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2014's Initial D Car-Racing Anime Film Previewed in Pilot Video
posted on by Egan Loo
Production company avex entertainment began streaming a pilot video for Shin Gekijō-ban Initial D (New Initial D: The Movie) on Wednesday.
The pilot reveals that the film will open throughout Japan next August. SANZIGEN and LIDEN FILMS are animating the film. The pilot ends with the tagline, "In 2014, a new legend starts running." The "Young Magazine Dai Art Genga-ten 2013" event at Tokyo's Shibuya Hikarie complex screened early footage from the film in July.
Shūichi Shigeno's original manga follows Takumi Fujiwara, a high school boy with a natural talent for driving, in his racing pursuits on the public highways. The manga debuted in Kodansha's Young Magazine in 1995, and Shigeno ended the manga in July. It has over 48 million copies in circulation.
The manga inspired several television anime series (including the Fifth Stage that just ran last year), a live-action film, several original video anime projects, and a successful game line. The manga's final battles will also be adapted into a new anime series called Final Stage.
Update: LIDEN FILMS' spelling fixed. Thanks, Tratious
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