Hiya!
I have been making the rounds of the entire Initial D series intermittently for a few years now. I’ve reviewed First Stage several years back and I’ve also given my thoughts on Second Stage a couple of months back. Well, recently I decided to kind of catch up with this old anime and, since all episodes are available on Prime Video in the Philippines, I decided to continue my slow and sporadic watch of the series with Third Stage.
I thought, if the Third Stage was like the previous seasons/Stages, I would be able to watch the entire thing and binge watch it over the course of 3 or 4 days, tops. Turns out I was downright incorrect as, for some reason, it appears Third Stage is a movie. It does seem like an anomaly since, as far as I know, the rest of the Initial D “stages” are presented in an episodic format. So, I managed to finish the entire thing in one sitting as it was only a couple of hours long.
As with the previous “stages,” Initial D: Third Stage focuses on Takumi Fujiwara, a teenage boy and genius street racer who honed his skills driving his father’s Trueno AE86 up and down Mount Akina. As he is about to graduate from high school, ace driver Ryosuke Takahashi invites him to join his racing team as he plans to go around Japan to race against other teams and their home turf. However, Takumi is still unsure if he’s worthy of belonging in the team as he feels he still needs that special something to give him that edge.
Well, that’s the opening part of the movie anyway. As Third Stage still follows the manga, there’s more to that as Takumi will face off against the person who gave him his first (unofficial) loss, Emperor‘s Kyoichi Sudo and his EVO3. He will also have to face off against Kai Kogashiwa‘s MR2, who just so happens to be the son of his father’s old rival. Oh, there’s also that dumb “race” where he has to save his soon-to-be-forgotten love interest, Natsuki, from her jealous ex-boyfriend.
Let’s get this out of the way as the Natsuki love interest storyline is my most hated moment of the past previous seasons/stages. I’m glad it’s over! I just hated Natsuki by the end as she just became this whiney lovestruck girl and really added nothing to the races. I guess they tried to make up for it by having that scene where Takumi has to race in the snow, which was cool. Still, I’m so happy they got rid of her.
Another thing I kind of disliked about Third Stage is it isn’t a series. Yeah, I got to watch the entire thing lickedy-split but, for me, a lot of the fun of Initial D is how much time they take on the actual races. As this is a movie, they’re done in around 15 minutes or so. There isn’t enough time to do those weird inner monologues while driving like in the series as they could take their time with them. This means the races are good but they lack the dramatic flair of the previous stages. Still, that doesn’t mean they aren’t good. They’re just not as awe-inspiring here.
They did bump out the quality of the CGI animations in Third Stage. When compared to First Stage, Third Stage totally blows it out of the water when it comes to the car models. The vehicles are highly detailed now. They did a much better job of blending the animation cells with the computer generated imagery. There are a few shows which do show their age, like when Takumi drops his wheel of the AE86 into the dried up area next to the edge of Irohazaka‘s finish line. Still, overall, they do look good.
Of course, the races wouldn’t be complete without some pulse-pounding Eurobeat tracks pulsating in the background. Even after all this time, I still can’t believe this kind of music would work in a racing series as I would’ve probably gone with some rock music or something more generic. For some reason, the Eurobeat soundtrack just works perfectly with the genre. I will say, this time around, I really love the title track, Gamble Rumble. The previous stages opening music were fine but Gamble Rumble feels like the turning point here as, if I remember correctly, the future seasons/stages also have opening songs which slap hard! Oh, I also have to say I love Crazy for Love as well. If I ever get a driver’s license, I’m going to be sure to add some Eurobeat to the playlist while I’m driving!
As good as the tunes were, it doesn’t really make up for Third Stage’s biggest flaw: it’s a movie and not a series. Why would this be an issue? That would be because, as it still generally follows the manga and it covers 3 racing arcs. This means they had to squish all those story arcs into a runtime that’s less that 2 hours! I know it’s a series about racing but everything just comes off as very rushed! I just think it would’ve worked better if Third Stage was something like a 12 episode series than a movie to give things some time to breathe and let events sink in a little better.
Overall, I would say Third Stage is my least favorite part of the Initial D anime. It’s not that it’s bad. Rather, it doesn’t feel as fulfilling as the previous seasons/stages because it is a movie and not an episodic show. I’m glad Prime Video carries it as it is still a necessary part of the anime. I’m also really happy Third Stage marks the end for Natsuki as she was the worst part of the series. I just can’t help how much better it would have been if they developed it into an actual television series. Maybe the CGI cars wouldn’t look so good as I’m sure the movie would have a much higher budget. However, as good as the visuals are, I’m still in it more for the drama of the race rather than the race itself.
Oh, if you don’t have Prime Video or the streaming service doesn’t have it in your area, you can still watch Third Stage in its entirety on YouTube. It’s dubbed, though.
Just sayin’.
Byee!
Have you seen Initial D: Third Stage? Where does it rank to you when compared to the rest of the series? Let me know in the comments section below!
