"What's with the (bleep) D-like driving!?"
Being such a famous and long running manga series, it's hardly surprising that Initial D has been referenced in loads of other media.
Here are some of the many Shout-Outs Initial D has received in different forms of media:
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Anime and Manga
- Episode 37 of the Chousoku Henkei Gyrozetter anime adaptation has Shunsuke in a Fairlady 7 races with his former Senpai Yuzuru (nicknamed "Yuzuru-86" in a 1983 Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT-APEX AE86 carrying tofu appear behind his car. It even has decals reading 八大豆腐店 (自家用) meaning "Hakkai Tofu Store (Private Use)". Later in the episode Xenon encounter Touge racers as well.
- Quote above is from Episode 6 of Lucky Star which features a high speed touge battle between Yui's kei car going 40km/h and a yellow Mazda RX-7 FD3S. It features Yui having a cup of water on the dashboard, pulling off a gutter drop, 2D Visuals, 3D Effects, onlooker chatter drawn in the style of Shigeno Shuichi, emphasis lines, Konata quoting Natsuki verbatim about being carsick and a Eurobeat soundtrack by M.O.E.V.
- An entire story in the 63rd tankoubon in Case Closed is a shout-out to Initial D. Why so? First, the case happened in Gunma in a place named Mt. Fuyunanote . Second, the 'legend' is named Fuyuna's Silver Ghostnote .
- Episode 3 of the anime adaption of They Are My Noble Masters has the Colonel driving with Ren to pick up Shinra, when another car quickly passes by them. Cue the art shift of the cars onto CG and the colonel showing Ren just how a real man drifts. On a limousine.
- Tomigaya from Shirobako certainly sounds like a certain other terrible driver.
- Episode 9 of My Mental Choices Are Completely Interfering with My School Romantic Comedy anime adaption uses CG on purpose in an Initial D reference, which involved a modified Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 racing against Utage and her Toyota Vellfire.
- Episode 4 of Miami Guns has CGI car chases, as a Shout-Out to Initial D. Not only that, the culprit is the son of a tofu shop owner and an "underground racer", a reference to Takumi.
- In Jewelpet Sunshine, the race in episode 5-A is evocative of Initial D, complete with drifting and CGI.
- Episode 5 of Classroom Crisis has Iris driving a truck, Initial D style.
- In season 2 of Miss Monochrome, the entire second episode parodies Initial Dnote . With Monochrome's car being that of the AE86 and with the appearance of a (albeit purple) RX7 to boot.
- The series gets two shout-outs in the anime adaption of Pop Team Epic
- In Episode 4, Popuko races against Takeshi Nakazato's GT-R with a skeleton sled, coupled with Eurobeat in the background.
- Episode 9's second half version has a scene where Popuko and Pipimi are sitting in a car that's being pushed by Noctis and Gladio, whilst Pipimi talks about how the 86 is a car that nurtures its driver.
- The driving sequence in Episode 6 of Magical Witch Punie-chan is a direct Shout-Out to Initial D, complete with Punie implying that the bad driver she summoned was a fan of the manga and the same style of CGI that marked its anime derivation.
- During a street race in chapter 54 of Ai Kora, Tsubame-sensei's art style suddenly into one that mimics Initial D.
Fan Fiction
- in Kyon: Big Damn Hero, Kyon's father claims to have acquired his driving skills from an unofficial older brother of sorts:"Family techniques!" Yuuto said proudly. "As passed to me by my older brother, when he was first delivering tofu on back mountain roads!"
Film
- Both the creator of Initial D, Shuichi Shigeno and Keiichi Tsuchiya, the inspiration of Takumi's character and technical consultant of the series, make a cameo in the wharf scenes of The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift.
Video Games
- One of the events on the Sakura tour pack in Driveclub is named Initial Drift
- Gran Turismo series has been featuring Initial D themed paint jobs and cars since the second game, most notably Takumi's AE86 and (base models for) Impact Blue's Sileighty. The Special Stage Route 11 is also a Shout-Out to Initial D.
- In 3 the third Battle Gear game, you can select quite a few Initial D cars with all their appropriate colors.
- One of the stages featured in Blur is Mount Harunanote in homage to Initial D.
- In Choro Q there is a pair recruitable racers in Chestnut Canyon, Steve, who drives a white 1983 Toyota Sprinter Trueno with black stripes and Lowry, who drives a yellow Mazda RX-7.
- In Grand Theft Auto V, one of the custom rim types you can purchase for your car is titled Fujiwara. They look identical to the rims found on Takumi's AE86 - which are RS Watanabe wheels. The game also has a car with similar styling to the AE86 Levin called the Karin Futo, which is an anagram of Tofu.
- The entire Tokyo Xtreme Racer series is overloaded with references to Initial D, with characters, teams, bios, and cars being almost wholly lifted from the manga.
- Forza Motorsport 4's "Drift" events has a white Toyota AE86 drifting through a corner.
- In VHFSMACVUSMRRM One of the stage available to play is Mount Akina.
- GRID has a dedicated Touge game type. Two of the maps used for the game type are called Takumi Run and Haruna run (after Mt. Akina's real name).
- Wangan Midnight has Racer Wannabes (or The Feeling Team in WMMT 2 - WMMT 3 DX+) driving look-alikes of Takumi's AE 86 and Keisuke's RX-7 starting from WMMT 4. Doubled as a Take That! to the Initial D franchise, considering "WMMT" has been the main rival to Initial D arcade games. Unfortunately, the racer wannabes no longer appear starting from WMMT 6
Visual Novels
- The demo of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony features a debate that share numerous similarities with other debates that occurred earlier in the series. Examining Monokuma's letter at the start of the demo lampshades all of this by saying, Deja vu! I've just been in this place before.
- In Ne no Kami: The Two Princess Knights of Kyoto, Tsuchimikado showcases Len his ultimate racer theory by drifting through the mountain passes at full speed. This ends with predictable results for the weak stomached Len.
- There's a small one in the second Narcissu game, where in one scene Himeko remarks that she doesn't take it kindly to be overtaken by a Levin. It is, in part, a translator thing since in the voice-over Himeko only stated that the car passing her is a "Hachiroku", and neither the original text or the translated text make any description of the headlights that could be used to identify the variant.
- Takahashi Ichimonji from Muv-Luv series is an obvious parody of Ryousuke Takahashi, as he's developing the Theory of Maximum Street Velocity, and shares voice actors.
Web Original
- In Regular Car Reviews, Mr. Regular inevitably has to talk about the show during his AE86 Review
. Much of Part 1 is dedicated to him going on a rant about how the fans have overhyped the car to high hell and the JDM culture surrounding it. Despite this, he eventually warms up to the car in Part 2 and he even admits hesitantly that he'd love to own one. - In Life of Maid Meiling's driving skills are once put to the test in a video game called Initial M.
- One of the Ad Bumpers featured in Anime Crimes Division references Initial D.
- STBlackST's video Very Unusual Troubles has Soldier drifting into the wilderness in Merasmus' Cadillac to the tune of "Deja Vu" and an RPG fight between the BLU Mecha-Spies and the RED Team (Spy, Soldier and Miss Pauling) set to the tune of "Blinded By Light".
Western Animation
- The big race sequence in Steven Universe episode "Beach City Drift", with its Eurobeat techno music, car designs, and racing site, is one big homage to Initial D.
- Archer episode "Drift Problem", when Pam is first shown to be a drift racer, she is seen drift racing against a Toyota AE86.
- One episode in Big Hero 6: The Series featured GoGo showcasing Drift Racing skills with a thumping Euro-techno acting as a homage to Initial D.
