Video:

The animation (even the CG) and design has vastly improved from first stage so it looks much cleaner now and the cars and races look a whole lot cooler. The engine scene even looks great itself. However, some significant changes are that Ryousuke's hair color is now from black to brown and Keisuke's hair is done more differently.

Audio:

Better music. You're in for the best ED theme of your life, Kimi Ga Iru by Galla. And once again MOVE is back to provide the opening theme. And you're in for more Eurobeat that really sets the paces of the high octane racing action which defines Initial D.

Subtitle:

Very understandable and comprehensible. Didn't have any timing problems with it.

Comment:

Though very short, it does answer some questions and leaves itself open for a new sequel which is the movie, 3rd stage.

Video:

Taken from the Japanese R2 DVDs. Video is VERY good, except for some small pixelation (allmost none) and a bit of grain due to compression. The only REAL problem was a part that wasn't encoded right. I believe it was in the 2nd episode where <b>-SMALL SPOILER-</b> Nakazato races the EVO from the Emperors <b>-SMALL SPOILER-</b>. That scene had some wrong interlacing/framing-whatever, and it caused it too look like frames were mended together, and plays a bit choppy. But it only lasted for 1-2 minutes or so. Nothing too bad. This set also has the black 'drop-down' bar that shows up sometimes. If you're not paying attention, you probably won't notice. But if you're very picky, you might find this annoying. For those people the video might get a 4/5. I might place some screenshots later on. CG Scenes in the 2nd Stage look quite a lot better then the first, and they're shown perfectly on this set.

Audio:

Sounded perfect. Checked the 5.1 Dolby Surround for a little bit on my brothers set-up, and sounded it great. They use some very good surround sounds for the cars. On my on setup I use the Dolby Digital Stereo track, and that sounded very fine and powerfull too.

Subtitle:

Same as the first set. Allmost perfect rips from fansubs. I haven't noticed any real timing errors. The only thing might have been some misspellings (barely) or maybe a missing letter or so.

Comment:

Initial D, great series. That's all I have to say about it. I loved the 1st Stage, and the 2nd Stage is pretty cool too. I liked the first series a bit better, but that might have been because it was new to me then... But it also might have been because one of the biggest plot-twists had been spoiled for me on a message board :( The only thing I didn't really like about it now were the character designs. They looked a bit too computer drawn to me for some reason... At first I didn't even recognize Iketani and Kenji! And Itsuki looked a bit weird too. Still it's an awesome series, presented in an allmost perfect DVD set. VERY recommended!!

Video:

Very good image nothing to say about it.

Audio:

The best i've ever heard with 5.1 ch brilliant!!!

Subtitle:

As for the first stage this stage has great subs also!

Comment:

Part 2 from takumi's adventure to be the best in Gunma area!