MF GHOST

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA Sci-FiMF Ghost
ANIME ActionInitial D Final Stage
ANIME Sci-FiMF Ghost 2nd Season

REVIEWS

• 

  ABPAEAE

  15/100
  An insult to the legacy of Initial D.

  I haven’t written a review for an anime in quite some time, but how badly MF Ghost butchers the original spirit of the Initial D series has pushed me to vent my gripes with this trash heap. For context I got into Initial D quite late, around 2019. I had only just entered adulthood at the time, and the series pushed me into viewing cars as more than just transportation. I now own a Nissan 370z I love driving infinitely more than my shitbox base model Ford Fiesta that whipped me into a guardrail one winter. Fun times. That aside, Initial D had some ups and downs with its seasons, but I felt the low points never became a slog to sit through. The writing was just a bit silly and disjointed at times. Even the filler episodes focused on the main characters doing things that in some way related to the main attraction of the series: racing. Things like Takumi getting to know his opponent or stumbling through broken love developed tension for how it might affect his or his opponent’s ability in their next race. There was consistently a great balance between keeping the action going while developing characters as humans with their own lives.

  That original charm and balance between “filler” and racing is completely absent in MF Ghost.

  Initial D opens with a very simple premise and slowly introduces the main characters without much filler. Characters like Takumi and his friends come from humble backgrounds with the simple interest in cars and racing as a passion. The introduction of Takumi into street racing felt natural and seeing him begin to apply his knowledge in a competitive environment was captivating as a story element. However MF Ghost introduces every competitior in the story as a forced shotgun blast of information before any of the characters are introduced naturally, and therefore nobody could possibly care about who or what those characters do. It would be like if initial D introduced every significant racer for every togue road in Japan in episode 2 of the first season. Nobody is going to retain that information and nobody is going to develop a sense of suspense for when the main character faces the future opponents. During this shotgun blast of hollow information, the main character and the forced love interest is introduced. The writing is so bad that I find it hard to organize my thoughts into focusing on writing about one aspect at a time, because multiple aspects like this are being pushed along at the same time in the anime. The main character's background consists of being a rich kid from England who had rich parents who could put him into racing school, and is now introduced into formal racing in Japan, but apparently these rich parents aren’t rich enough to fund his actual professional racing in any capacity. It's a decent enough of a premise, but there's no effort put into developing a proper background and motivation for racing. For all we know, he's just doing it to do it, like a nine-to-five job. He has the plot armor-tier skillset of Takumi in Initial D, but the only way he could've possibly learned any of it can only be chalked down to "he went to racing school". You don't learn the high-end skills of a field by studying it. Takumi learned his skillset by hand spending years of his life from a young age doing deliveries to businesses through togue roads and challenging himself to be faster. It's an equally simple premise, but it develops the background of a character so much better and lets the viewer envision a sense of depth for what the main character does on a day-to-day basis. I don't know what the main character of MF Ghost was doing before racing school, I don't know anything about his upbringing, I don't know why he wants to participate in races, and his unusually developed skillset means nothing to me as a viewer. It is such unenthusiastic character writing that I’m dumbfounded how any of this could’ve been written by the author of Initial D himself. MF Ghost truly feels like nothing more than the cheapest copy of Initial D possible.

  We are simultaneously shown the forced love interest. Initial D's love story aspects were fairly grounded in reality and successfully built tension, but more importantly, they were kept BRIEF. Nobody is watching Initial D or MF Ghost for a half-assed slice of life romance with no relation to the rest of the story. The main character doesn't even have an initial attraction to his forced love interest: the daughter of the family he is living under who also works as a model for the racing association. He literally could not be forced any further into being close to this girl unless he was stitched to her like a human centipede. This girl convinces the main character into going on dates with her, and these dates consist of nothing more than the two participating in stereotypical anime dating activities, like walking on a beach and visiting a shrine. They do not even have any conversation relevant to the story during these dates. They really are nothing more than forcing the two into a love story. These scenes feel longer and more frequent than the actual racing itself, which I will touch on next.

  What do you envision in your head when you think of Initial D? Even if you haven’t watched a single episode of the series, you still think of the same thing as anyone who has watched every episode of the series: the classic Toyota AE-86 in its panda color scheme with the iconic logo across the side drifting around a tight corner while battling a flashier sports car at night. The darkness emphasizing the headlights and taillights while classic eurobeat almost drowns out the roaring engines and squealing tires. What do we get in MF Ghost? A few minutes every other episode of the main character driving down a straight or through a gentle bend on his own while his racing partner commentates over every simple movement he performs. There are currently four episodes available, and the last two minutes of this fourth episode have only just begun to show the main character in a proper race, and yet again, every movement is being commentated by others, and we do not get any real insight as to what’s going through his mind during the race like Initial D did with Takumi’s thoughts. All the while, the most generic and unenthusiastic eurobeat sometimes plays in the background, muted by the blaring pointless commentary and thrum of stock engines with muted exhaust notes. There are no street racing teams and flashy sports cars adorned with carbon fiber and logo stickers. There are only stock vehicles piloted by random individuals, many of which are luxury vehicles not known for their significance in street racing. Even the more iconic vehicles such as the R35 GT-R are straight from the factory, with muted exhaust notes and factory bodywork. It’s soulless, like the introductory races in racing games where you’re typically pitted against stock, slow vehicles driven by nobodies. It is not only an insult to the spirit of Initial D, but an insult to street racing enthusiast culture as a whole.

