As someone who hadn’t seen Initial D, I found MF Ghost to be decent on the whole. There’s some really epic racing scenes, hot girls and comedy, but that’s about it. Or never really crossed into the really good territory for me. It was clear that this series plays heavily on nostalgia for a bygone era and a previous series, and to really get the full enjoyment out of it you need to have grown up in that era/watched the original.
Since I couldn’t relate to those things, for me, I actually thought that the character interactions and motivations were the best part of this series. Kanata and Ren were fun to watch. While Ren definitely got a little tropey in terms of her affections for Kanata, I thought it was cute and enjoyed seeing her try to plan out things with him. Kanata’s relationship with his racing boss was cool too. They teased a budding rivalry with he and a few other racers that we didn’t see explored in this season, but hopefully in subsequent seasons we will. Kanata’s desire to retrace his parents’ footsteps and learn more about his father was cool too. There’s a decent amount of mystery there that keeps me hooked on the story.
Speaking of racing, there’s only two big races throughout the show, but that makes sense given the story is only at the beginning. The CGI during these two races is phenomenal though. I’ve got to say, I’m not normally a fan of CGI but it’s done well here. The Eurobeat soundtrack doesn’t do much for me as I’m not into Eurobeat at all and again, didn’t grow up with Initial D, but again, you can tell it’s playing heavily into nostalgia and I think longtime fans will be happy.
Other than the characters and those two race scenes, I appreciated the car knowledge that was dropped in this show. I’m a longtime GT and Forza player so seeing some cars in the anime that I’ve used in the game, and learning about new cars from this was pretty cool.
Overall, I’ve been consistent from the start that Overtake!! Is my best racing show of the season. I think that show has everything from characters, to drama to the actual business side of racing and much more. MF Ghost was just flat to me. I liked Ren a lot, enjoyed seeing her swoon like a maiden in love and the couple races we got were solid, but that’s it. I was never really moved emotionally like with Overtake!! My feelings are probably not that common since most people watching this will have seen the original, but that’s just how I came out of this one feeling. Not a bad show, not a particularly great one either. Still, I’ll be around for more if we get it.
MF Ghost gets 7 out of 10.
