Four years after the conclusion of Initial D, author Shuichi Shigeno has embarked on the development of a new racing manga. The first chapter of the series, MF Ghost, has kicked off in Japan’s Weekly Young Magazine, where Initial D began its 18-year run in 1995. While it has a new cast of characters and is set many years after Takumi Fujiwara’s famed panda AE86 raced its last race, there seems to be at least one character carried over from Initial D.
MF Ghost takes place some time in the 2020s when most vehicles on the road have become autonomous, reducing accidents by 87 percent, and traditional cars are all but extinct. Perhaps an ideal world for some, but this petrolhead dystopia sounds scarily similar to what the entire auto industry is efforting towards these days. In this world, a sanctioned series of races called MFG in Japan are the among last bastions of human-driven cars. The first one introduced takes place on a 40km stretch of the Hakone Touge, one of the birthplaces of underground drifting in the 1980s.
Shigeno introduces two characters in the first chapter. The first is Aiba Jun, who drives an R35 GT-R NISMO and is courting the countdown woman that starts the races. However, because it’s a Shuichi Shigeno story, we know that he cannot be the hero because his car is too good. Instead, the protagonist is Kanata Livington, a half-British, half-Japanese kid who moves to Kanagawa Prefecture to race in the MFG. [CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD. Scroll down past “END SPOILERS” if you want to avoid them.]
Kanata is of course looking for a car to race with, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s a Toyota 86. But, instead of a classic AE86, the silhouette of the car reveals that it’s a newer Toyota 86, known until recently in the US as the Scion FR-S.
Here’s where it gets interesting for Initial D fans. The mechanic that shows him the car mentions a racing genius that oversees the MFG, a man by the name of Ryo Takahashi. That, of course, seems like the shortened name of Ryosuke Takhashi, the driver of the white Mazda FC3S RX-7 in Initial D, one of Takumi’s most fearsome rivals and later his team manager.
The creator of the video above seems to think it’s pretty likely Ryo is the same character. Whether MF Ghost‘s Ryo Takahashi will play a more important role or is simply mentioned in an off-hand comment is unknown, but hey, it’s only chapter one.
[END SPOILERS]
So why write a story about a world in which cars on the brink of extinction instead of more adventures with the AE86? We don’t know what’s in Shuichi Shigeno’s head, but we think it’s a smart move.
Manga is very much a culturally important medium in Japan, often used to comment on society and the directions in which it is heading. And, like any art, it often reflects life as well as inspires it. The original Initial D was a seminal work that brought illicit drifting and touge battles to the forefront of Japanese popular culture long before the sport hit critical mass and prompted the establishment of sanctioned drifting series like D1GP. Today, the Tuner Era into which Initial D was born is on the wane.
By setting his story in this autonomous future, Shigeno is able to show how passion for cars can still burn in a world where nobody drives. It’s interesting to see a universe in which an R35 NISMO, released just two years ago, is considered an old car, and one that may allow Shigeno to explore the contrasts between non-drivers and drivers. But perhaps most importantly, if MF Ghost takes off like Initial D did, it may inspire a new — possibly the last — generation of car enthusiasts before this future becomes the present.
The last sentence was terrifying, yet could perfect describe the future we are facing.
Word of advice; Buy your Toyota 86’s now……
Good read on this, as I’m a big fan from Initial D since 2001.
Now, on the subject I’ve seen posted in the 2 comments above mine…
One thing is the movement towards the industry to the regular daily consumer, another is the future of motorsport.
There will never be a end to motorsport because there simply isn’t a way to surpass our primal fighting instinct, there might be alternatives to fuel engines but the end result will always be the same.
I kind of see the future of motorsport a bit more welcoming than most people see it, because it will become just more exclusive than it already is due to having to learn driving techniques that will eventually be unnecessary to the regular commuter… something that will be seen as god like as we see the old drivers of the monstrous cars of before (like the turbo F1 or the Group B rally).
I’m waiting for that future with good will and hope it will at least save the combustion engine from extinction.
Ha ha, expected a FORTY year old AE86? Hell, a Fiesta ST could probably outperform an AE86 now…
I wonder if he’ll throw in an Eclipse Cross in the new series. (snicker snicker..)
You want to see an autonomous future? Watch I,Robot. Remember the scene where Will Smith was going to actually drive and the alarm expressed by his passenger?
Another movie with autonomous cars is Minority Report.
Try watching Demolition Man
I vote that Takahashi Ryo is not THAT Takahashi Ryosuke. Why? Because Takahashi Ryosuke was a dyed-in-the-wool rotor-head (is that what Mazdafarians call themselves?). There was the episode where he waxed poetic about how the rotary was the epitome of internal combustion engine design for its light weight and compactness allowing it to be placed perfectly anywhere in a chassis…
And now he is going to tinker with an overweight, overdeveloped mule like the GT-R???
As opposed to an underpowered car that can’t make current emissions?
Don’t worry, just trolling you.
Mazda is working on a new rotary though.
you don’t understand: mazda make the rotary works with hidrogen almost 20 years ago. the world is slow to mazda engineers.
maybe in a couple of years some hidrogen conversion kit to rotary engines is in the mazda heritage catalog
He’s not though. The GTR is Aiba Jun’s.
I mentioned this on another post relating to this, but it all seems to be very eX-Driver like in terms of the setting. I actually do wonder now if the author is going to subtly reference that series by inserting a few of the cars from the series in this. Like the yellow Lotus Seven. Still, I can’t wait to see the anime adaptation of this later down the road.
Next issue is already out. AMG GT and Audi R8 added to the storyline! There is also a mystery Subaru Impreza on the touge that blasts by…
I think that the Subaru could be driven by Takumi? It’s not solid, but would be pretty cool.
Bunta drove the 86, then got an Impreza 22B.
Takumi drove the 86, maybe now he drives a new Subaru WRX STI?
What do you think?