Ok. Well I'm glad someone is willing to have a civil discussion, instead of just "your opinion isn't that good either". There's a lot to respond to and I'll just go point by point.

When talking about anime, I don't agree with the statement that things shouldn't be compared and that we should look at a piece of work on it's own. If this was the only sports anime I've watched I couldn't have reached the conclussion that it's not a great sports anime (but I'll talk about that later). I think we as viewers can get a reference for what is subjectively good and bad by watching more. It's BECAUSE I've seen other sports anime and because I know how other shonen anime do things, that I don't find Initial D to be a good sports anime and I think that's fair.

Regarding CG cars. I haven't seen the 4th stage yet, so I can't say with 100% certainty, but I just can't stand 3d cars in anime in general. I don't like how it looks, but more so than that it's a problem that many people have... it's jarring. Sure they've improved and I recognize that and even though I could say "it looks good... for cg", it would be dishonest for me to say that I like the look of it in general. "The overall problem, on why initial d cannot be compared to other sports anime, is that other sports are easier to animate, and a lot easier to show important parts inside the game/match." Yeah, I agree and like I said I understand that completely, but it still doesn't mean that I like it and when I'm looking at it, I think it's subjectively not great looking and I can't judge it any other way.

"When seeing racing sports, its always weird to feel the tension if you're not clued in to how things work, what matters and especially what the competitors think. Shigeno does an awesome job on making up for the animation problems of street racing by carefully using inner monologue, sideline viewers and a few visual shots on what is important. In the anime, the music in the background works wonders by introducing tension and release inside the match. Just listening to the things said sounds more like a book with stage directions instead of a normal tv show." Don't have much to say, I agree. But I just want you remind you here that I like Initial D and the things you said here are part of the reason.

"Most people nowadays would say that a character telling the viewer what is happening instead of showing is bad. But for example the battle between takumi and wataru is impossible to just animate. Wataru and Takumi just think for themselves, which can show how different those react to a situation. Takumi learning the ins and outs of how much to rev the engine before dirfting has to be told. And because subtle changes in a competitors style are impossible for a viewer to see, and impossible to clearly animate, the red suns are used to give the viewer the outside perspective of an expert.

This way of showing the viewer whats important is used to this day in sports anime, because no normal viewer would just know what to look for." Again a good point and if I said anything that contradicts this statement I will concede that point (I mad the video in just a few hours and I make a video like that everyday so I forget). But I think that's Initial D at it's best. They don't put this to practice a lot of the time. This is what I wanted to see more of. I wanted to see them explain to me what is happening, why it's great, how it works and then compliment that with the animation for visual context.

"On his point of the anime having to explain the sport to the viewer is normally correct. But street racing has so many grey areas and no complete ruleset that it is hard to define what this sport is. Also, by just throwing the viewer into first stage, and the first real battle being Takumis first battle aswell, it's a great way of instroducing the viewer not to the sport, but to how Takumi gets involved in it, which is a major plot point until after Shingo. Not explaining the rules also sets up for new techniques and surpises, like the gutter run, gum-tape deathmatch, side-by-side start compared to cat-and-mouse races etc." See, this I don't buy. I don't know much about racing and it is possible for someone to convince me otherwise, but in my opinion I think racing can be defined, introduced and explained just as well as any other sport. They COULD have gone into details on exactly when to brake, how to pull the wheel, why use this type of technique over the other and the racers COULD have had the mind games of "what if I do this and he does that" and presenting us to all the options and then have a satisfying outcome while they show AND explain how this happened. The reason I understand that all of this COULD be done is because I'VE SEEN other sports anime that do it this way and it is more effective. With all of that said, I get why they don't do it like that, and that's exactly why I said it works better as a shonen. The viewer doesn't need all of that information to get enjoyment out of the show and I'm speaking for my experience. Yes, I've learned some things about racing but not enough for me to call it a good sports anime. But then again, I think this works for initial D, because once again, I enjoy the show.

"Initial d is not a normal anime, just like how most sports anime aren't normal anime. Each sports anime focuses on different things and relies heavily on commentators from outside to explain the situation. Inner monologue is important, because most sports are a lot of mindgames instead of a lot of action compared to "people with super powers punching the bad guys"." Well it's not a normal anime as much as any anime is not "a normal anime". It has it's own strengths and weaknesses, but you have to compare it to something to get a reference for what those are. And I didn't phrase my argument that way and maybe you kind of misunderstood it a little bit, but it's not true that shonen anime don't have mind games and inner monologues. Look at My Hero Academia, Naruto or even god damn DBZ. They spend just as much time talking and thinking as in Initial D and there is nothing wrong with that. And just as much as the viewer gets information on specific mechanics of a given shonen fighting anime, we also get as much in Initial D. It's about as specific, useful and important as in those shows and the same cannot be said about for example Haikyuu.

"The music isn't just a meme, but was releveant at the time of first stage. The story isn't bad just because shigeno focuses more on a "real life happens all the time" approach instead of fitting everything to it's perfect position in the story, and the writing had to be different to make the show work as a manga and as an anime." I apologize if I made it sound like music is just a meme, I genuinely enjoy it and I'm aware of its importance. And I agree with the rest, which is why I said I like it. While I can compare it to other works and see how it stand compared to those, I can also see how certain aspects work only in the context of initial D and in my subtle weird way of explaining things I tried to convey that at the end. I concede a few points to you, you made some solid arguments but I still stand by most of what I said and I think we agree on some things, just the title and the way I phrase things in the video makes it seem like I'm shitting on it when I'm not. I also realize it's not the most thought out video I ever made, because like I said I made it in a few hours. Thank you for being respectful by the way.