Initial D Fourth Stage

Initial D Fourth Stage is the newest series in the long-running franchise. Fast-paced street racing, modified cars, and determined drivers all combine to create a series that has become one that is unique in it's style. Fourth Stage breathes in new art and an outstanding face lift to the series and guarantees to please fans of it's predecessors. The story of Fourth Stage has come from the budding of Fujiwara Takumi's driving skill to the nationwide domination of Project D, a new race team established by Takahashi Ryouske. The story proceeds well from the small victories in various regions, to the eventual domination of the prefectureas a whole. The story however, does also drop into the various personal lives of the characters. By allowing viewers to see what is driving the character's ambitions and dreams, they can come to understand the determination that all hold. The artwork has come a long way since the original First Stage. Character animations are more fluid and polished. Overall, they more attractive as well since they were pretty hard to view in the beginning. The biggest improvements have come, of course, in the vehicle and race animations. All the cars are depicted almost flawlessly both inside and out to let auto enthusiasts truly appreciate their favorite vehicles. The races are much smother and the vehicles have lost that "paste-on-top" feel that they used to have. A very welcome change. Fans can now truly feel the races blend together in solid animation. The soundwork of Initial D has always been a key point to it's success. The squeeling tires, high-revving engines, and bursting exhausts are all delivered in an excellence that is to be expected. The background music has stayed true to the Initial D style with it's happy-pop Eurobeat soundtrack. The music, while perhaps annoying on it's own, does help to provide a great sense of energy during the race scenes. By combining the music and sounds in great choreography with the revamped animation, a completed scene gives it's viewers a real sense of awe. The new introduction and ending music are pretty similar to the previous tunes held by the earlier seasons. The intro music is fastpaced and energetic while the ending themes are a bit softer to give a sense of closure after each episode. The characters in Initial D have come a long way since the original series, yet they still seem to have a hard time developing aside from their driving skill. Anger, drama, sadness, and determination are all delivered well enough, but any actual development is rarely made. The traditional overcoming by Takumi is nothing new but is fun to watch as new techniques and skills are found. The drama, itself, is pretty much based on a would-be relationship that is similar to one found in Second Stage. Again, while the characters learn and grow as drivers, they don't seem to evolve much as people. Overall, Initial D Fourth Stage is an excellent addition to growing franchise. The new artwork will be a welcomed upgrade amongst fans of previous series and may even captivate the eyes of new viewers. For series focused on automotive enthusiasm, drifting, and driver determination, it does well for itself. However, it may find difficulty in capturing the attention of those that have little or no interest in auto racing or drifting.

(I'm about to spoil the formula for the entire season, avert your eyes. Or don't, you can also guess it for yourself after the first 10 mins of the first episode anyway.) This is quite possibly one of the worst things I've ever seen in my ENTIRE life. This entire anime can be summed up to this: People talking to themselves in cars,Cars driving, People talking about them driving, Repeat. Forever. It doesn't stop, and it's not even good. Every race is predictable, every character is boring, this season is a slog with 0 tension or progression. If you took this season, stamped on it, burned it into ashes, threw those ashes into the ocean, then nuked the ocean, then you wouldn't know the difference because NOTHING happens. If you value your time and sanity do not, and I mean DO NOT even bother watching a SINGLE episode. Please for the love of all that's holy on this earth. Skip to the next season, or better yet just accept the fact the show wasn't good past season 1 and just give up, go outside, buy your own car. There's so many better things to do than watch this steaming trash fire of a show. Thank you SO much for reading.

