

With high school graduation right around the corner, Takumi Fujiwara has a lot on his mind and a lot to prepare for. Everything becomes even more complicated when Takumi is offered a spot on Ryosuke Takahashi's elite Kengai Racing Team, which seeks to assemble the greatest racers in the Gunma area for a tour of Japan's mountain passes. Before he can accept however, Takumi feels the need to settle the score with the Lancer Evo driving Emperor team, defend his downhill-racer crown against the son of his father's greatest rival, and finally settle things with his unfaithful girlfriend Natsuki.
Direction
CGI-enhanced drifting that actually aged better than it had any right to.
Sound
Eurobeat soundtrack that single-handedly defined an entire subculture.
Writing
Takumi's silent brooding somehow carries genuine emotional weight.
Director
Noboru Mitsusawa
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This film cemented touge racing in global car culture, directly inspiring the 'Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift' mountain sequences and countless real-life drift events.
The CGI drifting was controversial in 2001, but animators insisted traditional cel animation couldn't capture tire smoke physics realistically. Fans eventually embraced the hybrid style.
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