  In terms of aesthetics, there’s not much going for MF Ghost either. The cars are fairly detailed and accurate to their real-world counterparts, which means nothing today, as manufacturers can often directly provide accurate 3D models for commercial usage. The sense of speed feels off somehow, and generally feels like there was no more attention put into the racing scenes compared to any other character dialogue scene. The first season of Initial D often gets clowned on for being very simplistic, but it at least had a charm to it. Despite the limitations of early 3D modeling, the sense of speed was captured perfectly, if not a bit emphasized if anything. More importantly, the courses being raced on were interesting, with tight bends and significant points of interest for competitors, such as the gutter run, the kansei drift technique, and the Irohazaka jump. These elements developed worldbuilding, and established varying degrees of skill and knowledge of routes. For those who could call these areas their home turf, these risky and flashy maneuvers could be performed flawlessly, while some were too risky and unknown even to Takumi at times. It’s these elements that are completely absent from MF Ghost – compounded with the issues of cheap writing – make for a completely hollow and soulless experience. Once again, we are four episodes in. Of these four episodes, there are only two “significant” areas that were driven. A straight where cars can often reach their top speed, and a bend right afterwards, where the main character did a bit of a drift, much to the amazement and incessant commentary of everyone watching.

  So, what do I see going forward with MF Ghost? Despite my gripes with what I’ve seen so far, I’m starving for more of what made Initial D so special. I’m watching on 4x speed and only really focusing on when there’s actually a scene with a car on the road. It’s been established that there will never be a character worth paying attention to, so I’m hoping there will at least be a couple decent racing scenes on more significant togue roads. Would I recommend anyone else waste their time doing the same? Absolutely not. If you’re looking for more of what made Initial D special, I’d recommend watching Wangan Midnight instead. It focuses on high-speed Japanese highway racing of the same era. It falls off a bit on the later episodes, which has made it difficult me to finish watching it, but the earlier episodes have a very similar vibe and balance of the early Intial D episodes. But more importantly, THEY SPEND MORE THAN FIVE MINUTES EVERY FEW EPISODES ACTUALLY SHOWING RACING. Seriously, I get that these are the early episodes of MF Ghost, but if you showed me these episodes not establishing that the series is related to Initial D or supposed to be a racing anime, I’d truly believe this was more of a drama or slice of life anime from a really low budget studio that just churns out everything as fast as possible. Genuinely one of the worst stories I’ve had the displeasure of watching.

  Furthermore, the travesty of MF Ghost has spurred me to recapture the fun I had in watching Initial D. I've started playing Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift 2, which I would highly recommend for any Initial D fan. It is very clunky in terms of gameplay and UI design by modern standards, but it has a lot of soul to it. The handling of vehicles, in my opinion, sits somewhere between Forza Horizon and Assetto Corsa, with a degree of pure arcade-type handling for crashes and other types of impacts. Aside from that, also began to rewatch Initial D itself, which further cemented my belief that the writing of MF Ghost is an absolute insult to its legacy. Initial D opens in the first few seconds with the classic 86 drifting around togue roads with eurobeat blasting in the background. The episode flawlessly introduces the viewer to the life of Takumi, his romance, his friends, his family, and the world in terms of street racing. MF Ghost does all this, if you prompted it to write such an episode in Chat GPT in a generic anime style. What I noticed most of all is the romance storyline, where Takumi's love interest in Initial D is written to be a somewhat ditzy high school girl that can't really comprehend how the world works, and develops throughout the storyline. There is a backstory establishing why there is a relationship at all between Takumi and herself, which is hinted only enough to establish it in the first episode. This alone does so much more than anything in MF Ghost. All we get now, is a generic anime girl who immediately turns into a stereotype when she forces the main character into a date, during which nothing is progressed story-wise. Whereas in Initial D's first episode, during a date with Takumi and the love interest, Natsuki, there is a date focusing on her request for Takumi to go on a driving date with her, as he "just got his driving license", establishing the racing life and nonchalant attitude towards racing Takumi holds. Writing a direct synopsis of the scene perhaps does not do the quality of it much justice, but the point I'm trying to make is that Initial D has thought put into the writing of its story and character establishment, whereas MF Ghost does not attempt such whatsoever.

