It's good when it gets personal. Though essentially, what works in the manga doesn't work in anime and vice versa. Example: the races aren't that fun to read as they're in anime. Navigating around different racers POVs can be confusing and sometimes dragging on too much. The manga loses its pace that way. In the car jargon, it loses its grip on the reader. But when the story goes into the car culture and surrounding area context, like Mt. Fuji's impact on racing circuits, things suddenly get all the more interesting. The same applies to field trips that characters take. They bond in relation to their veryJapanese mentality and that's actually really interesting considering much characters are stereotypical nowadays. I especially like it when they pay visits to buddhist temples. A great example of good lore handling in this manga was when Kanata got two amulets and said they can't be carried together, because the gods will fight :)

I'm currently at the 4th race and can't actually wait to see how the story progresses. WIll we get to see Mako and Sayuki? :) What will happen to Kanata since at this point both his parents are dead? And will Kyoko and Aiba end up together (that ship has much more drip than Kanata and Ren)?