Reviews for Initial D Extra Stage 2

Initial D: Extra Stage 2 is a Shounen, Sports OVA that I expected more from but instead I was disappointed with yet another failed attempt at a relationship. Extra Stage 2 takes place sometime between the 1st & 2nd races of the Project D timeline. Remember those cool races during Project D, well you can forget them because this OVA focuses on Iketani Kouichirou, who’s still thinking about Mako (Impact Blue racer) from the time he couldn’t meet her 6 months ago (Extra Stage 1). Then by a stroke of luck, he gets another chance to meet her and from then on it’s a 40 minsnore fest to the finish. Initial D has always been known for developing its characters through some awesome & exciting races but sadly this OVA is on the same level of a Naruto Filler. So naturally character development is basically absent here, since there was only 1 race and even that was lackluster compared to all the previous ones.

Thankfully I won’t be coming down hard on the animation and music, as they both were pretty good for this OVA. The animation is the same as always, poorly animated characters but nicely rendered cars, however it seems they followed the animation from the previous Extra Stage and not Project D, which drops a point in my book. At least the same old catchy soundtrack is back but with barely any opportunities, it just feels wasted.

Overall Initial D: Extra Stage 2 can be described simply as a stab at some romance in a racing anime but they should have known better from the first try that giving such unimportant characters the spotlight just spells disaster. It’s a shame that Takumi gets less screen time than Kenji (bet no one remembers him). In other words this is only worth watching if you have nothing better to do and I mean absolutely nothing.

Initial D: Extra Stage 2 is probably one of the worst things I've had the misfortune of watching. I understand a lot of people enjoy mental and physical mutilation and gain gratification from it. I for one, do not. At all. What does this show do to you to warrant such a descriptor you might ask? It says "remember that thing that you liked? Y'know, character development? Tension? Romance? Drama? Things mattering in the show that aren't just cars going vroom? Yeah fuck you I shot your kid in the face". This entire OVA adds nothing to any of the characters and all it does issay "Wow look at this poor bastard, can't catch a break xDDD" so that some lonely reject out there watching this (you) can #relate to it.

It takes any setup made for the viewer about caring about either of the two characters and says "um ackshually, fuck you for caring. IDIOT. HOW DARE YOU WATCH THIS" and honestly, I agree. I wish I never did. This show needs a very large flag attached to it, probably somewhere close to or around the steaming pile of shit that it is that says "Waste of time, do not watch unless you need something to put on in the background while you're filming your 90's aesthetic anime tiktoks you fucking loser".

**SPOILERS** It even goes so far as to say "And they never met again" because it hates the idea of the fanbase actually creating an ending where these two perfectly fine characters might, I dunno, actually live somewhat comfortably and happily together. It needs to explicitly state that both of them went home that night, cried themselves to sleep and had explosive diarrhea from all the emotional anguish they had during that day. If you look very closely you can actually see the brown patch form in Iketani's pants when he realises he doesn't have a spare tire. Probably the only fun fact to come from this show.

Anyway, please don't watch this if you value your time, sanity, money, rights to vote, anything. Just do not do it. This was clearly written by someone who hates the idea of two people getting to know eachother, and developing a happy normal relationship. It's so obvious that the person absolutely hates romance and happy couples in general and it reeks of pathetic sigma male grindset bullshit before it even existed at the time. It's okay to have feelings as a man, it's okay to have wants and needs and have more than 1 thing that you do at a time in your life. It's very possible to be passionate about a hobby, and also be able to have a normal dating life. I promise you.

This show is not only stupid, pathetic, but worst of all, it's predictable. It's 50 something minutes long and you know exactly what's going to happen more or less beat for beat since the first 5 minutes. Again, maybe this is something to watch if you're breastfeeding or knitting scarves for orphans or something, but this is not something that you sit down to watch with your buds on anime night after school. You will get bullied. Killed maybe. Kids are ruthless.

Closing notes: Please don't watch this and if you ever see live footage of this show out in the wild (DVD, Video Tape, CD, Keychain), burn it. Shoot it with a gun, burn it, throw acid on it, just do SOMETHING to remove its existence from this universe. You kin will thank you. To summarize it in one word: Stupid.

