Initial D - Battle 7 - The End of Summer

This is the first stage of the fourth stages of the entire series.... which are not over yet. "Stage 1" have 26 episodes. I think Tokyopop will combine Stage 1 & 2 together. So, there will be 13 battle DVDs that you need to buy.
"Stage 2" has 13 episodes (Meet a new team name Evolution and Tak starting to race at opponents?? courts more often now. Also, a love story of Tak And Natsukiand continues.... Iggy make friend with a new out of town girl. Tak find out the dark secret that Natsuki has been hidden from him.
"Stage 3" is the movie. Continuing a love story between Tak and Natsuki, also some battles take place. Ry ask Tak to join his new team called "Project D" and hope to conquer all the mountains in Japan
"Stage 4 (Project D)" is being air on Japan right now and DVD vol. 1 and 2, which contain 2 episodes on each volume, is out. Tak will be the downhill and K.T will be the uphill specialist for this project. Stage 4 I heard has 14 episodes and there might be "Stage 5" and is going to be a movie. I can't until next year to get "Stage 4" DVD because I don't want to get volume by volume, hopefully they will put all the episodes into one package.

I would recommend everyone to watch the Japanese dialog track because the character voices and the music are ways better than the dub version. If you have to watch the dub version, switch over to Japan version whenever they race. You will know what I mean the differences in car audio sound and music from the dub version.

Natsuki has a dark secret and you guys will know in "Stage 2" series.


closing scene to the AE86 vs. Sil-80   September 30, 2004
Steven M. Fackett (Maryland)
After waiting 2 months to finally get this DVD and watch i was a little disapointed.

It starts off with Tak's 86 and Mya's Sil-80 in their downhill battle. For anyone whos watche the series, you all know whos going to win. At the end of the battle Simone has a small crush on Tak, and suggest they go to a water park. Iggy over hears and inivtes himself, Cole, Kenji, and Maya.

Episode 20 is all about Cole and Mya. He finds a pic of Ry and thinks she still has a crush on him. So then he cant compete with Ry and gives up on her. After the water park he talks with his boss and relieze's that its more of her seeing Ry as a role model. So he tries to get to the meeting spot for their date but doesnt make it in time........really a sad scene, i was kind of disappointed.(Also Ry has a new technique called "The Fastest Racer Theory")

Episode 21 starts with the first day of school. Things with Tak and Natalie heat up and thats all he can think about. Cole, Iggy, and Kenji suspect that Tak and Natalie are dating and are worried about it distracting his downhill technique. As a side story Ry's brother K.T. is trainning a new guy to be second in command. The main thing in this other than Tak and Natalie, is that Ry has challeneged Tak to a downhill battle, for a little later in the month (Episode 24)

Overall i liked it but, i think it could have been a little better. Not the most memorable DVD in the series but an important one none the less.


Racing, romance and some rockin' Eurobeat   December 10, 2004
Brian Camp (Bronx, NY)
Volume 7 of "Initial D," the popular anime series about downhill mountain road racing in Japan, is awash in romantic complications that affect the whole cast of characters and keep things hopping for all three episodes (nos. 19-21). The first episode offers the conclusion of the suspenseful race down Usui Pass between Takumi and female challenger Mako begun in the previous volume. After the race, Mako's attractive navigation partner, Sayuki, gets the hots for Tak and asks him out on a swimming date, to which his friends, led by the diminutive, overeager Itsuki, invite themselves, upsetting Sayuki's plans. This all leads to Mako asking Tak's buddy, Iketani, who'd first met Mako back in Volume 5, on a nighttime date, but Iketani's hesitation and insecurity lead to unhappy results. Tak, meanwhile, fends off Sayuki's aggression to concentrate on his budding relationship with classmate Natsuki.

School starts and things heat up between Tak and Natsuki, including a first kiss that's handled tastefully and beautifully by the animators. However, we get a glimpse of a secret of Natsuki's that could derail things. Through it all, poor little Itsuki freaks out at losing his buddies to girls and comes out with several hilarious exclamations. He's comic relief in the best sense of the word. Meanwhile, Mt. Akagi champ Ryosuke Takahashi delivers a challenge to Tak and gears up for their impending match.

Aside from the genuine thrills of the racing sequences, the great thing about this series is just how emotionally honest it is about the awkwardness of teen romance and its inevitable mix of fleeting pleasures and deeply felt pain and discomfort. Tak may be a superman behind the wheel, but he and his buddies make the kind of common missteps with girls that so many of us remember from our youths.

The action comes with a nice mix of standard musical accompaniment for the romantic scenes (lilting piano solos) and rousing "Eurobeat" hiphop-style pop songs for the races. The opening theme song in episode 20 is a new one. For me, this consistently gripping series just keeps getting better with each volume.