Initial D Creator Says Sequel Would Be About Rally Racing

Initial D creator Shuuichi Shigeno says that the sequel to Initial D would not be about drifting or street racing but about rally racing.

Ever since Initial D’s Final stage hit manga and subsequently was animated and released, fans of the show have all but put that popular anime on the proverbial shelf as one of the best car-based series of all time. But according to Anime News Network on their latest findings earlier last week, it looks like Initial D (as we know it) might not be finished after all. Shuuichi Shigeno, the creator of Initial D, was quoted to say that if there was a sequel to the popular racing series, it would involve some rally racing instead.

"“When Initial D was starting, I considered highway racing and rally racing,” Shigeno said. “From here on I’d like to continue drawing manga, and if I do an Initial D 2, I’d like to make it about rally racing.”"

Spoiler alert! When Initial D final stage finally completed its 18-year run, Project D all but completed its task of making a pair of ace drivers in Takumi Fujiwara and Keisuke Takahashi. The final episodes of Initial D had Takumi battling it out with another Hachi-Roku with Takumi’s engine blowing up in the final tandem. We then find out that the ‘D’ in initial actually stood for ‘dream’ and thus ended the series.

Keisuke leaves the Gunma area and Project D closes shop.

Ever since the manga was dubbed in English and popularized in the United States, many fans of the show have come to know and love many of the chassis’s that are still popular today. That includes the original AE-86, the FD RX-7 and the Mitsubishi Evolution amongst others.

Although the creator didn’t explicitly give details on what the Rally Racing episodes would entail, we’d love it if Takumi came back. As an homage to his original AE-86, maybe if they swapped an AWD drivetrain under a BRZ and let Takumi loose, fans of the show would go bananas.

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But for now, we’ll just have to keep our ears on the ground to see if Shuuichi comes up with something new.