MF Ghost

MF Ghost is the most garbage seasonal anime of Fall 2023 and a disservice to not only the anime that came before it, but racing in general. Here's why: The worldbuilding is as shallow as it gets. If the narrator didn't tell you that the automotive industry went fully electric and self-driving at episode 1 you wouldn't have guessed it. The author makes no conscious effort to remind you of that fact, and it gets forgotten the moment that it is mentioned. You might as well consider the setting as basically mid-late 2010s Japan because that's basically all there is to it. I find it completely hilarious how the MFG race is one of the last bastions of fossil powered racing, but motorsports like Rally and open wheel series like F3 are mentioned and the author makes no conscious effort to say that they are electric powered, hell, you can even see in a flashback that there is in fact an F4 car still powered by a combustion engine, it's a joke. The MFG race, where most of the racing will come from, is nothing but glorification of a 12 year old inner thoughts of Fast and Furious or the author's glorification of his shitbox 86 taken to the extremes. Rules that are just inane for no reason, all to ham up the MC car against what are essentially supercars, ban against electric and the crippling handicap for hybrid cars, and the fetishization of grid girls with the Angels, and you essentially have what the author thinks is the "good of ol days of racing", and what I can only assume is a hatred for the modern innovations of the automotive industry, a notion all too shared by car enthusiasts with a single braincell. But that's no surprise, given the author hasn't learned a single thing about racing, or how cars work from his time making Initial D, and that he has no one to advise him about it this time. The characters are the worst offenders, along with the story, if you can hardly call it one. The MC is a total joke and a complete mary sue, but that's to be expected, the author couldn't write a compelling MC to save his life in Initial D (an MC he crippled off-screen, btw), and he couldn't write one now. His main motivations of finding his parents in Japan are instantly forgotten in favor of just getting him to race and wipe the floor off of other drivers in cars that far exceed his in performance. But it's okay because he can drift and therefore he's the fastest driver in the track. Yeah, it's that kind of show. Oh yeah, how could I forget the other colorful cast of characters like: -Forgettable racers with one personality trait -Haughty racer with superiority complex meant to be an antagonist but is quickly forgotten by the first race -Side character that falls in love with the MC for no other reason other than to fall in love with him -Supportive cast of characters meant to help the MC and nothing else, might be creeps on the side too. -A racer with a creepy obsession over a grid girl that is a high schooler, while said racer is at his 30s. -Cameo characters from Initial D that serve nothing to the plot but make the audience go "YOOOOO IS THAT HIM? THAT'S HIM, HE'S THAT ONE GUY!" -And last, but not least: The rival character that dates underage girls (or as he likes to correct others, dating girls that are age 17)...and then dumps them once they become of age because they become "unlucky" for him. Let that sink in for a moment. Credit where it's due though. There are two characters that are siblings that co-ordinate each other's driving, but they're quickly forgotten the moment the MC beats them. This caveat doesn't save the fact from the main takeaway that the author can't write characters at all. They are merely there as either obstacles for the MC, or to help him, and nothing more. They're not compelling, they're not even likeable, and they don't serve any purpose to the story. I don't wanna lambast the show that much though. The animation and sound department did a good job trying to salvage this broken mess. The CG is phenomenal and as always one of the best when it comes to CG animation as a whole, I'll always praise them for it, and while Eurobeat is an overrated genre of music, it serves the purpose of making the races watchable- I mean, entertaining, well. Does it save the anime? Hell no. But at least it salvages the part where most people who come to watch this show are interested in, even if the races themselves are unrealistic. The only reason why I think the show got a second season (supposedly releasing some time next year), is the same reason why Morbius got re-released to theaters due to supposedly "high acclaim from viewers", it got memed to hell and high heaven. The community has memed the show and Initial D so much that they deemed this garbage fire of a show applicable enough for a second season. Never mind the fact that this show is a poorly written excuse of a sequel to an already decent to turned bad (imo) show. Never mind the fact that the author is a hack that copies scenic shots of Japan's mountain roads from Google Street Views and pastes them to his manga panels with no changes whatsoever. And never mind the fact that characters are written to be uncompelling or just downright creepy. No, this show will live and die by the community's meme attitude and poorly conceived notions of drifting. And to that I say to the racing anime community, however small it may be: My brother in Christ, why are your standards so low that you'd praise a show like this? I get it, the racing anime scene is frankly non-existent. Initial D, despite how bad it is, is the only one that managed to hit the mainstream viewership. But for the love of god, don't let MF Ghost turn into that too. Anime like Overtake and Wangan Midnight deserve that attention much more, they're shows that actually care about racing or cars, not this, not this sorry excuse of a sequel of an author trying to cash his last few bucks as he slowly gets to retirement. We need to have better standards, because we deserve better.

TLDR: Save yourself the time and just stick with the original Initial D MF Ghost is an Initial D copy with all personality and charm stripped off. The anime tries to score nostalgia points and that's all it has. The cast are carbon copies of the original cast, but have nothing interesting going on. There is no real interaction with any of the other racers. The races themselves have 0 stakes and just sort of happen. This show only seems to exists to gouge if there's enough interest to milk the IP. That's honestly the only reason I can think off why this exists.

