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**Driving Down the Mountain**

It's just after 4:00 AM and you're driving down the mountain in your sick competition yellow FD RX7. After a long night of prepping for a race next weekend, you feel confident.

**Confidence Boosted**

Race? Pfft, the race will be over before it begins. You check your mirror to admire your perfect 90's JDM cute boy haircut. That's when you notice the headlights. Must be a local looking to scrap,'cause they're gaining fast.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- It's just after 4:00 AMand you're driving down the mountainin your sick competition yellow FD RX7,after a long night of preppingfor a race next weekend.Race? Pfft, the race willbe over before it begins.You check your mirrorto admire your perfect90's JDM cute boy haircut.That's when you notice the headlights.Must be a local looking to scrap,'cause they're gaining fast."Nice driving," you say to yourself.But after two corners,I won't even see you in my mirror.You downshift and punch the go pedal,shooting a fireball out of your tailpipe.Whoosh!Then you heel toe into second,give it the beans and driftthrough a right hander.Much to your surprise,you're in a tandem drift with an 86?How the heck is this jalopykeeping up with your finelytuned roadway racing machine?And the driver is yawning?No way, he must be screaming'cause now he's passingyou in the breaking zonefor a hairpin.Hey dummy, you got a death wish?Then something crazy happens.(tires squeal)The Toyota pulls off aperfect inertia driftthrough the hairpin like a rally pro.Who is this guy?Colin McRae?And just like that he's gone.Did you just see a ghost?Well, what we just sawwas a scene from a Japanese cartoonwhose influence runs so deepit almost single-handedlybrought drifting to America.(engines rev)And what if I told you this cartoonwas inspired by a realunderground street racing scene.And its main characterwas based on a real personwhose passion for drivingturned the automotive world sideways.Who the heck is this real person?And how much crud will hebe in if the cops see this?This is everything you need to knowto get up to speed on "Initial D."(cars hum)(upbeat music)A big thanks to carparts.comfor sponsoring today's video.- Are you done yet cousin James?- Not quite yet, bud, still working on it.My cousin clumsy Carl is very excitedabout Halloween this year.And if he goes out trick or treating,even though he's a grown man,that means I get four to sixhours of peace and quiet.I've been dreaming of this for months.- Hurry up cousin, Iwant everyone to see my costume!- And since he'll be driving at night,I had to do something aboutthese old busted headlights.Lucky for me, there's carparts.com.They make it quick and easy tofind the parts that you needwhen you need 'em, includingbrand new headlights.All right, bud, I'm done. You ready Carl?- Who on the goat'sgreen earth is Carl?Ask Michael if he's ready.- Okay, weird.Michael, are you ready to go?♪ I'm a hurricane, I'mbringing thunder and ♪(head thumps)Ah.(bell dings)(toolbox rattles)(sledgehammer thunks)Are we serious?- Gee whiz cousin, that was scary.- Well, you know, Halloween is scary.- It is?'Cause Meema said it was all about candyand dressing up like Michael McDowell.- It's one of our weirdestfamily traditions.So whether you're doinga complete overhaulor just installing new headlights,carparts.com will getyour vehicle looking goodand running like newwithout breaking the bank.So head over to carparts.com today.- You know what cousin?I don't think I'm going to gotrick or treating this year.I'm gonna stay and hang out with you.- Great!- You know, I heard if youlink up Sorcerer's Stoneand Certified Lover Boy, it's a real trip.- "Initial D" was created in 1995by award-winning Japanesecomic book artistShuichi Shigeno.Set in 1990 X, "InitialD" foes 18 year oldTakumi Fujiwara's evolutionfrom drowsy tofu food delivery boyto determined downhill street raceron the twisty mountain roadsof Japan's Kanto region.(tires squeal)On the touge, our hero Takumiascends to legendary statusrace by race defeatingincreasingly intimidating driversin a dream list of JDM carsmuch more capable thanhis Toyota AE86 Trueno.As an 86 owner myself, let me tell you,you'd need crazy skillsto beat most of these carsin an 86.At its core, "Initial D"is a classic underdog tale.No one would give a crudabout Takumi if he skyline.The 86 has faults, strengths, limitationsand quirks of character, i.e. personality.