MF Ghost

MF Ghost should have either been a separate series from the Initial D universe, or it should have been Takumi instead of the new protagonist driving in the MF Ghost races if the authors truly wanted an Initial D successor. There is no reason for Initial D to be linked to this series, as it takes place years later, involves much more professional racing with expensive supercars, and only mentions characters from Initial D to give nostalgia shots to the viewers who have seen Initial D. This is a stark contrast to the underground street races on the mountain roads, tight brotherhood of racing friends, ... and of course, featuring classic Japanese tuner cars from the 90s (and 00s in later stages).

MF Ghost feels like an insult to the original Initial D series. It is revealed that our beloved Takumi (mc from Initial D for those that didn't watch) was injured in a rally racing accident, which would explain why he is no longer racing, but it feels like a slap in the face to all of us who have seen Initial D. The character we have seen develop over several seasons from a space-cadet highschool student who didn't care about cars transformed into a focused, formidable street racer that was the best in the entire region. Now we have to follow his student, a prodigy who somehow can keep up with seasoned racing veterans straight out of racing school, with an underpowered car compared to his competitors, who are driving European supercars with hundreds more horsepower than Kanata's borrowed GT86. Critics may mention Takumi also managed to beat opponents in more powerful cars, but he had experience on mountain runs for years from Tofu deliveries, so it made a little more sense that his experience made up for some of the power his AE86 lacked.

Other faults with the series include the vehicles in the race, the Angels cheerleading group, and lackluster character development. How is a GT86 supposed to beat any Porsche, Ferarri, or Lamborghini in any sort of race?? We have shots of under the hood, so we see the modified GT86 is still sporting a 2-liter 4-cylinder FA20. Even if every other part of the car has been modified, the engine still only makes around 200 hp without forced induction. How is that supposed to beat a Porsche 911 GT3 making upwards of 475 hp? What about a Lamborghini Huracan making 600 hp? The R35 Nissan GT-R with 500+ hp? And those are stock numbers for those cars, if they have any additional power modifications, it just adds evidence to my point that Kanata's car should have no chance against the top racers.

Why are the Angel cheerleaders constantly providing awkward fan service shots in the most random moments? I'm not against fan service if it is tasteful, but I can't help but cringe at the uncomfortable amount that is in MF Ghost. There's a time and a place for fanservice, and it just feels very out of place and far too frequent in this show.

The lack of character development would have been fine if the main character was from Initial D (especially if it was an older Takumi if the author hadn't dissolved his plot armor), but we are thrown right into an unfamiliar environment with characters we know nothing about and have no reason to give a shit about. Takumi was Kanata's teacher/coach, but he is not present in the show. None of the other main characters have any connection to Initial D, which makes me wonder why they even bothered making MF GFhost a sequel of Initial D. Additionally, there is not much room for growth, as Kanata is supposedly a racing demi-god, has good looks, is popular, and is already a chick magnet. Where can he improve from here? He's devastatingly bland because he already has everything anyone could want.

Apologies if this review came off as ranty, I just love the Initial D franchise to death and want to see it do well. I have additional gripes but, for the sake of brevity, these were my biggest complaints. Perhaps I would rate MF Ghost slightly better if it was not connected to the Initial D franchise. But because it is connected to a franchise I care for, I feel I have to give it some constructive criticism. I am not content at all with the direction the story is taking, and I hope the author takes feedback from the community's response and makes future seasons of MF Ghost the sequel Initial D deserves.

Thanks for reading :)

Caution: MF Ghost is not an Initial D successor.

It's best to judge MF Ghost on its own rather than comparing it to Initial D because it falls far short in comparison. It's passable on its own, but it doesn't have the same essence and soul as the original, which made it such a success.

This show loves referencing the fact that it is even linked to Initial D.
It literally tries to reference it in every spot imaginable; it likes to reference Takumi, but he isn't even in Japan anymore; Ryosuke has only made an appearance on screen; and the only Initial D characters shown in MF ... Ghost are minuscule side characters people only notice after they reference themselves from a race from the Initial D series.