Caution: MF Ghost is not an Initial D successor. It's best to judge MF Ghost on its own rather than comparing it to Initial D because it falls far short in comparison. It's passable on its own, but it doesn't have the same essence and soul as the original, which made it such a success. This show loves referencing the fact that it is even linked to Initial D. It literally tries to reference it in every spot imaginable; it likes to reference Takumi, but he isn't even in Japan anymore; Ryosuke has only made an appearance on screen; and the only Initial D characters shown in MF Ghost are minuscule side characters people only notice after they reference themselves from a race from the Initial D series. The main problem with this anime is that it has a lot of romance and filler content. To put it bluntly, it's so unenjoyable that I would rather drink the chemicals under my sink than be subjected to the filler content that doesn't add anything to the story. This “romance” would not be an issue, but it interrupts the race every 3–7 minutes to skip to Ren thinking of Kanata's car podium changes, to then go back to the race, to then be shifted off to the announcers. Or Ogata having a breakdown over stuff he already knows Kanata is capable of, or just the fact he has zero belief in Kanata after he has shown his talents. I am being honest here; these cuts to Ren, announcers, and Ogata happen randomly in the middle of a race; they actually worsen the race every time they pop up since you are taken out of the race forcefully without any lead up to it. I'm pretty sure that everyone that came to watch this came for the racing, not getting cut off by the one-sided romance of Ren acting like a fangirl for Kanata, which feels forced onto the viewer. The same with announcers and Ogata's reactions to Kanata in a race. These interruptions are like getting a cut-scene in a video game when you are trying to do something passively. Then it forces you into a random cutscene that has zero reason to exist, and then you lose whatever items you were trying to get right before the cut-scene happened. This is an exact representation of the annoyance of these random filler content events. I wish the show would focus more on the races themselves rather than cutting to other characters' opinions. These interruptions take away a lot of the excitement from the races, especially when they happen randomly during intense moments. I'd prefer to watch and form my own opinions. The anime could use the details and inner thoughts of the drivers to explain techniques in a simple and understandable way, all while keeping me engaged in the race, just like Initial D did. Next gripe: MF Ghost differs a lot from Initial D's focus on street racing. Initial D centered on things like road conditions, driver techniques, and sometimes the mental endurance of driving. MF Ghost lacks these elements to various extents. The main reason for this is that MF Ghost leans more towards professional motorsports, similar to GT automotive races on tracks, unlike Initial D's individual “head-to-head” street races. For instance, Initial D had intense races like the “Gum Tape Death Match,” where Takumi had his hand duct-taped to the wheel for a downhill battle on Akina. This tested his adaptability against an experienced opponent. MF Ghost hasn't presented a test like this yet or anything to show Kanata's ability to handle different stressful situations; he just starts off perfect, with very few flaws. Thus, how would he even grow as a racer if he just constantly had more skills for plot reasons? Moreover, MF Ghost adopts a hyper-focused professional driving style. The characters are mostly trained motor professionals who deliberately went to driving schools to learn their techniques. This is a significant contrast to Initial D, where most characters had little professional experience before facing Takumi. The result was very different races with street techniques, not track techniques, as shown in MF Ghost so far. Next is the racing aspect, and honestly, it seems a bit impractical. It's hard to believe that a mostly unmodified Toyota GR86, without a turbo or supercharger, could realistically compete with a Porsche or a Ferrari in this context. Not to be critical, but a base GR86 has 228 horsepower (170 kW). To be on par with these higher-performance cars, it would likely need a turbo, pushing it to around 300–375 horsepower (224–280 kW). Even then, it might only have a fighting chance against a Porsche Cayman, which starts around 300 horsepower. Going up against a Ferrari seems like a stretch. Perhaps if the entire race were downhill, a base-engine GR86 could have a shot, especially with a skilled driver adept at drifting and managing weight distribution. However, in any other scenario, it seems a bit unrealistic and not quite reflective of the actual capabilities of the car. Even when suspension changes happen, they are almost more unrealistic. The changes done to the vehicle only assist with the ability to drift; any vehicle with 200–400 more horsepower than the GR86 can 100% pass it on straightaway almost instantaneously. With what is being raced on here, it is more like a track race than a touge, and it is statistically much better to have a vehicle that can grip corners than one that can drift with ease. Quick examples can be time attacks, where vehicles are all-wheel drive, like Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and Nissan GTRs, are extremely popular and will 100% dominate a closed-circuit race. Another problem is just characters in general. Many are nonsensical and insanely forgettable, and one character actively seeks out 17-year-old schoolgirls because they have a “loli fetish” and I guess cannot fathom dating women that are 18 or older (This is their whole character outside of racing). Not to mention, the show copies aspects of characters from Initial D, like Ogata being just a modern re-imagination of Itsuki; they seem to have 80% of the same identity. Even copying the scene from Initial D where Itsuki is going down Akina with Takumi and freaking out about the speed, MF Ghost copies this almost perfectly with Kanata and Ogata. It does not feel like a “love letter” to Initial D fans, more like a company watering down a product because they couldn't keep the soul of the original series. The season also ends on a cliffhanger too, not fun. This also ties in with the art style. Remember, this can be subjective, but Initial D's art style is moderately lost here and is replaced with a mediocre job of making the characters look close to the original. I am mainly talking about the eyes. I know they tried their best to get the style of initial D, but it flops big time and looks a bit weird. Not only that, but I would rather it be an entirely different style at that point; then it would look somewhat odd and not do justice to where the show originally came from. To be honest, I have zero clue why they wouldn't make this anime by the original companies that produced some original Initial D stages, companies that are SynergySP (5th & Final Stage), A.C.G.T. (Extra #2 & Stage 4 + Wangan Midnight), Studio Comet & Galloop (1st Stage), or even SANZIGEN & LIDENFILMS (New Initial D movies). These all could have done a better job at creating an art style that would work well with the series. This series, in general, is pretty popular and profitable, so it shouldn't be an issue to have a previous company do it. I personally would've chosen SANZIGEN & LIDENFILMS since they made an amazing reinterpretation of Initial D's First Stage with their 3-movie set. Lastly, some characters in MF Ghost say that Kanata is already a much better racer than Takumi. This is not true; Takumi had to learn his own course since he was 14 and was a very talented touge racer since he could go a few millimeters from every guard rail in a race. Kanata was just well instructed in his racing driving school by Takumi. Small rant: “Why would they say this? …

