By Robert Emslie
Wangan Middonaito is a Japanese manga series – graphic novels to you and me – written and illustrated by Michiharu Kusunoki. The stories are about the street racing – very fast and extremely furious – that takes place on Tokyo’s Shuto Expressway, called by the locals the Wangan.
So popular is the series that it has propagated TV shows, video games, and this awesome live action movie about a high school kid who discovers in a junk yard the mythical “Devil Z” and decides to restore it. There’s driving action up the wazoo, and magic as well as the blue S30 remarkably changes from a 2+2 to a 2-seater during its rehabilitation. Also pretty magical is the hair of the protagonist’s best friend.
Your Saturday matinee is but a click away.
[youtube width=”720″ height=”504″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAK1yQ08aCw[/youtube]
Source: YouTube
Jeff Glucker
Anyone know where to find a subbed version? Don't tell me to use Youtube subtitles!
Order from Japan! Many new shows releasing on DVD/BD are now equipped with English language subtitles. Due to the rapacious pricing of secondary market vultures, it is now cheaper to order numerous Japanese animated shows directly from Japan in BD collections than it is to purchase the US market DVDs.
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrright here:
[youtube HzgwIVg56hM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzgwIVg56hM youtube]
I've stumbled upon a few anime clips; didn't know there was an actual movie.. Might have to watch it tomorrow.
It's about time I watched the Megalopolis Expressway Trial / Freeway Speedway movies and all of Initial D again. Except the Hong Kong made Initial D live action movie; it had some nice driving but the characters were too different and it generally just sucked.
I don't know how I managed this but I somehow was unaware of the existence of Initial D 5th Stage until a few days ago. Will be giving that a run through soon. Never seen the live action but I heard the same, wasn't that great.
The Wangan Midnight anime is pretty good.
Sadly it looks like the original DVDs are incomplete from the Japanese market vendors, so I'll be waiting a little while longer for a BD reissue. At least I've got my ZOIDS and Cyber Formula BD collections to tide me over, yippee!
Watched it. Enjoyed it. Made me want to buy a Z (which I've always loved anyway). Thank you for posting this!