Wangan Midnight

[Layla's Keeper]

Now, I'm surprised nobody has brought this up much. Initial D isn't the only manga in Japan devoted to street racing. The big rival to Initial D is "Wangan Midnight" which focuses on the high speed runs on Tokyo's highways as opposed to Touge Running in Northern Japan.

Wangan Midnight has some stellar artowork, and has a lot of nice cars in it. Mostly Skylines (R32-33-34), FD RX-7's, and other such monsters. Plus, you've got Ferrari Testarossas, Porsche 911's, and the star of the series drives a waaaaaaaay trick turbo Fairlady Z (Datsun 240Z, to most of us) complete with RS Watanabe wheels hidden in moster fender boxes IMSA-style. It's called the "Akuma no Z" or "Devil Z". Everything is dead nuts accurate in the manga and it actually represents another one of the segments of Japanes Street racing.

It's sweet!!! Now I just wish I could read the story, too.

Does anyone know of any other mangas in this genre? With Initial D so popular on both sides of the Pacific and Wangan Midnight entering production as both a video game (developed by Genki and based on the Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero engine) and reportedly as an anime, it makes sense that there would be others jumping on the bandwagon.

[NSX-R-SSJ20K]

yea but is there an anime of it and has it got a well developed hair raising plot like Initial D tho.........

i dunno has it?

[Layla's Keeper]

No, it is not yet an anime. It's more recent of a publication than Initial D, so they're still working on "bringing it to life". As for plot, how about one young man, with little money to his name, who as hard as he can to get all the money he can to buy parts to keep pace with the 200+ MPH race scene on the Wangan expressways with his Fairlady Z. (Datsun 240Z) His primary rival is a Blackbird Koenig Porsche 964, along with various R34 Skylines, FD3S's, 300ZX Fairladies, Ferrari Testarossas, R33 Skylines, Silvias of all stripes, Soarers, Supras, even a couple of Cosmos.

Pretty sweet, I'd say.

[NSX-R-SSJ20K]

yea i prefer the real thing - www.exvitermini.com

altho it sounds cool two things make initial D cool one is the drifting and the other is the fact he uses a heap of junk no offense ........hahaha
whereas wangan racing costs a fortune but a datzun failady Z that sounds cool like the end boss in TER2 ??? cuz that thing was fast it was like zip 200mph

[Layla's Keeper]

Funny you should mention the Tokyo Extreme Racer series of games. Genki (the developer of TXR) is also developing the arcade cabinet and PS2 port video game of Wangan Midnight. The gameplay is actually derived from the physics engine of TXR0. In fact, the Genki developers are basically all shonen manga freaks. A lot of references to popular genre manga can be found in their games. For instance, take a good lok at some of the driver profiles in Tokyo Extreme Racer Zero. You'll see that quite a few driver/car combinations "match up" if you know what I'm saying.

[NSX-R-SSJ20K]

yea?


well the thing was TXR2 was tyte n all but the driving of the cars where shite altho they did suggest drifting

[NB8CT]

I like wangan midnight a lot better to be honest, Im am into high speed wangan, there is no rush like pure speed. Its funny; in the story the dudes wife says; either me and your son or your car, dude chooses the car! Thats what i like to see!!

Another awsome one is called "Over Rev" by katsumi Yamaguchi. Its about a girl who idolizes another famous woman touge runner, and ends up gettin taught by her. At one point the new girl drives the pro's s13 off of a pier into the ocean!! Its got a really good story and great artwork. The main charcter's car is a supercharged MR2. Fun stuff. They made a live action movie about it to, although i havent been able to get a copy here, and i havent been to japan this year yet.

