Initial D is a difficult anime to review. On the one hand, I'm a big racing fan so I loved it. On the other hand, if you don't like racing you'll hate it. Racing is really all Initial D has going for it because it does race sequences so well. Each sequence is totally different from the other ones, and the CG animation doesn't hurt it at all. Initial D is really a suspension of disbelief. I mean, how the heck could an unmodified Trueno possibly beat a fully tuned Lancer Evolution?

The other plus to Initial D is the soundtrack. It's a refreshing mix of J-rock that, surprisingly, doesn't suck. I'm not the biggest fan of j-rock, but I do have some groups I like. For instance, TM Revolution and Chage and Aska are ones I listen to, and now I'll be adding MOVE to my list. I really liked the songs they did for Initial D, with the exception of the second ending song.

Alright, with the good news out of the way, I'll get to the bad news. Initial D is butt-ugly. I'm talking about character designs in particular. They are the *worst* looking characters I've ever seen. If you take out the characters then you are still left with a rather bland-looking environment that just looks lifeless. Not only are the character designs awful, but the characters themselves are boring and shallow. There were moments while I could feel for them, but none of them are developed except for Takumi. Unfortunately, it takes all of 26 episodes to make Takumi decide that he likes to race.

Plot is also non-existant. Relationships get one episode then are rarely ever hinted at again. Unfortunately, the episodes that focus on the relationships between Saori + Itsuki and Mako + Iketani are easily the best episodes in the entire series... but two episodes later Saori and Mako aren't even mentioned. Mako isn't even shown again until the LAST episode, which was really a big let down.