Fini de jouer pour la D ! Lors de son deuxième battle sur la terre sainte du Street, Takumi et son équipe vont devoir affronter la RT Katagiri. Cette fois, ils devront faire face à des pilotes entraînés à courir à des vitesses vertigineuses... et l'un d'eux n'est autre que Kai Kogashiwa ! Plus déterminé que jamais, cet ancien rival de Takumi est bien décidé à prendre sa revanche !
Shuichi Shigeno (Japanese author profile: しげの秀一) is a manga artist, best known for the manga series Initial D. Shigeno has also created Bari Bari Densetsu, Dopkan, and Tunnel Nuketara Sky Blue ("First Love in Summer") all prior to the manga that would make him famous in 1995. In 1985, he received the Kodansha Manga Award in shōnen for Bari Bari Densetsu.
The transition in the translation over the last few volumes can be jarring. And, the introduction and overuse of the term touge is part of it. I can’t remember it in the first 33 Tokyopop translated volumes, but it’s in every dialog sequence after. Along with the bad, is the good though, so all of our characters have their actual names restored.
I’ll acknowledge, that the overarching story really isn’t the point. It’s the cars, the tension in the racing, and the spectacular car art. Still, there’s a couple of details in the story that have irked me since the Project D arc began that could be easily addressed. First, who is financing this whole operation. There is only notoriety for these wins no prize purse. These racers and their team of mechanics don’t actually have *real* jobs! And, second, if anyone ever does defeat Takumi and his 86, it will have to still feel like a loss. He’s racing in a car, however tuned, that’s well over a decade older than virtually every opponent. In this volume, he’s even got a rematch with a racer he’s beaten already who is running a new car against him. It’s just sometimes tough to look past the BS. It is, however, probably a little too late to complain after 36 volumes (which I’ll probably even be rereading as long as my local library keeps adding the big, beautiful omnibus editions—Ha!).