The main problem with this anime is that it has a lot of romance and filler content. To put it bluntly, it's so unenjoyable that I would rather drink the chemicals under my sink than be subjected to the filler content that doesn't add anything to the story.
This "romance" wouldn't be an issue, but it interrupts the race every 3–7 minutes to skip to Ren thinking of Kanata's car podium changes, to then go back to the race, to then be shifted off to the announcers, or Ogata having a breakdown over stuff he already knows Kanata is capable of, or just the fact he has zero belief in Kanata after he has shown his talents.
I am being honest here; these cuts to Ren, announcers, and Ogata happen randomly in the middle of a race; they actually worsen the race every time they pop up since you are taken out of the race forcefully without any lead up to it.
I'm pretty sure that everyone that came to watch this came for the racing, not getting cut off by the one-sided romance of Ren acting like a fangirl for Kanata, which feels forced onto the viewer, the same with announcers and Ogata's reactions to Kanata in a race.
These interruptions are like getting a cut-scene in a video game when you are trying to do something passively, then it forces you into a random cutscene that has zero reason to exist, and then you lose whatever items you were trying to get right before the cut-scene happened. This is an exact representation of the annoyance of these random filler content events.
I wish the show would focus more on the races themselves rather than cutting to other characters' opinions. These interruptions take away a lot of the excitement from the races, especially when they happen randomly during intense moments. I'd prefer to watch and form my own opinions. The anime could use the details and inner thoughts of the drivers to explain techniques in a simple and understandable way, all while keeping me engaged in the race, just like Initial D did.

Next gripe: MF Ghost differs a lot from Initial D's focus on street racing. Initial D centered on things like road conditions, driver techniques, and sometimes the mental endurance of driving. MF Ghost lacks these elements to various extents. The main reason for this is that MF Ghost leans more towards professional motorsports, similar to GT automotive races on tracks, unlike Initial D's individual "head-to-head" street races. For instance, Initial D had intense races like the "Gum Tape Death Match," where Takumi had his hand duct-taped to the wheel for a downhill battle on Akina. This tested his adaptability against an experienced opponent. MF Ghost hasn't presented a test like this yet or anything to show Kanata's ability to handle different stressful situations; he just starts off perfect, with very few flaws. Thus, how would he even grow as a racer if he just constantly had more skills for plot reasons?
Moreover, MF Ghost adopts a hyper-focused professional driving style. The characters are mostly trained motor professionals who deliberately went to driving schools to learn their techniques. This is a significant contrast to Initial D, where most characters had little professional experience before facing Takumi. The result was very different races with street techniques, not track techniques, as shown in MF Ghost so far.

Next is the racing aspect, and honestly, it seems a bit impractical. It's hard to believe that a mostly unmodified Toyota GR86, without a turbo or supercharger, could realistically compete with a Porsche or a Ferrari in this context. Not to be critical, but a base GR86 has 228 horsepower (170 kW). To be on par with these higher-performance cars, it would likely need a turbo, pushing it to around 300–375 horsepower (224–280 kW). Even then, it might only have a fighting chance against a Porsche Cayman, which starts around 300 horsepower. Going up against a Ferrari seems like a stretch.
Perhaps if the entire race were downhill, a base-engine GR86 could have a shot, especially with a skilled driver adept at drifting and managing weight distribution. However, in any other scenario, it seems a bit unrealistic and not quite reflective of the actual capabilities of the car.
Even when suspension changes happen, they are almost more unrealistic. The changes done to the vehicle only assist with the ability to drift; any vehicle with 200–400 more horsepower than the GR86 can 100% pass it on straightaway almost instantaneously. With what is being raced on here, it is more like a track race than a touge, and it is statistically much better to have a vehicle that can grip corners than one that can drift with ease. Quick examples can be time attacks, where vehicles are all wheel drive, like Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and Nissan GTRs, are extremely popular and will 100% dominate a closed-circuit race.

Another problem is just characters in general. Many are nonsensical and insanely forgettable, and one character actively seeks out 17-year-old schoolgirls because they have a "loli fetish" and I guess cannot fathom dating women that are 18 or older (This is their whole character outside of racing). Not to mention, the show copies aspects of characters from Initial D, like Ogata being just a modern re-imagination of Itsuki; they seem to have 80% of the same identity. Even copying the scene from Initial D where Itsuki is going down Akina with Takumi and freaking out about the speed, MF Ghost copies this almost perfectly with Kanata and Ogata. It does not feel like a "love letter" to Initial D fans, more like a company watering down a product because they couldn't keep the soul of the original series. The season also ends on a cliffhanger too, not fun.

