Review of Wangan Midnight

A 3/10 anime that occasionally reaches 6/10 with it's amazing soundtrack and CGI. But is a boring slog outwith that. Wangan Midnight offers a different and unique spin on Racing anime. Set primarily on the Wangan route of highways but dabbles in others. As such, straight lines are the name of the game, and the need for speed is more necessary than the drifting techniques of Initial D, the anime this is most compared to. I will also be making this comparison. The CGI is amazing, and holds up well today. The cars are very well detailed and the backgrounds provide a beautiful backdrop asthe speed intensifies. Great lighting and weighty physics make the cars feel satisfying.

Characters:

Characters are extremely boring. Practically everyone has the same personality, that being none at all. THEY ARE ALL SO MIND-NUMBINGLY BORING OMG. There are no varied personalities to clash with other's individual ideals and experiences. There are only: Racers, Tuners, and spectators. There exists no other roles for characters to fill. Everyone is a brick wall, and they only ever talk about racing. Leading to absolutely zero engagement from the watcher. You do not care about these characters, and you shouldn't. Not much character development at all, which is a shame compared to Initial D's exceptional handling of characters where defeat would shape them and their worlds. In the grand narrative of WN, there is not a clear goal unlike Initial D's prefecture touring. People just sort of float around until they hit the next plot point. Literally, characters will drive hours on the highways just to bump into another character randomly rather than asking them to be at the place at a specific time. The "opponents" of the main Character also lack foreshadowing, so new ones just show up out of nowhere jarringly. Character designs are trash, a lot of people look the exact same facial wise, leading to confusing sometimes. With forgettable outfits. There are some infuriating characters, but Racing is likened to drugs in this anime, so some of the decisions make sense. Nonetheless, the characters are their cars, and nothing else. EVERYONE seems bored, despite risking their (and others') lives to feed their addiction. But literally not a single person jumps for joy, even after winning despite this being so important to them. Vice versa is also true, Characters don't shake in rage, yell in frustration or fall into a depression after losing. It's insanely asanine and it's as if it's actively attempting to be boring to watch. Villains, or rather Opponents, are terrible. It's more of a friendly rivalry between friends in the craft of street racing than anything like retaining honour of your prefecture by racing other people from different prefectures or famous individuals within said Prefecture, or making a name for yourself as the Main character doesn't wish to be famous, he just wants to drive. There's nothing at stake and everyone is so friendly they literally drive each others' cars, pointing out weaknesses and tuning each other's vehicles like it's nothing.

Animation:
Overall 2D animation is insanely bad, no character acting and stiff facial animation can leave people looking like talking ken dolls. I don't even think a single character blinked once. Lip flap animations are usually awful and not synced most of the time. Which can be very distracting. This is all made worse by the 480p release that didn't get a HD remaster. Halfway through, I switched over to a fan remaster with 1080p. Some episodes looked off at certain points but it was a MUCH better experience overall, especially the driving scenes. I recommend watching the series with this remaster by JDM restoration. Even the AI's touch makes the anime look less plastic, but does blur things somewhat in some places.

Voice acting is decent across the board, but nothing special. Sometimes you can hear echo from the voice acting studio. There is also an issue of weird direction here and there, with some laughably directed moments that take you out of the experience. There are some cast members who would later go on to do big roles, Like All Might from MHA.

Driving/Action:

Driving wise. It's not very interesting, there's only so much you can do on a straight road. There's barely any interesting techniques, yet just watching these beautiful machines glide across the asphalt is enamouring and satisfying. The CGI feels weighty and crunchy. Alas, there is not much hype moments in this anime. It is more of a smooth drive than a racetrack rumble, especially with all the mechanic tuning and whatnot slowing the pace down dramatically. Some car nuts may get value from these scenes though. There isn't much drama, in all honesty the drama just seems to be there just to further the plot than as an actual consequence to anything the characters have done, but it's still effective with the underlying messages of Racing addiction. Still, the utter lack of distinctive Racer Driving styles or racer specific techniques like the "Zero theory" or "Fujiwara zone" from Initial D, practically every single character is, to borrow a quote from sonic the hedgehog, "Gotta go fast". This all ties into the Addiction theme, but it gets old fast. The characters themselves are not memorable in the slightest due to these compounding issues, the lack of unique songs for each racer like in Initial D further reduces differentiation, and the Highways of Wangan Midnight, despite being beautiful, get stale the longer you watch compared to the varied environments of Initial D's multiple mountain passes and prefectures. Especially because each individual area in Initial D offered not just new racers and ideas, but environmental hazards or opportunities for the characters to experience. Overall, Wangan midnight might best be experienced by just watching a compilation of the races (similar to Initial D's Battle stages). You will miss out on the theme of addiction, however your not missing anything really. Rather than the main character attempting to beat others, it's the opposite with WN. Others are attempting to beat *him* because he has the OP car. Which is a fairly unique prospect. The main character is practically overpowered and has no growth from defeat, but rather it's his opponents that grow from defeat. As such, most of the anime is spent on all of the opponents point of views, leading to quite an admittedly novel watching experience. It's similar to watching a player die over and over to the final boss before accepting defeat and moving on, defeating their addiction by realising that this can't go on, no matter how badly they want to win. It isn't worth it. The thing about the races is that they are all absolutely inconsequential. It doesn't matter if characters win or lose. There's nothing at stake, because the characters have already thrown their life away (Quit school, left their family, etc.) *before* the races even begin, so there's no drama or tension. The races also have no structure, I think only a SINGLE race had a "starting" and "finishing" line. So those white knuckle, heart pounding last second overtakes at the finish line don't happen. Races seem more like a "who can lose motivation the fastest" thing more than anything. The Great CGI and music is the only thing keeping the races somewhat engaging. It's unfortunate, as the sense of speed at 200MPH could have made for some insane high stakes action and picture finishes. Traffic, weather and track hazards are also non-existent which further adds to the staleness of it all. They are fun to watch individually, but they cannot support this anime, so everything crumbles underneath the poor 2D animation and horrible trope-filled story. Ending isn't satisfying and leaves much unresolved, but since it only adapted a fraction of a huge manga, this is expected. Still, this is one of the most boring stories I've ever seen.

Soundtrack is amazing, not quite On initial D level but still very great! If anything the soundtrack itself is worth checking out if your not interested in the anime!!

Overall:

Wangan midnight is a 3/10 show, bumped up 3 points to a 6/10 for its great soundtrack and CGI, and it's interesting unconventional story telling. But keep in mind that this is a BASE 3/10 show that's SOMETIMES a 6/10 show. So in the end, if you don't wish to experience the themes of racing addiction told in an unorthodox structure, at least watch the Racing scenes and listen to the soundtrack. It's always telling when I have no zero desire to read the manga after an anime that doesn't fully adapt the manga. If you want more Initial D, watch MF Ghost, ID's sequel.

Stay away from this anime, unless you *just* can't get enough of cars.