Initial D: Fourth Stage, Part 1

4th stage is all about Project D, a new traveling street racing team formed by Ryosuke Takahashi that has a very ambitious goal: Defeat every racing team in every prefecture of Japan. This goal should be accomplished by the 2 ace drivers: Takumi Fujiwara and Keisuke Takahashi.This 12 episodes of 4th stage are much more action-oriented than past seasons but there is a little bit of drama and romance that are very refreshing between the intense races. Project D shows the evolution of Takumi as a Street Racer and its pretty bizarre to hear him talk about technical details for the setup of a race or just describing a driver's technique.The opponents range from kamikaze or refined street racers to a pro driver .... yes, a pro driver !!! ... this translates to high-level driving and strategies, that show the real genius of Ryosuke. Overall, the Part 1 of the 4th Stage is very intense, crazy and surprisingly original and very well directed.In the technical aspect, this DVD still presents the 4:3 video SIMULATING WIDESCREEN, this is a bit odd for me but is not a big deal because its much more important to finally an official release.The animation hasn't been a strong point of the series but the new studio has vastly improved the quality of the anime. The picture and sound are high quality as expected and the package is not as good as 1st and 2nd stage but its acceptable.As i stated in the review of 3rd Stage, we should feel blessed with this release that seemed so far away from release in the past years so THIS IS A MUST BUY if you are fan of INITIAL D, you won't regret it, this season is by far the best.

Finally an official R1 release of Initial D Stage IV...and its really good! Visual presentation is not bad at all, the best of all Inital D stages in fact. And the Japanese audio track is done really well - best sound quality I have ever heard from Initial D. The subtitles are passable, not that bad. The English dub is still horrible...but then again there has NEVER been a good Dub of any Initial D stages. The video is present in 4:3 widescreen format, not 16:9 as indicated on the DVD cover. Initial D has never been made in 16:9 ratio anyways, has always been 4:3 format.Stage 4 is the best quality of all the Stages, both in art and story.Highly recommended.

I'm shocked more people haven't talked about this. The DVD's will not play in 16:9. I have a 24" TV and no matter what I do I can't get it to fill the screen. I adjusted the settings on my tv and DVD player and tried different TV's and players. Same issue.This is super frustrating for a legitimate anime distribution company. I can't believe they let this slip. Even the Initial D TokyoPop DVD's from around 2004 got this right. I don't know why Funimation can't.

Best series when you can a cruelly find it produced by funimation, thanks amazon !

Super price. Great product.

great dvd love it wish I could find fith stage recommend getting hole set and watch it evolve fantastic dvd

once again everything was on time and the disc works great. I will be purchasing more dvds from them in the future.

son likes

作品は勿論、商品もその特殊性を納得した上で全く問題はありませんが、「売り方」というか、商品のラインナップに疑問を感じたので★1つです。Initial D: Stage 4 - Part OneとInitial D: Stage 4 - Part Twoを二つ同時に買おうとしましたが、何故かInitial D: Stage 4 - Part Twoは高額で、一旦買うのを控えました。しかしそれが大正解で、後日、全24話収録したInitial D: Stage 4 - Saveを知り、そっちを買いました。Initial D: Stage 4 - Part Twoより安かったからです。だぶってしまった前半12話は、私が見る限り同一です。Initial D: Stage 4 - Part Oneは、リージョン1だし下取りに出せそうも無く、捨てるのももったいないし、処分に困っています。