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"This is a friendly entry point. A window for the uninitiated to see why cars, tuning, and racing is so interesting."
It's refreshing to be able to hand a manga to someone who doesn't know racing, and tell them they'll learn a lot. All without also having to hand over a physics textbook, send YouTube videos, and buy them a scrapyard Honda to work on.

Set in a future where autonomous cars are ubiquitous, Hinata Satou attends Mihama Girls' High School, and aspires to establish and run a racing club to participate in the JGTC-W. A racing championship where other all girls' schools compete with their tuned ... cars. She encounters Yuri Yamamoto, an aspiring e-sports pro, and recruits Yuri as a driver despite her inexperience. Together with the rest of the Mihama girls, they take on the JGTC-W and Yuri learns about what makes racing so captivating.

Story:
This is not an analysis on racing techniques or a commentary on the depth of tuning. It's not Initial D. It's not Wangan Midnight. It's not super technical. But it's not supposed to be any of those things. So don't judge it as such.
This is a friendly entry point. A window for the uninitiated to see why cars, tuning, and racing is so interesting.
It's about the enjoyment. Not the technical stuff. What it means to jump into the driver's seat and have fun on track. Not splitting hairs trying to find the missing tenth of a second.
And in that sense, it achieves what it sets out to do.

Art:
There are times where the artist's relative inexperience with drawing cars is clear, but most of the time, they do a good job.
But that's nothing in comparison to character design. Each character is unique, but all of them can be considered cute in their own right. Which is necessary for a story of this nature. Y's Peak's experience in this area is on full display.

Characters:
Despite being about racing, it gives all the characters screen time. Sometimes sacrificing action to explore them.
Of course, some are more memorable and unique than others, but there's not enough chapters at this point to have explored all of the characters in depth.
It's also nice to see that even though Yuri is a natural talent, she's treated like another driver among everyone else. Everyone is there to have fun and compete and some of them are just better than her and it doesn't bother her. Racing manga are especially guilty of building the protagonists to be some kind of unstoppable force of nature. And that's not the case here.
Additionally, real world tuning shops and their founders are characters who play an active role in this manga. As a car person, that's a real treat.

Enjoyment:
As someone who enjoys motorsport, I appreciate that there's a manga for people that aren't into it yet.
I wish that there was more depth to the racing. I want more analysis, I want more stakes. This just doesn't give racing the kind of nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat intensity that it could have.
The races are what I'd expect to see in a game like Gran Turismo. It's really mixed up and doesn't make a ton of sense. There's also no representation of manufacturers outside of Japan.
But these are the complaints of someone who has lived and breathed motorsport for as long as they can remember.
So if you're the kind of person who doesn't know anything, you'll learn a lot. And if you're like me, you can enjoy the story that's there.

8/10

We follow Kanata Rivington. A half-British, half-Japanese racing prodigy who doesn't seem to be trying all that hard to look for his dad.
He's invited to participate in MFG. He does well because before the story even starts, he completed his entire training arc with retired protagonist turned pro-driving instructor, Takumi Fujiwara.


Story:
This is not Initial D.
Kanata does not go on a journey to be the fastest. He does not want to establish himself as a legend. He does not want to win the championship.
So what's the story here?
Unsure, but what it feels like is like a tour around Kanagawa. A love letter to Japanese food and ... culture and Initial D disguised as a sequel. And it doesn't even do that well.


Art:
The character design is fine...for the first few chapters.
After 160+ chapters, they all look more or less the same. At times, I can't tell them apart.
The background environments are photographs with filters, and I'm inclined to suggest that the cars are too.


Character:
You're in luck if you want to know what some Initial D characters have gotten up to in the last 20 years. They talk almost exclusively about themselves or give exposition when they appear as guest race commentators.
Other drivers are mostly absent outside of races, making it hard for the recurring cast to be memorable. Especially when they pose no threat and don't develop between races.
They are so disposable that two of them were written off when they went out drinking the night before a race and were hungover.
There's a romance side plot. The heroine doesn't believe in love at first sight until the moment she meets our protagonist in chapter 1. From there, she's obsessed and nothing goes wrong except her self-confidence.


Enjoyment:
More than half of these chapters are throwaways. There's a lot of cars racing at once, but the vast majority of the time, battles finish within 5 pages and aren't really that crazy. Races last about 40 chapters.
The stakes can't be low when they don't exist. Characters are one-dimensional, uninteresting, and lack polishing, development and motivation.
The protagonist has nothing to learn, nothing to gain, and nothing to lose.

2/10