Well the series has a certain pattern or formula which may seem repetitive, but the series is willing to somewhat break the 4th wall in an indirect sense to explain that and help you understand better. This will be explained between Takumi’s races with Tomoyuki and Sakamoto on the subject of “oh this opponent will be your toughest yet, etc.” For that formula, mostly one episode is that they introduce Project D’s opponents and the following episode they will race. At times the pace will change a bit, but I think it brings a more definitive balance to keep you hooked. It is very character
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development driven which is what I loved best. Every race Takumi and Keisuke have is a new kind of challenge in multiple angles, and it’s Ryosuke’s purpose to use that factor to help develop them. The development is obvious and predictable, but Ryosuke keeps things at a certain ambiguity where it does make you curious to how they get to that goal. But it’s not about development as racers, but development as individuals as well. Especially with Keisuke since you get to learn about him more and sympathize with him.
Itsuki, Iketani, and Kenji are of course present. Itsuki will also have his time to somewhat shine again. I think they are useful but not impacting. I think the purpose of their presence is to demonstrate that Takumi is developing and can talk about racing and cars, and Takumi won’t explain things all spaced out like in 1st stage. Other characters from previous season will be making a return and they also have their own contributions. The newer characters are interesting in their own right and you’re getting characters from all kinds of backgrounds and skill levels. Granted it’s been the same with previous installments, but this takes it to a whole new level in ways you can never have expected. By the end, you get characters that are not traditionally found in Initial D, but you would tend to find in Wangan Midnight, another racing anime and manga. Some teams go as far as getting professional racers to challenge Project D. A flaw that will stand out to those familiar with the manga is that Keisuke’s races such as that with the Integra and the R34 are mentioned, but are never shown, but afterwards they show his races. I don’t know why. But I heard they were animated for Battle Stage 2, which I have yet to see. I also recall that Kyoko, the black FD driver being spunkier in the manga while in this one, she’s more of a likeable and sweet girl, but with a unique passion for cars and racing. Over looking these flaws, the pacing felt as fast as the races, which will be my next topic of discussion.
Well, you’ll notice a lot of changes in this series in style. What I liked is that it brings a style more manga-like. The art was sketchier and it used a lot more cross-hatching to show the shadowing. I’m personally more of a manga person, so I felt appreciated as a manga fan. I also loved how the coloring and resolution complimented this approach as well. But one thing in particular that really stood out to me was that the characters wore different clothes in every episode. Usually in cartoons, video games, and anime, characters will always wear one set of clothes just to make them “iconic.” I know it may sound stupid those who are listening to this review, but this quality just stood out to me and I just happened to enjoy it. But one thing I didn’t like personally is that Shigeno-sensei at this point is sort of getting lazy with his female designs. How come Kyoko and Nao have to look like Natsuki? Why can’t he draw women in the fashion of Impact Blue? I don’t know where he went wrong there.
The rendering of the cars this time has more of a cel-shaded style, though not really in the same nature of that as in Jet Set Radio or Okami. It still has a CG kind of look, and I thought the rendering blended excellently with the style of this season. The races in this one are of course more exciting than ever, but I think they relied on the chase race more. You know the races like what Takumi had with Impact Blue in first stage, and with Wataru in second. But I heard in mountain races in Japan, that kind of racing is most common. I prefer the time attack races and I think in addition to realism they used the chase race just to drag the races a little bit more, but I feel the conclusions and finishes are more dramatic as a result, though sometimes anti-climatic, but there are legitimate reasons and purposes. But like other installments as the series progresses, new courses will of course mean new features and factors to how the races will turn out which is another contribution to motivating development. And sorry to bring up a spoiler, but I couldn’t help but mention that by the end, it will feature Mt. Tsukuba, also known as the Purple Mountain, a course I used to live not too far from and have hiked. And the home team is appropriately named the Purple Shadow. And I haven’t played the newer games enough to give the judgment of the accuracy of the course’s portrayal.
