== A memorable moment from *Initial D*

[[Author has recently been watching *Initial D* with enthusiasm
http://ani-nouto.animeblogger.net/2013/02/05/initial-d-s1-01-11/]] and
reading his reactions has been giving me flashbacks to the days when
[[one of the anime clubs here GTOAnimevsLiveAction]] showed us the first
three stages. Several bits and pieces from the series have stuck with
me over the years since then. The most distinctly memorable one is a
moment very early on in the first season and probably when I fell for
the series, partly because it was surprisingly subtle for an anime.

(Based on [[the list of Initial D episodes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Initial_D_episodes]], it's probably
from the first episode.)

*Initial D* starts off with the familiar anime scenario of the hidden
badass; in this case Takumi (our protagonist) is secretly a really good
driver and racer but none of his peers know it. At one point, Iketani
(the leader of the local street racers) takes Takumi and Itsuki (our
comedy relief secondary character) for a fast drive up the mountain in
his hot car to basically show off. Itsuki is in seventh heaven (he looks
up to Iketani) but Takumi is visibly almost-terrified on the drive up,
to the point where Itsuki ribs him about it when they get to the top.

What *Initial D* did really well was show and convince us that Iketani
was actually not a good driver and his fast drive was pretty sloppy.
Takumi was rightfully scared because he actually understood what was
going on and how dangerous it was; Iketani was oblivious. The *Initial
D* anime staged this scene well enough that a non-driver like me could
really get Iketani's true skill level while at the same time it avoided
making him so obviously terrible that Itsuki's ignorance would ring
hollow. It was believable both that Iketani was not good *and* that he
and Itsuki didn't understand it, and in the process the show reinforced
Takumi as someone who did know what he was doing.

It would have been easy for the show to overplay this scene in a lot of
directions (making Iketani's driving too bad, making Takumi's reactions
to it too extreme, and so on). That the show didn't, that it played
things reasonably subtly because it was confident that the audience
would catch on, was a big point in its favour when I watched it way back
when.

(I was reminded of this by Author's [[recent
https://twitter.com/ani_nouto/statuses/300055971219247104]]
[[tweets
https://twitter.com/ani_nouto/statuses/300056158864044032]]
about another bit of physical humor from the show.)