I love Initial D. It reignited my passion for cars and also taught me a lot about driving techniques. While the previous four seasons were exciting and had a good balance of character development and racing sessions, Fifth Stage is anything but.
Fifth Stage brings improvements in terms of artwork and sound quality, but there's pretty much no character development or story. Yes, Takumi becomes better and better at driving, Project D continues to "conqueer" many other regions, but God damn it was slow! I know that Initial D is all about touge racing, but I find it difficult to watch when most of the season consists of 45% racing, 45% discussions between team members and 10% story!
The only important parts of this entire stage were the fake Project D members, Takumi's meetings with Mika, the Ryosuke vs Shinigami race and its story, and maybe the music they used.
Overall I recommend you to skip Fifth Stage, or at least find the Supercut versions of the races and watch the following episodes: 1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 14.
