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2nd New Initial D Film's 'Arcade Game Style' Web Promo Streamed
posted on by Egan Loo
Avex Pictures began streaming an "arcade game style" web promotional video for Shin Gekijōban Initial D Legend 2 -Tōsō- (New Initial D the Movie Legend 2: Racer), the second film in the new Initial D film trilogy, on Monday. The video highlights the film's battles: Ryosuke Takahashi in the Mazda RX-7 versus Takeshi Nakazato in the Nissan GT-R, Takumi Fujiwara in the iconic Toyota AE86 versus Takeshi Nakazato, and Takumi Fujiwara versus Shingo Shoji in the Honda EG6.
The film opened in Japan on May 23.
The film trilogy retells the beginning of the story from Shuuichi Shigeno's original car-racing manga. High school student Takumi Fujiwara works as a gas station attendant during the day and a delivery boy for his father's tofu shop during late nights. Little does he know that his precise driving skills and his father's modified Toyota Sprinter AE86 Trueno make him the best amateur road racer on Mt. Akina's highway. Because of this, racing groups from all over Gunma Prefecture issue challenges to Takumi to see if he really has what it takes to be a road legend.
The cast from the first film returns for the second, with Mamoru Miyano as Takumi Fujiwara, Yūichi Nakamura as Keisuke Takahashi, Minoru Shiraishi as Itsuki Takeuchi, Maaya Uchida as Natsuki Mogi, Hiroaki Hirata as Bunta Fujiwara, Hiroshi Tsuchida as Kōichirō Iketani, and Junichi Suwabe as Takeshi Nakazato. Sanzigen Animation Studio and Liden Films are animating the films, and Shochiku is distributing them.
The first film in the new film trilogy, New Initial D the Movie Legend 1: Awakening (Shin Gekijō-ban Initial D Legend 1 -Kakusei-), opened in Japan last August, and also premiered in Singapore on December 4.
The manga debuted in Kodansha's Young Magazine in 1995, and Shigeno ended the manga in 2013. The manga has more than 48 million copies in circulation.
The manga inspired several television anime series (including the Fifth Stage that ran in 2012), a live-action film, several original video anime projects, and a successful game line (to which the video above pays homage). The manga's final battles have also been adapted into an anime series called Final Stage.
