Customer Reviews

Initial D - Battle 7 - The End of Summer

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This battle 7 (esp 19-21) DVD starting out is the conclusion of the Mt. Usui race which tak vs Mako (Sil-80). Cole find the picture of Ry (Top driver of Gunma) in Maya wallet that she admires him very much. Cole then decide to break a date with Maya because of his jealousy but then decide to meet and race to her at last miniutes. Finally, Gunma top racing star Ry decided to challenge Tak for the utimate race at Akina....which will not happen until the very end of episode 24. Episode 26 is nothing but songs and some race scenes from previous races....I think!

This is the first stage of the fourth stages of the entire series.... which are not over yet. "Stage 1" have 26 episodes. I think Tokyopop will combine Stage 1 & 2 together. So, there will be 13 battle DVDs that you need to buy.
"Stage 2" has 13 episodes (Meet a new team name Evolution and Tak starting to race at opponents?? courts more often now. Also, a love story of Tak And Natsukiand continues.... Iggy make friend with a new out of town girl. Tak find out the dark secret that Natsuki has been hidden from him.
"Stage 3" is the movie. Continuing a love story between Tak and Natsuki, also some battles take place. Ry ask Tak to join his new team called "Project D" and hope to conquer all the mountains in Japan
"Stage 4 (Project D)" is being air on Japan right now and DVD vol. 1 and 2, which contain 2 episodes on each volume, is out. Tak will be the downhill and K.T will be the uphill specialist for this project. Stage 4 I heard has 14 episodes and there might be "Stage 5" and is going to be a movie. I can't until next year to get "Stage 4" DVD because I don't want to get volume by volume, hopefully they will put all the episodes into one package.

I would recommend everyone to watch the Japanese dialog track because the character voices and the music are ways better than the dub version. If you have to watch the dub version, switch over to Japan version whenever they race. You will know what I mean the differences in car audio sound and music from the dub version.

Natsuki has a dark secret and you guys will know in "Stage 2" series.

TOKYOPOP doesn't know anime and transform it into uglyness (change score, characters' names, cut scenes, etc...). Pioneer at least keep the original score and characters' names for their animes.

Well if you haven't figured it out who was going to win the race the you are really slow. After the race Simon asks tak out on a date, but iggy being as stupid as he is thinks that she was talking to him so he decides to invite everyone. At the waterpark it's funny to see Simon trying to hit on Tak, but whats even funnier is when Iggy and Kenji go down the water slides together. The only dissapointing part was when Cole found out that Maya had a crush on Ry takahashi, being the person that Cole is he thinks that shes out of his league. Maya tells Cole to meet him at the spot where they first met, but Cole decides that shes better off staying there alone(not really). So after his boss pounds reality into Cole he races to the spot to find out that there is a traffic jam and so there it was ladies and gentlemen the end of their relationship. In the japanese version of the anime Maya offered her virginity(believe it or not) to Cole in exchange that she gets the chance to close her carreer as a racer. We also get to see a little bit of Taks relationship growing with Natalie and she happens to find out what happend in the locker room(which was a fight in the 3rd dvd) and she decides to reward him for his actions by kissing him. Thats basically the layout for this review. Again it wasn't a bad dvd, but I just didn't like Maya getting hurt like that because I was kinda a fan of her work.

Volume 7 of "Initial D," the popular anime series about downhill mountain road racing in Japan, is awash in romantic complications that affect the whole cast of characters and keep things hopping for all three episodes (nos. 19-21). The first episode offers the conclusion of the suspenseful race down Usui Pass between Takumi and female challenger Mako begun in the previous volume. After the race, Mako's attractive navigation partner, Sayuki, gets the hots for Tak and asks him out on a swimming date, to which his friends, led by the diminutive, overeager Itsuki, invite themselves, upsetting Sayuki's plans. This all leads to Mako asking Tak's buddy, Iketani, who'd first met Mako back in Volume 5, on a nighttime date, but Iketani's hesitation and insecurity lead to unhappy results. Tak, meanwhile, fends off Sayuki's aggression to concentrate on his budding relationship with classmate Natsuki.

School starts and things heat up between Tak and Natsuki, including a first kiss that's handled tastefully and beautifully by the animators. However, we get a glimpse of a secret of Natsuki's that could derail things. Through it all, poor little Itsuki freaks out at losing his buddies to girls and comes out with several hilarious exclamations. He's comic relief in the best sense of the word. Meanwhile, Mt. Akagi champ Ryosuke Takahashi delivers a challenge to Tak and gears up for their impending match.

Aside from the genuine thrills of the racing sequences, the great thing about this series is just how emotionally honest it is about the awkwardness of teen romance and its inevitable mix of fleeting pleasures and deeply felt pain and discomfort. Tak may be a superman behind the wheel, but he and his buddies make the kind of common missteps with girls that so many of us remember from our youths.

The action comes with a nice mix of standard musical accompaniment for the romantic scenes (lilting piano solos) and rousing "Eurobeat" hiphop-style pop songs for the races. The opening theme song in episode 20 is a new one. For me, this consistently gripping series just keeps getting better with each volume.

After waiting 2 months to finally get this DVD and watch i was a little disapointed.

It starts off with Tak's 86 and Mya's Sil-80 in their downhill battle. For anyone whos watche the series, you all know whos going to win. At the end of the battle Simone has a small crush on Tak, and suggest they go to a water park. Iggy over hears and inivtes himself, Cole, Kenji, and Maya.

Episode 20 is all about Cole and Mya. He finds a pic of Ry and thinks she still has a crush on him. So then he cant compete with Ry and gives up on her. After the water park he talks with his boss and relieze's that its more of her seeing Ry as a role model. So he tries to get to the meeting spot for their date but doesnt make it in time........really a sad scene, i was kind of disappointed.(Also Ry has a new technique called "The Fastest Racer Theory")

Episode 21 starts with the first day of school. Things with Tak and Natalie heat up and thats all he can think about. Cole, Iggy, and Kenji suspect that Tak and Natalie are dating and are worried about it distracting his downhill technique. As a side story Ry's brother K.T. is trainning a new guy to be second in command. The main thing in this other than Tak and Natalie, is that Ry has challeneged Tak to a downhill battle, for a little later in the month (Episode 24)

Overall i liked it but, i think it could have been a little better. Not the most memorable DVD in the series but an important one none the less.