Forum - View topicMF Ghost (TV).
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11304 Location: Frisco, TX |
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This Sequel: MF Ghost (TV) Original Series: Initial D (TV) Source: Manga (ongoing @ 17 volumes, by Shuichi Shigeno) Demographic: Seinen Animation Studio: Felix Film Genres: action, drama, romance, tournament Themes: automobiles, coming-of-age, Europe, racing, school Plot Summary: In the 2020s, self-driving cars are ubiquitous in Japan. The manga centers on Kanata Livington, a Japanese driver who goes back to Japan after graduating at the top of his class at a racing school in England. The series also focuses on the MFG, a racing circuit on public roads that has garnered attention worldwide. Air Date & Platform: October 1, 2023 (Sunday) Available on: Crunchyroll Episode Count / Runtime: 12 episodes ---------------------------------- Had no idea this series was a sequel to Initial D. I never got into that franchise because of how long it seemed, at the time. But I've always been interested to check it out, since I don't really see street racing in any other form within the anime and manga mediums. Last edited by Tony K. on Thu Jan 11, 2024 2:46 pm; edited 4 times in total |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1979 |
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Hmm, I can't remember the last time I saw a car being driven in an anime and it not looking meh to terrible.
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23812 |
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It's so weird we can go this long without having had a racing drama... and now we get two in the same season (Overtake! being the other). They even come out the same day, for Pete's sake!
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23812 |
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Episode 1
I am not, nor ever have been, a "car guy" but I could imagine being up for a good racing show. My main disappointment with the first episode is that there is very little racing in it. That looks like it will be corrected next time which makes me wish this had been one of those double episode debuts. Oh well. |
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Edjwald
 Posts: 1157 |
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I thought this was one was a bit mild but not unenjoyable. Kind of like a soda cracker? There was a slow burn kind of a thing with two very pretty people who have hints of deep passion stirring beneath outwardly bland personalities. And, as Blood said, this is a racing drama whose pilot episode didn't have a pulse stirring race. Not a pilot for the impatient, and if the race next week doesn't have some flourishes, I think this anime is going to wind up floundering.
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11304 Location: Frisco, TX |
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There was something to this that I really liked. I have no exposure to Initial D and only know the franchise by name. But with watching this, I got to thinking, "how is this more shounen and less superficial than what the Fast and Furious franchise has become?" And I came to the conclusion that it's not just about "family," but the protagonist and the particular chip on his shoulder, which is what most shounen MCs are about (and not saving the world via racing cars).
I remember seeing clips of the old anime back in the early 2000s and remarking upon how bad those cars looked. Surprisingly, these cars aren't half as bad as I was expecting, so that's a pleasant surprise. Depending on where this goes, I might even be inclined to check out the original, at some point. Although, I hear Tokyopoop did a very poor job at localization, translations, etc. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9853 Location: Virginia |
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"Tokyopoop" I like that.
The most recent release of the original series was by Funimation. As I remember they stripped off most of the more offensive stuff Tokyopoop put in. Such as replacement music. One of the things that was done well in the original release was an actual live tour of some of the roads featured in the show. Unfortunately this was dropped by Funimation. I grew up in the period spoofed by the movie "Grease" when every high school guy wanted a hot rod to impress the girls. Of course I didn't have the money, mechanic skills or driving skills to have one. Just as well since I would have killed myself. "Fast and Furious" (at least the first movie) was a pale reflection of "Initial D". They were street racing on the wide flat streets of L.A. The Initial D kids were racing up and down the switch backed roads of the local mountains. Go through the guardrail and you might end up a hundred or more feet down. To quote the old "Hot rod Lincoln" song: "My fenders clicking the guardrail post, the guy beside me white as a ghost" a scene that shows up in the anime a couple of times. (Note: Hot Rod Lincoln is misleading, the car in the song is a model A body with a Lincoln engine in it.) |
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Edjwald
Posts: 1157 |
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It was a little strange seeing a race where there weren't any other cars in opposing lanes, and most of the tension was generated by the voice actors doing the announcers while a (often CGI) car swerved around. And yet...I was reasonably into it. I'm not saying I'd give it full marks or anything, but that subdued narrator was showing some of that inner fire, and we got introduced to some future background players and hints of mystery. For me, this episode took what was good in episode and expanded on it without introducing a lot of annoying crap. BTW, while the family unit was watching the TV, was I the only one who kept waiting for the parentals to go "Honey, is that our daughter hanging out on the track in a tank top and hot pants?"
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Edjwald
Posts: 1157 |
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Edited for dumb nit-pick fix because I couldn't help myself.
