I can't upload most of screens so I placed them on the imageupload.
And finally the moment has come and I am reviewing with both sadness and joy the final season of "Initial D". However, this is not my last word on this topic and in some time I will publish a text with which I will start a new, permanent series of my publications. However, in a few weeks, I will present you my spoiler impressions. I decided that since this is the last season, I will not limit myself and will talk about everything.
Since the movie "Battle of Gods" ... Don't come back, not this anime, it's been a few days since the fight with God Arm and Good Foot. Ryosuke and the mechanics began preparations for a trip to the next prefecture, which is to be both the crowning and the most difficult stage of Project D. For this reason, the two drivers got some free time for themselves - Takumi met the new lady, visited his friends, and Keisuke. .. Shit knows. Although he and Takumi are portrayed as equally important at every opportunity, the younger Takahashi has less time to himself even in the final race than Takumi. However, I will come back to that later. The guys are resting and their absence has been taken advantage of by the two losers who want to pick up girls by pretending to be Team D. Unfortunately, they fell into their misfortune and were then humiliated by the guys, miraculously avoiding getting hit by Keisuke. I liked his text, which he said to one of the scammers - "I should break a few bones and kick your mouth because you are so ugly that you give me a bad reputation, but I don't waste my time." It turned out that a scammer impersonating Takumi hurt one of the girls, and her friend came to a gas station to take revenge. However, Mika Uehara did not know what the fake Takumi looked like, so she accidentally hit the real one. When everything became clear, the girl came back to apologize to the rally driver, and they sparked. I didn't like Mika at first, but she gained my sympathy over time and I would love to see her and Fujiwara in a more serious relationship.
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For the rest, I'll start at the end. Initially, I was a bit disappointed that Takumi's final opponent would be someone like him, driving almost the same car model. However, I changed my mind quickly, because despite many similarities, Takumi and Shinji Inui are quite different from each other. They are remarkably talented, they have it in their genes (Shinji's father is a racer), they know their main route like their own pocket, both are also withdrawn, quiet characters, and you could say they act a bit autistic. As for the differences, Shinji is more open to girls (+ he likes older ladies), he is raised by his mother and he is younger. Because of this, he has less experience and, most importantly, has never lost a match, which is why Takumi won. Apart from the fact that he facilitated Takumi's duel, this feeling of stress, and hence increasing stage fright, made him lose his confidence and feel a growing fear. Perhaps it would not have happened had it not been for the fact that he gave the field to Fujiwaara - after all, Takumi put the maximum load on his Truneo during the race, which resulted in an engine failure on the last leg of the route. The same is true when it comes to the similarity of both teams. They have great technical facilities, know-how, a leader who cares about the smallest details, as well as they have an interview (they follow each other, prepare individually for each fight, etc.) In this case, the similarities are not surprising, because this is how it looks in every field of sport from a sufficiently high ceiling. Differences between individual teams or players are blurred, because they must necessarily display at least similar features.
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For the rest, I enjoyed all the races, but I have to repeat one sentence from the season 4 reviews - almost all of them blended into one and it's hard for me to say anything more about them. Sure, I do remember some scenes like racing through heavy fog, but these are only short snippets. This is due to several reasons - the first is already mentioned at the end of the previous paragraph, the second is the lack of originality among the players (which also seems to result from point 1 - if we get high in a sport, the higher we are, the more the players will be similar to each other), and we have practically no breaks between races. We don't have the crazy pace here as in season 4 and we have moments of respite between events, but it can still get in the way. Some people complained that the heroes did not guard the entrance to the road (so that ordinary people would not disturb the racers). but that's not true. I do not know what it looks like in the comic, but the creators of the anime decided to limit them to the necessary minimum and if we just look at the mobile phone to text someone back, we can skip the short sequence when they explain or show it to the protagonist. The same was done with other elements that we got to know better in previous seasons, which would only interfere and take away the airtime of the heroes and the story. Is that okay? Of course. Why show something that we already know, but only takes time?
