Initial D Omnibus #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeInitial D Omnibus #2 carries forward one of the most consequential arguments in Shuichi Shigeno's street-racing saga: that raw horsepower and grip technique cannot automatically overpower a driver who has spent years learning a mountain's every curve from the inside out. The volume deepens Takumi Fujiwara's competitive identity beyond the single-course wunderkind of the opening arc, raising the question of whether his skills are genuinely transferable — a tension that will drive the series for decades. It also formally introduces Shingo Shoji and his dangerously aggressive Duct Tape Death Match format, escalating the stakes from racing to outright survival, and begins sketching Itsuki Takeuchi's comedic subplot that keeps the human stakes grounded. As part of the 2024 omnibus initiative — the first physical, widely distributed English edition of Initial D in more than a decade — it represents a deliberate re-canonization of the series for Western readers, complete with a translation unburdened by the Tokyopop-era name changes and editorial compromises.
ComicBooks.com Value
Find on ebay
Where to buy
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Shuichi Shigeno began serializing Initial D in Kodansha's Weekly Young Magazine on July 17, 1995, drawing on his own ownership of a Toyota AE86 Trueno and drawing supervision from professional drift pioneer Keiichi Tsuchiya. The material collected in Omnibus #2 — original volumes 3 and 4 — first appeared in that serialization during 1996. After Tokyopop's English license expired in 2009 without completing the run, the manga went without an English print edition for fifteen years. Kodansha USA announced the new 2-in-1 omnibus line at Anime Expo 2023, launching it with a fresh translation by Kevin Steinbach and redesigned covers by Phil Balsman; Omnibus #2 was the second volume released in that program, arriving in print on June 25, 2024.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Collects original Initial D volumes 3 and 4 in a single large-format paperback; print ISBN 9798888770993, released June 25, 2024, by Kodansha Comics USA.
- Written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno, creator of Bari Bari Densetsu (winner of the 9th Kodansha Manga Award, shōnen category, 1985); original manga serialized in Weekly Young Magazine, 1995–2013.
- Professional racing driver and drifting pioneer Keiichi Tsuchiya served as editorial supervisor on the original manga series.
- Central match of the volume pits Takumi Fujiwara's specially tuned Toyota AE86 Trueno against Takeshi Nakazato's Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II (BNR32), framing a thematic debate between grip technique and drift skill that recurs throughout the series.
- Nakazato — leader of the Myogi NightKids and the first antagonist to champion pure grip driving over drifting — makes his formal racing debut here; his R32 is identified as the first Nissan Skyline GT-R introduced in the series.
- Shingo Shoji of the NightKids also appears, introducing the Duct Tape Death Match format (both drivers tape one hand to the wheel), one of the series' most memorable race concepts.
- Itsuki Takeuchi's subplot — purchasing what he believes is an AE86 Trueno but turns out to be the lower-spec AE85 Levin — begins in this volume, providing ongoing comic counterpoint to Takumi's growth.
- Features a brand-new English translation and lettering (by Kevin Steinbach) and newly designed cover art (by Phil Balsman), replacing the Tokyopop-era translation that had altered character names and contained documented errors.
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.