So, I guess the show has a romantic non-triangle now, unless that older dude on the racing crew has a lot more game than he's demonstrated thus far. I feel kind of bad for him as he seems to be walking around wearing a sandwich board that says "comic relief" on one side and "dramatic complication" on the other. Anyhow, I still find this series lowkey but oddly compelling. Something about the art makes me think of French graphic novels. Probably not those Asterix comics.... |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11304 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Episode 03
Coincidentally, I recently got a PS5 a couple weeks ago. I've been a long-time casual fan of the Gran Turismo games because of their sleek presentation and deep in-game customization options for all the cars the games have. I'm not a car buff, by any means, but I can appreciate automobiles for the machines they are, in addition to all the work and specifications that go into sprucing them up for street racing. While I find the real-world application of racing is a bother because of the noise pollution it creates around my area on an, otherwise, quiet evening of enjoying stuff, I don't mind a good virtual race. I also picked back up on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch, and while that's a lotta' fun in its own right, seeing these racing anime is making me wanna' play GT, again. It doesn't help that I've been looking up PS5 4K HDR footage of GT7, and it looks freakin' amazing(!). Before making this post, I did a little background research on Initial D and Japanese street racing, and it seems ID was a big influence on global exposure to the JP racing scene (and also for the driving technique "drifting,") which just keeps piling on the desire for me to get GT7 for PS5 really, really soon! Anyway, turns out there are both, legally-sanctioned and illegal, kinds of street races. And so far, it seems MFG is showing the former. I guess in this particular case, it was a speed course to see if Kanata could get through in a certain amount of time, as opposed to going head-to-head directly. Not sure what rules ID and MFG govern themselves under, but it felt pretty exhilarating, nonetheless. Ren's anger after finding Kanata was a racer is interesting. She doesn't seem that in to him, but slapped him, anyway. Makes me wonder if she might've lost someone to the racing scene and cares just enough for Kanata, at the moment, that she doesn't want him going down that same path. And then you have whatever chip on his shoulder that really seems to make his racing juices flow. Could be cool to see just how far it makes him go, and whether or not that force affects him for better or worse. |
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minamikaze
Posts: 221 |
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I was under the impression that it was a time trial and the cars with the best 15 times qualify for the actual race. Similarly in Overtake, individual time trials determined the starting positions for the actual race (in Overtake, before the race the leader of Bellisario team was disappointed that they didn't qualify for the pole position). In the original Initial D series, the races were always just 2 cars head to head because they were using narrow mountain roads (which they also had here), but they were just people gathering at night and racing each other. I'm curious how MFG could make that course work with 15 cars. I would guess that they would have to have heats with a smaller number of cars. 15 cars would seem to preclude 2 car heats, unless the car with the highest time or the top 3 just get seeded. Anyway, I'm sure we'll find out soon. 
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11304 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Oh, that was just time trials for position placing? The way they were acting about how he almost broke the old record threw me off, which made me think it was something way more important. If that's the case, I don't think it'll matter too much what position he starts at, since he's the main protagonist and will eventually become the best, sooner or later.
Looking up more info on the touge (mountain pass) courses that JP street racing uses, I'm, indeed, curious how they plan to have so many cars on these narrow roads. I've no clue what today's racing scene entails on that kind of terrain. But apparently manga-ka Shigeno-san got a lot of editorial input for Initial D from professional driver Keiichi Tsuchiya about the actual mechanics of drifting. So I imagine that kind of expertise and detail would also be reflected in the venues and such. But you're right, we'll just have to wait and see how they present that (I'm gettin' pretty eager  ).
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minamikaze
Posts: 221 |
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They did say that only the top 15 cars qualified for the actual race. That's why I thought that heats would be necessary, since that would allow two cars to compete head to head in each heat. However, perhaps the actual races are done just against the clock instead of head to head. I just cannot see how they could have more than two cars racing against each other on those narrow mountain roads. Also, they couldn't have a camera drone per car with many cars racing either, and those seem to be an essential feature of the viewing experience for spectators (who are all remote). The original Initial D series were a lot fun, (but the cgi cars definitely did not age well at all. ), so I've been looking forward to this.
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11304 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Ah, I must've not been paying full attention at that part, then, as I was trying to take bites of pulled-pork sandwich and pepperoni-covered meatball sub from Firehouse Subs throughout the episode (I barley kept the stuff from falling out, there was so much stuff between the bread!). When I'm eating and watching anime, sometimes I like to look at my food and not the subtitles, just to audibly test myself over how much Japanese I can understand. I was also watching it at 2x speed, so that's totally my fault for trying to eat while speed-watching  .
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minamikaze
Posts: 221 |
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So my guess was incorrect, all 15 cars do participate in the actual race, in the order of their time trial finishes. I wasn't expecting that since the original series featured 2 car races.
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