This also ties in with the art style. Remember, this can be subjective, but Initial D's art style is moderately lost here and is replaced with a mediocre job of making the characters look close to the original. I am mainly talking about the eyes. I know they tried their best to get the style of initial D, but it flops big time and looks a bit weird. I would rather it be an entirely different style at that point; then it would look somewhat weird and not do justice to where the show originally came from.
To be honest, I have zero clue why they wouldn't make this anime by the original companies that produced some of the original Initial D stages, companies that are SynergySP (5th & Final Stage), A.C.G.T. (Extra #2 & Stage 4 + Wangan Midnight), Studio Comet & Galloop (1st Stage), or even SANZIGEN & LIDENFILMS (New Initial D movies). These all could have done a better job at creating an art style that would work well with the series. This series, in general, is pretty popular and profitable, so it shouldn't be an issue to have a previous company do it. I personally would've chosen SANZIGEN & LIDENFILMS since they made an amazing reinterpretation of Initial D's First Stage with their 3-movie set.
Lastly, some of the characters in MF Ghost say that Kanata is already a much better racer than Takumi. This is not true; Takumi had to learn his own course since he was 14 and was a very talented touge racer since he could go a few millimeters from every guard rail in a race. Kanata was just well instructed in his racing driving school by Takumi. Small rant: "Why would they say this? It wouldn't bug me for them to say that Kanata has been the best driver since Takumi, but they basically claim that he is already much better than him. This show is so bad at alienating OG fans of Initial D that it is almost comical.".


I associate Initial D with street racing and downhill touge battles; that's what made the anime memorable. While MF Ghost is okay in its own right, don't approach it with the expectation that it will mirror the exact experience of Initial D, because you will be disappointed.

I would recommend this to anyone that doesn't get bugged by these issues as a 7/10.
But if you're an Initial D fan, I think you will be very upset at the bare minimum, give it a quick look, but overall I wouldn't recommend it to you: 6/10.

If you think I am being hard on this anime, I am. Of course, if your favorite series had an addition to the it that didn't add anything besides complaints, then you would be somewhat upset too.

🗿 (Quick hint: Please watch Initial D instead if you haven't, even with the dated animation, it is still golden.) (Hint 2: Overtake! is also a great anime this season and has a racing themes) 🗿

Hoping for an anime adaptation of GT-giRl, its a manga blending grand touring, track racing, and CGDCT elements. The fact that there were already two racing anime this season gives me hope that we might see GT-giRl on screen someday!

12 of the 24 episodes of MF Ghost are finally over and it's time to see how it fairs on it's own and compared to Initial D. Spoiler alert, not good at all.
From the get go the main downside of the show is the lack of originality in it, and I'm not talking about the racing/street racing/whatever racing aspect of the show, but the characters, the premise, the stakes and the structure itself. Didn't read the manga as to be honest reading a racing manga feels quite boring without the noise and animations. So I'm mostly going blind here.

This time around MC is a hot ... genius racing driver who is mixed Japanese (which implies the hot aspect if you aren't aware) that travels to Japan to take part in MFG racing and in the background to search for his father that left him and his mother in the past. He meets a girl who is very hot but somehow nobody recognizes her without her MFG attire and MC has a low boiling romance going on in-between. Generally speaking the rest of the cast matters very little. You have a mechanic who gives you Initial D flashbacks of "he can't do it", "how can he do it" in the background. Senpai who is average but tries hard and is there to be a medium explaining basic things to the audience and the rest of the cast who are unimportant at all. Generally speaking the only people you might recognize you will remember because of Initial D which might be the whole point.

Is the fan service done well? Mostly it is. It portraits what characters have been doing since the Initial D era in a rather adequate manner. The thing is though that MFG doesn't work if you remove the Initial D part out, it won't be able to stand on it's own.