♪ Pop up up and down headlights ♪It's as much the heroof the story as he is.And the prices right now reflect that.This one just sold for$40,000 on Bring A Trailer.It's a Corolla from the eighties!For an 18 year old kid,Takumi's supernaturallygifted behind the wheel.And that's all thanks to his dad.He delivers tofu to a hotelat the top of the MountAkina every morningin the 86, and has sincehe learned to drivein the seventh grade!To protect his livelihoodfrom sloshing to bits in the trunk,Takumi's father Bunta taught him to drivewith a cup of water in the cup holder,asking him not to spill a drop.It's not easy, but he gets the hang of it.Then he starts to drive faster and faster.And by the time we enterthe world of "Initial D,"18 year old Takumi Fujiwarais the fastest driveron the Akina touge, evenif he doesn't know it.- Do you even know whatdrift is Mr. Shore?- Weird origin story, right?Doesn't it seem strangely specific?Hmm.Let me introduce you to our main characterback in the real-world,Mr. Keiichi Tsuchiya.He's a famous Japanese racing driver,motor sports promoter and TV personality.And he's as synonymous withdrifting and the Toyota 86as Takumi is, which is saying something.Tsuchiya's known as the Drift King.And he worked as aconsultant on "Initial D,"both the manga and the anime.And that's why the technicalaspects are so on point.There are entire pages dedicatedto car specs in the manga.And in the anime, eachcar sounds distinctlylike it's real world counterpart.(car hums)Which is more than like the"Fast and Furious" can say.In fact, "Initial D" is themain inspiration for this show.Basically, every episodeis just explaining howa different car works.The realism and attention to detailplayed a huge part in InitialD's explosion in popularity.I'm gonna say it all right?Without Tsuchiya,"Initial D" probablywouldn't exist at all.Because Tsuchiya was much morethan a technical consultant,dare I say he was theinspiration for "Initial D."Now, the creator of "Initial D"has never directly confirmedthat he based the series on Tsuchiya'strue coming of age story,but the parallels are fricking staggering.I don't have a law degree, butI'm going to make the case.Okay?Exhibit A your honor, KeiichiTsuchiya learned to drivewhile making deliveriesfor the family businessjust like Takumi Fujiwara.Young Tsuchiya wasn't delivering tofu,but the die cast metal inthe back of his delivery carcould do some serious fricking damagebopping around on the curvy mountain road.So he had to learn how to drive smoothly.Keiichi Tsuchiya was born in 1956in Tomi, Nagano prefecture, just 15 milesfrom one of Japan's most legendarydriving roads, Usui Pass.Unlike Takumi, who didn'tgive a soft F about racingbefore his dad basicallyforced him into it,Tsuchiya loved racing from an early age.He grew up watching his hero,Kunimitsu Takahashi slide his Skyline GTRaround the circuitsof the All Japan Touring Car Championship.Now this was the late sixtiesand even the best bias plytires of the day didn't gripfor poop.So drifting was an effectivetechnique around the track.And Takahashi was a master.His sideways stylecaptivated young Tsuchiyawho knew then and therethat he was going tobe a racing car driver.Personally, I knew that Iwas going to work at Donutfrom a very young age when adog told me in a parking lot.(dog barks)How did it know?He just knew.As you might expect,growing up so close toa legendary mountainalso influenced Tsuchiya's racing dreams.Street racers, or hashiriyaas they're called in Japan,came from far and wideto attack the Usui tougein the wee hours of the morning.Close your eyes for a second, all right?Don't really, cause it's a video,but imagine all those gloriouswide open throttle wailsreverberating off the side of the mountainacross the valley.And the young Tsuchiya'scracked open bedroom window,probably got paper walls and stuff,night after night, year after year.And with all that high performance howlingburrowing into his sleeping,young subconscious,Tsuchiya was fated intothe street racing