I know it’s insane to say as someone who grew up in the 90s and 2000s, but I’ve never seen Initial D. Therefore, I don’t have the emotional and nostalgic connection that many people have with MF Ghost and it didn’t resonate with me. As someone who hadn’t seen Initial D, I found MF Ghost to be decent on the whole. There’s some really epic racing scenes, hot girls and comedy, but that’s about it. Or never really crossed into the really good territory for me. It was clear that this series plays heavily on nostalgia for a bygone era and a previous series, and to really get the full enjoyment out of it you need to have grown up in that era/watched the original. Since I couldn’t relate to those things, for me, I actually thought that the character interactions and motivations were the best part of this series. Kanata and Ren were fun to watch. While Ren definitely got a little tropey in terms of her affections for Kanata, I thought it was cute and enjoyed seeing her try to plan out things with him. Kanata’s relationship with his racing boss was cool too. They teased a budding rivalry with he and a few other racers that we didn’t see explored in this season, but hopefully in subsequent seasons we will. Kanata’s desire to retrace his parents’ footsteps and learn more about his father was cool too. There’s a decent amount of mystery there that keeps me hooked on the story. Speaking of racing, there’s only two big races throughout the show, but that makes sense given the story is only at the beginning. The CGI during these two races is phenomenal though. I’ve got to say, I’m not normally a fan of CGI but it’s done well here. The Eurobeat soundtrack doesn’t do much for me as I’m not into Eurobeat at all and again, didn’t grow up with Initial D, but again, you can tell it’s playing heavily into nostalgia and I think longtime fans will be happy. Other than the characters and those two race scenes, I appreciated the car knowledge that was dropped in this show. I’m a longtime GT and Forza player so seeing some cars in the anime that I’ve used in the game, and learning about new cars from this was pretty cool. Overall, I’ve been consistent from the start that Overtake!! Is my best racing show of the season. I think that show has everything from characters, to drama to the actual business side of racing and much more. MF Ghost was just flat to me. I liked Ren a lot, enjoyed seeing her swoon like a maiden in love and the couple races we got were solid, but that’s it. I was never really moved emotionally like with Overtake!! My feelings are probably not that common since most people watching this will have seen the original, but that’s just how I came out of this one feeling. Not a bad show, not a particularly great one either. Still, I’ll be around for more if we get it. MF Ghost gets 7 out of 10.

12 of the 24 episodes of MF Ghost are finally over and it's time to see how it fairs on it's own and compared to Initial D. Spoiler alert, not good at all. From the get go the main downside of the show is the lack of originality in it, and I'm not talking about the racing/street racing/whatever racing aspect of the show, but the characters, the premise, the stakes and the structure itself. Didn't read the manga as to be honest reading a racing manga feels quite boring without the noise and animations. So I'm mostly going blind here. This time around MC is a hot genius racing driver who is mixed Japanese (which implies the hot aspect if you aren't aware) that travels to Japan to take part in MFG racing and in the background to search for his father that left him and his mother in the past. He meets a girl who is very hot but somehow nobody recognizes her without her MFG attire and MC has a low boiling romance going on in-between. Generally speaking the rest of the cast matters very little. You have a mechanic who gives you Initial D flashbacks of "he can't do it", "how can he do it" in the background. Senpai who is average but tries hard and is there to be a medium explaining basic things to the audience and the rest of the cast who are unimportant at all. Generally speaking the only people you might recognize you will remember because of Initial D which might be the whole point. Is the fan service done well? Mostly it is. It portraits what characters have been doing since the Initial D era in a rather adequate manner. The thing is though that MFG doesn't work if you remove the Initial D part out, it won't be able to stand on it's own. Does it make even remotely any sense when you drive a GT86 with some suspension tuning against a 911 GT3, GTR and so on on a track that is twice as long as Nordschleife and end up somehow remotely close to them? Fuck no. A GT86 is 1.45 minutes slower than any of those cars when all of them are driven by drivers who know them in or out. Double that for the track length and this sounds as stupid as you can imagine when with the help of magic powers, internal genetic genius and the training by Lord himself (Fujiwara) he will push this slow can beyond the limit. All of this worked fine in the illegal street racing scene of the 80-90s' where you had cars that had an adequate amount of tuning ran by amateurs with not that much tech and horsepower involved on the tights mountain roads. But the premise itself shows us professional drivers who run specifically prepared vehicles without a budget limitation. This shit simply doesn't work. Is the romance good at least? Well.. In 12 episodes there barely was any and if it goes like this nothing significant will happen by the end of 24. But if you remove all the chicks this show will simply end up 12 episodes of cars driving around without much going on. The only part that I should mention is that MC is so perfect that all chicks in Japan go wet whenever he enters their vicinity. Which is annoying. Initial D was a relatable show and I speak as someone who was tuning cars, building them and had to earn what I spent. You would get typical characters, typical jokes and typical outcome. But MFG is as relatable as watching Goodwood festival. Will I keep watching it? Yeah why not, but unless there is a major shift in story and overall production the outcome will be the same.

