History Manga / InitialD

* ArtShift: In the manga, the faces get closer to a more realistic look during a battle as adverse other situations, though even the out-of-driver's-seat drawing tends to be more realism than usual manga.

* CharacterDevelopment: Takumi goes from an apathetic tofu delivery guy to a hardened road racer. Natsuki realizes that prostitution isn't the best way to go for her and does her best to get out. Shingo, while remaining a jerk, stops being a JerkAss. Itsuki goes through his first love in the second season.

** Minor examples: The FD and 86 get major handling upgrades after [[spoiler:they get into accidents during battles in Saitama]].

* TheAllegedCar/[[JokeCharacter Joke Car]]: Wanting to be like Takumi after his reputation flourishes, Itsuki buys himself a similar Corolla. However, he buys a Toyota Corolla Levin [=AE85=], not the Toyota Sprinter Trueno [=AE86=] (Or even a Levin [=AE86=]). To put it in American terms, Itsuki bought the base model bastard cousin of the superior Muscle Car (or in USDM parlance, Itsuki bought a Toyota Corolla [=SR5=], while Takumi drives around in at least a Toyota Corolla GT-S).

* WhatAPieceofJunk: Oh, woe the racer that underestimates the [=AE86=]........

* TheAllegedCar/[[JokeCharacter Joke Car]]: Wanting to be like Takumi after his reputation flourishes, Ituski buys himself a similar Corolla. However, he buys a Toyota Corolla Levin [=AE85=], not the Toyota Sprinter Trueno [=AE86=] (Or even a Levin [=AE86=]). To put it in American terms, Itsuki bought the base model bastard cousin of the superior Muscle Car (or in USDM parlance, Itsuki bought a Toyota Corolla [=SR5=], while Takumi drives around in at least a Toyota Corolla GT-S).

** The subversion is itself subverted, as real-life demand for the hero's car increased through drift contests and the show's popularity.

* InstantExpert: Averted in that Takumi learned to drift by driving delivery orders down the same stretch of road repeatedly for years?but also played straight in that Takumi is also theorized to have a "natural talent" for driving.

* TheAllegedCar: Wanting to be like Takumi after his reputation flourishes, Ituski buys himself a similar Corolla. However, he buys a Toyota Corolla Levin AE85, not the Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86 (Or even a Levin AE86). To put it in American terms, Itsuki bought the base model bastard cousin of the superior Muscle Car (or in USDM parlance, Itsuki bought a Toyota Corolla SR5, while Takumi drives around in a Toyota Corolla GT-S).

* TooDumbToLive: The LanEvo team from Saitama. When you contact a group of bad-asses to beat someone up for you, make sure they're not a) fans of the team said person belongs to and/or b) former subordinates of the guy whose car you sabotaged.

* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Sayuki ("tomboy", or better said sassy FemmeFatale) and Mako (YamatoNadeshiko... with some more FanService)

** They did avoid flipping the transparancies for the manga reading left-to-right, which would've yielded the "bonus" of all the cars being left-hand-drive and moving on the right side of the road (well, mostly), however.

* TheAllegedCar: Wanting to be like Takumi after his reputation flourishes, Ituski buys himself a similar Corolla. However, he buys a Toyota Corolla Levin AE85, not the Toyota Corolla Trueno AE86 (Or even a Levin AE86). To put it in American terms, Itsuki bought the base model bastard cousin of the superior Muscle Car (or in USDM parlance, Itsuki bought a Toyota Corolla SR5, while Takumi drives around in a Toyota Corolla GT-S).

* WhataPieceofJunk: Wanting to be like Takumi after his reputation flourishes, Ituski buys himself a Corolla. However, he buys a Toyota Corolla Levin AE85, not the Toyota Corolla Trueno AE86 (Or even a Levin AE86). To put it in American terms, Itsuki bought the base model bastard cousin of the superior Muscle Car (or in USDM parlance, Itsuki bought a Toyota Corolla SR5, while Takumi drives around in a Toyota Corolla GT-S).

* MundaneMadeAwesome

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome
* YouSuck: Itsuki.
** And his car, which his boss gives a merciless indictment of.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: In Episode 17, it happens to the opposing team. [[spoiler:Earlier they sabotaged Keisuke's car with an oil spill in the middle of the road when he was practicing. During the downhill run, the opponent slips on it giving Takumi a chance to overtake him. However, they also called in some gang members to cause trouble in case they lost... not realizing that not only were they from Gunma (and thus, in heavy favor with Project.D), but the leader was Keisuke's junior some time ago.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: In Episode 17, it happens to the opposing team. [[spoiler:Earlier they sabotaged Keisuke's car with an oil spill in the middle of the road. During the downhill run, the opponent slips on it giving Takumi a chance to overtake him. However, they also called in some gang members to cause trouble in case they lost... not realizing that not only where they from Gunma (and thus, in heavy favor with Project.D), but the leader was Keisuke's junior some time ago.]]

