MF Ghost is apparently shaping up to be this generation’s Initial D. The manga and anime is so popular that Japanese aftermarket parts retailer Autobacs is teaming up with tuning house Blitz to create a series of MF Ghost Corners in its stores. There, customers will be able to buy parts to tune their carss exactly like Kanata’s R35-besting Toyota 86.
Fans of MF Ghost will know that by Round 4 of the manga Kanata Rivington’s first-gen Toyota 86 has undergone a bunch of modifications in order to take on a grid of rival supercars. The parts in the manga exist in real life, like a Nardi Classic steering wheel, Enkei PF-05 wheels, or TRD sports seats.
However, Kanata’s most performance enhancing parts come from Blitz. In the manga and anime, Kanata’s home garage is called Spiral Zero and is based on the real-life Blitz headquarters. Even the shop’s logo features Blitz’s trademark lightning bolt.
In season one Kanata’s 86 receives Blitz ZZ-R coilovers, Nur-Spec exhaust system, and big brake kit. Season two ups the ante with a Blitz turbo kit and Aero Speed R-Concept body kit. All those bits are available for purchase as scenes from the anime play on screens from above. Of course, there will be plenty of merch that goes on you instead of your car as well.
The staff at Autobacs are also available for consultation, in case you don’t want to get the entire menu of parts. Or, if you have another car besides an 86. The first Autobacs location to incorporate the MF Ghost Corner is the giant A-Pit store at Tokyo Bay Shinonome. However, Blitz and Autobacs say that they plant to open similar corners in 100 Autobacs locations across Japan.
The point of this is, don’t underestimate the MF Ghost cinematic universe’s reach. What’s the closest American equivalent? Being able to walk into your local O’Reilly’s and buy parts off the shelf to recreate Dom Toretto’s Charger, perhaps. Season two of MF Ghost is currently airing and season three is scheduled for 2026.
Images: Blitz
As given with this article, with the rest of its texts even suggest that Initial D and its successor (MF Ghost) are honestly and (yet) deeply insignificant and / or overlooked outside (for examples) Japan, half of Asia-Pacific (except South Korea due to the unwelcoming environment towards Japanese cars and their companies there) and rest of the Americas (mainly North America) which not only means that ID and MFG are neither widespread nor paid (with) attention in Europe (plus UK, Ireland, Malta and Cyprus) for ex., but also, with this article mentioning that Autobacs and Blitz (which are both seen in Gran Turismo games) are companies that caters parts to cars, which are to Japan, as (for example) Irmscher is to Europe (Germany) which is known mainly for supplying Opel / Vauxhall parts. (Just as Irmscher was also involved in tuning Isuzu cars back when both Opel / Vauxhall and Isuzu were part of General Motors along with Suzuki and later Subaru until 2005, but in addition, Irmscher has had little exposure of dealing with tuning Japanese cars and it would be given the reasons why how ID and MFG’s lack of attention towards European viewers support the fact that Europe is one market in the world where Japanese automobiles are practically seen as minorities there.)
Well in that case, I think if Initial D / MF Ghost were remade as a joint production between Japan, rest of Europe (UK included) and even Australia (which is one market that’s mixed between Japanese, South Korean Hyundai / Kia and European cars) therefore the main car in the series (Toyota AE86 / 86) would have been substituted by ones that are profoundly treated as both marginalized and as well as in a low profile (while at the same time they are rear-wheel driven especially when the engine rides on the middle or rear) like Peugeot 505 (the last FR layout French car per production), Renault GTA (British market name for Renault Alpine GTA), Alfa Romeo GTV (the original which is a European / Italian AE86) among others – while that ID / MFG revision (as a Japanese-Euro-British-Aussie co-production) would rather be an animation and have half of the characters there to be voiced by that of Kaya Scodelario (just call her Kaya SKODAlario) and probably George MacKay (as Takumi) for ex..
Especially, with Trump already introduced tarrifs as the Hollywood strikes (SAG-AFTRA) nearing its second anniversary next month (both of which involve declination in working or doing business in United States) then it maybe a good idea to expect another Eurobeat Initial D / MF Ghost with cars racing there are not even Japanese origins (half of them are European automobiles and each of them are not German nor British too) as well as suggesting that ID / MFG being reworked as a joint co-development between Japan and Europe (so does Oz as if they are in Eurovision and sees both Japanese and European autos in their roads) would help the aforementioned franchise (developed by Shuichi Shigeno) thrive within European audiences / tastes since none of the cars mentioned on this comment (ex: 505, Alpine A160, Renault Clio / Lutecia family plus Dacia Duster, Renault Megane / Arkana, Renault 21 and 25 later Laguna and Safrane) would resonate nor vibrate minds from within outside Europe… (I guess hope this these helps anyway.)