MF Ghost - the long-awaited sequel to AniManga's God-tier racing series of all time: Initial D. The one BIG problem: it just doesn't feel like a successor at all. Let me put this disclaimer: I am a HUGE fan of legendary mangaka Shuichi Shigeno's Initial D; it was one of the late 90s anime that I used to have the DVD collection to throughout its many stages from First Stage in 1998 to Final Stage in 2014; the manga's humble start in 1995 all the way to 2013; plus even all (or most) of the incredible OSTs of its many seasons, spearheaded by the one thing that the anime has an edge over the manga counterpart: the romanticization of Eurobeat. So, you can easily imagine that my hype for MF Ghost is through the roof, considering that it's the spiritual sequel to the best racing series of all time. And talk about being an insult to injury when I realized that MF Ghost is Initial D in a husk, made modern without all of its follow-up magic. As opposed to Takumi Fujiwara and his iconic Fujiwara Tofu Shop's Toyota Panda Trueno AE86 in 1990s Japan, MF Ghost opts for a modern rehash of Initial D, focusing on the future of cars (a la electric cars (EVs) and whatnot), and the one sole organization that keeps the spirit of its precedessor alive: MFG and its races, which embody traditional internal combustion engine-based cars like the classic Japanese Nissan GT-R, European Alpine A110S, Lamborghinis, Porsches, and the like. This MFG organization is founded by Ryosuke Takahashi, one of the spearheads of Project D (through Initial D's Fourth Stage), which attracts the interest of one Kanata Rivington: the 19-year-old Japanese-British young man who's come to Japan under his alias pseudonym Kanata Katagiri for one sole reason: to find his long-lost father. Unsurprisingly, his stint overseas is backed by the fact that he is trained by the legendary downhill rally drifter racer himself in his UK home-based Royal Donington Racing School, leading to Kanata being a Formula 4 world champion. Let's just be real and not kid ourselves here, yea? I've already mentioned that MF Ghost is Initial D without all of its pizzazz, and that starts with the MC himself. Despite being trained by Takumi Fujiwara, Kanata is no Takumi in the absolute sense: a coming-of-age story where we were oh-so-invested in the latter's growth throughout his racing "career" into one hell of a glorified racing driver, he is just there to locate his father, and meanwhile at it, race like it's back to late 90s Japan. Also, for a show like Initial D, there were race queens (like as is in Fast & Furious, which would be inspired from), but a psuedo romantic interest is never going to work out right, as is the case for MF Ghost having Kanata reside with the Saionji family, whose daughter of Ren "falls in love at first sight" with said young man. And worse still, Ren participates in MFG as one of the race angels, mainly Angel No. 7, which his Senpai of Aiba Shun, driving in his Nissan GT-R, has been eyeing on for quite a while. Even the other MFG competitors are unmemorable at best; aside from their flashy cars, once Kanata was noticed coming in with his benefactor of Ogata's underpowered Toyota 86 (whose name is just the canny resemblance), they really pushed him to the limit of achieving the unrequited race's Godly Fifteen, which is essentially the Top 15 racers of MFG. And boy, as much as the manga dragged this to oblivion just like in Initial D, the anime fares the translation so badly that the races in MF Ghost just keep going on and on, while Initial D had that problem as well but knew when to stop and keep pace with the momentum. The surprising portion is with the production process. Having worked on the New Initial D Movie: Legends series as assistant-turned-full director, Tomohito Naka heads the anime project at his very own studio as both Felix Flim's CEO-cum-director and planning, which is rather good in my eyes for being mainly a 3DCG craze. Sure, it does resemble much of the nostalgia from Initial D with all of its racing action, but I can't help but feel like something is missing, which this show doesn't amp up as much as said series have done. Even more so is the iconic Eurobeat, which is a staple of Initial D, and as you've guessed, it's used prominently in the races, but yet it knows it cannot outdo its predecessor's legacy by employing subpar Eurobeat music that just doesn't sound right (or at best, decent) with its racing theme. Also, I really have to nitpick about the OST, aside from the rather funky Eurobeat songs and synth that just sync out of whack to my ears. Sure, VA-cum-i☆Ris member Yu Serizawa has help from former rapper Mototaka Segawa a.k.a MOTSU of legendary Eurobeat J-Pop band m.o.v.e (since the band is definitely affiliated with Initial D for its fame) for the OP song, but the song is just decent, and I would rather have one of the Eurobeat mainstays who is still active onboard: the legendary Dave Rodgers (especially with one of his new songs just released last year, titled under the same name). So why the change? Nobody really knows, except Tomohito Naka. In contrast, Himiya Akaneya, also another i☆Ris member, made her solo debut with the ED song, which is a rather nice, soothing song that fits well with the themes of the show. Kudos to Himiya Akaneya for a good debut. All in all, if you take MF Ghost out of Initial D's context, then it stands alone as one rather unrefined "original" show that has too many elements going for it. But since the show is part of the franchise's world, that only makes expectations rub salt into the wound even greater, much like Shuichi Shigeno "trying" something new with the former that doesn't quite have the finesse as his legendary predecessor series had. That's the reason for this quote: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," and milk it that the mangaka tried to cope with whatever links Initial D to MF Ghost, with the payoff being one of absurdity. Well, tamper with my expectations I guess, for the sequel coming out next year, if you're still sticking around.