  Is this review an excuse for a long-winded rant? Absolutely. Did you skip to the end here for a TL;DR? I don't blame you. Here it is: watch Initial D instead. Already watched it? Re-watch it, play a togue racing game from the era, or watch Wangan Midnight. All you'll get from MF Ghost is disappointment and further frustration at the state of modern car enthusiast and anime culture/industry.

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• 

  SpartanSwede

  50/100
  The show would be decent if it was separate from Initial D, there is no reason for them to be connected.

  MF Ghost should have either been a separate series from the Initial D universe, or it should have been Takumi instead of the new protagonist driving in the MF Ghost races if the authors truly wanted an Initial D successor. There is no reason for Initial D to be linked to this series, as it takes place years later, involves much more professional racing with expensive supercars, and only mentions characters from Initial D to give nostalgia shots to the viewers who have seen Initial D. This is a stark contrast to the underground street races on the mountain roads, tight brotherhood of racing friends, and of course, featuring classic Japanese tuner cars from the 90s (and 00s in later stages).

  MF Ghost feels like an insult to the original Initial D series. It is revealed that our beloved Takumi (mc from Initial D for those that didn't watch) was injured in a rally racing accident, which would explain why he is no longer racing, but it feels like a slap in the face to all of us who have seen Initial D. The character we have seen develop over several seasons from a space-cadet highschool student who didn't care about cars transformed into a focused, formidable street racer that was the best in the entire region. Now we have to follow his student, a prodigy who somehow can keep up with seasoned racing veterans straight out of racing school, with an underpowered car compared to his competitors, who are driving European supercars with hundreds more horsepower than Kanata's borrowed GT86. Critics may mention Takumi also managed to beat opponents in more powerful cars, but he had experience on mountain runs for years from Tofu deliveries, so it made a little more sense that his experience made up for some of the power his AE86 lacked.

  Other faults with the series include the vehicles in the race, the Angels cheerleading group, and lackluster character development. How is a GT86 supposed to beat any Porsche, Ferarri, or Lamborghini in any sort of race?? We have shots of under the hood, so we see the modified GT86 is still sporting a 2-liter 4-cylinder FA20. Even if every other part of the car has been modified, the engine still only makes around 200 hp without forced induction. How is that supposed to beat a Porsche 911 GT3 making upwards of 475 hp? What about a Lamborghini Huracan making 600 hp? The R35 Nissan GT-R with 500+ hp? And those are stock numbers for those cars, if they have any additional power modifications, it just adds evidence to my point that Kanata's car should have no chance against the top racers.

  Why are the Angel cheerleaders constantly providing awkward fan service shots in the most random moments? I'm not against fan service if it is tasteful, but I can't help but cringe at the uncomfortable amount that is in MF Ghost. There's a time and a place for fanservice, and it just feels very out of place and far too frequent in this show.

  The lack of character development would have been fine if the main character was from Initial D (especially if it was an older Takumi if the author hadn't dissolved his plot armor), but we are thrown right into an unfamiliar environment with characters we know nothing about and have no reason to give a shit about. Takumi was Kanata's teacher/coach, but he is not present in the show. None of the other main characters have any connection to Initial D, which makes me wonder why they even bothered making MF GFhost a sequel of Initial D. Additionally, there is not much room for growth, as Kanata is supposedly a racing demi-god, has good looks, is popular, and is already a chick magnet. Where can he improve from here? He's devastatingly bland because he already has everything anyone could want.

  Apologies if this review came off as ranty, I just love the Initial D franchise to death and want to see it do well. I have additional gripes but, for the sake of brevity, these were my biggest gripes. Perhaps I would rate MF Ghost slightly better if it was not connected to the Initial D franchise. But because it is connected to a franchise I care for, I feel I have to give it some constructive criticism. I am not content at all with the direction the story is taking, and I hope the author takes feedback from the community's response and makes future seasons of MF Ghost the sequel Initial D deserves.

  Thanks for reading :)

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• 

  Jerkov

  45/100
  The sad Ghost of the Initial drift that you loved.

  You probably started watching MF Ghost because you liked Initial D, and you might be here to understand why it's not holding a candle to its predecessor. Well, it's evident that MF Ghost is not Initial D, but why is it lagging so far behind? Is it intentionally holding back, or is this the best the car genre can offer? Let's dissect what we've learned from the first season of the anime adaptation.

  

  Of course, it's challenging to discuss MF Ghost without mentioning Initial D or drawing comparisons between the two. Let's address that first. MF Ghost is not Initial D; you'll only find disappointment if you expect the two to be similar. While having its own strengths, MF Ghost lacks almost everything that made Initial D special. Despite coming from the same mangaka and sharing many elements, the two diverge in a pretty radical way.

