Initial D

Initial D
The cover of the first tankōbon volume, featuring Takumi Fujiwara
頭文字 (イニシャル) D (Inisharu Dī)
Genre	Action[1] Coming-of-age[2] Sports[3]
Manga
Written by	Shuichi Shigeno
Published by	Kodansha
English publisher	NA Tokyopop (former) Kodansha USA
Imprint	Young Magazine KC
Magazine	Weekly Young Magazine
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	June 26, 1995 – July 29, 2013
Volumes	48 (List of volumes)
Anime television series
Initial D First Stage
Directed by	Shin Misawa
Produced by	Ren Usami
Written by	Koji Kaneda
Music by	Ryuichi Katsumata
Studio	Studio Comet Studio Gallop
Licensed by	AUS Madman Entertainment NA Tokyopop (former) Funimation
Original network	Fuji TV
English network	AUS Adult Swim SEA Animax Asia
Original run	April 18, 1998 – December 5, 1998
Episodes	26 (List of episodes)
Anime television series
Initial D Second Stage
Directed by	Shin'ichi Masaki
Produced by	Kayo Fukuda
Written by	Hiroshi Toda Nobuaki Kishima
Music by	Ryuichi Katsumata
Studio	Pastel
Licensed by	AUS Madman Entertainment NA Tokyopop (former) Funimation
Original network	Fuji TV
English network	SEA Animax
Original run	October 14, 1999 – January 6, 2000
Episodes	13 (List of episodes)
Original video animation
Initial D Extra Stage
Directed by	Shishi Yamaguchi
Written by	Hiroshi Toda Nobuaki Kishima
Music by	Ryuichi Katsumata
Studio	Pastel
Licensed by	AUS Madman Entertainment NA Tokyopop (former) Funimation
Released	February 22, 2000 – February 29, 2000
Runtime	25 minutes (each)
Episodes	2 (List of episodes)
Anime film
Initial D Third Stage
Directed by	Fumitsugu Yamaguchi
Produced by	Takayuki Nagasawa
Written by	Hiroshi Toda Nobuaki Kishima
Music by	Ryuichi Katsumata
Studio	Studio Deen Pastel (production)
Licensed by	AUS Madman Entertainment NA Funimation
Released	January 13, 2001
Runtime	105 minutes
Original video animation
Initial D Battle Stage
Directed by	Shishi Yamaguchi
Produced by	Takayuki Nagasawa
Written by	Hiroshi Toda Nobuaki Kishima
Music by	Ryuichi Katsumata
Studio	Studio Deen
Released	May 15, 2002
Runtime	45 minutes
Anime television series
Initial D Fourth Stage
Directed by	Tsuneo Tominaga
Produced by	Kayo Fukuda
Written by	Hiroshi Toda Nobuaki Kishima
Music by	Atsushi Umebori
Studio	A.C.G.T
Licensed by	AUS Madman Entertainment NA Funimation
Original network	Animax PPV
Original run	April 17, 2004 – February 18, 2006
Episodes	24 (List of episodes)
Original video animation
Initial D Battle Stage 2
Directed by	Tsuneo Tominaga
Written by	Hiroshi Toda Nobuaki Kishima
Music by	Atsushi Umebori
Studio	A.C.G.T
Released	May 30, 2007
Runtime	78 minutes
Original video animation
Initial D Extra Stage 2
Directed by	Tsuneo Tominaga
Written by	Hiroshi Toda Nobuaki Kishima
Music by	Atsushi Umebori
Studio	A.C.G.T
Released	October 3, 2008
Runtime	55 minutes
Anime television series
Initial D Fifth Stage
Directed by	Mitsuo Hashimoto
Produced by	Kayo Fukuda
Written by	Hiroshi Toda Nobuaki Kishima
Music by	Atsushi Umebori
Studio	SynergySP
Original network	Animax PPV (Perfect Choice Premier 1)
Original run	November 9, 2012 – May 10, 2013
Episodes	14 (List of episodes)
Anime television series
Initial D Final Stage
Directed by	Mitsuo Hashimoto
Produced by	Kayo Fukuda
Written by	Hiroshi Toda Nobuaki Kishima
Music by	Atsushi Umebori
Studio	SynergySP
Original network	Animax PPV (Animax Plus)
Original run	May 16, 2014 – June 22, 2014
Episodes	4 (List of episodes)
Films
Initial D (2005) New Initial D (2014–2016)
Anime and manga portal

