While the graphics are (by today's standards, at least) poor, the series knows exactly what it's doing with them. But, though clearly done out of necessity, the emotional response it leads to as they race - stripped down to their bare essentials, some Platonic ideal of a car - makes it almost a defensible stylistic choice. The vehicles in Initial D are fooling no-one they're collections of planes and boxes in the shape of a car, and without the trick of having all the races take place at night, they would undoubtedly look far worse. Paradoxically, this is harder to get away with on a car than, say, a spaceship (as always I will mention Lost Universe, a series that looks good despite using very similar CGI technology) we know what cars look like, and so expect all sorts of fine details that a more foreign object could get away with omitting. The CGI on the other hand is late '90s through and through super-smooth motion and surprisingly low detail. Perhaps surprisingly it is the latter that has dated worse with the big eyes, round faces and desaturated palette, the characters could be mistaken for something out of the '80s. ![]() Like many series with more direct "battles" (as Initial D calls its races), these are rendered in CG, while the non-action scenes are conventionally drawn. But for whatever reason, the song grew on me, and in the same way so did the series itself.Īs always, the animation has suffered worst from the passage of time the level of detail in Initial D would be simply scandalous today. Or perhaps I'm already falling prey to nostalgia. Perhaps it's the genuine effort of the singer, who despite everything is clearly pouring heart and soul into his work. But for all its undeniable goofiness, the ending has a certain undeniable charm. Nowhere is this more true than the original ending theme (though the opening has a similar style), featuring as it does the unique nineties Japanese take on rap, and with the music video interwoven with the end credits. What we have goes all out but in a slightly self-conscious way, aware that serious music shouldn't be being quite this wild but not breaking off into full-spirited rebellion either perhaps in ten years this will be a good sound again. But for the background music it's definitely a minus either a modern, tight track or a full-blown eighties extravaganza would build the tension better than the tunes we get. This actually works in favour of the second ending theme, a soft, almost mournfully tinged rock piece that (despite the drums and electric guitar) is at times drifting into a full-on ballad. The music may have been dynamic and cutting-edge at the time, but is now very much dated. įew series look the same through the lens of time, so it's hard to be fair as I look at Initial D, a show from twelve years ago that frequently feels much older. In addition they often adhere to certain genre conventions, the emphasis on training and practice in preparation for competition, characters desire for self improvement, and pursuit of a specific goal. As the name implies, seinen works are marketed primarily to an audience of young men the age range commonly understood to be the target of such works goes roughly from 17 to somewhere in the 40s., sports Sports anime revolves around a recreational physical activity or skill. ![]() Note that just driving to get groceries does not suffice, unless one does it like Takumi Fujiwara in Initial D., seinen Seinen, literally "young man", is one of the main demographic classifications applied to manga, and, by extension, to anime, especially manga-based ones. See also manhua and manhwa., motorsport Driving involves driving in a competitive manner. ![]() However! There are exceptions where the manga was not the basis for the anime. Everything and its mother is based on manga. It often contains a lot of shooting, explosions and fighting., manga Manga is the lifeblood that drives the anime industry. ![]() Action Action anime usually involve a fairly straightforward story of good guys versus bad guys, where most disputes are resolved by using physical force.
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