By C.J. Yu
DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR
[email protected]
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Already a hit in Japan with over 30 million copies sold, the
highly anticipated “Initial D” manga series has finally
arrived in the United States in an English translated version.
Set in the small town of Akina, “Initial D” follows
the life of Takumi Fujiwara, a soft-spoken teenager by day,
unlikely street racer at night.
Between balancing his job as a gas station attendant and
delivery boy for his father’s tofu shop, Takumi also deals
with his confusing relationship with Natuski, a longtime crush from
his high school. Think “The Fast and the Furious” meets
“Saved by the Bell.”
While the only thing to do in town seems to be racing down Mount
Akina or modifying sports cars, Takumi has absolutely no interest
in pursuing anything that involves racing. Although he may be one
of the quickest drivers in his village, it’s not until a
chance encounter with the Akagi Red Suns, the rival racing team
from another town, that Takumi’s hidden talents are
revealed.
Because the book is kept in its original format, all of the
artwork has been untouched and is shown the way that the artist,
Shuichi Shigeno, intended it to look. The comic panels are
presented in their original Japanese form, where the book opens
from the right, with panels also reading from right to left, top to
bottom.
Even the printed sound effects are kept in Japanese, as the
style and context of the Japanese words within the artwork are
enough to convey on their own the meaning of the sounds.
For example, in one of the racing sequences, Japanese text fills
the page with bold, white lettering, emanating from the rear of the
car like thunderbolts, conveying the roaring sound of the
vehicle’s exhaust. In another scene, softer, smaller Japanese
text floats from a gate adorned with a string of bells,
communicating their light rings in the wind.
One of the most attractive aspects of the artwork in
“Initial D” is Shigeno’s effective use of the
comic panels to tell the story. He takes great care in framing each
sequence like a storyboard of a movie in order to give the reader a
full understanding of each scene, such as in the opening sequence
of the story. Using variations in shape and size of the panels, the
artist guides the reader through each picture, with nothing more
than just sound effects and a car racing down the mountainous road,
to create the same imagery that a director would with film.
Through these carefully rendered panels and detailed artistry,
it’s no surprise that “Initial D” has been so
successful in Japan. It might only be a matter of time before it
encounters the same popularity in the United States.