Initial D (Japanese: 頭文字イニシャル D, Hepburn: Inisharu Dī) is a Japanese street racing manga series written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno. It was serialized in Weekly Young Magazine from 1995 to 2013, with the chapters collected into 48 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha. The story focuses on the world of illegal Japanese street racing, where all the action is concentrated in the mountain passes and rarely in cities or urban areas, and with the drifting racing style emphasized in particular.^[4][5] Professional race car driver and pioneer of drifting Keiichi Tsuchiya helped with editorial supervision. The story is centered on the prefecture of Gunma, more specifically on several mountains in the Kantō region and in their surrounding cities and towns. Although some of the names of the locations the characters race in have been fictionalized, all of the locations in the series are based on actual locations in Japan.

Initial D has been adapted into several anime television and original video animations series by OB Studio Comet, Studio Gallop, Pastel, A.C.G.T and SynergySP. A live action film by Avex and Media Asia was released in 2005. Both the manga and anime series were initially licensed for English-language distribution in North America by Tokyopop (2002–2009),^[6] however, the anime license has since been picked up by Funimation, while the manga was relicensed by Kodansha USA in 2019.

Story overview[]

The story is about 18 year old Takumi Fujiwara who is an average high school kid. His father, Bunta Fujiwara, owns a tofu shop and Takumi is the delivery boy. He uses his father's 1983 Toyota AE86 to do the deliveries. Takumi hated driving because he was forced to drive since he was in middle school. The deliveries train his extraordinary driving skills. His friends learn about his skills, and introduce Takumi into the world of Touge racing. Takumi eventually comes to love street racing, and driving altogether, and then he has only one priority: To become the best driver in the Gunma Prefecture.

Plot[]

The first battle of the series, Keisuke Takahashi (FD3S) vs. Takumi Fujiwara (AE86), as seen in the anime.

Takumi Fujiwara, is a student working as a gas station attendant with his best friend Itsuki. Itsuki is enthusiastically interested in being a street racer. The team he feels closest to and hopes to join is the Akina Speed Stars, whose team leader Koichiro Iketani is also working at the same pump station. Unbeknownst to his colleagues, Takumi helps out his father Bunta as a tofu delivery driver for his father's store before sunrise each morning, passively building an impressive amount of skill of over 5 years behind the wheel of the family car, an aging Toyota Sprinter Trueno (AE86).

Shortly after the story begins, the Red Suns, a highly experienced racing team from Mount Akagi led by Ryosuke Takahashi, challenge the local Speed Stars team to a set of races on Mount Akina. Dispirited after watching the Red Suns' superior performance during a practice run, the Speed Stars expect to lose. Later that night, the Red Suns' #2 driver, Keisuke Takahashi, heading home after the last practice run, is defeated soundly by a mysterious Sprinter Trueno, despite driving a much more powerful Mazda RX-7 (FD3S). An investigation into the identity of the driver leads to Bunta Fujiwara, Takumi's father. While trying to do his best for the team on Mount Akina, Iketani suffers a crash and damages his car and injures himself. He is unable to take part in the race to represent his team. Iketani begs Bunta to help the Speed Stars defeat the Red Suns, and he initially refuses, later relenting to "maybe" show up at the race. At the same time, Takumi asks Bunta if he can borrow the car for a day to take a trip to the beach with a potential girlfriend (Natsuki Mogi), and Bunta seizes the moment by granting permission (plus a full tank of fuel) on the condition that Takumi defeats Keisuke.

On the night of the race, the Trueno does not show up, and the Speed Stars enlist a backup driver (Kenji) for the first run. At the last moment before the race starts, the AE86 arrives. Takumi steps out of the car to the bewilderment of the Speed Stars, who were expecting Bunta. He easily defeats Keisuke by utilizing a dangerous "gutter run" technique (putting both the left/right tires into the gutters to prevent centrifugal force pushing the car outward) on the mountain road's hairpin corners.

The Red Suns' embarrassing defeat sets up the plot for the rest of the series: drivers from neighboring prefectures come to challenge Takumi and the "Legendary Eight-Six of Akina" and thus prove themselves as racers. Meanwhile, Takumi, who was considered spacey and disinterested in the world around him, becomes more passionate about racing with every opponent he faces.

