Wangan Midnight Run, one of some car racing anime series that I have seen. This one is more like Initial D without the drifting, downhill and uphill race. This one much more like random race along the highway with drivers who wants to push their cars to its limits by upgrading parts and tuning the engine beyond the limit.
Written by Michiharu Kusunoki the manga came out around 1990 to 2008 with 42 volumes under the publisher Kodansha.
Another manga came out again by Michiharu Kusunoki 2009 to 2012 with 12 volumes under the same publisher Kodansha.
Third manga 2014 to 2015 by Michiharu Kusunoki under the publisher Shogakukan with 2 volumes.
All manga I have not read a single one up to now.
Anime series adaptation came out 2007 to 2008 directed by Tsueno Tominaga through studio A.C.G.T. with 26 episodes.
The series follows the young car freak Akio Asakura who owned a red Fairlady Z (Z31) at the start of the series. Driving along with his friend in high school posing as university students with the ladies with them in the car. Later a black Porche passed them and Akio recognized the Porche as the Blackbird. He attempted to pass the Blackbird by challenging it to a race but they were left to eat the dust.
Jumping along Akio was told about a wrecked Fairlady Z in a car junkyard by Ko-chan a fellow car freak. Akio hurried to see the Fairlady Z and ended up seeing the blue Z30 almost a total wreck but the engine intact and all the shocks were still in place. He bought the car even though he was already warned by the junkyard employee that the car was said to be turned into a total wreck before it falls into another driver. The car was believed to be cursed or something since there has been three owners before Akio that met a very not so good fate. Being the fourth owner of the car Akio still bought it and repaired the vehicle back to its original state or close to it. Another name for the Fairlady Z30 is the DEVIL Z.
The original owner of the Fairlady Z30 was also named Akio Asakura and lived in the same town as the current Akio Asakura. But the original owner ended up dead during a race with the rival Blackbird being driven by his friend Tatsumi Shima who now a sort of guardian of the younger sister of "Original Akio" Eriko Asakura.
Reina Akikawa a fashion model and TV personality who also race in the night after work and she drives the GT-R. Along the story she passed by the Fairlady Z30 one night while driving. Meeting Akio and tried to drive the Fairlady and almost ended up dead, she still tried to race the Devil Z and Akio but the gap was too much for her and her car even after all the upgrades and tuning.
The entire series is all about cars and the racers that drive each car which in turn almost similar to Initial D where racers wage with their pride as the best drivers in their territory. But here in Wangan Midnight Run it does not seem like territory is at stake but only the pride of the racer and the tuner of the car.
In this series the cars also seems to be alive and is choosing its driver which is how it was described by some of the characters. Akio being the chosen one of the Devil Z as its true driver and the other cars that at first was seemed to be the drivers were the ones being pulled to race the Devil Z but it turns out the cars were the ones telling their drivers to race the Devil Z and try to win.
Also just like the Inital D this series also had its own arcade game where gamers gets a magnetic card where they can store the racing data and tuning of their chosen vehicle. One vehicle one magnetic card.
I also got a chance to play the game and raced with a number of racing gamers, My vehicle was also the Fairlady Z but I was not as lucky in this game as I was in strategy RPG games. In the game there are race course that requires the skills to drift and good control on the driving wheel. in most arcade machines the driving wheel control were all messed up due to some players that has no or less respect to the machines and to those who will play after them. The arcade machine also has a gear shifter that looks like an actual manual gear shifter on real cars and not just the up and down shifters that were installed on the Initial D arcade games. One thing on racing arcade machines most of it has no clutch pedal but only with acceleration pedal and break pedal I guess it is for those gamers who wants to use the Automatic shifting option rather than having one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the shifter.
The anime series has also received a lot of fan made stories having Akio driving through some road and passing by the Ghost of Akina, Takumi Fujiwara and ends up racing with one another. The Devil Z vs the The Ghost of Akina, which car is faster and which driver has the real skills to drive and race using machines that can push itself beyond the limit.
So this anime series which I got hooked on from start to finish was really interesting no blood, gore, flying limbs, fanservice, mecha, super robot. Just plain guys and gals with their cars and tools in tuning the cars and having a race in the middle of the night until the sun comes out. Yeah racers running their engines on full until the sun comes out and greet them. Not sure if there are real life racers that does the same thing in Japan or any other place here in the Philippines or other countries.
There was also a live action film that came out and I was able to watch it as well. The adaptation of the manga to anime to live action seemed to be real close (I was able to read some manga but I never got through 1/4 of the entire volume which is why I never counted reading it sorry). The transition of the story of the racer/driver Akio in the series from a car enthusiast to someone who looked like who was possessed by the Fairlady Z30 was slow but you can see his addiction to the speed that the car will give out not mention on his first actual ride for the Fairlady he almost died when he lost control of the steering and the the car crashed on the the same spot where the first owner Akio died which looked like the possessed car wanted to kill its new driver on the same place where the original owner died.
Would I recommend this series to anyone? Yes I will recommend this series to anyone even though the viewer has no interest in car themed anime they might start to get hooked not only because of the upbeat opening theme but also the story of the series from start to end is really interesting to follow and no dull moments unless you don't want to listen to some car freaks talking about how the engine works and how to customize the body kit of the car for it to have the required down force and how to get the speed up beyond the limits.
credits of the videos to the original owner
source material wikipedia
and my personal experience when I watched the series
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