Horrible show with terrible racing that fetishizes underage girls, makes me wanna throw up. Racing feels soulless and is dragged out painfully. 12 episodes feel like 120. Art style is very generic and the CGI somehow looks worse than Initial D fifth stage from 2013. Characters are soulless and forgettable, I couldn't bring myself to care for any of them, let alone like or relate to them. Fan service showing underage girls being preyed upon while wearing close to nothing is the most disgusting shit I've ever seen in any racing related media in my whole life, and somehow, it seems like half of the show's runtime is only about that. An absolute insult to Initial D and car enthusiasts in general.

Watched Initial D growing up, and this is so nostalgic. I missed the eurobeats and unrealistic takeovers! This is for the simple working man. Man see car. Man see car race. Man see car drift. Man hear fast music. Man happy. Art is simple, characters are simple, story is simple. For the simple people this is an easy 10/10. People with "distinguished" palettes wouldn't understand the joy of the comforting McDonald's 10 piece and wouldn't understand the comfort of this show. This is one of those shows where you don't overthink it. Just chill and enjoy the craziest drifts and testosterone pumping action.

Man. I know we shouldn't expect new anime to rise to some the greatness of the past, but MF Ghost is just so disappointing compared to Initial D, it's almost unbelievable. It's almost intentional. The entirety of season 1 has one race and 2 qualifiers. ONE RACE. Initial D had a new race every 2-3 episodes! And the race itself? Mostly supercars driving in a straight line where raw horsepower is the main factor that counts. Gone are the days of intertwined tracks that allowed clever tricks for the underdog to beat superior opponents. I mean some of that is still here in MF Ghost but we got like one drift that is a reference to what Takumi taught Kanata and some overtaking and that's about it... Speaking of Takumi, remember when people said he is too plain and lacks personality? Boy oh boy, do I have news for you. Kanata is worse. But even more than that, they do that terrible, horrible thing that bad sequels do where every character says "actually the new protagonist is way better than the old protagonist". Yup, remember how you thought Takumi was overpowered and unrealistic. He was small fry according to the MF Ghost cast. But this new Kanata guy, now HE is the real deal. Are you serious... Only bad stories try to lift up their new characters by bringing down the old ones. So terrible man, it's so sad. I still gave it a decent score because, well, how many racing anime are we getting? And yes, you might have seen in the promotional videos that eurobeat is back. Except it's only a couple of tracks and none of them memorable. It's time to ride into the sunset with this one...

This is the latest breakthrough from the previously famous racing anime series Initial D, When I heard the names Fujiwara Takumi and Takahashi Ryousuke I felt goosebumps, It turns out that this is the same world as its predecessor and it makes me happy to hear the legends of the past mentioned in this anime. However, after hearing the history of what happened to Takumi, I felt sad, and I didn't know what really happened to make it happen like that, Even though it has been explained, I need more information. The soundtrack and opening song are good, this makes me nostalgic for the old days, As for the story telling and some of the characters, there are similarities to Initial D, but I don't mind that, The most important thing is that the latest generation of racing anime is primarily present, with today's technology. I hope this anime continues until it reaches the desired ending and doesn't stop midway to make the audience curious.

