(press space for more info) So I just spend maybe another 5 hours watching initial d, so far stage 2 is the best stage i've seen, the word I would use to describe stage 2 is emotional, mainly because takumi found out that natsuki was sleeping with an older man and to add to that he blew his engine and lost a practice race, but he does come though in the end with an epic 86 vs 86 race, and natsuki wanting to put things right, there will be another 86 vs 86 race in the final stage, I also find it heart warming that keisuke came to takumis work place and told his co workers that the redsuns upcoming race against the emperors would now be about taking revenge for the 86 since the practice race was kyoichi vs takumi. There are other things I really like but I'm not sure if I can fit all of it in this box so stage 2 is absolute cinema one dislike is more so a character design nitpick but I really hate that they change ryos hair to brown rather than black, I'm a sucker for black hair so this change threw me off, I now sometimes got him confused with takumi.
The extra stage exists... So, what's happening with our favorite girl team mako and sayuki? well to sum up the stage, mako is still thinking about iketani and gets over it, and later starts hanging out with another guy who I nick named Clark Kent due to his looks reminding me of Superman, The girls race the emperors on their home turf and win with the sil80, So what's the big deal? well the base storyline is pretty harmless in itself, Now I like mako and sayuki, they are some of my favorite characters in initial d, but there is a bath scene that shows mako.... yeah that... and later both mako and sayuki in an onsen scene, Now normally I don't mind but for a series like initial d where it's suppose to be all about the cars, yeah I do take an issue with that, Me and Karin both hate the fact that it even exists and I am now calling it the extra stage for weirdo, so yeah, I'm not stopping you from watching it cuz free will but please be cautious...