life.Time flies by, as she tends todo, she is a fickle mistress.And wouldn't you knowit, he's a teenager now.And he's got a driver'slicense and a need for speed!He's got to kick sometires and light some fires!But even in the recklessdays of adolescence,he knew that his local passwas nothing to crud with, all right?You don't crud with the Usui Pass!Don't crud with it!Take it from me.You can crud with a lot of passes.If you try and crud thisspecific pass when you're young,you're going to get a crud up the bud.You gonna get your butt all crudded!And you know what you don't want?Get your crud buddedwhen you're too young,that's for adults.Only adults should get their crud budded,and only if they want to.Okay?So this pass that youdon't want to crud withis made up of more than 180 cornerson 7 1/2 miles of road.To be in beginner here is a death wish,so young Tsuchiya trained onthe more forgiving mountainroads nearby.And after four yearsof dedicated training,including a near fatal wreck,he finally made his street racing debutafter the relentlesslytechnical Usui touge.He quickly rose in the ranksbecoming one of the best driverson the whole fricking mountain,which brings me to exhibit B your honor,Keiichi Tsuchiya is a touge legend,just like Takumi Fujiwara.Word of Tsuchiya's prowesson the touge spreadand racers from all over the regioncame to challenge him and his buddieson their home turf, justlike in "Initial D."And just like Takumi,Keiichi was a force to be reckoned with,only he didn't drive an 86,because they weren't made yet.He drove a Skyline 2000 GT,or as I like to call it a Skyline 2gt.Follow the money, 2000GT, touge.In "Initial D"Takumi didn't so muchchoose the racing lifeas it chose him.The driver of that yellowRX7 he dusted on his way homefrom a delivery was kind of a big deal.His name was Keisuke Takahashi,second in command of the Akagi RedSuns,a deadly serious street racing teamknown for bug cruding racersin cold, calculated fashion.The RedSuns planned to do exactly that,to Takumi's friends,the Akina Speed Stars.But, in the surprise battlewith what he calls thephantom 86 of Akina,Keisuke found his ideal challenger.- No way am I going to let this stand.- So he put out a callto this mysterious driverto battle him on the Akinadownhill the next weekend!Takumi shows up,but only because his dadwouldn't let him borrow the carfor a date unless he winsthe race, which he does,but it wasn't easy.In fact, it was the first time Takumihad to try at anything in a long time.A switch flips somewhere inside of himand word of the Akina 86 spreads acrossJapan's street racing scene.Now Tak gradually embraces racing,battling increasingly advanced driversand JDM cars to defend hisrecord on Mount Haruna.Uh, don't you mean Mount Akina?Oh, did I say Mount Haruna?I meant to say Mount Akina,not a super big deal though,because they're the same place.So Usui Pass isn't theonly "Initial D" locationpulled from the real world.Does this road looked familiar?If you're an "Initial D" fan it should.This is Mount Akina in real life,aka Mount Haruna.Uh, hello airplanes, oneexpress ticket to Japan.Uh, make that two tickets.Uh, actually I'm goingto go with my girlfriend.So I figured it'd be kind of weirdif you third wheeled the whole time.Plus I got medically fat elbows,so you prolly don'twant to sit next to me.All right.Basically all of "Initial D"is set in real places in Japan.Takumi's hometown City-S isShibukawa city in real life.Here's the freaking gasstation he worked at.Even little details like theweird swan boats on Lake Akinaare real.Now sadly,the tofu shop that theymodeled the Fujiwara shop afterwas torn down in 2010 to clearspace for new development.But the iconic signboard was savedand is on display at a museum.Tsuchiya's reputation as a touge terrorspread to Japan'sprofessional racing teams,who were intrigued enough to try him out.And in 1977 he made his pro racing debutin the Fuji Freshmen Series,which brings me to exhibit C your honor,Keiichi Tsuchiya isfamous for drifting an 86,just like a certain Mr. Takumi Fujiwara.Keiichi Tsuchiya's proracing career didn't take offuntil he got behind thewheel of the right machine.And he met his vehicular soulmate in 1984.I'm talking about the Toyota AE86,an affordable, back then, lightweight,rear wheel drive sports carpowered by a high revving1.6 liter dual overhead caminline four cylinderscreamer coded for a GE.Tsuchiya's first 86 wasthe number two ADVANmotor sports Carrot Sprinter Trueno.And he ripped that Carrotto eight victories in 1984'sFuji Freshman Series.He was an absolute animalbehind the wheel of that 86,obliterating Skylines inthe class above him so oftenthat Nismo demanded racingofficials examine his carfor signs of cheating.They found nothing of course.But race fans did find something,and that something was a hero.