Does it make even remotely any sense when you drive a GT86 with some suspension tuning against a 911 GT3, GTR and so on on a track that is twice as long as Nordschleife and end up somehow remotely close to them? Fuck no. A GT86 is 1.45 minutes slower than any of those cars when all of them are driven by drivers who know them in or out. Double that for the track length and this sounds as stupid as you can imagine when with the help of magic powers, internal genetic genius and the training by Lord himself (Fujiwara) he will push this slow can beyond the limit.
All of this worked fine in the illegal street racing scene of the 80-90s' where you had cars that had an adequate amount of tuning ran by amateurs with not that much tech and horsepower involved on the tights mountain roads. But the premise itself shows us professional drivers who run specifically prepared vehicles without a budget limitation. This shit simply doesn't work.

Is the romance good at least? Well.. In 12 episodes there barely was any and if it goes like this nothing significant will happen by the end of 24. But if you remove all the chicks this show will simply end up 12 episodes of cars driving around without much going on.
The only part that I should mention is that MC is so perfect that all chicks in Japan go wet whenever he enters their vicinity. Which is annoying.

Initial D was a relatable show and I speak as someone who was tuning cars, building them and had to earn what I spent. You would get typical characters, typical jokes and typical outcome. But MFG is as relatable as watching Goodwood festival.

Will I keep watching it? Yeah why not, but unless there is a major shift in story and overall production the outcome will be the same.

MF Ghost. The spiritual successor to Initial D

Speaking as someone who has seen all of Initial D And was one of my first animes, Initial D holds a special spot in my heart.

From Fujiwara's insane driving skills to the amazing JDM cars that they portray

From Hatchiroku to Type R's, NSX's, and RX-7's, it was mesmerizing seeing the hatchiroku beat them all. It was amazing.

MF Ghost is in the future where gasoline racing is a phenomenon as the rest of the world converted to electric. Katagiri is this hot and coming racer from England, and he is staying with a host family that includes a ... cover girl in the household.

Katagiri is competing in the famed "MFG" Race where all the top racers are racing expensive European cars due to the "Tire-to-Grip ratio" rule.

Katagiri is racing a hatciroku as well, instead its the "new one" (Toyota released a new one, so technically one generation older)

The 86 is an amazing car no doubt. But the thing that makes this unbelievable is while in Initial-D Bunta swaps the engine giving the AE-86 a nicer engine. Here? It is the stock engine.

And now you are telling me a stock 86 could beat all these European sports cars? You could give the Ferrari to a toddler and an 86 to Naruse-San himself and the ferrari would theoretically win.

Another issue I have is the animation Maybe it is a smaller-budget anime. The scenery and city-scapes are beautiful by the way. And the cars were amazingly animated. Literally 0 complaints that end. It is the people that I have issue with really. They were so unnatural.

Finally this may be a manga problem as well as I noticed it while reading, but the fact that the story starts out high instead of Initial D where Fujiwara slowly builds himself up, I did not like that element.

I feel like Katagiri should have trained himself or something, but he went in blind.

I guess that is where the excitement comes in for MFG. This new teenager is making raves in the racing world in beating so many times.

But yeah. Other than that I didn't care. It was cars racing and that is all that I need for me to still watch it.

I would give this a 6/10 but until i see the rest I will give this a 5 "so Far"

Thanks!
-CyanCheetah

I knew all along it won't live up to Initial D, but damn! I didn't expected it to be this bad.

First: I swear Baku T1 ha more character than all the characters from this show. While Initial D was borderline seinen, this thing is bearly acceptable as a shounen.

Then the the most important thing: The action! What the Fu.....! Initial D was THE MOST REALISTIC racing show I've ever seen (And read. The manga was especialy good, the anime messed up a few scenes, but it was still good), whereas the only thing worse than MFG I can think of was the GT ... movie racing wise. Unrealistic battles, and bullshit techniques all over. The only kinda realistic thing is that "the most important thing racecardrivers do is weight transfer", but aside from that it was pure bullshit. (Like, soo pure you can't even uses it at a filed because it will kill your plants...)


If you just need a show where you don't have to use your brain, and has good shounen-like battles just with cars, and some ecchi, then this is the show for you, but if you know something about raceing it will physically hurt you. If you want a good raceing show then watch Initial D, Capeta, or Overtake, witch just came out in this seasone as well.