However, soon Takumi faces a threat in the form of Emperors, a team that uses Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions. Takumi's old AE86 is no match and he loses to the team's leader, Sudo Kyoichi (EvoIII), blowing his engine. The Akagi RedSuns come to the rescue and defeat both Seiji and Kyoichi, thus securing the pride of Gunma's racers. Meanwhile, Bunta replaces the AE86's blown engine with a new one. Wataru Akiyama and Koichiro Iketani help Takumi to figure out why he is unable to control his car.

Takumi soon faces graduation, but continues racing. He defeats Kyoichi in a rematch at his home course, the Nikko Irohazaka. He also defeats the son of Bunta's old rival.

Eventually, the plot moves away from Mount Akina as Takumi becomes bored with racing solely on that road. He joins an expedition racing team, Project.D, formed by Ryosuke Takahashi, (also including Keisuke Takahashi) former leader of the disbanded Red Suns and challenges more difficult opponents on their home courses in the pursuit of his dream to be "the fastest driver out there".

At one point, impostors in the form of Takumi and Keisuke try to defame Project D, Wataru comes to help and they dispatch the impostors, revealing them in front of the public. Project D races many teams like Team Seven Star Leaf, Team 246, Team Spiral, Team Sidewinder etc.

It ends spectacularly with a race of two evenly matched drivers, where Takumi blows his engine again, but steps on the clutch and wins the race by rolling backwards over the finish line. He decides to get rid of his car but later decides to keep it. Ryosuke disbands Project D and Takumi continues delivering tofu with his father's Impreza.

The Initial D events would be shown to lead up to the events of another manga by Shuichi Shigeno, MF Ghost.

Media[]

The Initial D franchise logo.

Manga[]

• Initial D manga Japanese release: 48 Volumes (1995–2013, Vol. 48 released in November 2013)
• Initial D manga Tokyopop release: 33 Volumes (2002–2009, expired license)

The first Initial D volume was released in Japan on November 6, 1995 and concluded on July 29, 2013.^[7] 48 volumes have been published. The manga has been translated officially into Chinese, French and English over its publication run.

The manga and anime were originally licensed for English releases in North America by Tokyopop. The company changed the names of the characters in the anime edition, and subsequently changed them in the manga to match.^[8] These name changes were to reflect the name changes that Sega implemented into the western releases of the Initial D Arcade Stage video games {see below} due to name length limits. Tokyopop also cut out a character's enjo kōsai relationship with another and edited scenes featuring nudity, appearing in volumes 1 and 9 in the original manga. In addition, "street slang" was interlaced in translations (a drift was described as "slammin'", for example). Even the anime's music was changed from the series' iconic eurobeat tracks to self promoting Hip Hop tracks made by Tokyopop's CEO, Stu Levy.

The manga also had some translation errors. One example was the technical term "Wastegate" (which is a mechanism used to regulate the boost pressure generated by a turbocharger) that was translated as "West Gate". Another was an inaccurate explanation of how an engine's displacement is calculated (the explanation given is how a ship's displacement is calculated, which is totally different). Many of the explanations of automotive design and function, as well as the specification sheets of the various cars, were incorrect. These changes and mistakes lead to much outrage and derision towards Tokyopop from fans of the series. It also lead to episode subtitles being remade by fans to correct the glaring problems.

In August 2009, Kodansha announced that they would not be renewing their licensing agreements with Tokyopop, citing "tense relations" between the two companies. This meant that Tokyopop could no longer release new volumes of Kodansha manga properties, nor re-release Kodansha titles that were already printed. Tokyopop ceased the release of Initial D after volume 33, which was released on December 30, 2008. Volume 34 had a scheduled street date of April 7, 2009, but never released.^[9] In April 2019, ComiXology and Kodansha Comics announced that they have released volumes 1 to 38 digitally, while volumes 39 to 48 were released in July.^[10][11]

Anime[]

Avex has released the anime in several parts called Stages. One noticeable feature is that it uses Eurobeat music as background music in race scenes, especially by Italian singers.