♪ I could be your hero baby ♪♪ I can take away your pain ♪♪ I would stand by you forever ♪♪ You can take my breath away ♪Now he was out front so often,he took to throwing outa long elegant driftsto keep spectators entertained.It worked and people wentwild for his sideways antics.And the sincerely titled "CARBOY" magazinegave him a nickname, Dorikin,which translates to Drift King.A lesser erotic soundingJapanese car magazinenoticed Tsuchiya'sflashy driving style too."Option" magazine'sfounder Daijiro GoGo Inadafound a carboy in the Drift King.Now, Inada really doesn'thave a parallel characterin "Initial D," but he's almost as crucialto its creation as Tsuchiya is.His publications "Option,Option 2" and "Video Option"introduced car enthusiasts across Japanto the street racing lifestyle.Inada was a street racer himself.In fact, the first issue of "Option"featured a supercontroversial cover pictureof a guy street racing.And despite his growingsuccess on the pro circuit,Tsuchiya was still activeon that touge scene.Inada knew this and proposed an idea.What if they made a video of him driving?So Gogo Inada, Tsuchiya theDrift King and "CARBOY" magazineteamed up with Kala Sports Suspensionand a tuning firm called Pluspyto produce three direct to VHS filmsthat would alter the autoenthusiast landscape forever.We're talking about the firstreplayable drifting videos.This is a big fricking stuff.This is like the first videos!The videos were titled, The Touge,The Touge Part 2 and West of Sendai.But they're collectively known as Pluspy.It's beautiful and blatantly illegal.It actually earns Tsuchiyaa temporary suspensionof his competition licensefor racing on public roads.All unsold copies were pulledfrom the shelves in response,but it was too late 'causethe stoke was already loose.Nolan had a loose stoke one time,we gave him some milk of magnesia,cleared it right up.Pluspy with an assist from"Option" and "CARBOY" magazinesintroduced the magic ofdrifting to greater Japankicking off the outlawed goldenage depicted in "Initial D."Now, when "Initial D" debuted in 1995as a serialized comic inTokyo's weekly "Young" magazine,drifting was alreadya bonafide phenomenon.It wasn't meant to betaken seriously at first,but the gorgeous artwork,relatable coming of age storylineand attention to technicaldetail sucked readers in.Weekly "Young" magazinewas aimed at Japanese malesin their teens and early twenties,a good portion of whom also read "Option"and watch DK's drift videos.When the magazine publisherput this all together,they asked "Initial D"'s creatorsto expand the series intoan ongoing manga saga.And the manga successmotivated and anime seriesadaptation in 1998,which blew up like my Dmsafter I posted that pictureof me and Drake on Instagramgetting wild in Ibiza.Check it out, it's fricking cool.It's got a million likes.It's on my Instagram @jamespumphrey.Just keep scrolling, it's there.Drifting and "Initial D"landed on American shoresat roughly the same timein the early 2000's.LA-based anime distributorTokyopop nabbed the rightsfor English distribution in 2002.The show and the mangagained immediate tractionwith Western car enthusiasts.But the Tokyopop releaseswere, shall we say,not totally representativeof the original work.The anime's iconic eurobeat soundtrackwas replaced with abunch of goofy rap songsperformed by Tokyopop's CEO.We have a CEO, and hedoesn't rap on anything.In fact, it's very weird fora CEO to rap on anything,unless you're Jay Z, he's a CEO.He can rap on stuff.The Japanese translationswere also pretty iffy.And the magnificent Tsuchiyasource technical detailswere badly botched.If you guys have been watchingthis show for a while,let's just say, I understand.It's hard to get everything right.In response, frustrated multilingual fansreleased their own fansubswith better translations,more accurate technical descriptionsand the soon to be memedeurobeat soundtrack intact.