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At first i thought this anime was only golden comedy then it become serious and at some times it made you think that its unrealistic. Its an emotional roller-coaster throughout the journey. But in the end it makes you cry rivers, one of the best masterpiece classics in existence. For an anime that was created in the 80s its animation, sound and story are much better then some of nowadays anime. I rate this anime paced in its timeline the 80s and not nowadays, in terms of its time everything is a perfect 10. If you were watching this when it aired you would give it a 10 but if you were watching it now it would still be a good 7. I recommend you do watch it and stick to the last episode, its where the underrated gem truly shine. Of-course throughout the journey it well shine in different episodes and it all connects towards its majestic ending. of-course theirs more that the journey offers after the ending so the manga well provide those answers, until one day we get a second season. I truly enjoyed this and give it an outstanding 10/10, you well get racing, romance, rivalry, fighting, comedy and tears.

Well, I will give my opinion on this racing anime. A year ago, a friend advised me to watch this anime The story tells of Han Akagi, a rural young man who is fond of racing cars and his dream to reach Formula 1 and overcome the obstacles he will face in order to achieve this dream. The first observation I did not like this anime in the transformation of its level from serious to unreal The story is okay, but the events of the story are the problem that did not make me enjoy as I should Is the author underestimating our minds? I don't know if the anime is really bad or was I expecting something like Initial D The story has not been replaced (after disappointing the unrealness of the events) with art or music like people. I felt like I wasted 31 episodes watching the anime disappointed me, thinking the next episode would be better The only flaw in the anime is the exaggeration of the unnecessary comedy in some moments inside the episode Characters: The character of the hero has not developed at all since the beginning of the anime, the other characters were neglected to the point of being forgotten and re-appeared. But although the work did not force me, I advise those who did not watch it to watch it, but do not expect much.

First review here on MAL. I watched this anime a couple of years ago after watching Initial D and was craving for more. I loved it back then and gave it an 8, but now after rewatching it I realise it is amazing and deserves at the very least a 9. Here is why: Story: The story follows Gunma Akagi who is a country boy who loves to drive. He has a friend who is a mechanic and loves working on engines. We follow these boys as they try to get to the top in order to reach Formula One together. The road is not as smooth as one could think and many problems have to be tackled. The nuances and sometimes actually the realistic story makes this anime great. It really shows the struggles to get to the top as a racing driver, or actually in any profession! I have to say that the story is not the strongest in the beginning but it more than makes up for it! - 9/10 Art: I think the art was why I only gave it an 8 when I watched this years ago, but I have to say that the art is sublime. For this being 1988 it is amazing, and even today I would still say that this is great. The art has so much character and you can truly se that they use the medium to the fullest. It is not unusual for the animators to reuse frames or not have a developed background, but they do it in a way that it either does not affect the experience or actually improves it by the team being creative! These creative ideas makes you miss that this artstyle is not used any more! - 10/10 Sound: The soundtrack is in my opinion great. The opening for the first half of the show is what you have to call a banger! The second one is not as good in my opinion but still quite good. The music in the background is quite good with the 'epic' distorted electric guitars that sounds like they are borrowed from Top Gun. My favorite part of the sound is the sounds of the engines. It feels like they put a large amount of energy in recording convincing engine sounds that corresponds with the correct car. Bravo! - 9/10 Character: I think almost every character is great in this show. Some are better than others though; you can feel this especially with some characters that sometimes 'act out of their character'. And in the case of Gunma, I love his character, but from time to time you can't ignore his attitude and anger issues. Despite these frankly small issues, I believe that this show has a great character roster with a lot of development! - 8/10 Enjoyment: This one is easy for me. There was not really a minute spent where I was bored, there were constantly issues to solve or epic races to watch. It was not like a flood either, they balanced the heavier things with the lighter very well. Superb! - 10/10 Overall: This show is amazing. I think it's a shame that during the time of writing this review, this show only have been scored by 457 users. If you love drama, sports and general fun, I believe you have to see this show! - 9/10

