Here’s another car-based manga to add to your library in addition to Initial-D, Wangan Midnight and Garage Restore 251. It’s Arthur Garage, a series published in Kodansha’s Weekly Young Magazine.

From what we can gather based on extremely limited Japanese skills, it follows the exploits of Asao “Arthur” Harada, a used car dealer that has fallen on hard times. His business is failing, he owes money to the yakuza, and his wife has just left him. Still, he presses on with his love for used cars, missing the Nissan Gloria he once owned.

His apprentice Chiharu (the blond kid) is the leader of a kyushakai, which literally means old car club, but can consist of what we in the West often call bosozoku style (without the terrorizing innocent bystanders aspect). He drives a Nissan Pao and Z31 Fairlady Z. Rounding out the rest of the team are Keiichiro the mechanic, Takuji the tire specialist, and Mikio the sheetmetal worker.

Many nostalgic cars feature into the plot, including a ‘71 hakosuka Skyline GT-R owned by an elderly customer, a Toyota GX51 Cresta, a 1980 Skyline  Japan, a ‘74 Celica liftback that Arthur’s father once had, and a slammed GX61 Toyota Mark II.

Newer cars appear as well, like Keiichiro’s Subaru Vivio and a Land Cruiser Cygnus owned by a gang member who comes to shake down Arthur once in a while.

The detail, even down to the type of wheels each car wears, accurately reflects our beloved hobby in real life. The author seems to have a fondness for SSR MkII and MkIII wheels.

Precious little can be found about the manga in English. In fact, when we googled it our buddy Banpei was the first return.

As far as we know Arthur Garage has yet to make it into English, but we hope it comes soon. The drawings look excellent and how can you not love a story that includes so much J-tin?

“We’re waiting for you!”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 12:38 am
by Ben and is filed under arthur garage, bosozoku, manga.
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