Wangan Midnight

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First, I am shocked to see that this incredible work has no reviews. Wangan Midnight the manga is a lot of fun, but it's weirdly specific in the way it's entertaining. I will say, don't start reading this thinking you're going to find some complex narrative with twists, turns, and suspense, or an emotion-packed drama or romance story. That's not what Wangan Midnight is: rather, it is about speed. That's it.

Wangan Midnight is about men and women who chase speed, trying to go as fast as humanly possible on the highway at night. Why? It's just a human instinct. The instinct to do dumb ... shit. They throw away everything in pursuit of driving just one kph faster. Wangan Midnight is about racing/speed addicts who just want to drive fast. Just like drug addicts, some people ruin their lives, some suffer withdrawal, some die, and some decide it is not worth it. Indeed, in their intense pursuit, some characters decide that that the illusion that only lasts a few seconds is best left alone. Perhaps the most interesting/unique part about this story is that the characters don't even really care about ego or bragging rights or status for being the fastest (like is typical in other sports-type stories). The characters just want to be the fastest for the sake of it. Wangan Midnight captures this illogical human desire incredibly well and that's about all it does, but it makes for some really good dumb fun. Well, that and it has cool cars in it (who doesn't like reading about cars from half a century ago that have been modded to a point where you can't even really recognize them?).

On a final note, the art is nothing special; in fact, it's not that good. So don't expect to see some Ryoichi Ikegami level art (but the lines are at least clean, and the action is easy to follow). Overall, I'd highly recommend this to any automotive geek or fan of the anime. If you liked Initial D, I can't guarantee you'll like this, but there's a good chance you will.

A very simple and solid series. Guy finds a Dangerous car to drive (the Devil Z). He buys it and drives it, and rather than having some supernatural story or anything else, it's mostly about.... people who drive and tune cars. This is a series that is excellent but also "nothing happens". Just new people have a love of a car, express it, discuss why they drive (or why they are leaving driving) and then ... they drive.

There's no big races... at least not structured races, there's no big events. There is a relationship in the series ... but it's not done as a "triangle" it's simple "Girl loves car, Girl loves boy, boy loves car, boy loves girl too."

Like the typical "drama" of a shonen isn't necessarily here, it's just a manga from someone who clearly loves cars and tuning, about cars and tuning and... that's really all it needs to be.

There's a point near the end of the translated work when the manga goes "There's a new team on wagnan" and I was like "Oh a new competitor" but no.. they are talking about the three main characters and.... yeah that absolutely is true, but it happens so fluidly like real life, there's no big moment of "We're going to be a team".. it's just "there's three really great drivers who dominate often enough that... they are now considered a team" I don't really know how to explain that, but it's a good feeling when they story isn't trying to make major events happen to the main character, they just do.

An enjoyable read, sadly not everything is translated, but I enjoyed what there is, and I would glad read more if it existed.

Only given a 7 because I can't be super excited about any major points in the story, but I get such good vibes when thinking about this series.