tl;dr - Wait or look for an abridged version and just watch that instead. This is a snooze fest. An immediate future sequal to Initial D with new drivers and a bunch of references to the age of Takumi Fujiwara who drove the iconic panda colored Toyota Trueno AE86, also known as the 'hachi-roku' (eight six). Instead of illegal street racing, things have moved on to a future where combustion engine cars are rare and droven only in the "Emm Effu Gee" (MFG) race, a novel concept in an age of electric motors. Filled with super cars, our main protagonist Katagiri Kanata, a mixed Japanese and English teenager, drives a modern but comparatively under-specced Toyota Corolla/86 with the car number 86 (get it? Do you get the reference yet? Remember Initial D?). Rather than one on one races we have time trials (time attack) and full on 15 car races between cars with hundreds of horsepower on closed public roads rather than closed circuits or open roads. And that's pretty much it for the racing because most of the show is about anything but, from a meandering molasses slow romance B plot, constant references to people from the past including Takumi himself (not seen in season 1) and something about Kanata looking for his dad. Here's a list of complaints: 1. The races are not particularly exciting - The time trials are a far departure from the street races and the one big race we do see is split across multiple episodes full of distractions and cliffhangers. Hey remember EuroBeat? That's a thing again and you'll know when to pay attention when it's playing. And pretty much only then. 2. The fan service is god awful. For whatever reason there are teenage grid girls and creepy and obsessive comments are constantly made about them. I'm by no means a prude or against any fan service, but here it's in the way of the racing and provides no meaningful content other than an odd comment that makes you believe that the creator himself hates it. 3. A molasses slow B plot romance that no one cares about including the protagonist himself. Another Initial D copy paste that no one missed or cared about. 4. Kanata is a genuine Gary Stu - A handsome savant genius who memorizes everything and never makes any mistakes, whom everyone fawns over. Everyone always likes and/or respects Kanata. He's a very special boy. 5. Did you know that Japanese food and snacks are superior to anything else? Kanata loves to remark on how much better it is. In case you didn't know, Japanese snacks are typically made with the cheapest ingredients possible and are absolutely tasteless. 6. The show is worse than bad, it commits the worst sin of entertainment which is to be boring. 7. Do you remember all the names from Initial D? No? Good luck catching character references and wondering why you're suddenly looking at random people. Initial D was a popular and iconic show but it was never particularly great - despite its downsides managed to be energizing and bring back the pace with its EuroBeat scenes and deliver a fun experience. The art style was always amateurish, the characters were largely unlikable and it was a challenge for them to make 20 minute episodes that weren't just two cars driving in the dark, so it had to pad out the content and have some character development and commentary. Takumi was always a little annoying, but he was never a bad protagonist, but Kanata is insufferable. For whatever reason they decided to keep the awful art style of the early anime (the manga isn't this ugly) with gigantic single digit amount of eye lashes and somehow the 3D cars look more outdated than ever because they're trying to marry 2D drawn crosshatches on 3D models. The car movement itself is just fine, nothing wrong there. MF Ghost is not fun, it's not energizing and it has none of the implied risk of the Initial D races. It's an un-fun slog that sets up another season oh and of course it ends on not just a cliffhanger, but an inconsequential one, because it's another time trial that no one cares about. Maybe season 2 will pick up the pace and actually be interseting. We can only hope they find some other studio to animate it and some other director to actually make it interesting. The EuroBeat isn't even that good :/

MF Ghost is not a sequel to Initial D. Mostly a fake attempt to draw attention from Initial D fans. The anime show can be nice from a general point of view, even if at the limit, mostly because it wants to inherit a lot of things from Initial D, mostly because it't the same writer and because money and studios need to make them, but, there are ton's of missing spots and problems, that if not present or better managed, would make this anime a very good one and a real sequel to Initial D. Few points: - The MFG trial is a good idea, but on an Anime placed on a realistic environment, like Initial D was, it's an impossible idea to realize, you can't have cars driving and competing at 250km/h on a public road, with a ton of possible hazard, but it's an anime, so, we can pass on that. - Bringing back some people and some name from Initial D, doesn't make it a sequel to Initial D or anything related to it, it's just a bad commercial move to tempt people to watch an anime based on loyalty to a very good anime. - Eurobeat, apart from the opening, the only song i recall it's on the last episode and just a bit, but ok, we can pass on that, it's not Initial D. - Cars, that's an Anime, a Japanese Anime, inherit from Initial D, people want to see JDM! Where are my JDM cars! I give nothing about Ferrari and Lamborghini, even if i'm Italian. A very big part of the show is missing here. - Initial D was somehow realistic, with a 1984 Corolla competing to late 1990 cars, not a lot of difference in age and power or technology in general, and the one used from Takumi when joining Initial D, it's a modified version with a 4A-GE used on the Group A AE101 cars, we are talking about 240hp at 12k RPM, that's a lot for the era, more than enough to blow a EVO. Now we have a stock GT86 with a 2 liter and less than 200hp, competing to 500+ hp cars, and winning! Totally plausible, just follow the line of the demo car! - Writing, where are the technical stuff, engine technicalities, skill and driving technique like on Initial D or Wangam Midnight. Chapter development? It would be fine if the anime was a sequel, with the old chapters, but we have a main chapter that is like god, a good boy liked from woman and with special life skill like perfect memory, in addition to perfect driving skill, so there is no growth to this chapter, what i'm learning there, there is no way i can feel close to this one, with Takumi on Initial D, we grow with him, it's like be with him on the all journey and plot. On MFG the plot is too weak, loot of point recall to initial D but on a very poor way. - Angels? We need them? All that fan service? I would prefer watching the bonnet of an R34 opening. - CGI? Why? The one on the 4th season of Initial D was a ton better, more like a drawing, very well make and very fluid, this one, is like playing Asphalt on Android. Don't tell me is a money problem, considering the amount of stuff made to get more view. - The annoying announcer, the annoying show in general, like 4 episodes to make 2 laps on a street circuit, only scenes of cars going on, was like watching Captain Tsubasa with Oliver going to an infinite football field. There are ton’s of issue, the problem is wanting to implement this anime on the Initial D universe, maybe it would be better just having Takumi driving for MFG, not with the old 86 and not with the new GT86, with European cars but mostly JDM, with not angels, and a lot of good writing like on the old Initial D. Giving it a 5 is like doing a favour, and hoping for a better second season, was mostly mixed feeling, but after thinking about it, i wouldn't recommend this anime to anyone, it would be a waste of time.

