Confession, I just watched the entire Initial-D series. Yes, all six of them. If you don’t know what it is, It’s a Japanese street racing manga that’s so freaking cool that it’s been adapted into a TV series, several movies, and the best arcade game ever.
A quick synopsis:
Set in the late 1990s in Japan, the series follows Takumi Fujiwara, an unsuspecting kid driving an old 1983 Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86. From a young age, he was forced to make deliveries for his dad’s tofu shop every morning around the windy roads of Mt. Akina. Becoming a skilled driver without even knowing it, he begins attracting the attention of racers all over Japan, and thus, his story as the fastest downhill street racer in Japan begins.
Like any other teenage kid going through his awkward high school years, I, too, was obsessed with Initial-D. Every Friday, my friends and I would go to the local arcade just to play this game. Drifting! Who knew you could drive a car sideways?! Everyone had their car of choice and we all shamelessly threw down what little money we had to have a chance at beating one another on the winding roads of Japan. Initial-D was the birthplace for many young car enthusiasts like myself, for many years to come. Little did I know, Initial-D is about much more than just cool cars and drifting.
Here are the top 10 life lessons I learned from watching Initial-D:
Importance of setting goals - In racing, you have one goal, get to the finish line before your opponent, and do it as fast as you can. Without a finish line, you have nothing to aim at. With nothing to aim at, there is no direction, and with no direction, it doesn’t matter how fast your car is, you have nowhere to go. You’re just wasted potential. Without goals, you never encounter any challenges, and without any challenges, you never have any opportunities to grow as an individual. In order to grow, you need to have goals, even if it’s just delivering tofu every morning while trying not to spill the cup of water your dad gave you. (This is how Takumi’s dad secretly trained him to become such a good driver)
Seek out opportunities to bring out the best in you - Challenges and battles are a big theme in Initial-D. When word gets out about Takumi’s natural talent, people start showing up from all over Japan just to challenge him to a race. Later on in the story, Takumi joins Project D, a race team whose sole purpose is to challenge others on their home court so they could elevate their own game. How badass is that? If you want to elevate your game, don’t wait around, go out and look for people better than you so you can better yourself.
Losing can be inspiring - I love how often competitors were shown being excited about losing a race. This sounds counterintuitive, shouldn’t they be upset? But for someone who feels like they’ve plateaued or reached their peak, losing can be exciting. It can reinvigorate your spirits. It can give you a reason to keep improving. It can also give you a fresh perspective if you’ve gotten jaded from being in the game too long. As Takumi’s father, Bunta, once says, “Losing’s not so bad, it can teach you a thing or two.”
Respect your opponents - No matter how much trash talk there is before a battle, almost every race is followed up with a scene of both the winner and loser acknowledging one another. The loser admits defeat but also shares what they learned and how they intend on improving. The winner doesn’t celebrate. Instead, they commend the loser and might even share some advice. It’s great sportsmanship and points to the true nature of competition that I feel is often overlooked. It’s your opponents that make you strong.
Do your research - Before every race, Takumi would do test runs to familiarize himself with the course and develop a strategy to win (save for a few races that Takumi won on his own without practice because he’s a G). He’d know exactly where to slow down, speed up, and where there’d be opportunities to pass if he was behind. Routine prep work doesn’t sound like the most exciting thing to watch in a manga series, but it’s a staple in the Initial-D series, and I believe this is how most races in life are won.
You’re only as strong as your team - Everybody needs a team of people they can turn to for support and guidance. Takumi had the support of his father when he first began his journey and then the professionalism of Project D later on in the series. I think there is a great romance in being able to do everything on your own, but any great achievement, whether we like it or not, is done by standing on the shoulders of giants. If you want to get far in life, you have to surround yourself with good people.
Make your own discoveries - While it‘s important to be a good student when starting off on a new endeavor, you must also be proactive about furthering your growth. What makes Takumi special is his innate ability to figure things out on his own, most notably, the variations on the “gutter techniques” when entering a corner at high speed, or simply turning off his headlights to “disappear” when he was behind his opponent. The teacher merely shows you the way, you must be the one who walks it.
Longevity is the key to success - You would think a manga series dedicated to street racing would be all about speed, but sustained focus was often the deciding factor between winning and losing. Nowadays, there is so much emphasis on getting things done as fast as possible. Speaking from personal experience, this mentality can often lead to burn out and just take you out of the game completely. Sure, speed is good, it might even give you a comfortable head start, but long-term focus is how the tortoise defeats the hare.
Keep a level head - Emotions run high when racing through the mountains of Japan. The adrenaline pumping in your veins could cause you to abandon strategy and logic. One of Takumi’s key characteristics is his non-reactiveness, almost to the point of boredom, but that is also his greatest strength. When emotions run high we are more prone to act irrationally and make mistakes. In the case of Initial-D, losing your cool meant not just losing the race, but potentially getting yourself into a terrible accident. While we are emotional beings, we must keep ourselves in check so as not to let our emotions spin our lives out of control.
You’re the driver - Metaphorically speaking, everybody has a car. Everybody is a driver. Everybody is heading somewhere. Along the way, you will encounter challengers who will test you. If you stick to your guns, you might even encounter people who can guide and support you. But before any of this can happen, you need to make the decision to set off on your own journey. You hold the keys to your car and only you can be the one to start the ignition and drive towards the things you want in life. So what’s something you’ve been wanting to do? Hop into the driver’s seat, put it in gear, and go.
Phew, that was fun. I hope you enjoyed this blog post. Now, to be completely transparent, I really want to learn how to drift in real life, so if you’re Takumi in the flesh, let me know! I would love to learn.
by Jason Lam
(Photo, GIF Credit: Initial-D)