(electronic music)Back in the day, thiswas the stuff to get.For many American car enthusiasts,myself included in the early 2000's,"Initial D" was theirfirst exposure to drifting.What was this intoxicatingvehicular balletour friends to the east performedwith such violence and grace?It's like "Initial D" anddrifting was filling a holethat we didn't even know existed.We wanted more, we needed more.So we, young car enthusiasts,buzzing and bleary-eyedfrom too much Adderalland Bawls energy drinkfueled anime binges loggedonto the same internetthat bestowed upon us the book of Takumi.Clicked over to Yahoo,the best search engine,and typed in drifting.And holy hucconay, there it was.Best Motoring, Hot Version,D1 Grand Prix driftingbrought to you by your friendand mine, Keiichi Tsuchiya.He had his hand in all of that stuff.In 2003, a year after InitialD's official English release,Tsuchiya's D1 Grand Prix heldits first event in the states,debuting to a sold outcrowd at Irwindale Speedwayin California.This is one of the coolestthings to watch, Google it.It's awesome.You can see drifting come to America.The Hollywood noticed of course,and capitalized on the drifting crazein 2006's "The Fast andFurious Tokyo Drift."Tsuchiya even made acameo in "Tokyo Drift"as a random fishermen crud talkingthat kid with the weirdforehead's terrible skids.It's a very cool nod to the OG.I don't think there's any needto go into drifting's popularity in 2021.It's everywhere.Everyone knows the word.Keiichi Tsuchiya arguablyinfluenced modern car culturemore than any singular personfor like the past 35 years.But he couldn't have doneit without "Initial D."All right, so compare a listof the most popular JDM carsin America to the "Initial D" roster.And while you're atit, compare that rosterto the first season of "Up To Speed."Out of all those incredibly cool cars,why did they pick the 86 for the hero car?The simple answer, they loved it.But love falls well shortof Tsuchiya's relationshipwith this chassis.So let's overshoot and say that Tsuchiyarealized his destiny in anAE86 and never forgot that.His enduring love forthis car made it an icon.And though he sat behind the wheelof many objectively bettercars in his racing career,including the Toyota GT1,which he drove to second overallat the '99 24 Hours of Le Mans.He always came back to the 86.He explains his affection for the carthe same way that Buntadoes in "Initial D.""It's a car that helps polishand refine your driving."And in this way the 86is an ideal partner.It's attractive, reliable,and pushes you to better yourself.It shows you your limits andhelps you to move past them.All those same qualities make the AE86a fantastic literal plot device.Ultimately "Initial D" chroniclesTakumi's evolving relationshipwith a car as human as he is.That's what makes the end ofthe series so bittersweet.I'm not going to spoil it for you,because if you haven't watched it,I really think you should.We deliberately kept plotdetails to an absolute minimum,because I really wantyou guys to enjoy thisas much as I did.And also read the manga,it's very, very good.Are you hungry for more high level merch?Well, have I got a shirt for you.Yota's Tacos, they're thedirtiest tacos around.Get it in black, get it in whiteor get 'em both because they're only 29.99at donutmedia.com.♪ Give me the beans at Yota's Tacos ♪If you don't get the jokealready go back to school.But Toyota Tacoma, Yota's Tacos.They're the trucks we drive on high low.I really like this design.More to come. Donutmedia.comThank you so much for watching this videoand everything else on Donut.Make sure you don't miss anything.Hit that subscribe button.Hit the like button to helpme hack the YouTube algorithm.It really does help us out.We have a bunch, a bunch, a bunch, a bunchof new merch coming.We're really working hardon upping our merch gameacross the board.To get some go to donutmedia.comand join our mailing listand we'll send you an emailevery time something new drops.But we won't send you too many emails.I love you.