Quick take: Extra Stage 2 is a great tie-up to the Iketani and Mako side love story. If you felt a little empty after the missed connection, you’ll find a nice little completion to that arc here. Extra Stage 2 revolve around Iketani and Mako having a second chance at love. The story is fairly simple but is actually very well written and helps clear up the empty feeling after the missed connection between them earlier in the series. Everything is well paced and moves logically. You will not find anything deep in relation to the main Initial D story. Togue racing is limited inthis series.

Both CGI and drawn art are well done in this short side story. Drawn art is treated to an overhaul of rich colors and generally looks much better than First and Second Stage.

Sound quality is good, acting is well done and comprehensible. OST music is better than in previous seasons as is the sound of the cars.

Iketani and Mako are the main focus of ES2 and undergo decent development as both grow.

You’re not going to find anything profound in Extra Stage 2, but it is a welcome conclusion to the Iketani and Mako subplot, so if you wanted more of that, you’ll really enjoy Extra Stage 2.

Wow. This is a work of art. This is a tale of love and growth I love this movie so much. Iketani have been such a great character through this show and continues to be one in this. though his driving have not grown much he have. Iketani is such a nice guy. Nice guys always finish last should have known that. also shout out grandpa for ruining my boys chance. but that is part of the beauty of this the right thing happened because Iketani made the right chose. I to once had a mako in my like and she also had to flyaway like a shooting star so i understand Iketani's chose in the end. sometimes you have to let then fly away and do your own thing. Nice guys always finish last should have known that. Its a story of growth every character (except kenji) is growing and has to let go or change parts of there life. truly a wonder movie 9/10.

I really like the interpersonal parts in Initial D but Extra Stage 2 was really disappointing. I had the hope that they would finally confess their feelings to each other because there was enough drama and pain in the story of their relationship but nope. I'm happy that they were able to talk about the failed last meeting but then they just recycled the 'I'm moving to [a distant city]' line for the 3rd time and this is the disappointing end of this relationship which got built up over many episodes. This outcome has no value for the story and they could have put this ina maximum of one episode of the 4th stage but this is nothing for a 50 minutes special.

This is really sad because until now I loved everything from Initial D :(

I gave these Characters only a 7 because they didn't make anything with them in this Episode. But I like Mako and Iketani.

Would recommend watching for any die hard Initial D fan but is perfectly skip able in the long run. The car scenes were fun as always and it was cool to see the characters faults and internal conflicts manifest in their driving, a detail I’ve always enjoyed. However the overall plot, while entertaining enough, was very formulaic at certain points. The main romance was as unsatisfying as all ways, the writers can never seem to find a balance between “realistic” and tedious. They are clearly believe that people can be passionate about only one thing at a time, which is fine… if you want to bea Lonely Driver.

All in all, It was less enjoyable than the last Extra Stage but overall all tied up loose ends nicely.

I thought this will be were they get toghter. But no he fumbles so hard. Why tf is he not just calling her when the gramps came to ask you can just call her. Also if ur car has a flat u can still drive it. And what's the problem with confessing stop acting like the reson you didn't was because of her ur just giving urself a excuse. On season 4 when Keisuke Takahashi went on a date he said you want to go to Tokyo. That means I can't be to far away why can't h just meet up once a week orso. They hype this up so much for this pathetic end. This isnt the first time this is like the 5th time this happend. All diffeent characters same ending they have to go somewhere else or they are going out with somone older something like that. I dropped this anime after this. I atleast wanted some romance or atleast they stop edging us

In my opinion it was good but not great. It was nice to see Iketani improve his racing skills tho. The fact that they finally met and then Mako decided to go to Tokyo and they didn't get that much love or couple time as Kazumi and Itsuki is just sad. But considering that Itsuki's relationship was worse than Iketani's then at least Iketani and Mako are okay. I mean that they are glad that they got to talk to eachother and are not heart-broken or something. Although I almost thought that Iketani was about to make the same mistake twice but gladly he gotto contact Mako that he had a flat tire.

Nothing much really happened in here but I rate it 7/10 because it was okay but not great.