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darth_stitchThe past several days are not going to go up in my list of memorable moments any time soon. The last week, the entire family ALL caught the flu from our poor househelp and so we all spent the entire time miserably sick in bed, dragging ourselves off to work only for the last two days.
I'm catching up on news, on LJ and yep, on fanfic.
BTW, EEEEEEEEE!!!!!! Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment & Tweak made it to fictionalley.org and is STILL getting reviews on ff.net. Holy cow. *is awed* Who woulda thunkit?
Yes, Albus is STILL nagging me for more ideas along this vein of thought. EEEP.
Initial D
I blame The Eggling ENTIRELY for this one and I'm really not surprised he's hooked on it. Him and ALLLLL of his male buddies. It's got fast cars and racing and more racing/car/mechanical/technical detail than you can shake a stick at. It's ENTIRELY a boys' kind of anime, where most of the character designs are somewhat more.... how do I put this, "realistic." Yes, it's still got big eyes and atypical anime facial expressions but the boys are most definitely NOT drool-worthy, drop-dead, fantasy-type PRETTY - the type that would inspire ten thousand female fanfic authors to write oodles of het/slash on them. Not that there seems to be a lot of slash OR het fan fics on this anime series. I figure that most straight guys who seem to make up the majority of this anime's fanbase wouldn't bother to write fan fiction of that nature - hehe. Plus, the storyline doesn't bend thataway - I'll explain this later.
It's like you look at the character designs and you figure that despite the anime look, you know a couple of fellas who would "look" like that. In fact, the only character I've seen so far who can pass as typical Japanese anime bishounen (pretty boy) is Ryosuke Takahashi and funnily enough, he's got this weird-ass resemblance to my brother (The Eggling has two other anime characters he resembles, both in Rurouni Kenshin - Aoshi Shinomori and Hajime Saitoh).
The story: Initial D is basically about this teenager Takumi Fujiwara, who delivers tofu for his Dad at this hotel situated waaaaaaaaay up Mt. Akina in Gunma Prefecture - seems to be a quiet, provincial kind of place in Japan. The mountain road, of course, is made up of numerous twists and turns and it would take an ordinary driver hours to get back down from the mountain after making the delivery.
Takumi, however, only takes about a few minutes. 3 minutes, to be precise, to go the mountain downhill.
And he's been doing that ever since he was eleven years old.
Now Takumi's quite unaware that he's a driver of extraordinary skill - honed by his father, who's hailed by fans of the series as the God of Mt. Akina when it comes to driving. The only point for Takumi here is that he makes his tofu delivery at the unholy hour of 4:00 am and the quicker he gets back home, the more sleep he can get before he has to get to school. His Dad's the same way - he just wants to get some more sleep, never mind if once upon a time, Bunta Fujiwara was Japan's F1 racing champion. Heh.
So we've got a bunch of car-crazy fellows organized into street racing groups, all competing on the mountain slopes of the neighboring prefectures and Mt. Akina's got the Akina Speeding Stars. It's when they're challenged by a very good rival racing group - the Mt. Akagi RedSuns, that Takumi is inadvertently dragged into the world of street racing. Keisuke Takahashi of the RedSuns just can't help but sit up and take notice when he's suddenly overtaken at top speed while going down Mt. Akina by what should be an old 1986 Toyota Panda Trueno with a Fujiwara Tofu sign along its side.
Yes, Takumi and his Dad drive a 1986 or AE86 Toyota Panda Trueno. It kicks the asses of most of the top of the line race cars basically because Daddy Bunta's tuned the old car to perfection and he and his son are driving gods. XP
Takumi is priceless as the classic, ordinary, young, naive hero who's got no clue that he possesses an extraordinary talent and each and every street race he gets into makes him more interesting as a character and the other characters that come round to challenge Takumi make for good interplay. Of these, Ryosuke Takahasi comes off as the best of the best of the crop of Street Racers, whose initial undefeated record was wrecked by Takumi. Rather than swearing revenge, the very smart, experienced Ryosuke takes Takumi under his wing, recognizing the lad's talent.
The only visible female character in this entire anime series is Takumi's love interest Natsuki Mogi, who, alas, has a "Papa" who picks her up in a white Benz and gives her lots of money. Yes, it's exactly as BAD as you think it is. Interestingly enough, I picked up the "Initial D" entry from Wikipedia.org where it explains about enjo kosai - "compensated dating" - where high school aged girls in Japan are paid by older men to accompany them on dates and/or render sexual services. Check out this link for more information.
Needless to say, Takumi was not too thrilled when he figured that one out. But it makes for an interesting departure for all the anime's characters, all of whom are developed and brought out in a more real manner. Takumi, apart from his extraordinary driving skills, is still only a teenaged boy who still needs to grow up and make his own way in the world. Natsuki is not simply dismissable as the "slutty girlfriend" - she's got some hard choices and experiences ahead for her too. Even Ryosuke is also a med student, trying to balance his studies and family expectations, being the eldest son - and his love of racing and cars.
