Cheap Initial D - Battle 2 - Challenge, Red Suns (DVD) (Noboru Mitsusawa, Masami Hata) Price

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Customer Reviews of Initial D - Battle 2 - Challenge, Red Suns

American dub : crap. I was not impressed with the dialog very much(Itsuki's voice gets... irritating). It actually amuses me that the American dub had more harsh language, though minor, than the original(Didn't have to Americanize it with cussing). The "Tricked Out" camera work is all hype and silly, not to mention distracting, and the music... well, let's just say it does NOT fit the scenes. Americanizing is a bad thing, and it's sad. Can you tell I'm bitter?

Japanese dub : much, much better. Sure, they don't call the 86 the Hachi-Roku, like it's supposed to be, and the subtitles aren't as accurate as they could be otherwise, but... original score, no silly camera angles, and it just feels right. It seems a lot cleaner-cut. And I prefer a deep-voiced Ryosuke. ^.~

I also have #3, and if you can deal with the story-eps that show the story between Takumi and Mogi and other elements, it all comes together for a great anime, so long as one avoids the Tricked Out viewing, my own personal opinion. It's the only reason I'm not rating it higher.

Personally, as well... I'm sticking to the manga. Less money to spend, and much more worthwhile, IMO. 11 out so far, now for another 15. Ha ha ha. But if you like good anime and yer a car freak, domestic or import, give this series a look. =o)

"Inertia drift?!"

Truth to be told...dissapointing when its dubbed
Okay so maybe I was overexaggerating on my first review on the first volume. Truth to be told, Initial D is just plain disappointing when it's dubbed. First they used some recycled teen or street slang which sounds annoying, and it doesn't fit any of the characters in my opinion.

For example:

Itsuki (or Iggy for you dubbers out there) - "Wow ! You're representin' man ! This is "cool and a half" ! I'll be rootin' for you bro !"

And plus instead of using the estimate of yen, they would use the estimate in US dollars (70,000 yen to 700 bucks) and they would call Beam Jam Buns/Hot Spring Bun (Onsen Manjuu) a muffin. So it's clear that they COMPLETELY Americanized it on the dub instead of sticking with originality like most dubbed anime. So if you're gonna watch Initial D, watch it subbed.

Speaking of which, of course, theres always that option to switch the dialogue to Japanese and display subtitles. The subtitles to this one are, of course, pretty good, but altered on some parts like...

Instead of:

HK/regular subtitle: "We'll get our revenge with my FC"
Tokyopop subtitle: "We'll even the score with my FC"

HK/regular subtitle: "His clutch meet is perfect"
Tokyopop subtitle: "His shifting is perfect"

HK/regular subtitle: "A gutter ?"
Tokyopop subtitle: "A drainage ditch ?"

Yeah, I'll admit that Tokyopop, like all anime dubbing communities, have a way of using accurate subtitles without misspelling words or bad timing like some HK's, but sometimes they can really screw up in terms of translating.

This is where the positive points are mentioned. These episodes are far more entertaining than in the first volume, which only had one measely racing scene. This covers the battle between Takumi Fujiwara's AE86 Trueno and Keisuke Takahashi's RX-7 Enfini FD3S. You still get the usual heart-pounding racing scenes, real cars (we're not talking about those fake ones you see on videogames or other anime), and a bright cast of characters. People might think that they're strange or boring, but once you get to understand the characters more, you would understand the value they bring to the series. And as for Itsuki's annoyance, dont worry guys. You'll learn to appreciate him later in the long run.

Oh, and the "Tricked Out" video version is awesome !

However, despite saying that, this series is still butchered. They should've stuck with the original character names, a good script, and most importantly...the EUROBEAT music ! Instead we get these odd names like "Iggy", "Tak", "Ry", "K.T.", "Cole", "Kent", "Maya & Simone", "Zack", etc. Not to mention, all this undergroud music that give hip-hop and punk rock a bad name. It sounds soooo awful, you have no idea. The minute the music plays, or when someone busts out a rhyme, you would probably get the urge to put on your earplugs or waste money on some.

At that point, I sold both my Tokyopop Initial D DVDs because

1) I perfer the ORIGINAL subtitled versions, which I already own. I had enough of hearing the dubbed version !

2) I'm tired of waiting for each volume to come out...yes I'm that impatient.

3) There is no 3 ! 1 and 2 are my main reasons !

But anyway, if you want to, go ahead and buy the Tokyopop DVDs ! I'm just speaking as a seasoned fan of the series. The Tokyopop DVDs are a good start if you're into racing or cars in general. But to the people who already saw the show subbed, I wouldn't go as far as purchasing it. But other than that, a great anime experience overall !

2 is even better than 1
I love Intital D. The storyline gets even better on the second. I can live without Iggy but I guess hes suppose to be the comic relief of the Anime. Anyway this is a must have for car lovers!