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I like the series ever since I was a freshman at college. Students involved in anime stuff brought different series every week to my college's student center, and one evening I was studying for some exam until I heard some J-pop music; then I peeked at the big screen there and saw some anime figures and then a super-realistic image of a 1983 Toyota Corolla GTS liftback. I thought to myself: What is this thing about? Then I saw further into the series and saw drifting cars. But the most outstanding thing was that the cars appeared photo-realistic, when I then realizes they were relying on 3D graphics to simulate the cars. That's what got me into Initial D. I attempted to rent it at my nearest Blockbuster but found it always missing (or rented out), so I never got a chance to rent it on my own until I went to Dallas TX on some coop practice and subscribed to Netflix. Then I really got my chance to rent Initial D.

But then I discovered an awful thing: The English dub by Tokyopop got rid of the series' Eurobeat-style music by m.o.v.e and instead inserted its own local crappy hip-hop by some unknown DJ Milky with no known album on the market. Solution: Whenever you start playing any episode, set it to Japanese audio to listen to m.o.v.e's awesome opening; then when the opening's over, switch back to English if you want to listen to the dialogs without having to read subtitles. Then when the episode's over and the credits are about to start rolling, switch again to Japanese to listen to m.o.v.e (eps 1-13) or Galla (14-26), then back to English to listen the next ep's preview, then repeat the same cycle for the next episode(s).

Although there was a lot of naughty sexually-implicit content, the plot 'per se' is very interesting & sincere. Too bad its sequels don't compare with this one; this one was very sincere, while the sequels were naughtier & not so well executed in my opinion.

It's still a movie not recommended for young audiences; it's still an R-rated film because of its implicit sexual content. Besides, there's also a little male-butt nudity which might drive some girls crazy. Although I don't approve pre-marital sex (which was a main subject here), the story itself is very remarkable.

Enjoy!

This Caroline Link masterpiece deserves to be exported to the USA. Why? It can easily fall into the Kids & Family section in the USA, unlike Astrid Lindgren's films which often pack quite a punch of child nudity (remember Madicken/Madita? Even Pippi Longstocking had to be edited before being brought to the States).

This film was directed by the same gal who filmed the intense/suspenseful "Nirgendwo in Afrika" (Nowhere in Africa); besides, the same main actress of the latter, Juliane Köhler, also appears here as lovely Pünktchen's mother Bettina Pogge. Whereas Nowhere in Africa is not recommended in the USA for all ages (remember Köhler's topless & sex scenes and little Lea Kurka's nude buttocks?), having snatched instead an R rating, Pünktchen & Anton is absolutely safe for everybody; it can easily snatch either a G or a PG rating.

My favorite scene is Anton's own thrilling stunt driving the poor Volkswagen Microbus (risky, right? Kids aren't supposed to drive cars for real, but that didn't even deter Max Felder from performing his own major-league driving stunt). I think that stunt is unique in the cinematographic class (in most movies, children never really get the chance to drive cars during filming, but stunts-men do).