Initial D Extra Stage 2

Quick take: Extra Stage 2 is a great tie-up to the Iketani and Mako side love story. If you felt a little empty after the missed connection, you’ll find a nice little completion to that arc here.

Extra Stage 2 revolve around Iketani and Mako having a second chance at love. The story is fairly simple but is actually very well written and helps clear up the empty feeling after the missed connection between them earlier in the series. Everything is well paced and moves logically. You will not find anything deep in relation to the main Initial D story. Togue racing is limited in ... this series.

Both CGI and drawn art are well done in this short side story. Drawn art is treated to an overhaul of rich colors and generally looks much better than First and Second Stage.

Sound quality is good, acting is well done and comprehensible. OST music is better than in previous seasons as is the sound of the cars.

Iketani and Mako are the main focus of ES2 and undergo decent development as both grow.

You’re not going to find anything profound in Extra Stage 2, but it is a welcome conclusion to the Iketani and Mako subplot, so if you wanted more of that, you’ll really enjoy Extra Stage 2.

Would recommend watching for any die hard Initial D fan but is perfectly skip able in the long run.
The car scenes were fun as always and it was cool to see the characters faults and internal conflicts manifest in their driving, a detail I’ve always enjoyed. However the overall plot, while entertaining enough, was very formulaic at certain points.
The main romance was as unsatisfying as all ways, the writers can never seem to find a balance between “realistic” and tedious. They are clearly believe that people can be passionate about only one thing at a time, which is fine… if you want to be ... a Lonely Driver.

All in all, It was less enjoyable than the last Extra Stage but overall all tied up loose ends nicely.

I thought this will be were they get toghter. But no he fumbles so hard. Why tf is he not just calling her when the gramps came to ask you can just call her. Also if ur car has a flat u can still drive it. And what's the problem with confessing stop acting like the reson you didn't was because of her ur just giving urself a excuse. On season 4 when Keisuke Takahashi went on a date he said you want to go to Tokyo. That means I can't be to far away why can't h just meet up once a week or ... so. They hype this up so much for this pathetic end. This isnt the first time this is like the 5th time this happend. All diffeent characters same ending they have to go somewhere else or they are going out with somone older something like that. I dropped this anime after this. I atleast wanted some romance or atleast they stop edging us