I'll start off by saying that I watched a fansub based on the Italian release of this series. Despite my nearly nonexistent grasp of Japanese, I could tell that at atleast one point the subtitles differed from what the characters were saying, so it might be possible I’m not getting the full context, or something is mistranslated. However, that does not change most of what I’m going to talk about. The most defining part of this show is our MC, Gunma "Anger Issues" Akagi. Gunma is a narcissistic, jealous, abusive, psychopathic, retarded, sex pervert, sexual assaulter asshole hailing from a family of people just as bad as him. He doesn’t really change throughout the story; the most you can say is that he becomes slightly less of an asshole by the very end. Inexplicably, all the other characters still like him, despite him having literally zero positive traits. Unlike other authors who give evil protagonists sad and disturbing backstories to explain their actions, this guy acts like this without any reason or justification and might just be the least likeable anime protagonist ever conceived. In the story, he might only be outmatched by his brother. He’s like the stereotype femcels accuse every man of being and you will root for him to suffer. This story has some insane drama centered around the actions of the protagonist and his family, some of which is really disgusting. For the first half of the show, it is mostly a drama series. The car/racing parts of it are played for comedy, while the other parts are actually serious. Don't expect something like Capeta from this part, it's more like a mix of the drama from Overtake! and the racing of Wacky Races, but with the insanity turned up to 11. There's a strong tonal dissonance is this series: on the one hand characters had loved ones who tragically died due to accidents on the track and on the other hand you have Gunma hanging half his body out of his car and throwing shoes and helmets at other drivers during the race. You have people trading blows and getting beaten in a slapstick way while simultaneously having people be involved in horrible relationships. Meanwhile every now and again one of the side characters will tell the MC to go follow his dream and become a racing driver, even if the situation is completely inappropriate. His "dream" mostly consists of constantly being a nuisance to everyone around him. If you were to take a shot every time he says he is the fastest and nobody can beat him, you’d die within a few episodes. (SPOILERS in this paragraph for a single episode in the first third of the show) As for the other characters, main girl Junko is the only person to actually confront Gunma about his behaviour and put up any sort of fight. She was in a relationship with Ryuji, a loving and kind-hearted man, until he died in a horrific accident on the track (something that happened before the start of the show). When the resident bum Gunma realizes she still loves Ryuji, he expectedly crashes out. Infact, he crashes out over pretty much anything or anyone who doesn't bend over to his will. He proceeds to belittle her dead boyfriend and her love for him in front of everyone who lives there, attacks her, pins her down and forces her to kiss him. Of course this has no impact on their relationship or his relationship with any of the roommates or the landlord, and they continue being friends, the good obedient woman she is. Tamotsu is the weak-willed friend and metaphorical punching bag of the MC. He is practically his slave. Despite being constantly belittled, ignored and wronged by our MC, he tries to keep talking sense into him, obviously to no avail. He continues supporting him while only receiving abuse and ridicule in return. Then we have Hiziri. He is a rival racer to Gunma and his team and becomes much more prominent in the latter end of the show. You might be thinking: “Why have you given this show a Recommended rating, when so far you only have negative things to say?”. Well, he is the reason for this. He is the one who the series should’ve centered around. He is a serious racer, who must grapple with trying to continue his racing career, while suffering from medical problems. This is a way more serious topic and he is therefore also a much more serious character. His struggle with his health is shown in a realistic way and the animation used to convey it is genuinely dazzling and masterful at times. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen in other shows and artistic in a way that you simple won’t see in anything made today. I haven’t seen enough 80s shows to judge the quality of the animation, but it still holds up today. If you like hand-drawn vehicles and open wheelers in anime, there’s alot of that present here. As I said before, some of the shots and scenes related to Hiziri are highly artistic and do very well at setting the mood and showing his predicament. While the music and VA work is alright, it is marred by the bad sound quality of the version I watched. The impression that Hiziri leaves is so strong that I recommend slogging through the rest of the show just for him. As for the rest, at least you can have some fun laughing at the absurdity of the show and how much of a POS our actual MC is.