* TooDumbToLive: The LanEvo team from Saitama. When you contact a group of bad-asses to beat someone up for you, make sure they're not a) fans of the team and/or b) former subordinates of the guy whose car you sabotaged.

* FamilyFeud

* TooDumbToLive: The last team from Saitama. When you contact a group of bad-asses to beat someone up for you, make sure they're not a) fans of the team and/or b) former subordinates of the guy whose car you sabotaged.

Takumi Fujiwara is an average eighteen-year-old teen from Akina in Gunma Prefecture with an average after-school job as a gas station attendant and a not-so-average hand in his family's tofu business. Ever since he was thirteen -- five years before he was even qualified for a driver's license -- he has been helping out his father Bunta by delivering tofu on the latter's Toyota AE86 ("Sprinter Trueno" in Japan, "Corolla GT-S" in America) to a hotel at the summit of Mt. Akina every morning at 4:00 AM, but with a challenge: he must negotiate the slopes and curves of Gunma without spilling a drop of water from a cup placed on the dashboard.

Naturally, his skills never went unnoticed by the Japanese street racing underground. When the local racing team, the Speedstars, get a challenge from the infamous [=RedSuns=] led by Takahashi brothers Keisuke and Ryosuke -- the former whom Takumi met the night before -- the team had to take him in as replacement for their currently-injured main driver.

Before he knew it, Takumi is quickly, and unwillingly, plunged into a high-speed world of white-knuckle contests on the most dangerous mountain passes in Japan. Assisted by the Speedstars, his slightly obnoxious friend Itsuki, his good-hearted yet somewhat shady girlfriend Natsuki, and the sage-like words of Bunta, himself a retired ace drifter, he'll need all the help he can get to outwit and outmaneuver Japan's most talented underground drift-racers.

''Initial D'' is a long running Manga and Anime series created by Shuichi Shigeno, and has been running since 1995. The focus is on [[SubculturesInJapan Japan's Drift-racing Subculture]], and as such, has acted as an anime GatewaySeries for western car fans.

Takumi Fujiwara is an average 18-year old high school student with an average job as a gas station attendant, and a not-so-average hand in the family business. To help his father's tofu shop, Takumi has been delivering tofu in his father's 'Eight-Six' Toyota Sprinter Trueno (known as the Toyota Corolla GT-S in the US) to a hotel at the peak of Mt. Akina (the local mountain), every night at 4 a.m. In doing so, Takumi has been unknowingly training to be the greatest mountain-pass drift-racer in all of Japan. After a freak late-night encounter with Keisuke Takahashi, the number two driver of the infamous [=RedSuns=] team, Takumi is quickly, and unwillingly plunged into a high-speed world of white-knuckle contests on the most dangerous mountain passes in the Gunma prefecture. Assisted by the local Akina Speedstars team, his slightly obnoxious friend Itsuki, his good-hearted yet somewhat shady girlfriend Natsuki and the sage-like words of his chain-smoking, ex-racer father Bunta, he'll need all the help he can get to outwit and outmaneuver Japan's most talented underground drift-racers.

* AdaptationDyeJob: Bunta's Subaru Impreza WRX [=STi=] is supposed to be painted Gunmetal Grey, just like Shigeno's own Impreza. It appears as such in the manga, the first 3 versions of Arcade Stage, and in Special Stage. In the Fourth Stage anime, the Impreza appears wearing the "555 Blue Mica" paint, and said color becomes the default paint for the car in subsequent games released from that point on.

* TheRedStapler: The [=AE86=] has cropped up in ''Tokyo Highway Battle'', GranTurismo and ''Juiced'', among other games.

* {{Americanitis}}: The first English dub from Tokyopop had all kinds of special effects added to it, and threw out the eurobeat soundtrack in favor of a rap soundtrack. This did not sit very well with purists of the series, and for good reason.
** The justification behind this was that Tokyopop was only going to change the music for the TV broadcast in order to introduce up and coming new artists, but that the original music would be retained in the subtitled version (or something like that).
** They did avoid flipping the transparancies for the manga reading left-to-right, which would've yielded the "bonus" of all the cars being left-hand-drive and moving on the right side of the road (well, mostly), however.
*** And now, FUNimation is releasing it with a proper dub and the original music. They're starting with Third Stage and Fourth Stage first though since neither series made it here.