• Initial D (referred to retroactively by fans as "First Stage") — 26 episodes (1998)
• Initial D Second Stage — 13 episodes (1999)
• Initial D Extra Stage — 2-episode OVA side-story focusing on Impact Blue (2000)
• Initial D Third Stage — a 104-minute movie (2001)
• Initial D Fourth Stage — 24 episodes (2004–2006)
• Initial D Extra Stage 2 — a 50-minute OVA side-story focusing on Mako and Iketani (2008)
• Initial D Fifth Stage — 14 episodes (2012–2013)^[12]
• Initial D: Final Stage — 4 episodes (TV), compilation movie (DVD/Blu-ray) (2014)
• New Initial D the Movie - Legend 1: Awakening — feature movie (2014)
• New Initial D the Movie - Legend 2: Racer — feature movie (2015)
• New Initial D the Movie - Legend 3: Dream — feature movie (2016)

The Battle Stages are Musical Films serving as a compilation of the racing action scenes in the preceding series, stripped of all but minimal character dialog and featuring new music.

• Initial D Battle Stage — a 50-minute movie (2002)
  • Battle Stage is a compilation of races from the first three series, except for Extra Stage. The battles from First Stage have been reanimated and remastered with the more advanced CGI used in Third Stage, however the character art remains the same. A battle not featured in either the manga or the anime is featured, using the new CGI and old character art.
• Initial D Battle Stage 2 — a 1-hour movie (2007)
  • Battle Stage 2 is a compilation of races from Fourth Stage with unchanged CGI, even for the hidden battles. It features Keisuke's first two races as part of Project D, as they were not featured in Fourth Stage.
• Initial D Battle Stage 3 — (2021)
  • Battle Stage 3 features every race from Fifth Stage and Final Stage. Unlike the previous two battle stages, it does not feature any new battles, and doesn't feature any character dialogue.

In 1998, Initial D was adapted into an animated television series produced by OB Planning and Prime Direction. The first episode premièred on Fuji TV on April 8, 1998. The initial series ran for 26 weekly episodes with the finale airing on December 5, 1998.

The second series, named "Second Stage", aired from October 14, 1999 to January 20, 2000 with a one-week break over the New Year period. This was followed by animated feature film in 2001 and an OVA documenting all battles from the previous three stages, with the battles from First Stage being re-animated.

Initial D: Third Stage was a feature film covering the story arcs between the second and fourth stage, released in Japan on January 13, 2001. It earned a distribution income of ¥520 million ($6.52 million) at the Japanese box office.^[13]

In 2004, Initial D: Fourth Stage aired on SkyPerfecTV's pay-per-view service, airing two episodes back-to-back every two months. 24 episodes were made until the final episodes were aired in February 2006.

Following Second Stage in 2000, Initial D: Extra Stage was aired as a spinoff to the original series. This story focused on the all-female Impact Blue team of Usui Pass and their point of view of the recent events of Second Stage and the upcoming Third Stage movie. This was followed by Extra Stage 2 in 2008, which look at the relationship between Impact Blue's Mako Sato and Iketani of the SpeedStars (following on from the original side-story in the manga).

Eight years after the release of "Fourth Stage" in 2004, Animax aired "Initial D: Fifth Stage". Animax has aired the series on a pay-per-view basis on SKY PerfecTV!'s Perfect Choice Premier 1 channel.^[14] The first two episodes aired on November 9, 2012. The rest of the episodes were broadcast two per month till May 10, 2013.^[14]

In 2014, "Initial D: Final Stage" became the latest installment in the anime series. Animax has aired its first two episodes on a pay-per-view basis on its own brand new channel, on May 16, 2014, on its new subscription VOD (Video On Demand) service, which allows subscribers to watch all the latest anime series. Initial D Final Stage will start right after where Fifth Stage left off. There are a total of four episodes that makes up this mini stage.^[15] The final two episodes were broadcast on June 22, 2014.

Since the anime's original run, Japanese musical group m.o.v.e has performed all of the opening and some ending themes of the series. This followed on from the success of one of their first hits, "Around the World", which was used as the first opening of First Stage. Their latest single to be used in the series is called "Outsoar The Rainbow" and it is used as Final Stage's opening.^[16] They had another recent unreleased song, "Days". It was played on the finale of "Final Stage".

