Ranked #458

Initial D Third Stage

The movie has a considerable amount of material to deal with and it does an excellent job of covering it. It transitions smoothly and takes one thing at a time and it’s well paced. Unfortunately, characters such as Itsuki, Iketani, and Keisuke are mostly in the back seat for all the right reasons, but still have presence. You finally get to see Takumi develop as a true well rounded racer and his other qualities also begin to develop in this movie as well. Not much else to say, but I say viewing the first 2 installments are a necessity since the movie is a continuation and a progression of the franchise.

Well, the art, resolution, and the cg continue to progress. The art is cleaner and more detailed, and the cg’s rendering also improves. The races as usual are exciting, but have more of a gimmick or twist behind them this time, which makes them fresh and original in addition of allowing the races to take place in a new environment. And you can never get bored of breath taking drifts. However, some problems I have in this movie are that the races this time tends to end more anti-climatically more than usual.

Fortunately for some, the tech speak is virtually non-existent this time so it’ll be easy to follow and just simply enjoy the races. But I say the tech speak in the previous sagas are always a big help in getting a professional understanding of how the cars and techniques work. But that’s just me.

Well, I can’t really add too much about the voice acting since anything I said in the previous reviews can be applied here too. However, the addition of Kai played by Canna Nobutoshi is a great one. He is very intimidating and hot blooded as Kai like other roles he has played such as Guts from Berserk, Tasuki from Fushigi Yuugi, and Knuckles from Sonic. The music is still the number one trait has always captivated me to Initial D, and is a great representative of the fast and fun nature of this anime. The opening theme Gamble Rumble by MOVE goes very well to the sequence and is always in tradition that MOVE is part of the soundtrack, and I love the insertion of Crazy for Love as well. The ending theme Jirenma adds a new kind of feel to this series as well that you have to watch to understand what I mean.

Like I said, to get into this movie, and understand and enjoy it, you have to see the first 2 seasons to understand a lot of things such as Takumi’s developing acquainting with Ryosuke, why Takumi is avoiding Natsuki and what ended their relationship, and the score he has to settle with the Emperors. To me, this movie is an extension of season 2 and transitions very well into the 4th stage. This movie does an excellent job of standing on its own by further developing Takumi’s character, and balancing his issues and resolving them. read more

Ryosuke has been putting together a racing team featuring the best racers of the Gunma prefecture, and would like Takumi to join. Takumi doesn't want to decide whether or not to accept the proposal until he settles his score with Team Emperor Leader Sudou Kyouichi, who had looked down on the AE86 because of the car's age and had seriously damaged Takumi's confidence in the AE86 after being defeated by him. Meanwhile, the drama between Natsuki and Takumi is at highs since he found out she was doing enjo kosai in order to make some extra money.

Now, on that latter subject, she did quit the business and got herself a fast-food job in order to move away from her past and at some times, Takumi can be kind of a dick. Yes, she never told him about what she did then but she did gave it up to pursue a relationship with him and yet, he keeps on phasing her out and not bother to listen to her.

As for the main story, well, it’s the usual story as like the past entries. Somebody challenges Takumi to a race, thinks his car can’t handle their car, they race and eventually he will either win by doing what others thought he couldn’t do.
Also, it really felt like 4 ½ episodes condensed into one movie with their usual basics of the series.


The animation studios switched from Pastel, who did the work on Extra Stage and the past stages to Studio Deen, who contributed to the 3rd Stage and the animation is superior to its successors, which I said before, will happen every time and everything from the movement of the characters and the racing scenes are gradually more enhanced and doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb. The music…….well, it’s there and that’s it. It’s okay but I really don’t have anything interesting to say about it because it isn’t interesting. Some people will like this and most of it is just not my taste but it’s there.


FINAL VERDICT: This is still passable at the least but I really don’t consider them as being entirely different than each other. They are more of a rental than actually owning them. read more

Initial D Stage 3 Review
There are no spoilers in this review

Story
The story is exactly what I expect from Initial D at this stage. Great action, great character development and some technical talk that helps keep me drawn into the whole show. There isn't anything that needed to be added to this to make it better. It ran smoothly and is well written. The technical talk is also solid and comes from a writer who has plenty of actual experience on the road and track himself.

Tech
The sound was to the same quality as previous series. There is room for improvement but it's good quality. The art on the other hand is improved more than sound was. It had a much more polished feel and they improved their ability in colouring of the animation.
This is exciting to see they are improving. The CGI scenes have also improved and it's moving into the direction it would take for the series to finally gain a 10/10 ranking it deserves, as art has always been the lowest factor of the show.
The animation was also smoother which is great

Characters
The characterization is much to the same quality, each of the characters does seem to be developing more and more slowly whilst Takumi himself has accelerated in this. It's very good to see. Surprisingly Bunta also is developing as a character and that's good.

Conclusion
In conclusion Initial D just gets better and better. I'll say my love of cars pushes the score up and my enjoyment.

Score: 9/10 read more

Not as good as the series, but it answers all the question left to be answered, which were carried on from seasons one and two.

The story told is about Takumi's effort to tie all the loose ends from the past two series. So, we've got races, development of his craving for becoming the best driver and an emotional part involving Mogi.

Most of the races are as good as always, but there is one which due to the nature of the rival becomes even more interesting. From this race we will also hear some more of Bunta's story which is a very good thing.

Although Christmas and snow fit love emotional story like nothing else, while watching that part of the movie I had the strange feeling that it was simply taking too long, especially that similarly to what we've seen before when it comes to emotions Takumi is definitely on the slow side.

The animation is better than in the second season. The races seem more realistic, the car models are more detailed and even the character animation stepped up a notch. It's a shame though that there is still such a wide gap between the quality of how the races and characters are animated.

When it comes to sound it is the same thing we have experienced before. So, once again will listen to good voice acting combined with eurobeat music. It seems that the Initial D style simply does not get old and sounds as good as always.

Most of the time we will be seeing characters, which Takumi has encoutered before. Two chracters are however worth pointing out.

First we have Takumi's greatest enemy in the movie, who all though plays a short part in the story is one of the most memorable characters from the movie.

Secondly, we have the guy who gets involved with Mogi. Since the Mogi part of the plot is way too long for my taste, the least would be to let the viewers know why the hell is he acting like that.

Concluding, it was a pleasent feeling to see the animation improve, but still as a whole the movie is not as good as the second season of the series, but mark my words when I say... 'You have to watch it!'. read more