#intitial

[siljewelry]

[smuggler-of-hentai]

Initial D is The Matrix.

I wrote into the Anime New World Order Podcast in response to one of their episodes and my writing flow took a turn for the worst. this is a summary on why I enjoyed the anime Initial D. This is the Smuggler, I’ve been listening to you guys for the last year and have been wanting to write in for a while, you guys are awesome! Happy 10 years! I love how you guys take a serious objective look at series regardless of release date. I enjoy gleaning information from people much smarter than I am about things that I wasn’t around for so I can in turn reinforce or disregard my assumptions about all creative media and get better at looking at things in a critical light. To that end you guys do a great job! I only now write in because I was listening to your latest episode #144 and to my surprise you did a review on Initial D. I’m 20 and had no clue what this show was up until last year and to my dismay I love it. Despite my mental hang ups about this show and me trying to look at it in a critical light I still love it… and I hate myself for it. So I tried to figure out why. (Why I love it, not why I hate myself) For starters the level at which you have to suspend your disbelief in order to enjoy the show at face value is incredibly low. Real time and setting, real cars, conservative use of colors, and reasonable voice acting are all things that make this show accessible to people who have a hard time with mental hang ups. I feel as Otaku were all to used to leaving reality at the door and that watching something like Monster Mesume might be difficult for the average person. You also mentioned that this show in a sense sells an attainable dream, that dream being a lifestyle that is easily accessible through a material object. That said In one episode a nameless asshole swindles his girlfriend for a set of tires to support his hobby and this got me thinking. Is he really just an asshole? Or was this the start of an underlying commentary on the vanity of society as a whole? As a person invested in something you are naturally inclined to reject an opinion that opposes yours. So in an anime about the dangerous, expensive, and “dead end” hobby that is underground street racing why is it that anyone who voiced their opinions about the negative aspects of said hobby were immediately dismissed as whiny or pushed into the background? I suggest this! The entirety of the show was delivered through the eyes of a vain, fanatical, hobbyist and that the whole show was a meta-narrative on the material obsession of humanity! ​As a 20 something I have friends who ruin their financial futures to achieve what I now call “The Initial Dream”. I ask them why they do it, why they like wasting money on pimping a Dodge Neon, or any other hobby for that matter. I never get a straight answer. It’s exactly like I’m asking someone why they like Initial D! And I don’t get why they invest in their hobbies to the point of self destruction… Or do I? As an Otaku I Love ANIME! I spend hours at a time wasting my life mindlessly absorbing creative content and writing emails so how am I any different. I’m not. I Love anime, but I hate myself for loving anime. Which wouldn’t even be a problem if I suspended me caring just the same way as I suspend my assumptions of reality ever time I watch Initial D. Having said all this I propose a reason as to why this show is so polarizing! Initial D is The Matrix:Sub-consciously Initial D presents each viewer with the Idea that material objects are a means to social acceptance. Depending on how one reacts to this idea will result in you either liking or disliking the shows base concept. It’s the red pill or the blue pill. there is no middle ground. but how fair does the rabbit hole go? Will you free yourself from the material constraints that are this world or will you forever exist in the time bubble of 1998, that is the decision every viewer must make when ask the question “Do you like Initial D?”. Which is probly  why no one gets a straight answer. PS: I watched the Chinese Japanese and English dubs and English was by far the worst! Keep up the good work guys “you made my anime addiction worse!”