Like in the manga, Tokyopop change elements of the anime to suit Western audiences. As well as changing the names and used western slang, the company also changed the anime's music from the series' staple eurobeat tracks to originally developed tracks of rap and hip-hop via Stu Levy (DJ Milky), the Tokyopop CEO and an in-house musician.^[17]

In 2006, Funimation Entertainment announced that it would be distributing the DVDs of the anime (since Tokyopop's original distributor went bankrupt). This new distribution was marked by slightly revised packaging and two box sets corresponding to the licensed seasons Tokyopop had dubbed, although the DVDs themselves were exactly the same as the original Tokyopop release.

Tokyopop had completed an English subtitled version of Third Stage, and reportedly screened it at the Big Apple Anime Fest on August 29, 2003.^[18] They briefly mentioned that their version of Third Stage would retain the original Japanese soundtrack, in contrast to their treatment of the anime series. This version of the film was never released on DVD, nor was it ever mentioned by Tokyopop past the original announcement.

At the New York Anime Festival 2009, Funimation Entertainment announced that it would be re-releasing and re-dubbing Initial D: First Stage, Second Stage, Extra Stage, Third Stage, and Fourth Stage. Their release included a brand new English dub and retained the original music from the Japanese in an uncut format. Funimation released the series out of order, with the Third and Fourth Stages releasing before the First and Second Stages.^[19] The first Extra Stage was included in the Second Stage box set.

Animated feature film series[]

In July 2013 it was announced that another feature film titled New Initial D the Movie and a last anime series, Initial D Final Stage, will be produced.^[20] The movie is a retelling of the early Stages with a wholly new voice cast and is split into three parts, with the first part released on August 23, 2014, titled Legend 1: Awakening, the second part was released May 23, 2015, titled Legend 2: Racer, the third part released on February 6, 2016, titled Legend 3: Dream^[21]

Games[]

• Initial D Gaiden — 1998 — Game Boy
• Initial D — 1999 — Sega Saturn
• Initial D — 1999 — PS1
• Initial D: Ryosuke Takahashi's Fastest Typing-theory — 2001 — PS2
• Initial D Arcade Stage / Initial D — 2002 — Arcade (NAOMI 2)
• Initial D Another Stage — 2002 — GBA
• Initial D Arcade Stage Ver.2 / Initial D Ver.2 — 2003 — Arcade (NAOMI 2)
• Initial D Collectible Card Game — 2003 — Collectible Card Game
• Initial D: Special Stage — 2003 — PS2
• Initial D Mountain Vengeance — 2004 — PC
• Initial D Arcade Stage 3 / Initial D Version 3 — 2004 — Arcade (NAOMI 2)
• Initial D Arcade Stage 4 / Initial D 4 — 2006 — Arcade (Lindbergh)
• Initial D: Street Stage — 2006 — PSP
• Initial D Arcade Stage 4 Limited — 2007 — Arcade (Lindbergh)
• Initial D Arcade Stage 4 Kai — 2008 — Arcade (Lindbergh)
• Initial D Extreme Stage — 2008 — PS3
• Initial D Arcade Stage 5 — 2009 — Arcade (Lindbergh)
• Initial D Arcade Stage 6 AA — 2011 — Arcade (RingEdge)
• Initial D Arcade Stage 7 AAX — 2012 — Arcade (RingEdge)
• Initial D Arcade Stage 8 ∞ (Infinity) — 2014 — Arcade (RingEdge / RingEdge 2)
• Initial D: Perfect Shift Online — 2014 — Nintendo 3DS eShop (free-to-play)
• Initial D Arcade Stage Zero — 2017 — Arcade (Sega Nu2)
• Initial D RPG — Sony Ericsson mobile phone
• Initial D Pachislot - 2021 - Arcade
• Initial D The Arcade — 2021 — Arcade (ALLS)

The Initial D Arcade Stage arcade video game series has sold approximately 7,111 hardware units in Japan up until 2007, grossing approximately $24 million in hardware sales.^[a]

Live-action film[]

Fujino Store Tofu Shop in Gunma, which was renamed and modeled to Fujiwara Tofu Shop for the live-action film.^[22][23]

A replica of Takumi's AE86

A live-action film based on Initial D was released on June 23, 2005 in Asia. The movie was jointly produced by Japan's Avex Inc. and Hong Kong's Media Asia Group. It was directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, whose credits include the 2002 Hong Kong blockbuster Infernal Affairs. The adaptation featured Taiwanese singer Jay Chou as Takumi Fujiwara and Hong Kong stars Edison Chen as Ryosuke Takahashi and Shawn Yue as Takeshi Nakazato. Despite many changes to the original story, the movie was met with critical acclaim and was nominated for multiple awards, including Best Picture, at the Hong Kong Film Awards and Golden Horse Awards, winning many of them.

