Mini-spoiler review of 1st and 2nd "Initial D: Legend" movie

You can watch it here (but TV version, with worse graphic): https://www.amazon.com/Initial-D-First-Stage/dp/B0043U5R6U

Finally, I watched two Initial D movies. The opinion will not be long, because there are not many things I could write about. Cinema films last after an hour, i.e. 3 episodes of anime. The first season has 26 episodes, I do not know how many the second, but probably so many. Even if you could cut most of the contents of the series and the movie adaptation lost little on it, I assume that there must be something outside the races, since the fairy tale has gained not little popularity. The plot is not much, the characters are mostly irrelevant, and in their place could be almost any other. I write the majority because I exclude from this non-respectable group the main character, his dad, and one of the brothers Takahashi. Not that they were some outstanding creations, but they had at least interesting outlines of characters, while the rest were cut out of cardboard. Place-holders that do not add much to the story (or at least in its cinematic release), but only serve to clog the background.

The story is simple. On one complicated route (typical for mountainous areas - i.e. more dangerous than on an ordinary road with more sharp turns), during the night. when there is minimal / no traffic, there are races between groups of drifters and professional drivers. They take in them both local and visitors. Some of them are fat fish that enjoy recognition both in the press and in the underground world, where adrenaline-hungry people race on public routes. In a sense, they can be compared to the aggressive part of pseudo-fans who care so much about the match and, above all, beating up and killing the other. The difference is that the drivers are at a higher intellectual level and do not risk a blow of their nose or black eye and they only need a horse dose of dopamine to the brain + a sense of strong risk.

As for the heroes, as I wrote - they only have an outline of the character, but they said some interesting issues that gave them any personality. The protagonist is a natural-born talent who does what he likes on a subconscious level (i.e. he is damn good, but he has never seen himself as a talent, and his way of riding as part of outstanding skills). His dad is an old fox who in his youth liked to push the gas to his breath but had to give up his hobby because of age. Unfortunately, youth is too short and with the passing of some spring, our skills dull. Sometimes slower, sometimes faster, depending on our physical and mental condition. Realizing that, Dad abandoned professional racing and started making Tofu and became a mentor for his son. Takahashi did not get much air time, but he showed himself from the better side - as an honorable opponent who can swallow defeat and tell the truth about someone who is not close to him. I really liked the scene from the end of the first film in which he tapped Takumi from top to bottom. Modesty is important, it's a fact, and "Initial D" shows it very well, but not bragging is one thing, ignoring one's own skills is another. You can be good, but there will always be someone better who breaks your ego like an asphalt roller.

The music is very good, but it's nothing of the fan version, the so-called "Eurobeat version" (I recommend going to nyaa.si and downloading, just warning, the timeline in the second part is broken and you will have to watch the original). When I watched the first film, every time they showed a stage of the race, I had a shot of dopamine directly into the brain. The standard soundtrack also has cool pieces, and maybe even very cool, but I prefer the fan selection of songs. Anyway, fuck it, I was as if I was 13 and 30 years old and gave me a copy with the movie "Broly". Fortunately, I finally matured to this topic, because even though driving fast is a lot of fun for me, I don't know much about cars and I haven't really cared about them for many years. Recently, however, this has changed, which makes the subject of the film and conversations between the characters closer to me.

And speaking of racing ... In the TV series, it looks very poor, and the movie itself looks quite ok. This may not be a masterpiece, because I've seen better anime from 2014, but I have no reason to complain either. It is different when it comes to the climate, giving emotions that drivers feel during fast driving. As my friend Ola said recently, people love to feel the power under their hands. Is it in the form of creative power, such as programmers, players, etc. or the fact of having a powerful tool in control, like the military or just such drivers? I don't know how it is with realism because I don't know cars, but at least its elements are real. For example, a fragment from the second film in which the Nitro drive breaks down one of the participants. No, I'm backing up, everything is fine with him, just the car was not fully adapted to such engine power, so other elements had a greater load than usual. The brakes or other parts from the front wheels got rushing and the race is over.

To sum up, anime is not outstanding and may bore you, but if you like cars, fast driving or something related to them, then you should like "Initial D" movies. I recommend nice and warm - only preferably with a sufficiently loud car to feel the beautiful fart of a powerful engine and the soundtrack. I fired about 70% and felt like in heaven, though the neighbors were not quite happy xD.

This music gives a mega boost to power and skill for every driver. : D