through his parents' money to run his team and lord it over other teams
That'd be fair if he did it behind his parents' backs, but was there actually a scene showing that?
He said the reason he provoked other teams on his website was to get them to come at him for real
Go drive a real mountain pass
Initial D might as well be a video game
I think it's fine since he's a student
The rivals spent plenty of money on their cars too
There were some rich kids among them as well
It's not like Team D was the only one with money
The Itsuki parts matter, but the Natsuki parts are the ones you skip
If you're bringing that much manpower and equipment, mooching off your parents is the only option
Remember, he's still just a student while he's out there going wild
Maybe he was secretly making bank off investments on the side
If you want that rattly gear-shift feeling, you can still get it from a Prius…
I think it would've been good if they'd actually shown that
Without it, he's basically just mooching off his hospital-director dad
Ideally they'd have shown him landing sponsors through his racing itself
Team D was clearly on another level
Showing up with three Hiaces packed with gear, swapping tires nonstop, basically playing pro team
While everyone else was grinding part-time jobs to scrape by
Can't really help that when you're on the road
The home team knows the course inside and out and has their car tuned for it, but Team D is seeing it for the first time and has to set up on the spot
Wouldn't it be weirder if they showed up empty-handed and just dominated anyway?
There was actually supposed to be a rally arc
But probably due to editorial or sponsor decisions to keep pushing the "fastest on public roads" formula, they kicked off the Project D arc instead
That turned out to be completely unnecessary and just awful
I mean, it was already way too fantastical from the start, but it's a manga, so it still would've wrapped up nicely otherwise
Wish they'd do a digital remaster
Wish they'd also fix those terrible early police-chase battle scenes
As for the trilogy movies, I just can't get on board with the art style or voice cast
Seems like it has several meanings
For Project D, the D stands for 'Dream'
That part's basically a power fantasy
It's just satisfying and fun to watch
Background and Key Points
Initial D began as Shuichi Shigeno’s manga in 1995 and ran until 2013, spawning five TV anime series between 1998 and 2014, three live-action-style CG movies, and a Hong Kong live-action film. Its car of choice, the Toyota Sprinter Trueno/Corolla Levin AE86, was a cheap, unremarkable Japanese economy coupe from 1983–87 with no racing pedigree; it became a cult object specifically because of this franchise, not before it, which is why real AE86 prices are still inflated decades later, as the thread notes. The setting is touge racing — illegal nighttime downhill duels on narrow mountain passes, here fictionalized as Mount Akina in Gunma — a real, longstanding but unsanctioned subculture in Japan that the anime romanticizes without commentary. The board itself, Livegalileo, is a general live-chat board rather than an anime-specific one, so the tone skews toward casual car-culture nostalgia rather than close manga analysis.
The actual point of disagreement wasn’t the AE86 or the racing itself but Ryosuke Takahashi: whether his Project D operation, bankrolled by his father’s money, makes him an admirable strategist or simply a rich kid throwing resources at amateur racers who fund themselves. Posters split over whether the manga ever justified this financially or just glossed over it.
What’s likely to surprise outsiders is that even Shigeno himself has never pinned down what “D” officially stands for, giving different answers over the years (Drift, Dream, District, etc.) — the thread’s confusion on that point is faithful to the source, not a gap in fan knowledge.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Livegalileo board) thread “Initial D really deserved to be bigger, right?”.
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