  

  Kanata Rivington, or with his father's family name, Kanata Katagiri, is a newcomer to the world-renowned fictional racing series MFG, which is held in near-future Japan, where internal combustion vehicles are used exclusively for racing. He comes to Japan not to race but to find his father, who disappeared after his mother's death. Kanata moves in with his mother's acquaintances, and in that house lives the daughter of the family Ren Saionji, a high school student and the main female lead of the series. Ren is also an "angel" of MFG, but we'll come back to that later. Kanata aims to achieve his goal by utilizing his talent in MFG and establishing his name. Now you know Kanata has a very specific talent honed by someone we know, and MFG has one specific rule that makes it unique: your car's power output must have a one-to-one ratio to its grip. That's the only rule that matters and is conceptualized by Ryosuke Takahashi, the main antagonist from Initial D. Takahashi is not the only familiar name you'll encounter throughout the series; MF Ghost features or mentions a handful of key figures from Initial D, with Takumi Fujiwara, the protagonist of Initial D, serving as Kanata's racing instructor and mentor.

  

  This provides a perfect segue into MF Ghost's problems. You'll often feel that the story is heavily relying on Initial D, making it exponentially difficult to separate them. It's a blessing but primarily a curse. Initial D had immense charm, and that charm, in my opinion, stemmed from the setting and characters being genuine, believable, and relatable. The protagonist, Takumi Fujiwara, was a high school student who had to drive his dad's "shitbox" to deliver tofu to nearby hotels late at night. Through this, he developed his driving skills, grew familiar with the car he drove, but never had an interest in cars, let alone racing. He got mixed in racing by startling the street racers on his way and through the people he knew. Along the way, the heaps of experience behind the wheel and the subtle training he received from his ex-racer father made him a formidable force, defying every expectation. On the other hand, Kanata, the protagonist of MF Ghost, has a photographic memory inherited from his late mother. He is a pro racer who was instructed by the now-legendary Takumi Fujiwara, racing in a league coined by Ryosuke Takahashi that has a very specific rule, making Kanata essentially the master of meta. See where I'm going?

  However, as you might already know, great characters can make a forced and unoriginal world enjoyable. Unfortunately, this is where MF Ghost crashes the hardest. Everyone is a representation of a stereotype in this story, and on top of that, bad ones. The main girl, Ren, who's a bit tsundere, falls instantly for the ikemen Kanata, she's also an undercover sex object for the sweaty racers. Ren's father, who not only does not care her daughter being a sex object, but also watches her butt close-ups. There's Ogata, the comic relief, and Aiba Shun, the big brother who is also in love with MFG angel Ren, aka Number 7-chan. But the rest, oh boy, buckle up. We have a literal racist star of the MFG, Beckenbauer, who looks down upon everyone else, especially the Japanese drivers, driving German-made cars. He happens to be German himself, big surprise, eh? We also have a self-proclaimed "17con" guy who only dates girls who are 17 years old and dumps them as soon as they turn 18. The MFG presenter is an obnoxious guy who keeps salivating over MFG angels' close-up butt shots with everyone else whenever he finds a chance while commentating on races. Believe me when I say this, everyone in this show is insane.

  

  "But Jerkov," you say, "this is a car racing show, and it's not surprising that everything not related to racing is weak." Unfortunately, you, my friend, are very right. You'll witness the cringiest dialogues, weirdest takes, and the most awkward behavior from the characters when they are not in a car and racing. Hell, they are like that even when they are racing too. The only thing saving you and the story from itself is the racing. And, maybe angels... Oh no, I'm one of them!

  

  The racing in this series, I must admit, is great. It's exciting, technical, and the lord and savior Eurobeat genre of music returns to salvage the series' reputation. Cars look detailed, animations are smooth, the scenery is poetic, and sounds are realistic. This combination makes up the strongest point of MF Ghost. The only thing holding back the strongest aspect of the show is the pacing of the episodes. I can't be too harsh about this since I feel like the studio did their best to present the races in an exciting pace. But that does not change the fact that not much really moved forward in the entirety of the first season.

  

  In conclusion, MF Ghost unfortunately falls face-first with nearly everything it throws at you. I can't imagine you can enjoy the show as a newcomer, as someone who does not know what Initial D is. Because, while being a separate entry, the story heavily relies on its much-beloved predecessor. With that said, just like Initial D, MF Ghost's intergender relationships feel like they're written by someone who has no idea about them. It's pretty hard to watch the stiff personalities of the characters. However, the art style is pretty unique; it's a new take on the classic art style of Initial D, and I must say, it's one of the better art styles that I've seen so far, portraying facial features of Japanese people and people of other ethnicities. Other than that, it's pretty hard to recommend MF Ghost. I have to admit the fact that I had to endure the season to pay homage, and that says something.

  Best regards,

  Jerkov.

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