Initial D is a strange show for me, I am not really into cars or street racing and I tend to have a bias towards stories with high stakes but watching Initial D from 1st Stage all the way to 3rd Stage was a surprisingly an enjoyable and engaging time. However, the Project D sections of the show especially past 4th Stage were so dull, tedious, and monotonous that it makes Initial D a hard show to reccomend as a complete whole. If I were to reccomend the show, I'd say stop at 3rd Stage and ignore the Project D sections or go at your own volition while expecting a massive quality in writing drop by 5th Stage. I also watched Initial D 1st Stage 5 years ago while I am glad I watched 2nd and 3rd Stage but I always felt 1st Stage felt the most standalone of all the seasons to a major issue that I will mention later that shoots it in the foot for it engaging you long term. Anyway on to the review.
What makes 1st - 3rd Stage so engaging despite it being a show about something I don't care about is how the races are contextualized and how Initial D in many ways feels like a well structured video game. The show is basically about a teenage boy named Takumi Fuijiwara and some could find him to be a dull character, I find his personality in this part of the show to work for the coming of age themes that the series is going for, he's basically a bored teenager who is a very good driver that finds driving and cars so boring that what is interesting to his friends is dull and every day chores to him, and it works so well for how the races are contextualized. Another aspect about the show that helps contextualizes the races is his car the AE 86, it's a car that isn't that great and the characters and his rival racers will constantly chastise him for using, but this along with how much the show throws in new gimmicks in every race is what makes the show so engaging. The constant throwing in of new gimmicks in every race is what makes Inital D feel like the well structured video game like I said earlier. For example Takumi will race against Keisuke Takahashi who very much feels like the inductory level of a video game, then he races a car that is better than Keisuke's, then he will race in a car that is worse than his 86 and the cars he races are better than that, he will race in the rain, he will race in a course that he is unfamilar with, he will race with one arm taped on the steering wheel and then Ryosuke Takahashi feels like the final boss of sorts. Then there is how the races are presented, where the cars will race(with weird CGI), you will see the driver's internal monologues, then the bystanders will say a bunch of car lingo that will give the viewer a better idea of what is going on, and of course when the races really heat up the show will play it's iconic eurobeat music and it just makes the races even more energetic. These songs might be memed to death but they give the races so much energy that it's hard to picture the series without them. 1st and by extension 2nd and 3rd Stages aren't just races, they also help flesh out the characters and serves a breather inbetween every race. The biggest issue with 1st Stage and I alluded to this earlier is that Takumi beats Ryosuke in the final race of 1st Stage, this sort of works at making 1st Stage feel standalone but as a long running series, this is the worst thing you could do from writing standpoint, since now, Takumi has beaten the very best the street racing scene has to offer and if Takumi lost instead, you could potentially step up more seasons with Takumi learning how to be Ryosuke but instead now the series raises the stakes in rather silly ways with Takumi constantly racing pro racers and cars that are better than his 86 just for him to barely scrape by and the series will do this for the it's entire run. Takumi never loses clean once, when Takumi does "lose" it's due to unforseen circumstances than skill.
2nd and 3rd Stages are decent follow ups and it does expand on what 1st Stage does, and 2nd Stage does have Takumi "lose" but like I said before, it's due to unforseen circumstances rather than skill because of his engine blowing out. 3rd Stage feels more like an epilogue movie than a complete season and it works well for it. 2nd and 3rd Stage also does a good job at developing Natsuki as a character and she starts to grow on you which unfortunately the Project D sections of the show ignores. My only big issue with 3rd Stage is that Takumi's race with Kai Kogashiwa felt pointless and was only there because the movie needed one more race, I also felt Kai could've amounted to more in the series in general since Takumi and Kai's fathers are archrivals but it never amounts to more than a superhero beating up a jobber supervillain. 3rd Stage ends on a solid note and if the series ended here, I'd consider Initial D to be a good series, but no. Project D gets alluded to in 3rd Stage and instead of being left up to the imgination of the viewer, the Project D sections of the show plays out on what is basically a forced continuation of Takumi's story.
4th Stage is okay, but the season is only carried because of Keisuke Takahashi, he feels more like the underdog that the series wants Takumi to be since Keisuke did lose clean to the latter making him feel more believable. That and he's also the most honest character in the whole series, he doesn't want to have girlfriend because he knows he can't give her an honest relationship compare that to Takumi's friends where they whine about being single one minute and then claim "racers don't need girlfriends" the next and Takumi himself acting like Natsuki doesn't exist and then dating Mika a much less interesting love interest by comparison and it becomes more apparent Keisuke is the most honest and respectable character in the series by comparison to everyone else. Keisuke also feels even more like an underdog where at one point in the show he gets his car busted and needed to ride Kyoko's just to race. Outside of Keisuke, the season is just okay, the CGI for the races are better but it, just becomes a repetitive game of, "go to region, races guys there, win". The series' formula starts to become more obvious and the illusion slowly starts to shatter.
Now Fifth and Final Stage are by far the dullest parts of the show, I had force myself through these parts, basically where 4th Stage is okay because of Keisuke, now, the series is just race, after race, after race, where there isn't much character development and it's just the Project D crew going through the motions, and the races are one note and montonous too. They race, monologue, bystanders say car lingo, Keisuke and Takumi lose for a bit, then eurobeat plays and either they get the upper hand or win the race. Takumi's turning off the headlights might as well be his finishing move since he wins so many races using this tactic. The series, does try to throw in one wrench into the mix with Ryosuke having a love triangle with a girl in med school and one of the racers he is racing in the last region but it feels forced since this comes out of nowhere and enters into the realm of "pointless retconning". I don't mind retcons as long as it can add something to the characters or stories despite the lack of build up but this doesn't. It's a pointless sub plot and love triangle that adds nothing to the show other than pointless drama. I wouldn't mind this if Ryosuke did die and Project D would have to win a race without his guidance but the series doesn't commit to this and it comes off as all the more pointless. Sure it would be weird, if the series introduced murder for the first time, but I would prefer this over it adding nothing. This part is relatively disliked but I felt like it could've added more if not a whole lot considering how tedious this season was. Now Final Stage, it's basically one big race, and it's hard to get invested in any of it since the series' "final boss" is basically a teenager who has a hard on for Mako Sato a character who hasn't shown up for a while, everything this teenager does is to impress and after how many pro racers Takumi beats throughout the series, this is just disappointing, and it would've been better if Ryosuke was the final boss and everything Project D was for was to have a rematch with him.
Overall, if you do watch Initial D, stop at 3rd Stage and watch the Project D portions of the show at your own volition, anything after 3rd Stage depends on how much you like street racing and cars.
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