Even though I skim through this section in the last two reviews of Initial D, I need to really extend this particular section more in relation to the voice acting. First I will briefly talk about the music. My favorite song is the 2005 remix of Wild Reputation by Dave Rodgers, and it’s featured in episode 13. I just think the song really reflected the bad boy images of Wataru and Keisuke. And to conclude with the music, MOVE’s style has gone more radical where it was more reliant on rap in previous seasons, while they added more rock elements to come across as more extreme and it works out really well. So that’s it for music.
The voice acting in this season starting with Takahashi Ryosuke played by Koyasu Takehito, is taken to a new level of appreciation in my book. It’s not just his unique charisma and intimidation, but I just love how he makes the character distinguishing. His acting abilities truly bring those qualities to Ryosuke. It makes him sound like a Bruce Lee of street racing though that’s really Bunta’s role, but Koyasu’s acting just steals that spotlight. Miki Shin’ichiro also brings out Takumi’s development in relation to his ability to articulate his abilities racing and doesn’t sound as spaced out. He just really pulls you into the character and you can’t call him an empty shell. And as usual, I love Seki Tomokazu’s hot tempered portrayal as Keisuke. And Toyoguchi Megumi, who you may know as the voice of Elena in Advent Children, Millaria in Gundam SEED, and Sei in Maria-san ga Miteru did an excellent performance with the anime’s portrayal of Kyoko who is passionate, but yet mellow and focused. Even though my perfect scores in previous installments was out of fanboyism on my part, I just feel that for the first time I felt moved and more educated by the performances.
Despite how highly I rate this, I still acknowledge Initial D isn’t an anime for everyone whether new, casual, or hardcore. I’m just saying this as a guy who’ll try everything, and I didn’t expect to like Initial D. I like what’s fresh and original, which Initial D has always offered me and is free from most anime stereotypes, and it’s very educational to me as someone who has friends who like to race and I have been going to car shows and drag races since I was in high school, though I don’t participate in them. But the concept of racing isn’t something everyone is going to embrace and I know that eurobeat isn’t universally appealing. And the tech speak is something that can turn off people and I’ve seen that a lot. But if you want character and story development that is well motivated, maybe these qualities will make up for the surface ones that make you uninterested, I don’t know.
Now I will conclude this on a note that people will call me stupid and crazy, and for all the right reasons by fans and non-fans alike. It’s just that when I watched this, I felt the execution and presentation made me start to think that touge racing is a legitimate sport in its own way and requires a unique set of skills and customization of your car. After all, some famous racers started out on the street and Tsuchiya Keiichi, the drift king and supervisor of this anime was no different. Outside of public traffic risk and legality factors, other conditions that are explained and portrayed truly demonstrate this distinction to make you come to that assumption and I do have a new sense of respect for touge racing as a sport thanks to watching this anime. As for a fifth stage, the manga is still going on, so you can look forward to it at some point, or read the manga.
Alternative Titles
Synonyms: Initial D 4th Stage
Japanese: 頭文字〈イニシャル〉D FOURTH STAGE
More titlesInformation
Type:
TV
Episodes:
24
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Apr 17, 2004 to Feb 18, 2006
Premiered:
Spring 2004
Broadcast:
Unknown
Licensors:
Funimation
Studios:
A.C.G.T.
Source:
Manga
Theme:
Racing
Demographic:
Seinen
Duration:
27 min. per ep.
Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
Statistics
Ranked:
#4132
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#1272
Members:
188,056
Favorites:
1,317
Available AtResourcesStreaming Platforms | Reviews
Filtered Results: 17 / 19
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Your Feelings Categories Oct 12, 2008
Well the series has a certain pattern or formula which may seem repetitive, but the series is willing to somewhat break the 4th wall in an indirect sense to explain that and help you understand better. This will be explained between Takumi’s races with Tomoyuki and Sakamoto on the subject of “oh this opponent will be your toughest yet, etc.” For that formula, mostly one episode is that they introduce Project D’s opponents and the following episode they will race. At times the pace will change a bit, but I think it brings a more definitive balance to keep you hooked. It is very character
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Nov 30, 2007
Initial D Fourth Stage is the newest series in the long-running franchise. Fast-paced street racing, modified cars, and determined drivers all combine to create a series that has become one that is unique in it's style. Fourth Stage breathes in new art and an outstanding face lift to the series and guarantees to please fans of it's predecessors.
The story of Fourth Stage has come from the budding of Fujiwara Takumi's driving skill to the nationwide domination of Project D, a new race team established by Takahashi Ryouske. The story proceeds well from the small victories in various regions, to the eventual domination of the prefecture ... Jul 7, 2012
I’m starting to get why I don’t review series that last beyond 26 episodes (I watched them, mind you, but takes a lot of time to review) and as much as the first 2 editions of Initial D were pretty good and the third stage movie was…..okay to say the least but I starting to think like in any of the Dragon Ball series, the story and the races do tend to drag (no pun intended) as they go along.
This series focuses on the exploits of the new team founded by Ryosuke, Project.D, which is composed of Ryosuke (leader and strategist), downhill ... Mar 26, 2013
Initial D Fourth Stage Review
There are no spoilers in this review Well what can I say? I enjoyed it allot like I have with the previous instalments. It felt different though. They fixed the biggest flaw that I though there was but another one came up which just messed with atmosphere of the show. My enjoyment was somewhat less because of that but I'll explain in detail later. Story What can I say, it's typical Initial D fashion. Absolutely immersion for a car fanatic like me, with them layering on more and more technical talk about the mechanics and the techniques used I enjoyed ... May 29, 2022 (I'm about to spoil the formula for the entire season, avert your eyes. Or don't, you can also guess it for yourself after the first 10 mins of the first episode anyway.) This is quite possibly one of the worst things I've ever seen in my ENTIRE life. This entire anime can be summed up to this: People talking to themselves in cars, ... Dec 3, 2021
Initial D Forth Stage marks a new low of the series with bad and random characters as well as uninteresting, dull and repetitive races.
I might be the only one when I say that but when looking back at the first three seasons I always felt like that the mountain passes and races had some sort of identity, something that made them special, unique and therefore entertaining to watch. You surely remember Akina with it's 5 consecutive hairpins or Usui Pass with Takumi's extreme endurance race againt the Sil-Eighty Duo or the AE86 vs AE86 race on that very old and horrendously maintained pass. However here, I ... Jan 26, 2022
Stage four was definitely better than stage three in terms of everything. Fourth stage started out a bit weak, the races in starting didn't feel very strong, felt kind of slow but then it picked up. The races became more and more fierce and difficult for both Takumi and Keisuke, this time they faced all types of opponents. There was tremendous growth for Takumi, Keisuke and Itsuki in this season, both in terms of racing and overall character growth. Takumi and Keisuke have become very strong drivers now.
Takumi is a great driver, calling him great would be an understatement but one thing is that in ... Mar 28, 2022
After finishing this series I must say...I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Initial D has become one of my all-time favorites. Surprisingly, this show got me back into cars like how I used to when I was younger and I'm even more of a fan now than before.
I enjoyed every plot twist, funny and thrilling moments that had me on the edge of my seat. Some of my favorite ones were whenever Takumi pulled a new trick up his sleeve, all the guys working at the gas station talking about the new upcoming races or how Takumi beat an skilled opponent, or even when ... Jun 24, 2023
Seemingly after a poor Stage 3, they threw every conceivable race that could in this 24 episode, adrenaline fueled Stage 4. Thank goodness they did too are Stage 3 really could have set the series up to plummet into the depths of garbage.