I’m starting to get why I don’t review series that last beyond 26 episodes (I watched them, mind you, but takes a lot of time to review) and as much as the first 2 editions of Initial D were pretty good and the third stage movie was…..okay to say the least but I starting to think like in any of the Dragon Ball series, the story and the races do tend to drag (no pun intended) as they go along. This series focuses on the exploits of the new team founded by Ryosuke, Project.D, which is composed of Ryosuke (leader and strategist), downhillspecialist Takumi, uphill specialist Keisuke, and a staff consisting primarily of members of the Akagi Red Suns. The team travels the region, challenging other teams and posting the results of the battles on their website. Each race is intended by Ryosuke to develop a specific area of his drivers' skills. By this time, Takumi matures slowly into a more confident and knowledgeable street racer, while Keisuke improves on his technical driving skills. In the series, the main drivers and their racing skills do develop as they race against the opponents they’re matched with and could make their better drivers, but as normal people and in my opinion, they are flawed (which is a good thing) but they are crazy to think that racing is the only thing that fulfill their lives. For example, Keisuke has this girl named Kyoko Iwase, who is a fellow Mazda RX-7 FD driver and uphill ace racing for the Northern Saitama Alliance, has a crush on him as she admires his racing techniques and he does like her but he doesn’t want her to interfere with his racing, even though she said she wasn’t going to. Look, I get not being distracted during your time of racing but are you seriously going to say that it’s more important than a girl who has some interest in you because of your talent? Okay, maybe it could be distracting but still after hearing enough crap about that “lonely driver” thing from Takumi’s crew (friends who we never see race anyone BTW) during the first three stages and soon they realize what they been saying is a bunch of bulls**t. As for the main story, it’s the same as always. People think the Eight-Six can’t race worth jack squat, they challenge him, they race which lasts about 2-3 episodes, they think they are about to win until Takumi tries this stunt that makes it impossible for the opponents to believe, they do the same thing and mess up and Takumi wins……only this time, it also happens to the other racers on Project D. It’s basically the same story with a few different story elements thrown in and some of the other drivers in Project D doing the same thing. As for the animation, it’s done by another anime studio. Remember Studio ACGT (or Adenine Cytosine Guanine Thymine), the same studio that did the formerly reviewed Koi Kaze? Well, of course in this series, the animation is still better than what it used to be and ACGT definitely animated this better than the other aforementioned anime. The music is slightly better with the first opening theme, “Dogfight” by move, which is the better opening theme in either one of the Initial D series but, however, that theme only lasts for 10 episodes and the other one, “Noizy Tribe” also by move, is very lackluster at best. The ending theme songs you can just skip to the next episode since there is no next episode clip as they do in most anime. FINAL VERDICT: 4th stage is the weakest of the series and it shows with shifting pace on storyline from turtle-like slow to roadrunner fast. At some parts, you will know what’s going to happen during the show. It’s becoming too predictable for its own good and doesn’t care about the other situations going on at the same time. The characters are merely just there and only motivate on one thing and make themselves look like robotic and stiff. I would say to watch it only to continue the saga but frankly, while doing that, just skip over the parts that you can guess already.

Initial D Fourth Stage Review There are no spoilers in this review Well what can I say? I enjoyed it allot like I have with the previous instalments. It felt different though. They fixed the biggest flaw that I though there was but another one came up which just messed with atmosphere of the show. My enjoyment was somewhat less because of that but I'll explain in detail later. Story What can I say, it's typical Initial D fashion. Absolutely immersion for a car fanatic like me, with them layering on more and more technical talk about the mechanics and the techniques used I enjoyedit allot. I have to say my favourite battle was the AE86 vs the Cappuccino, it was a truly thrilling race. I have to say this series move the story along quite well and it was interesting learning more about some of the side characters stories allot more than just the main characters. The Third Stage focused more on Takumi, probably because it was a movie. As usual I can't wait for the next stage. Tech Now this is probably the section where I saw the most change in the quality and atmosphere of the show. I said in my Third Stage review that the art in it had increased in quality but wasn't up to how I wanted quite yet. I was happy to see in the Fifth Stage that the art is finally where it should be at. The CGI was a massive improvement and really makes the series greater. The animation quality and sound quality both improve really well to and is note worthy to mention. The sound effects where also better and generally the show felt allot more developed than previous seasons. This is all good. But unfortunately it isn't all a jolly good time. The biggest new floor to come from the changes is the sound track. The Eurobeat music which Initial D is famous for is gone and replaced with more typical OST music. This I think damaged the atmosphere of the show and the thrill factor the most. It was one of my favourite things about the show and the loss of it has prevented Initial D getting a 10/10 in my book. Which is a shame because it's such a great show. But overall I am mostly happy with the improvements to the show. Characters The characters developed nicely and we saw a bit more about some of the side characters and their love interests. It was interesting seeing a certain best friend spending time with his interest from Stage 2, but it was unfortunate how it ended. I feel sorry for the guy but I doubt we have seen the last of that. I do think I missed out on a bit of character development by not seeing Extra Stage 2 yet. It hasn't been translated officially yet and may not have, so we don't see any more of Mako and how she's doing. Hopefully she surfaces in the Fifth stage. Conclusion Fifth Stage increases the standards the rest of the series has set and is a vast improvement overall. Some changes to the music did take away the thrill factor of the battle scenes somewhat but it can't be helped. Unfortunately I can't give a stage of Initial D 10/10 status yet but I have high hopes for the Fifth Stage. I have to say my love of cars has become somewhat increased due to Initial D and I am thankful for that. I'd highly recommend Initial D to anyone who is a car fan like me. I think it's the best of it's genre and it's reputation amongst fans mirrors that. Score: 9/10

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