Editing Initial D (section)

==Plot==
{{hatnote|"Takumi Fujiwara (character)" redirects here. This is also the name of an unrelated character in [[Dear Boys]].}}
[[File:Initial D Keisuke vs Takumi.jpg|thumb|left|The first battle of the series, Keisuke Takahashi ([[Mazda RX-7#FD|FD3S]]) vs. Takumi Fujiwara ([[Toyota AE86|AE86]]), as seen in the anime]]
<!--The AE86 was in production between 1983 and 1987. As the manga mentions that the AE86 being a "10-year-old" car. According to the anime, the first episode takes places in the summer of 1996-->

Takumi Fujiwara is a student working as a gas station attendant with his best friend Itsuki in his hometown in [[Gunma Prefecture]]. Itsuki is enthusiastically interested in being a street racer. The team he feels closest to and hopes to join is the Akina Speed Stars, whose team leader Koichiro Iketani is also working at the same pump station. Unbeknownst to his colleagues, Takumi helps out his father Bunta as a delivery driver for his father's [[tofu]] store, passively building skill behind the wheel of the family car, an aging [[Toyota AE86|Toyota Sprinter Trueno]] (AE86).

Shortly after the story begins, the Red Suns, a highly experienced racing team from [[Mount Akagi]] led by Ryosuke Takahashi, challenge the local Speed Stars team to a set of races on [[Mount Akina]]. Dispirited after watching the Red Suns' superior performance during a practice run, the Speed Stars expect to lose. Later that night, the Red Suns' #2 driver, Keisuke Takahashi, heading home after the last practice run, is defeated soundly by a mysterious Sprinter Trueno, despite driving a much more powerful [[Mazda RX-7]] (FD3S). An investigation into the identity of the driver leads to Bunta Fujiwara, Takumi's father. While trying to do his best for the team on Mount Akina, Iketani suffers a crash and is unable to take part in the race. Iketani begs Bunta to help the Speed Stars defeat the Red Suns, who refuses, but later recruits Takumi for the race. Takumi easily defeats Keisuke by utilizing a dangerous "gutter run" technique (putting both the left/right tires into the gutters to prevent [[centrifugal force]] from pushing the car outward) on the mountain road's [[Hairpin turn|hairpin corners]].

The Red Suns' embarrassing defeat sets up the plot for the rest of the series: drivers from neighboring prefectures come to challenge Takumi and the "Legendary Eight-Six of Akina" and thus prove themselves as racers. Meanwhile, Takumi becomes more passionate about racing with every opponent he faces. However, soon Takumi faces a threat in the form of Emperors, a team that uses [[Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution]]s. Takumi's old AE86 is no match and he loses to the team's leader, Sudo Kyoichi (Evo III), blowing his engine. The Akagi RedSuns come to the rescue and defeat both Seiji and Kyoichi, thus securing the pride of Gunma's racers. Meanwhile, Bunta replaces the AE86's blown engine with a new one. Wataru Akiyama and Koichiro Iketani help Takumi to figure out why he is unable to control his car. Takumi soon faces graduation, but continues racing, even facing off and defeating Wataru Akiyama, whose car is the other version of the AE86, the 'Levin'. He eventually defeats Kyoichi in a rematch at his home course, the Nikko Irohazaka. He also defeats the son of Bunta's old rival, who drives a [[Toyota MR2|Toyota MR2 (SW20)]]. At one point, Takumi's girlfriend Natsuki is kidnapped, only for Takumi to come to the rescue in Lake Akina during winter time. They eventually break up, but promise to meet again soon.

Eventually, Takumi becomes bored with racing and winning solely on Mt. Akina. He joins an expedition racing team, Project D, formed by Ryosuke and Keisuke Takahashi, and challenges more difficult opponents on their home courses in the pursuit of his dream to be "the fastest driver out there". At one point, impostors in the form of Takumi and Keisuke try to defame Project D, Wataru comes to help and they dispatch the impostors, revealing them in front of the public. Also, while making tofu deliveries, Takumi is defeated by a mysterious [[Subaru Impreza WRX STI]], but after finding out the driver is his father, he must learn the characteristics of 4WD in order to better himself. Project D races against teams like Team Seven Star Leaf, students and a graduated pro racer from Todo Racing School, Northern Saitama Alliance, a second Lancer Evolution team at Tsuchisaka who resort to cheating to win, Team Purple Shadow, Team 246, the Kanagawa Racing Alliance, Team Spiral, and Team Sidewinder. During this, Takumi falls in love with another girl named Mika Uehara, and Ryosuke deals with an old rival that he previously had a falling out with the latter's girlfriend who eventually committed suicide. The expedition of Project D ends spectacularly with a race between Takumi Fujiwara and Shinji Inui of Team Sidewinder, two evenly matched drivers, where Takumi blows his engine again, but steps on the clutch and wins the race by rolling backwards over the finish line. He then decides to put his AE86 on a complete rest from operating for the best (but in the anime he decommissioned the AE86 from racing but decides to keep it and slowly repair it with his own money). Ryosuke disbands Project D and later reveals the meaning of the Initial "D" and starts training other potential drivers under him to pursue his dream. Keisuke becomes a professional race car driver whereas Takumi continues delivering tofu in his father's [[Subaru Impreza]].

In the years that followed, Takumi would then pursue a career in rally racing and becomes a world champion legendary rally race car driver; this would lead to the events of ''[[MF Ghost]]'', another manga by Shuichi Shigeno.