Ultimate Tofu Guy Drift

Marcus: If you’re a car enthusiast, then there’s a good chance that you’ve heard of Initial D. The series was brought to fame by its stunning CG car racing sequences. Initial D quietly became a cult favorite among car nuts; its popularity grew as the word of crazy downhill mountain drift racing spread on automobile message boards and forums.

Fan-subtitled Divx and Real Media episodes populated the ‘net. Then in 2002, it was finally announced that TokyoPop had picked up the rights to distribute Initial D in North America. This legitimized Initial D and helped to pave the way for the ‘dorifto’ way of living.

Not so fast there, buddy

Wait, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself here. Before I lose any more of you out there, we’d better get those who have never heard of Initial D caught up to speed. Getting me to describe Initial D to you in a nutshell would be like asking someone who genuinely believes in The Force to give you the quick and dirty about Star Wars. Instead, I’ll let TokyoPop do it:

How does a 17-year-old tofu delivery boy suddenly find himself caught up in the heart-stopping world of street racing? For Initial D’s Takumi, the answer is a combination of chance, skill and addictive fascination. Since junior high school, Takumi’s daily tofu runs have taken him through the hairpin curves and treacherous passes of Mount Akina -- he never imagined that those years of driving would make him a complete master of the road, and a lethal street race competitor.

Takumi drives an “Eight-Six,” a street term for the Toyota Trueno AE86. When chance puts him up against street racing’s most notorious driver and he actually wins the race, the lure is too much – he’s hooked. Word quickly spreads about the famous “Eight-Six of Mount Akina,” and more and more rival racers appear to challenge Takumi and his friends in a series of white-knuckle contests.

If this is the first time you’ve heard of such a crazy thing, I recommend that you check out the couple of trailers posted on TokyoPop’s site.