[tougestar]

about 6 months to a year ago I saw an add in Options for the Live Action movie for Wangan Midnight...its a cool series

[VQuick]

Originally posted by Octagon
Blah, blah, blah...Does anyone know of any other mangas in this genre? Blah, blah, blah...it makes sense that there would be others jumping on the bandwagon.

http://www.drivingmanga.tk/

I'm working on my own street racing story concept. Think of Initial D without the drifting, and with a little bit of highway battling. If I go through with it, it would be in a book format, not manga. I can draw pretty well, but not on a consistent basis. I would like to see it as a live action movie. An anime would be cool too, though.

My story involes street racing in curvy, rural country roads. I live in Texas, and the story would be based in my area because I know the towns and the roads. I gotta get to class, but if you want me to post more about it, I can later.

[NSX-R-SSJ20K]

dude where you in my summer school class cuz you wrote an initial D knock off and me n my bro where like FUCK WOT? i don't think a tofu shop guy can honestly afford to buy a NSX never mind having the balls to drift something that expensive.......................




hehe o well i could write some stuff about texas racing ........... racing on dirt tracks back roads freeway racing drag racing .........i have no idea where you could drift tho most corners are either long or 90 degree good luck tho

[VQuick]

You might be thinking of Hase. She's the owner of the driving manga site. Sorry, I didn't mean to make it look like it was mine. She's done a few fanfics, but mostly yaoi.
I'm pretty sure I wasn't in your summer class, since I live in Texas and you're in the U.K. I haven't written my story yet either.

My main character starts out with an EG Civic, because he doesn't have a lot of money. He has a bad accident later, and moves up to an S14MC 240SX with a really cool engine swap.

[Layla's Keeper]

I write myself, and I've come up with a few pieces. One I'm working on is a fictional account of a team competing in the Britsh Rally Championship's Super1600 class. The lead car is a heavily-tuned Renault Alpine, since the team leader is obsessed with proving that the classics can keep up with modern equipment with equal modifications. Later on they move up to a Lancia Stratos.

I'm also working on a fictional story about a young woman whose dream is to drive for Ferrari at Le Mans, she gets her chance at the height of IMSA's WSC class in a 333SP. An added bonus is the endlessly hilarious flirtations between her and her teammate, a rich playboy with a ton of female fans.

I haven't had any ideas for a street racing story that wasn't mindlessly reptitive, but I'm still working on it.

[VQuick]

My idea for a street racing story kind of came from seeing The Fast & The Furious a few months after I first saw Initial D. I thought that Initial D was the more realistic of the two, and decided to write a story of my own with elements from both.

I liked the realistic aspect of Initial D, at least as far as the characteristics of different cars and driving dynamics went. I also liked how the races involved turning!hehe There wern't any fights between characters, and they settled their differences on the "track." I wanted my story to have that sense of honor, too.

From TF&TF, I liked that it was based in the U.S. with USDM cars. And...that was about it, actually.hehe From TF&TF, I got the idea to base the story in my area, since I know the roads.

Does anyone want to hear more about my story concept and comment on it? I'm open to suggestions. If you want, I'll start another thread about it.

[HondaChili]

wow soo much love for initial d.... i would ramble on hours to u guys about how much i love initial d if i could. I recently played the AGAN MIDNIGHT arcade game in my area, the game seems to be an exact replica of tokyo extreme racer except u play it with a shiter and wheel.
Dont get me wrong, i loved tokyo extreme racer, but it just seems to me that the game shouldve been a lil more detailed for an arcade. After playing the game for hours, i realized certain things that i hate about the game:
1-i disliked the shiter since its only a "up-down " shift
2-there seems to be too much handicap for the losers
3-Way too many skylines
4-turns were too easy to do.

Although i feel the game couldve been done much better and more action packed, this game does have its moments. I would like to see in the near future , the initial d arcade game.

as for initial d fans who wants to drift in a race play daytona usa, i promise u guys it is the closest thing u will come to drifting like takumi.

oh yea i recently bought a japanese initial d game for the psx and is currently being shipped here from japan, has anyone played it and can u give me your rating
?

[NSX-R-SSJ20K]

this thread makes no sense anymore !