There are other female characters who come up in the story - all of them racers who challenge Takumi or much later, Keisuke - but they're more transient than Natsuki.
But other than the characters, you have to love the CARS. The Speed. The thrill of each and every race. And the oodles of technical detail. The race courses are real. Mt. Akina and all the other places are real. Even the driving techniques are real - they've got a technical consultant who's hailed as Japan's Drifting God - "drifting" referring to the driving technique Takumi uses to clear the mountain corners at insane speeds. What happens in the anime is mostly perfectly feasible (with good reflexes and long practice and experience). No, I'm not going to learn how to drive my car that way - are you guys nuts?! I'll keep that for the video game. Hehe.
And did I mention the music? It's what they call eurobeat but it's very fitting and quite catchy for speeding down mountain passes. Gets the blood pumped up and a fantabulous accompaniment to the excellent CG animation of the car races. The anime reserves more traditional animation when the characters are not racing.
Slash? Subtext? Er. If you look REAL close. You'd have to snicker at a male character's open worship of Keisuke Takahashi (now Takumi's closest friendly racing rival) and there's a couple of scenes in the season where two characters are telling each other "not to stand too close as people will think we're good friends." And there's probably a bit of Ryosuke/Takumi subtext in here somewhere.... but the canon storyline isn't too interested in romantic relationships or even make time for romance since you're really here for the cars and the racing. Which most likely explains the relatively few slash fics I've seen of this fandom. Plus, really, I'd say that the typical straight male fan of this anime would rather write about Takumi or Keisuke or Ryosuke challenging some racer than a het/slash romance. *snorfles* At least, that's what I've seen on ff.net and lord, I've seen precious few any other fic on this out on google.
Initial D - *sigh* - so very hooked on it now and The Eggling better get me copies of the first season if he knows what's good for him.
Yes, he knows he's created a monster. XP
I'm catching up on news, on LJ and yep, on fanfic.
BTW, EEEEEEEEE!!!!!! Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment & Tweak made it to fictionalley.org and is STILL getting reviews on ff.net. Holy cow. *is awed* Who woulda thunkit?
Yes, Albus is STILL nagging me for more ideas along this vein of thought. EEEP.
Initial D
I blame The Eggling ENTIRELY for this one and I'm really not surprised he's hooked on it. Him and ALLLLL of his male buddies. It's got fast cars and racing and more racing/car/mechanical/technical detail than you can shake a stick at. It's ENTIRELY a boys' kind of anime, where most of the character designs are somewhat more.... how do I put this, "realistic." Yes, it's still got big eyes and atypical anime facial expressions but the boys are most definitely NOT drool-worthy, drop-dead, fantasy-type PRETTY - the type that would inspire ten thousand female fanfic authors to write oodles of het/slash on them. Not that there seems to be a lot of slash OR het fan fics on this anime series. I figure that most straight guys who seem to make up the majority of this anime's fanbase wouldn't bother to write fan fiction of that nature - hehe. Plus, the storyline doesn't bend thataway - I'll explain this later.
It's like you look at the character designs and you figure that despite the anime look, you know a couple of fellas who would "look" like that. In fact, the only character I've seen so far who can pass as typical Japanese anime bishounen (pretty boy) is Ryosuke Takahashi and funnily enough, he's got this weird-ass resemblance to my brother (The Eggling has two other anime characters he resembles, both in Rurouni Kenshin - Aoshi Shinomori and Hajime Saitoh).
The story: Initial D is basically about this teenager Takumi Fujiwara, who delivers tofu for his Dad at this hotel situated waaaaaaaaay up Mt. Akina in Gunma Prefecture - seems to be a quiet, provincial kind of place in Japan. The mountain road, of course, is made up of numerous twists and turns and it would take an ordinary driver hours to get back down from the mountain after making the delivery.
Takumi, however, only takes about a few minutes. 3 minutes, to be precise, to go the mountain downhill.
And he's been doing that ever since he was eleven years old.
Now Takumi's quite unaware that he's a driver of extraordinary skill - honed by his father, who's hailed by fans of the series as the God of Mt. Akina when it comes to driving. The only point for Takumi here is that he makes his tofu delivery at the unholy hour of 4:00 am and the quicker he gets back home, the more sleep he can get before he has to get to school. His Dad's the same way - he just wants to get some more sleep, never mind if once upon a time, Bunta Fujiwara was Japan's F1 racing champion. Heh.