A sequel has been in discussion since the following year after the movie has debuted. However, a concrete conclusion could not be reached due to several obstacles which includes the storyline, filming locations, casts, and safety reasons. As of March 2015, director and producer, Andrew Lau, has once again reconfirmed in an exclusive interview that a sequel will surely follow but is tight-lipped on the release date. Jay Chou and Edison Chen will reprise their roles in the sequel.

Soundtracks[]

The anime series sold 700,000 soundtrack album units up until 2000.^[24] At a price of ¥3,146,^[25][26] soundtrack album sales grossed approximately ¥2,202.2 million. The live-action film's theme songs sold 1.2 million units, grossing approximately ¥1.232 billion.^[b] In total, the franchise sold approximately 1.9 million soundtrack units, grossing approximately ¥3,434.2 million ($43.04 million) in soundtrack sales. Some of their most famous soundtracks include "Deja Vu", "Gas Gas Gas", and "Running in the 90's", all of which are Eurobeat songs by Italian musicians.

Reception[]

Commercial reception[]

As of July 2013, collected tankōbon volumes of the Initial D manga series sold 48 million copies.^[27] At an average price of ¥691,^[28][29] the manga has grossed approximately ¥33.2 billion ($416.09 million) in tankōbon volume sales. In addition, the total circulation of its manga chapters in Weekly Young Magazine issues between 6 November 1995 and 29 July 2013^[7] amounted to approximately 1,037,447,413 copies, with those issues grossing approximately ¥228,994,579,120 ($2.856 billion) in sales revenue.^[c]

The Initial D anime series sold over 1 million DVD units in Japan up until 2008.^[30] At an average price of ¥5,184,^[31][32] video sales grossed approximately ¥5.2 billion up until 2008. Initial D Fifth Stage (2012) sold 157,598 home video units, grossing ¥408.3 million.^[33] In Japan, the live-action Hong Kong film sold 250,000 DVD units, grossing approximately ¥998 million ($13 million).^[34] In total, the franchise has sold approximately 1.41 million video units in Japan, grossing approximately ¥6.61 million ($83 million) in video sales revenue.

The Initial D Third Stage anime film grossed ¥520 million ($6.52 million) at the Japanese box office.^[35] The anime New Initial D the Movie trilogy grossed $2,660,288 at the East Asian box office.^[d] The live-action Initial D Hong Kong film grossed US$11 million at the worldwide box office.^[36] Combined, the Initial D films have grossed approximately $20.02 million at the worldwide box office.

Critical response[]

Initial D received praise. The Anime Review rated it A−, with the reviewer calling it "simply the best show I've seen in a long time."^[37] Bamboo Dong of Anime News Network rated it B−, stating it "is the first time in a long while since I've been so fired up about a series, so I recommend to everyone to at least check this out."^[38]

Some fans of Initial D reacted negatively to the Tokyopop's extensive editing and changes made in the English-language version of the manga. Similar reactions were made towards their English dub's script and voice acting, and the removal of the original music from the anime series. Tokyopop said that it was trying to Americanize the series so it could be aired on television, while at the same time keeping the Japanese spirit of the series.^[39]

According to Funimation officials, the re-release of the anime has "done well".^[40] Reviews of the series note a marked improvement from the Tokyopop iteration, with most complaints leveled against the lack of anamorphic widescreen on the DVDs.

Initial D has drawn comparisons to the later Fast & Furious film franchise (debuted 2001), particularly The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006),^[41][42] for which Initial D's consultant Keiichi Tsuchiya served as a stunt coordinator and stuntman and also made a cameo appearance in the film as a fisherman.^[43][44]

See also[]

• MF Ghost — Another car racing-themed manga series by Shuichi Shigeno, connected to Initial D.

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Initial D at Kodansha's official site (in Japanese)
• Avex webpage for Initial D (in Japanese)
• Initial D Fifth Stage Official Website - Animax (in Japanese)
• Initial D Arcade Stage Version 3.0
• Initial D Games Official Website - Sega
• Initial D Games Official Website - Sega (in Japanese)
• North America Premier of the Live-action Initial D film
• Initial D (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia