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Upcoming Anime Film: Initial D

I dropped by the Asia Cosplay Meet Championship at DBS Marina Regatta 2014 yesterday, but I was pretty late and everything was already over... Sigh. Most of the cosplayers were preparing to leave, with only a few staying to take professional photographs. But!! That's not what I'm here to talk about. Yes! My title says it all, a brand new Initial D film! Honestly I've heard about it, but I thought it was just hearsay... Until I saw the official trailer my friend shared on Facebook last night, that is. Man, I really need to keep up! Here it is:



Welp. Now that we've gotten past the initial (pun unintended) excitement... Eh, you wanna rewatch it? Haiii okay, I guess I was the same, I couldn't stop replaying it too, even as background music.



Well, as I going to say, the trailer reveals quite a lot of information. First of all, the title! It has been revealed as New Initial D: The Movie - Legend 1: The Awakening. Sounds grand, doesn't it? As you can tell, there will be not one, not two but THREE movies! I feel like Christmas has come early~

This movie marks the 35th year anniversary of Kodansha Ltd., the publishing company that published the Initial D manga since 1995, in Weekly Young Magazine. Some familiar titles that were also published in the same magazine are Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Kaiji, Chobits and xxxHolic. The Initial D manga has ended quite recently, in 2013, and as of now has been compiled into 48 tankoban volumes from start til end. Initial D has been well-received all over the world, with several television anime and OVA film adaptions, as well as spawned a live-action film and even games. It was the film that ignited my love for the deep throttle sound of racing cars. As a spectator at an F1 race or even the audience in the cinema, the sound never fails to get my heart pumping just a little faster.


Cover of the first volume - the one that started it all

Initial D revolves around Takumi Fujiwara and his quest to become the fastest driver. However, he had humble beginnings as a night-time delivery man for his father's tofu shop. Little did he know, his father was honing his driving skills. Well, he did develop pretty incredible driving skills and eventually eased into racing and started competing. It seems that the first movie would revolve around just about this. As you can see, it even depicts the famous scene of Takumi having to drive without spilling a drop of water.



Another thing the trailer revealed is the brand new cast, or rather, brand new voice actors. Honestly, I did not know Mamoru Miyano is a seiyuu as I always recognised him as an actor so I look forward to hearing him. Furthermore, I am a big fan of Daisuke Ono as well as Yuichi Nakamura, who has a lovely singing voice. Oh let's be real, I'm pretty much a fan of the entire cast!



Most of all, I am looking forward to seeing the Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86! It might be one of the most recognisable cars in the world, I feel. I get pretty nostalgic looking at it, seeing as I grew up watching and rewatching the live-action movie as well as reading the manga. In fact, I pretty much grew up playing car racing games at the arcade too and my favourite was Initial D Arcade Stage, although I've probably lost my racing touch now. At any rate, I definitely look forward to this film as an anime fan, a AE86 fan and most of all as an Initial D fan. It will be out in Japan's cinemas on 23rd August this year, will you be going to the cinemas too? I hope so! Lots of love!

Written by Nana

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