So we've got a bunch of car-crazy fellows organized into street racing groups, all competing on the mountain slopes of the neighboring prefectures and Mt. Akina's got the Akina Speeding Stars. It's when they're challenged by a very good rival racing group - the Mt. Akagi RedSuns, that Takumi is inadvertently dragged into the world of street racing. Keisuke Takahashi of the RedSuns just can't help but sit up and take notice when he's suddenly overtaken at top speed while going down Mt. Akina by what should be an old 1986 Toyota Panda Trueno with a Fujiwara Tofu sign along its side.
Yes, Takumi and his Dad drive a 1986 or AE86 Toyota Panda Trueno. It kicks the asses of most of the top of the line race cars basically because Daddy Bunta's tuned the old car to perfection and he and his son are driving gods. XP
Takumi is priceless as the classic, ordinary, young, naive hero who's got no clue that he possesses an extraordinary talent and each and every street race he gets into makes him more interesting as a character and the other characters that come round to challenge Takumi make for good interplay. Of these, Ryosuke Takahasi comes off as the best of the best of the crop of Street Racers, whose initial undefeated record was wrecked by Takumi. Rather than swearing revenge, the very smart, experienced Ryosuke takes Takumi under his wing, recognizing the lad's talent.
The only visible female character in this entire anime series is Takumi's love interest Natsuki Mogi, who, alas, has a "Papa" who picks her up in a white Benz and gives her lots of money. Yes, it's exactly as BAD as you think it is. Interestingly enough, I picked up the "Initial D" entry from Wikipedia.org where it explains about enjo kosai - "compensated dating" - where high school aged girls in Japan are paid by older men to accompany them on dates and/or render sexual services. Check out this link for more information.
Needless to say, Takumi was not too thrilled when he figured that one out. But it makes for an interesting departure for all the anime's characters, all of whom are developed and brought out in a more real manner. Takumi, apart from his extraordinary driving skills, is still only a teenaged boy who still needs to grow up and make his own way in the world. Natsuki is not simply dismissable as the "slutty girlfriend" - she's got some hard choices and experiences ahead for her too. Even Ryosuke is also a med student, trying to balance his studies and family expectations, being the eldest son - and his love of racing and cars.
There are other female characters who come up in the story - all of them racers who challenge Takumi or much later, Keisuke - but they're more transient than Natsuki.
But other than the characters, you have to love the CARS. The Speed. The thrill of each and every race. And the oodles of technical detail. The race courses are real. Mt. Akina and all the other places are real. Even the driving techniques are real - they've got a technical consultant who's hailed as Japan's Drifting God - "drifting" referring to the driving technique Takumi uses to clear the mountain corners at insane speeds. What happens in the anime is mostly perfectly feasible (with good reflexes and long practice and experience). No, I'm not going to learn how to drive my car that way - are you guys nuts?! I'll keep that for the video game. Hehe.
And did I mention the music? It's what they call eurobeat but it's very fitting and quite catchy for speeding down mountain passes. Gets the blood pumped up and a fantabulous accompaniment to the excellent CG animation of the car races. The anime reserves more traditional animation when the characters are not racing.
Slash? Subtext? Er. If you look REAL close. You'd have to snicker at a male character's open worship of Keisuke Takahashi (now Takumi's closest friendly racing rival) and there's a couple of scenes in the season where two characters are telling each other "not to stand too close as people will think we're good friends." And there's probably a bit of Ryosuke/Takumi subtext in here somewhere.... but the canon storyline isn't too interested in romantic relationships or even make time for romance since you're really here for the cars and the racing. Which most likely explains the relatively few slash fics I've seen of this fandom. Plus, really, I'd say that the typical straight male fan of this anime would rather write about Takumi or Keisuke or Ryosuke challenging some racer than a het/slash romance. *snorfles* At least, that's what I've seen on ff.net and lord, I've seen precious few any other fic on this out on google.
Initial D - *sigh* - so very hooked on it now and The Eggling better get me copies of the first season if he knows what's good for him.
Yes, he knows he's created a monster. XP
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no subject
Date: 2005-09-13 08:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-13 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-14 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-14 01:46 am (UTC)And, I DEEPLY apologize... I can't find the finished version... I had it inked and colored, but I can't find it... I WILL finish this and do it again, but for now, here's the original pencil (hope you can see it v.v;;) with the captions ^^;;
I had this ready and waiting for when you finished THBP XDDD
no subject
Date: 2005-09-15 03:47 am (UTC)SQUEEEEEEE!!!!
Snape. Harry. THE KIDS ARE ADORABLE!!! Especially Arthur! That's how he is with Harry, btw. XP
no subject
Date: 2005-09-16 01:51 am (UTC)Anyway, I'm glad you like it XD I'll be sure to finish it ASAP!
no subject
Date: 2005-09-14 11:15 am (UTC)Surprise, surprise, it's all my brother's fault. He's the real anime nerd in the family. I got the first few episodes off him, but I don't think I ever got past about episode 3 or so. The races were cool and all, but not enough to keep my interest. Absolutely ADORE the music from it though!