Tetsuuuooooo! Akira Live Action Remake
Seriously, Hollywood? Were the millions you made peddling dumbed-down versions of Speed Racer and Transformers not enough? You even managed to dumb down Knight Rider, which had the intelligence of a...
View ArticleThe Real Speed Racer
The new Speed Racer live-action seizure movie opened this weekend to poor reviews. Therefore, we thought it would be nice to see some of the original Japanese anime about a boy and his car. We can all...
View ArticleDatsun Fairlady Z: The Manga
DMP’s Project X: Datsun Fairlady Z, tells the story of the iconic Japanese sports car in graphic form. Unlike Wangan Midnight, this is non-fiction and has characters like Mr. K and Yoshihiko Matsuo....
View ArticleNew Wangan Midnight Movie in the Works
Recently in our forum there’s been an ongoing discussion about the Wangan Midnight movie from back in the days of VHS. The story of the Devil Z has also been retold in anime and its original manga...
View ArticleArthur Garage, Used Car Dealer Manga
Here’s another car-based manga to add to your library in addition to Initial-D, Wangan Midnight and Garage Restore 251. It’s Arthur Garage, a series published in Kodansha’s Weekly Young Magazine. From...
View ArticleMINICARS: Hot Wheels’ mid-engined Honda CR-X
In 1981 Hot Wheels debuted the Hot Ones, a line of diecast cars with an articulating suspension and thin axles for a smooth, frictionless ride across your tabletop. Mattel has been busy re-launching...
View ArticleQuestion of the Week: What is the most overrated nostalgic car?
We’ve asked what the most underrated nostalgic was, but we neglected to find its flip side. Thus we ask you this week. What is the most overrated nostalgic car? The one car which we had high...
View ArticleNEWS: After 18 years of touge battles, this is how Initial D ends
The final chapter of the long running manga Initial D was released yesterday in Japan. After 18 years of publication the hugely influential story that introduced touge battles and the glory of RWD...
View ArticleART CORNER: Ryuji Tsugihara’s Yoroshiku Mechadoc
There are countless manga devoted to the subject of cars, but rarely do they leap off their comic book pages into the world of anime. Any self-respecting JNCer knows a few, but before Initial D or...
View ArticleGet Your Wangan On
Akio Asakura was just another high school senior who couldn’t graduate due to one too many a late night cruising in his Z31 300ZX 2+2. That is, until one fateful day when he stumbled upon a lightly...
View ArticleSpecial Stage on Silver Screen
Our Aussie friends at grandJDM bring us news of a new movie about rallying coming out in Japan. SS, an abbreviation for Special Stage, is based on a manga of the same title, and while Sho Aikawa is...
View ArticleVIDEO: Honda’s early F1 years, told in manga form
Honda periodically releases videos that tell its history in manga form. The latest is about Honda’s early years competing in Formula One. In 1964, just two years after Honda produced its first cars, it...
View ArticleCelebrating the 50th anniversary of Circuit Wolf author Satoshi Ikezawa
If you’re wondering why Japan seems to have an inordinate number of Lotus Europas, the answer can be found in Satoshi Ikezawa’s Circuit Wolf. From January 1975 to June 1979, the wildly popular manga...
View ArticleInitial D successor MF Ghost anime in the works
Turn up the Eurobeat. Successor to the beloved Initial D, Shuichi Shigeno’s MF Ghost has been in publication since 2017. With four years of weekly stories under its belt, publisher Kodansha announced...
View ArticleInitial D‘s beloved characters: “Where are they now?” according to MF Ghost
We last wrote about MF Ghost in 2017, when Shuichi Shigeno had but published one chapter in Young Weekly, the same manga serial that Initial D ran in from 1995-2013. Back then, little was known about...
View ArticleAcura anime series “Chiaki’s Journey” has Initial D vibes
Acura has launched its own anime series, titled Chiaki’s Journey. The story features a young driver, a lonely mountain road, a cocky rival, and a gruff father figure that pushes her to hone her driving...
View ArticleIn MF Ghost‘s second trailer, the Toyota 86 seems massively outgunned
The upcoming racing anime from the creators of Initial D now has a second trailer. We get some extended footage of Kanata’s neo-Hachiroku, as well as those of his supercar competitors. Of course, there...
View ArticleArt exhibition celebrating Initial D creator Shuichi Shigeno opens in Japan
An art exhibition in Japan has opened to honor 40 years of art by Shuichi Shigeno, the author of Initial D. Long before the tale of a tofu delivery boy street racing his beloved Toyota AE86 hit the...
View ArticleOvertake, a new racing anime, is coming this fall
The world is still waiting for the next Initial D, the last racing anime to really take the globe by storm. Could a new series about open wheel racing take the mantle? Titled Overtake, the series...
View ArticleInitial D sequel anime MF Ghost debuts next week
If you’ve been jonesing for some automotive anime action, your time has come. MF Ghost, the long awaited follow-up to Initial D, will make its debut this coming Sunday. Like its predecessor, it follows...
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