Oh yes I did.  Initial D, the cartoon that literally introduced the ricers of the late 90’s and early 2000’s with the Japanese street past time of drifting by introducing us to Fujiwara Takumi and his bad ass Tofu carrying 4AG powered AE-86. Most will not admit that their first experience with drifting in the 90’s came from this cartoon, but in reality it was.  At the time of its release, most of us were worried about the axles that we were braking during a drag race and not about how to get our cars sideways, but man did this change as everyone started to move from drag to drift through the 2000’s.

Gangster

The 8.6.

The very first time I saw an episode of Initial D was in late 98′ at Hyper Racing here in Houston.  Some might have heard of this shop as it was the old shop of current Formula D director Andy Luk.  Man, talk about a LONG time ago.  I remember sitting there staring at the T.V. and saying to myself, “what the hell is this?”  Drifting was going pretty strong at the time in Japan, especially on a street level, but it was this damn “Anime” that really stirred some international hype for all ages.

Supercharged 86 Levin and 86 Trueno Gear Up.

Deep down inside, everyone wished they could have been Fujiwara Takumi.  A random kid whose Father was an elite street drifter in Japan, who, for the shit of it, would mildly tune the car to improve his driving conditions in the mountains.  And let’s not forget about not spilling the cup of water!  The next thing you know, Takumi is whooping up on all kinds of street drifter ass on the “Togue”.

Smoking Never looked so cool.

Initial D, starting as a Manga (Comicbook) in 1995 went on to spawn a huge franchise with crazy music, 4 “stages” of balls out fun, and overpriced 1985-87 RWD Corollas. Hell, the cartoon was event supervised by Keiichi Tsuchiya, the drift king himself!

The drifters even had Tape!

The Best v. Best.

Although you may or may not admit it, you have watched it and one thing is for damn sure, you definitely cannot take away from what it has done for the growth of drifting.  It may have not been completely responsible for the position that drifting is at today but Initial D has definitely spawned thousands of fans for the sport and will always have a spot on my DVD shelf.

And a tribute to being a ricer in the 90s.

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And if for some reason you have NOT seen Initial D, well, you need to get your ass online and watch it =).

*sigh, Nerd Moment.

— JohnP