Initial D Omnibus 4 review
If there is a theme running through this latest omnibus edition of Shuichi Shigeno’s motor-racing manga, it would be appear to be ‘dealing with the unexpected’.
A race is taking place between the two big teams in Gunma Prefecture, the Red Suns and the Night Kids, which Takumi Fujiwara and his friend Itsuki are both watching. It begins with the typical exciting action and drifting that those who have been reading the series will have come to expect, but things change when it starts to rain during the race, meaning that the drivers now have to deal with the hazardous conditions. Things have yet to improve by the time Takumi is challenged to a race by one of the Red Suns team, but he still agrees to take part, with Itsuki riding in the back (without his seat belt on) of Takumi’s panda-coloured Eighty-Six.
After this race is completed however, the Eighty-Six is overtaken on the same road by a much more powerful Evo, being driven by a group from a neighbouring prefecture that plan to beat every group in the area. This leads Takumi and his friends to contemplate improving the Eighty-Six’s performance by adding a turbo charger to it. Privately, Takumi’s father actually has a much more powerful engine that he could add to the car, but he holds off because he believes Takumi is not ready for it yet. He believes Takumi still needs to do one more thing before the engine is added: he needs to lose a race.
This collection feels like it is building up to the next major turning point in Itsuki’s development. While the race in the rain does make for some great action, it is the development of a team from a rival area that makes for the most impact. The two new characters representing them are an intriguing duo, with the leader Kyoichi “The Emperor” Sudo certainly being the more likeable of the two, while his second Seiji Iwaki has too much of an annoying ego about him, especially when it comes to him showing off his victories, doing so by winning a sticker from his defeated opponents, cutting them in half, and setting them upside-down on the wing of his Evo. Nevertheless, when it comes to Takumi racing against them, it does add the factor of wanting us, the readers, to root more for our hero.
As for the production, there is one change to the staff, as Julia Murphy has been added as co-editor alongside Maggie Le. Other than that, the rest of the team of translator Kevin Steinbach, letterer Scott O. Brown, and once more great cover art from Phil Balsman, continue to work well together, although the use of very small text in some parts may be difficult for some readers.
As mentioned earlier, this collection really appears to be setting things up to show how Takumi develops. Whether he will win or lose in his next race against Seiji will demonstrate whether or not the Eighty-Six needs upgrading or not. It will be interesting to find out how this all unfolds.
Our review copy from Kodansha was provided by Diamond Book Distributors.
