Initial D

Lore & Background

The story follows Takumi Fujiwara, a high school student in Gunma Prefecture who works at a gas station and secretly hones his driving skills making early morning tofu deliveries in his father's Toyota Sprinter Trueno (AE86). After defeating Keisuke Takahashi of the Red Suns team in a downhill race on Mount Akina using an unorthodox 'gutter run' technique, Takumi becomes known as the 'Legendary Eight-Six of Akina' and attracts challengers from across the region. He later joins Project D, an expeditionary racing team founded by Ryosuke Takahashi, aiming to prove himself the fastest driver in Japan.

Reader's Guide

Initial D is significant for popularizing drifting and Japanese street racing culture worldwide. The series' realistic depiction of mountain pass racing, supervised by drifting pioneer Keiichi Tsuchiya, influenced automotive enthusiasm and motorsport. Its anime adaptations, spanning six main installments from 1998 to 2014, and a film trilogy from 2014 to 2016, expanded its reach. The manga's English release by Tokyopop included character name changes and censorship, but Kodansha USA later re-licensed it and began an omnibus re-release in 2024. The franchise's legacy continues through the sequel series MF Ghost (2017–2025) and Subaru and Subaru (since 2025).

Did You Know?

• Professional race car driver and drifting pioneer Keiichi Tsuchiya provided editorial supervision for the manga.
• The manga was serialized for 18 years, from 1995 to 2013, and collected into 48 tankōbon volumes.
• Tokyopop's English release of the manga changed character names to match Sega's Initial D Arcade Stage video games and censored brief sex scenes.
• By April 2021, Initial D had over 55 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series in history.