Initial D creator to debut Subaru-centric manga set in the Fujiwara universe

With MF Ghost having concluded and the 30th anniversary of Initial D fast approaching, author Shuichi Shigeno has announced a new manga. Subaru and Subaru will take place in the same universe his two previous street racing epics and will shift the focus from Toyotas to, as astute readers may have guessed, Subarus.

On June 6 Japan woke up to two full-page ads in the morning editions of two of Japan’s biggest newspapers. The Asahi Shumbun ran the image on the left, with Takumi Fujiwara standing next to his legendary Toyota AE86. The Yomiuri Shimbun ran the image on the right, with the Takahashi brothers and their respective Mazda RX-7s.

But there was another surprise. In Gunma, the prefecture from whence Takumi and the Redsuns hailed, the Asahi Shimbun ran a different version of its ad. In that variant, Takumi’s touge guru father Bunta appears. The elder Fujiwara is standing beside a VA Subaru WRX STI, seemingly having traded in his GC8.

It’s a link to the new manga, Subaru and Subaru, which centers around two drivers, one male, one female, one from Kanagawa, one from Gunma. Both are named Subaru. Subaru Kudo (left) is seen interacting with shop owner Ogata and R35 racer Aiba from MF Ghost. Meanwhile Subaru Sato (right) can be seen driving a ZD8 BRZ and evoking a shocked reaction from Iketani, Itsuki and Tachibana. Her last name, Sato, implies that she may be related to Mako Sato, the driver of the blue Sileighty in Initial D.

It is said that Subaru and Subaru will connect the stories of Initial D and MF Ghost, and it looks like many beloved characters will be back. According to translations, Bunta will mentor Sato, which means that she is likely the one from Gunma. The master driver with scarily overpowering aura does not appear to have given up smoking either.

Eight additional ads ran in the regional versions of the newspapers. Each image was split in half, one for the Asahi Shimbun and one for the Yomiuri Shimbun. Tochigi, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, and Saitama (above) each had ads featuring Initial D battles that took place in those regions. The Saitama editions, for example, depict Takumi battling Wataru Akiyama’s AE86 Levin at Shomaru Pass.

The remaining four ads were run in regions known as the manufacturing bases for Japan’s major automotive marques. For example (above, second row, left to right), in Shizuoka, where Honda has a significant presence, Hojo’s NSX battles Keisuke Takahashi’s RX-7.

That’s followed by Takumi chasing Shinji Inui’s AE86 coupe for Aichi, home of Toyota. For Okayama, where Mitsubishi has a huge plant, Ryosuke Takahashi faces off against Kyoichi Sudo’s Lancer Evolution III. Last but not least, in Hiroshima, Mazda’s headquarters, Kyoko Iwase and Keisuke duel in matching RX-7s.

In addition to the newspaper ads, large billboards located in heavy traffic areas like the Dogenzaka passage in Shibuya promote the manga and all the carmakers represented in the series. The launch of a new Shigeno story is seemingly met with as much promotion as a Marvel movie in the US. Subaru and Subaru debuts in Young Magazine on July 22, 2025, almost 30 years to the day after Initial D, which premiered on July 17, 1995.