Initial D is my favourite anime of all time, I tried watching it and holy shit this is the most abysmal thing I have ever seen. The characters have no personality, the race chorography and pacing is WAY more boring and slow than in Fifth Stage. (seriously how did they manage to do that?) And the story has no substance to it. and Shuichi Shigeno is a very horny man and likes to draw 17 year old girls panties for some reason. Basically, this is one of the worst pieces of media I have ever seen, it is comparable to the Emoji movie, Jaws The Revenge, Piranha II, or The Rise of Skywalker. It is abysmally incompetent.

As a car enthusiast, it’s always cool to see an anime about racing. Seeing Ferraris, Lamborghinis, GT-Rs and other real road cars racing together on Japanese mountain roads and urban circuits? That’s awesome. The concept is genuinely cool. Modern street racing championship, real cars, nice locations — on paper, it should work. But honestly… apart from the concept and the cars, the rest is kind of a mess. First problem: the realism. The anime wants to be half realistic, half spectacular. They explain driving techniques, racing lines, weight transfer, tire grip… and then what we see on screen completely contradicts that. Overtakes on the outside at 130 km/h between sidewalks. Less powerful cars magically beating stronger ones even though the drivers are supposedly at a similar level. And don’t get me started on drifting. This isn’t Initial D. This is supposed to be grip racing. In real racing, drifting is slower. It looks cool, sure — but it’s not faster. Yet here they keep using it like it’s some ultimate cheat code. So the show explains realistic driving theory… and then throws it out the window during the action. That contradiction kills the immersion. Second problem: the design. I’m really not a fan. Some car shots look good. Some landscapes are decent. But the character designs? Those round faces? I find them ugly. There are moments where the animation just doesn’t look good. It breaks the vibe. Third problem: the pacing. It’s insanely slow. One episode can literally be one lap. Twenty-five minutes. One lap. For an anime about high-speed street racing, it drags so much. Sometimes nothing happens. The non-racing episodes are fine — they develop characters. But during the MFG races? It’s painfully slow. It should feel intense and dynamic. Instead, it feels stretched out and empty. And now the biggest issue: the fanservice and the creepy stuff. The MFG “Angels”, some of whom are minors, basically exist to undress on TV for ratings. Weird. Already weird. But then season 2 goes even further. At one point I genuinely asked myself: what the hell am I watching? There’s literally an adult who punches a kid because he didn’t tell him he knew the minor girl he’s fantasizing about. What the fuck is that? What are the writers doing? Why would you put that in your story? That’s not edgy, that’s not funny, that’s not “anime exaggeration”. It’s just gross. You manage to ruin a racing anime with unnecessary creepy garbage like this. How? In the end, yes — the cars are cool. Yes — the concept had potential. But between the fake realism, the slow pacing, the questionable design, and the downright disturbing fanservice, it just falls apart. It could have been great. Instead, it’s frustrating.

I have caught up with this anime after finishing a rewatch of my beloved Initial D :) To sum it up, it does not have the style and sound of the original (nothing beats the sound files and these hand-drawn backdrops) but it does improve on the things that were not perfect in Initial D, meaning: - the races are fun and engaging, following a couple of drivers instead of focusing on doghfights, like the original, which gives a sense of variety - the races aren't talky, in fact they are quite well-balanced in terms of theory and action - the track choice is great (no change here, Initial D was amazing too in that aspect). ESPECIALLY HI LOVE, I love that song omg Now for the negatives: - the main character is a bit annoying. He just drools over everything Japanese to the point where it's too much - you don't really get attached to the characters. They're much less fleshed out than the original cast, at least in this season And that's it. It was fun and it stands on its own two feet. I'll definitely come back for more. Maybe even read manga at some point :)

The content presented was undeniably commendable, showcasing a commendable level of quality and creativity. However, a lingering sense of curiosity and a mild hint of frustration arose from the intentional cliffhanger employed. The narrative skillfully drew the audience in, only to leave them yearning for resolution. While this choice added an element of suspense, it also left some wanting more closure. Nevertheless, the overall impact was noteworthy, earning the work a solid 10 in my evaluation. The combination of excellence and the strategic use of suspenseful elements contributed to a memorable experience, even if the desire for more information lingered in the aftermath of the presentation.

Ok I'm gonna cut to the chase. MF ghost is a good anime about cars and a very bad anime about literally everything else. The worst part being that the portion between the cars and everything else is split into 50-50. So what is this everything else? The stupid Angel stuff which the main female character has a job in. The Angel stuff is where girls of basically 17 to 28 years old are almost naked and hold signs up for the drivers to signal the start of the race. This is not something that is simply mentioned once and forgotten about. 25% of EVERY EPISODE has this. A full 25%. So is the rest 75% about racing? Nope. Another 15% is basically the slice of life portion where the main character Kanata, is the absolute best boy ever and is touring Japan like the perfect tourist. He doesn't think about racing, not about cars, not about drivers. He just walks all around his local area, praises the scenery and eats dinner. It does not tie in to the show at all. I watch Abroad in Japan on YouTube so I am perfectly happy with watching Japanese slice of life. But in a show with a 12 episode season which is supposed to be about racing of cars, this stuff has absolutely no relevance. Ok enough of ranting. What about the actual races? The actual races is actually a wrong term. Because there is only one race. But it is a long race with 15 cars going at it together. This is very similar to modern car games style of racing where a group of cars race together for the cup. Naturally there are various different competitors with entirely modern cars like Lamborghinis and Ferraris. All of the cars the people of the modern generation grew up with are there. BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Porche you name it. And then our main character has a Toyota GT 86 to try and beat them all. He doesn't pull out the Takumi bs and is actually quite a lot more qualified to be racing as you will learn quite soon while watching the anime. Overall the quality of the races are pretty nice and are characterized by the Eurobeat that everyone loves (I personally found 7 new favorites). So in conclusion, what would I say? Well I've already said it. MF Ghost is a good anime about cars and a bad anime for literally everything else. Watch it for the race and the Eurobeat and you won't be disappointed. But also be prepared to sit through awkward scenes of absolutely nothing happening and you wondering if you somehow started watching a different anime. Because of this huge flaw, I cannot give it more than a 7/10.