There are many things to like here. 2 things in particular have become consistent points of quality; The music and the driving animation. There isn't really much more I can say about these elements to be honest. Music fits perfectly to the absolutely perfectly animated driving. Every single race, these elements shine, providing the viewer with everything you could possibly ... Jul 24, 2020
It's weird, I'd have thought a season focused mostly on racing would have been an improvement on the series, but I feel like this handled poorly. First off is the pacing, which has sped up way too fast. Minimal time is spent developing any Project D's competitor, and most of them fall into the mindset of dismissing Takumi's 86 as some junker. There's also the races themselves, which feel as downgrade overall. It's expected at this point that Takumi is going to win his races, which can work as long as races interesting, but they're not. As mentioned before, most of his opponents grossly underestimate
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Apr 20, 2020
I watch this show for the characters, music and the races after the first 3 seasons I took a little break from season 4 since it seemed like it would be slow and that it would maybe not be that interesting. In contrast to the earlier seasons this one doesn't have much stories outside of the street racing which I was hoping to see, but however the pace of this season is so fast that I don't personally mind it at all. Even though I definitely want them in the future. Otherwise it's very good quality and worth your time to watch if you like
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May 2, 2022
(Minor spoilers that probably do not matter to many people)
This season is the bridging of the great episodes and the more foreseeable decline in quality to the fifth stage. The major issue with this season of Initial D is that it pushes the plotline out and slides (Pun definitely not intended) these races to be three episodes to the completion of a race. The order of these episodes are like this: small pitch in with side characters, race revealed and group see it, pushover drift racer that is usually a jerk and has zero tolerance, lastly win & continue this formula. This makes these high ... Dec 17, 2021
Overall, breathtaking and enjoyable anime
There's so many reasons to give every installment of this anime a 10/10 All of these stages are so good.... Story - Flawless, the story of Takumi and start of Project D is amazing. The tension of the races that go onward prove to be breathtaking every time Art - Designs are amazing but could get choppy at times ... Apr 10, 2023
This season was a really downfall.
You could predict what was about to happen to the arc from the beggning of the first episode. The suprise element from the previous seasons wasn't there anymore, and this one became just a bunch of repetive cliches. They could have changed something in the last arc, but decided to stick to the same development from beggning of the season. The last race result was pathetic beyond limit. For an instance: the "top" points of the season was the romances developments. I laughted and got angry more in those occasions that the races. I still have to watch the last season, but ... Aug 19, 2020
Quick take: If you like cars, you'll like the story of Takumi Fujiwara, his Trueno 86 and the Probed D team. Fourth stage is the beginning of Project D and as such, we see a lot of forward development from Takumi and Keisuke. From this point forward, the manga shines as the better media of the two and I would suggest that over this anime. Until this point, they were about equal in storyline quality.
Much like first and second stage, the storyline of Initial D is super simple and easy to follow. Much of what we're watching is the birth of a drifting legend that ... Apr 4, 2017
IMO This anime had great potential, but imo it needs a graphics / art overhaul. Comparing this anime to some of the old animes like DBZ or Naruto which continued to improve their art overtime, you can see it. Whereas Initial D's art becomes stale as I felt the artist got lazy and decided not to improve on the overall graphic quality of the manga / anime. The original is a good standard to set, but comparing it to today's anime / art, it's just not appealing and won't cut it.
Story Telling: 7/10 The story telling is amazing. The plot pace moves along well when it ... May 5, 2020
Ok now it's fast and furious
I freaking love this fourth stage and my boy Takahashi was a beast. Here we see how two boys in their 20's improve themselves with every wall presented. Specially with Takahashi. I love it every time I've seen it racing. I really want it seen it more but well the main star is Takumi and his "Hachi Roku" but don't underestimate the power of the Mazda RX-7, it was beautiful seen it race. Also, Takahashi has a little bit of drama but like every character here it's a big drop in terms of love. I can't be so mad about how every ... |