Product Details

• Actors: Nobuyuki Hiyama, Michiko Neya, Yumi Kakazu, KÃ'suke Okano, Keiji Fujiwara
• Directors: Masami Hata
• Format: Animated, Color, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English, Japanese
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Tokyopop Pictures
• DVD Release Date: September 16, 2003
• Run Time: 150 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00009N1ZE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #58,192 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Initial D - Battle 1 - Akina's Downhill Specialist" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Takumi Tak Fujiware never stood out mach until a yellow RX7 refused to let him pass on one of his tofu delivery runs down Mount Akina. Little did Tak know that the driver was one of the hottest steer racers around and when Tak outmaneuvered the RX7 in his old 86 Toyota he set himself up as the new driver to beat. Welcome to initial D where street racing ream battle over glory passion pain and revenge on the road and off!System Requirements: Runnnig Time 150 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ANIMATION/ADULT SWIM Rating: NR UPC: 645573016128 Manufacturer No: TPDV-1612

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars TOKYOPOP really should get a backbone., August 12, 2003

By 

"silkreelingpower" (Lubbock, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Initial D - Battle 1 - Akina's Downhill Specialist (DVD)

It's mangled, just like the manga (US release). In the English version on the disc, they really bent over for American Censorship (TM). K.T.? Natalie? Iggy? Who came up with these names? Also, the original creators actually sampled the authentic engine sounds for each of the different cars for the original version. But the english audio has these "tricked out" rice rockets in an attempt to be "cooler' and "more hip" to the same people who think "The Fast and the Furious" is real. The background music as well was mangled, as they replaced the original tracks with - face it - horrible garage and punk bands. The major KICK-IN-THE-PANTS is that the relationship between Natsumi (errr, Natalie?) and her "daddy" has been deeply removed. I guess enjou kosai is too deep a subject for American audiences. My advice? Don't buy the TOKYOPOP release. Save your money for the R2's.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inital D-Battle 1, October 4, 2003

By 

"iamssgoku" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Initial D - Battle 1 - Akina's Downhill Specialist (DVD)

I love Initial D. Initial D is one of the best animes out there. And I've been paciently waiting its arrival in the U.S. After buying and watching Battle 1 I've got a few things to say. There's good knews and bad knews. The good knews is that Inital D is a great show. The story, the characters, the cars, and definately the racing is awesome. I really like the whole CG effect used. The bad knews is that the "tricked out" version on this dvd is absolute garbage. They changed way too much. First off, they changed the music from the awesome eurobeat techno type of stuff which gets your blood pumping, to some really gay and loud rap. Not only is the music horrible, but in almost all parts of the episodes, the music is so loud you can't here what the characters are saying. Another bad thing is that the voices and some of the things they say have been somewhat changed. There is not possible way that they could have made Iggy's voice more annoying. The good thing is the enhanced video. It seems that the picture is clearer and brighter than the orriginal which makes it much easier to watch. Despite all these drawbacks, the best thing is that you can watch the original Japanese on this dvd. My advice is to choose the original version, make sure subtitles are on, and then also make sure in the settings part the video is on enhanced video. Because that way you can watch it with original music and voices, yet keep the higher quality video. That is the savior of this DVD. If it weren't for the horrible english version that has been created, I would have given this DVD a 5. Get it, no questions asked. Just make sure you watch it in Japanese. ^_^

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save your $$, October 3, 2003

By 

Liquid (New Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Initial D - Battle 1 - Akina's Downhill Specialist (DVD)

Ugh, I've been a fan of Initial D for several years. For those of you not familiar with Initial D, the series has been divided into three stages, 1st stage, 2nd stage, and 3rd stage. From reading about the product on the website it sounded to me like this dvd contained all episosdes from first stage (probably 10+ episodes, im not sure the exact number). Well in actuality this dvd has 3 episodes from first stage, barely enough episodes to get the plot even started. I was very dissapointed when I found this out. Also, even though they have a classic setting on the dvd, they still changed the subtitles. Even despite that they change the wording, what I found particularly annoying was that they tended to cut long sentences in half. If you can read at any reasonable speed though, you are left waiting to read the next half of the sentence. It makes the dialog feel much less smooth. Maybe for the price I shouldn't have expected all of the first stage episodes, but at the same time, 3 episodes at probabably 20-25 minutes each doesn't seem like its worth what I paid (although with all the extra features they get to say they have 150 minutes of footage).

I was extremely dissapointed with this product, and I'm going to go see if I can exchange it or anything right this second.