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Coming back to the broken plot, the exception is the deathmatch between Ryosuke and Rin Hojo, which I remember very well. It was impossible NOT to remember. Remember when I got excited about a Keisuke fight in the S4 final or the S3 final? Well, both races are little crap for what happens at the end of the S5. We have 2 episodes that are primarily devoted to Ryosuke and his dramatic past. Shūichi Shigeno is not as good at creating characters and forming relationships with others like Tsukasa Hōjō (author of "City Hunter") or Togashi (author of "Hunter x Hunter"), but I was impressed by what he showed on Ryosuke and Kaori. Their short relationship was very well written and contained a strong dose of emotions. I was glad to see them satisfied, and it made me very sad when their relationship ended. I don't know how often this has happened in Japan, but it is normal in their culture for children to be absolutely subject to their parents' will. If they agreed to you something, the child had no right to refuse. Ie. technically, it was possible, but it often ended with his or her suicide. In Japanese culture, this means opposition to decisions and concerns not only children, but also, for example, samurai or officials who think differently from their superior. In their mentality, this means that if they did, they were very opposed to it. Returning to the ID, both drivers were unable to find inner peace after Kaori's death and it was only a matter of time before they met on the road again, but for both of them it was different - Ryosuke was unable to return to his normal lifestyle, because he was still living on the matter, and Rin Hojo blamed himself (rightly so, he acted like a total dick) and Takahashi for the girl's death. He was also unable to return to normal life, although Rin felt a gigantic desire to self-destruct. He did not care about life and often drove on the roads, aggressively attacking other drivers. During the race with Ryosuke, he put everything on one card and did everything to murder his old colleague. Fortunately, it all ended up with scratched car bodies and a few glitches.
I mentioned at the beginning of the review that Keisuke was treated as a secondary character again, and to be honest, I went overboard a bit. Aside from his last race, his role has been somewhat expanded. He has more lines of dialogue and got special training from his brother. It consisted in meticulously recording the data from his training routes, and then analyzing them to minimize his mistakes and maximize what he did well. I don't know what it looks like in other sports, but esports players do similar things. I used to do this myself (some 17, 18 years ago, when time flies) while playing "WarCraft 3". If any of you are a professional player, athlete or aspire to be one, I recommend introducing this element to your daily workouts. You will quickly notice differences if you approach it consistently. Maybe you will also find a way to quickly reduce the distance between you and your rival. Coming back to Keisuke, if his final race had been expanded and had at least one more stage, I would have absolutely nothing to complain about. Unfortunately, Takumi got 4 episodes for himself, and the blonde didn't get 2 episodes.
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In terms of music, the final season is as outstanding as Season 1 and 2. Before writing this review, I listened to the Season 1, 2 and 5 soundtracks to pick the best soundtrack and ... I can't do that. It's as if I had to pick my favorite Gogeta from "Dragon Ball" (I mean Ssj 4 and Ssj Blue). Each of them has as many strengths as few weaknesses. S1 and S2 have more Eurobeat songs that I like, but I rate the ones we hear in the final season as slightly better. I'm talking about Adrenaline, Limousine, Runaway, Crazy On Emotion, Gas Gas Gas and I won't fall apart. Thanks to him, I also discovered the Jared band, which I liked very much. The downside is that the songs don't repeat themselves (in the sense we hear each one once even though it was asking to be given Gas Gas Gas for a race where Keisuke rides in heavy fog) and we don't always hear Eurobeat during races. Sometimes we get some original songs that don't sound bad, but they're not songs that made this anime very popular. However, these are not disadvantages that would make this soundtrack worse. Basically, apart from the cinematic adapting season 3 of the manga, ID has excellent soundtracks. More than 90% of the anime I've seen can at best get on your knees in front of him and do what is inherent in many adult movies. In terms of graphics, "Initial D" has gone a lovely way from ugly and cheap anime to a very decent series. There were a few moments in the first episode when the characters looked weak, as they did decades ago, but from the perspective of the entire season, it doesn't mean much. Even if similar moments happened later, they are lost in the ocean of great shots from the races and solid shots from beyond. Car models and races are a real masterpiece, in many moments I can pause them, make a screen and get a beautiful frame.
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All in all, this is one of the best anime series I have seen in my 32 years of life. While the story itself is not as outstanding as "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood", "Space Brothers" and several other titles, it is a consistently written and produced "from scratch to master" story. I do not see holes in it, clearly weaker elements, unnecessary stages. Basically it's just fine artisanal work. I can even say that this is a model of how to write this type of comic book. Thanks to Quantum who first introduced this title to me when I was a teenager and to Karol who reminded me of it a year ago. I will come back to this story periodically every few years, as in the case of "Hunter x Hunter" and "Dragon Ball". I estimate the final season (ie 5 and these 4 additional episodes) at 9/10. I can also give the overall score 9/10. If I had to bring myself to look at this anime honestly I would give it 8/10 due to the inferior graphics of the S1-3, but IMO is unnecessary clinging. The beginning is ugly, yes, but from the script side, it has aged really well and is enjoyable even today. A great finale to a great series.