Wangan Midnight

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First, I am shocked to see that this incredible work has no reviews. Wangan Midnight the manga is a lot of fun, but it's weirdly specific in the way it's entertaining. I will say, don't start reading this thinking you're going to find some complex narrative with twists, turns, and suspense, or an emotion-packed drama or romance story. That's not what Wangan Midnight is: rather, it is about speed. That's it.

Wangan Midnight is about men and women who chase speed, trying to go as fast as humanly possible on the highway at night. Why? It's just a human instinct. The instinct to do dumb ... shit. They throw away everything in pursuit of driving just one kph faster. Wangan Midnight is about racing/speed addicts who just want to drive fast. Just like drug addicts, some people ruin their lives, some suffer withdrawal, some die, and some decide it is not worth it. Indeed, in their intense pursuit, some characters decide that that the illusion that only lasts a few seconds is best left alone. Perhaps the most interesting/unique part about this story is that the characters don't even really care about ego or bragging rights or status for being the fastest (like is typical in other sports-type stories). The characters just want to be the fastest for the sake of it. Wangan Midnight captures this illogical human desire incredibly well and that's about all it does, but it makes for some really good dumb fun. Well, that and it has cool cars in it (who doesn't like reading about cars from half a century ago that have been modded to a point where you can't even really recognize them?).

On a final note, the art is nothing special; in fact, it's not that good. So don't expect to see some Ryoichi Ikegami level art (but the lines are at least clean, and the action is easy to follow). Overall, I'd highly recommend this to any automotive geek or fan of the anime. If you liked Initial D, I can't guarantee you'll like this, but there's a good chance you will.