Just curious because i know theres a few anime fans around here somewhere :P

The other day i was hanging out with my buddy garth and he asked me if I'd ever seen it. He said it was definitely an anime he thought I'd like. I havent watched much anime over the years, Dragonball Z and various Gundams for the most part, but we sat down, had a few beers and watched a few episodes and now i'm hooked.

for those that havent seen it, its about a guy and his friend whos really into cars. His friend doesnt have alot of practical knowledge and hes pretty goofy. The main character's dad owns a tofu shop and makes his son do deliveries. little does he know that over the years his father has been training him to be a street racer. the car is an old AE86 and without even realizing it hes actually one of the best drivers in the area.

i was expecting it to be a bunch of riced out FWD cars but its actually pretty tasteful; nothing like the first three fast and the furious movies lol. theres alot of ridiculous drifting and the crazy japanese pop music takes some getting used to but its alot of fun they go through the effort to make the cars accurate and theres some good driving sense nuggets to pick up throughout the show as well

ive just gotten to the second season and its pretty great. the fact that hes using an old, unappreciated car definitely appeals to me lol (gee, i wonder why )

anyway its a cool show and i was wondering if anyone around her has seen it. if not and youre interested, you can check it out on hulu

 

I've been meaning to watch it again. I got a couple of the US released episodes on DVD, but they were relatively expensive, and ended up getting a much larger set of a couple seasons off of ebay that were a foreign release and have subtitles or over-dubbed voices.

 

They have seasons 1, 2 and 4 on hulu, but im struggling to find #3. just finished season 2 today so.. lol

 

Anyone see the live action one? HAHAHAH!

 

Watched the whole series and the movie. There's even a manga (comic) which was the original source. (Haven't read it, since it is quite long-running). And it does show real driving techniques. This was before the whole "FF" and drift thing blew up in the US. And you wonder why the 80's Corolla GT-S and the 240SX became popular with the younger crowd.
If you can find it, there's also "Wangan Midnight" - another manga and animated series about high-speed street racing. Not as good as Initial D, but it's nice seeing the "Devil Z" (S30).
There's also another series called "Over Rev!" This manga is about a female protagonist who goes street racing with a 1st-gen MR2 (AW11). A bit more "mature content" compared to the other two though.

 

I've read a couple volumes of the manga, but I've never seen the anime. The author might not be great at drawing people, but the car detail is fantastic. That's how I first heard of the old Corolla AE86.