Its basically initial D, but with a better focus on romance and character relationships. It does a lot of things better than its predecessor - introduces all racers at the start, instead of the monster of the week formula in Initial D, where they beat the strongest and best racer just for a new strongest and best racer to show up in a new season. It has more interesting side characters and story lines, and the entire idea of it being an actual racing season works so well in building the hype. It also does a lot of things worse - the main character is basically an ideal guy, all the girls love him, and he's straight up the best driver who is only limited by his car (im imagining further seasons will fix this), but he also has the most boring personality because of this perfect guy persona. The racing itself isn't as creative as hype as Initial D, but I wouldnt take that as a huge negative since Initial D was groundbreaking in that aspect. All in all, it's got the same charm as Initial D, with upgraded modern animations and CGI. I personally prefer S1 of Initial D, but I expect MF Ghost to get better as new seasons come out, while Initial D was a steady downgrade each season, mostly because S1 set the expectations too high. Oh and its also all about fun, and doesn't buy into the new age political correctness writing that sadly started affecting even some anime, so if you're easily triggered, you should probably avoid this one. Its between an 8 or 9 for me, but I'm ending up on a 9 just because it built a great base for future seasons, and if they keep it up, it'll be one of the better modern shows, at least when it comes to pure fun and hype. It's never going to be anywhere near your Attack on Titans or Made in Abyss types of show, but not every show needs to have depth, which seems to be something a lot of these new producers keep forgetting.

Full disclaimer, I am a MASSIVE Initial D fan. I genuinely love the show, so when I noticed this, MF Ghost, I immediately became very excited. However, to ensure I was not disappointed, I lowered my expectations, and watched this objectively rather than with the bias of my love for Initial D. I have to be honestly, I'm glad I did. Starting with the sorry, as this is the shows least redeeming feature. Second disclaimer, I watch anime Dubbed, and before the cry baby elitists start moaning, I watch while I work. As I can't understand Japanese, I have to watch dub else I won't have time to watch at all. Sadly for me, as someone from the UK, the voice acting for Kanata might be one of the worst things I have ever listened to. It is absolutely horrendous, borderline unlistenable. Setting this to one side, the story is fair. It's not too exciting, not too dull, it has its moments but, it suffers a little from "well, we know he's going to win do we" which takes some of the possible excitement away, very much contrary to Initial D. Story wise though, on the whole, I'd give this a 6/10. Animation wise if excellent. This is where the show really shines. It delivered exhilarating animations which quite frankly save the show. Car details are excellent, the racing perspectives are well done and tasteful. The character design are perfectly acceptable, everything you would expect from a show attempting to continue the legacy of Initial D. Animation I would give this an 8/10 Music needs little detail. Think of Initial D, that is MF Ghost. It's great, cheesy, pulsating and is exactly what is required. 8/10 All in all this show made a decent effort. Really could do with changing the actor for Kanata as not only is his voice choice awful to listen to, his acting is way below the standard for Dub acting nowadays. Overall, 7/10

Take this with a grain of salt, as I've never seen Initial D. As a motorsport and car fan, hearing that a new racing/motorsport/car culture anime was being made and available to watch was amazing to hear. The story is more of an underdog going pro, which is basically a feel-good story where our main character gets a shitbox car, a Toyota 86, and goes all out with his knowledge and skill from a European driving school. Oh, and not to mention, he wants to know his father, which is why he's joining this racing series. However, the series lacks world-building, particularly with regard to the fact that the world has gone electric, as the MF Ghost announcer has hardly mentioned it. Most of the cars you see are internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, and the cars on the road don't look electric. The romance side quest is boring, and I'm not sure why it's necessary to include romance in a series for it to be good. The main character is hardly interested in the girl, with whom he lives with her family. The girl is basically doing anything to try and get the main character to like her, including helping him find his father. There's also too much fan service, with panty shots that are annoying and feel forced. The camera is being shoved up a 20-year-old or underage girl panties. This leaves people who came for the racing content, as shown in the poster, and trailer, feeling disappointed and distracted by the fan service. If you can get past these three elements I've described and only care about the racing aspect of the series, then go for it. I really enjoyed the underdog story of a rookie going pro quickly with a shitbox car, competing with cars that have over 500+ horsepower. I also like the fact that the cars in the series aren't as advanced and have insane track performance; they're just ordinary sports cars or cars with a few track modifications. Overall, I still enjoyed the anime despite the annoying fan service and romance side quest. I would really like to hear more engine noise in these races. Unfortunately, the only engine you're likely to hear is the Boxer-4 of the Toyota 86, rather than the Ferrari 488's V12 or the Audi R8's V8. There is some engine noise in the anime, but most of the time it gets masked by the music.