Happy 8-6 day! August 6th is known as 8-6 day (Hachiroku) in Japan (and anywhere else you wish to celebrate), a day that honors the 1986 Toyota Corolla. Today is also the 30th anniversary of the 86 Corolla making it extra special. The 86 is famous of course for being the main car that the anime Initial D is based on. Initial D is an entire, very popular franchise in Japan and many other countries and which spawned an extremely popular line of arcade games that are still being made today. I personally am a big fan of this car (its basically the only car I like, I am not a big car person) but the little Corolla caught my eye. I especially like the way the headlights pop up from the hood, it makes the car look like it has eyes, like it has a personality and mind of its own. Given its legendary status it is very hard to not like this car, its just as famous as the DeLorean or Herbie in my book.
The Initial D series is based on legendary drift king Keiichi Tsuchiya, who is famous for driving an 86, aka The Little Hachi that could. The main character of Initial D, Takumi Fujiwara is based off him.
Another big part of Initial D is the music. The 90’s eurobeat style music has me totally hooked. Its the perfect music to drive to but you have to be careful, the music does make you want to drive faster! I have heard this from a lot of my friends, some of them have to avoid listening to the music from Initial D because they will drive too fast if they listen to it.
Here we have the song Space Boy by Dave Rodgers, this was the first song players often hear when playing the original Initial D Arcade Stage arcade game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4SX3JuL63c
Perhaps the most impressive version of the Initial D arcade game is this version of Intial D Arcade Stage 4 where you drive the actual, full size cars from Initial D. This version of Initial D is a special attraction and is only playable at Joypolis in Japan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYI2G-cWQ0Q
The latest Initial D game, Initial D Arcade Stage Zero is now testing in Japan.
The music, the anime, the merchandise, the arcade games and console games, Initial D is not a series to take lightly, its very popular all over the world!
“This version of Initial D is a special attraction and is only playable at Joypolis in Japan.”
Actually, it’s also playable at Sega Republic in Dubai.
Too bad, they ditched the Eurobeat music in Initial D Arcade Stage Zero… I was hoping for a ultimate Initial D game where you could select your music among Eurobeat songs from all previous games and anime. Unfortunately, they decided to base their latest game on the Legend movies that a lot of fans dislike because of different music, character design and voice actors.
By the way, the Mazda FD3S is replaced with a Nissan R32 Skyline GT-R in the Dubai version.
Too bad that Ryosuke’s FC3S doesn’t appear in any version.:-(