Ok I'm gonna cut to the chase. MF ghost is a good anime about cars and a very bad anime about literally everything else. The worst part being that the portion between the cars and everything else is split into 50-50. So what is this everything else? The stupid Angel stuff which the main female character has a job in.

The Angel stuff is where girls of basically 17 to 28 years old are almost naked and hold signs up for the drivers to signal the start of the race. This is not something that is simply mentioned once and forgotten about. 25% of EVERY ... EPISODE has this. A full 25%. So is the rest 75% about racing? Nope. Another 15% is basically the slice of life portion where the main character Kanata, is the absolute best boy ever and is touring Japan like the perfect tourist. He doesn't think about racing, not about cars, not about drivers. He just walks all around his local area, praises the scenery and eats dinner. It does not tie in to the show at all.

I watch Abroad in Japan on YouTube so I am perfectly happy with watching Japanese slice of life. But in a show with a 12 episode season which is supposed to be about racing of cars, this stuff has absolutely no relevance.

Ok enough of ranting. What about the actual races? The actual races is actually a wrong term. Because there is only one race. But it is a long race with 15 cars going at it together. This is very similar to modern car games style of racing where a group of cars race together for the cup. Naturally there are various different competitors with entirely modern cars like Lamborghinis and Ferraris. All of the cars the people of the modern generation grew up with are there. BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Porche you name it. And then our main character has a Toyota GT 86 to try and beat them all. He doesn't pull out the Takumi bs and is actually quite a lot more qualified to be racing as you will learn quite soon while watching the anime. Overall the quality of the races are pretty nice and are characterized by the Eurobeat that everyone loves (I personally found 7 new favorites).


So in conclusion, what would I say? Well I've already said it. MF Ghost is a good anime about cars and a bad anime for literally everything else. Watch it for the race and the Eurobeat and you won't be disappointed. But also be prepared to sit through awkward scenes of absolutely nothing happening and you wondering if you somehow started watching a different anime. Because of this huge flaw, I cannot give it more than a 7/10.

As a huge Initial D and car fan I was excited when this show was announced. The trailers looked promising and there was even eurobeat! What more could you want, right? Well, except the classic 80s and 90s cars of course but that's a different topic. Anyway, when I watched MF Ghost I wasn't disappointed but also not impressed. It was not bad but not very good either. The car parts were pretty nice. "But this show is about cars, so shouldn't you be happy when the car stuff is good?". Well, unfortunately a huge part of this show is fanservice (and not the gear ... head type...). This goes to the point where characters are talking but all you can see is a close up shot showing only panties. This was so bad that I kept wanting to skip those scenes but I was afraid that I might be missing parts of the story if I skip those conversations. I completely fail to understand why they'd think that people who watched a multi season anime all about cars (and some unsuccessful love) would need sexual fanservice in order to be entertained.

Honestly, this show kinda grossed me out and I will probably skip fanservice scenes in the second season even if I miss some content, because I don't want to see this shit! I'm sad and frustrated that they went down this path because there could've been more cars on the screen instead of wasting screen time for something so unnecessary. But again, the rest was pretty good so I'm still giving 6/10.

Hmm I am a mechanic in real life i import cars from japan I own a Toyota Aristo Nissan stagea If you know what they are

Umm where do I start I am 31 years old so I remember watching initial d in my youth and loved it .

But MF ghost it lacks alot of things…
The story isn’t to bad . A British Japanese driver visits japan to enter the MF race . And he’s from a British driving academy run by non other than Takumi fujiwara

But it’s not the story line that bothers me
It’s the setting. The future is kinda ... heart breaking electric cars take over and the only combustion engined cars are the ones racing in MF

Another thing that bothers me is the amount of European cars in the race…
You’ve got the Toyota GT86 and the Nissan GTR
That’s it…

I wasn’t very thrilled with the car list… I am a huge Jdm fan
My work my life style revolves around the car scene…

In a way this anime was a disappointment
But I won’t drop it I will watch it and see how the story plays through

Compared to initial D. It’s got no soul…
Even Wangan midnight is better and has more Jdm heroes in it

Major draw back for me was the cars…

The story animation and sound is top notch had no issue with that