You probably started watching MF Ghosthttps://anilist.co/anime/143327/MFGHOST/ because you liked Initial Dhttps://anilist.co/anime/185/InitialD1stStage/ and you might be here to understand why its not holding a candle to its predecessor. Well its 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? Lets dissect what weve learned from the first season of the anime adaptation. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/952570206390218843/1186031817262895124/1.gif Of course its challenging to discuss MF Ghost without mentioning Initial D or drawing comparisons between the two. Lets address that first. MF Ghost is not Initial D youll 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. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/952570206390218843/1186031818084986950/2.gif Kanata Rivington or with his fathers family name Kanata Katagiri is a newcomer to the worldrenowned fictional racing series MFG which is held in nearfuture 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 mothers death. Kanata moves in with his mothers 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 well 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 cars power output must have a onetoone ratio to its grip. Thats the only rule that matters and is conceptualized by Ryosuke Takahashi the main antagonist from Initial D. Takahashi is not the only familiar name youll 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 Kanatas racing instructor and mentor. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/952570206390218843/1186031818743496744/3.gif This provides a perfect segue into MF Ghosts problems. Youll often feel that the story is heavily relying on Initial D making it exponentially difficult to separate them. Its 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 dads 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 exracer 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 nowlegendary 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 Im 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 whos a bit tsundere falls instantly for the ikemen Kanata shes also an undercover sex object for the sweaty racers. Rens father who not only does not care her daughter being a sex object but also watches her butt closeups. Theres Ogata the comic relief and Aiba Shun the big brother who is also in love with MFG angel Ren aka Number 7chan. 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 Germanmade cars. He happens to be German himself big surprise eh? We also have a selfproclaimed 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 closeup 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. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/952570206390218843/1186031820542853171/6.gif But Jerkov you say this is a car racing show and its not surprising that everything not related to racing is weak. Unfortunately you my friend are very right. Youll 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 Im one of them https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/952570206390218843/1186031819884343427/5.gif The racing in this series I must admit is great. Its 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 cant 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. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/952570206390218843/1186031819267772416/4.gif In conclusion MF Ghost unfortunately falls facefirst with nearly everything it throws at you. I cant 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 muchbeloved predecessor. With that said just like Initial D MF Ghosts intergender relationships feel like theyre written by someone who has no idea about them. Its pretty hard to watch the stiff personalities of the characters. However the art style is pretty unique its a new take on the classic art style of Initial D and I must say its one of the better art styles that Ive seen so far portraying facial features of Japanese people and people of other ethnicities. Other than that its 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.