Wangan Midnight
 

湾岸ミッドナイト
Wangan MIDNIGHT

Genre: Shounen, sports (auto racing)
Mangaka: Kusunoki Michiharu (楠 みちはる)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...an/wgvol01.jpg

Production: OB Planning
Release date: June 9th, 2007
Website: http://www.ppvj.co.jp/anime/0706wanganmidnight/
Channel: ANIMAX (PPV)

The story gets its roots from actual racing that takes place on a stretch of Tokyo's Shuto Expressway called the "wangan" (literally: bay side), which is the longest and straightest run of road in Japan. Racers who choose to run the wangan are met with traffic, high-speed accidents, and blown engines.

One day, while driving with three friends in his Z31 Nissan Fairlady, third-year high school student Asakura Akio is challenged by a black Porsche 964 Turbo, which is known as the legendary "Monster of Wangan, BlackBird." Akio's car is easily beaten, which sets Akio on a course to a local junkyard to look for parts. By chance he finds a pristine, midnight blue S30 Fairlady Z. Akio, intrigued as to the reason why the car was to be junked, buys the car and takes it to a friend's garage. There they find that the S30 isn't just any car; it's the "Devil Z," which has been very highly tuned in the past- and became legendary for killing its first owner in a fatal crash and severely injuring the other previous owners. Akio begins the long road of taming the Devil Z and battling the BlackBird for wangan supremacy.

The ongoing manga has been serialized in YOUNG MAGAZINE since 1993, with a total of 36 volumes currently in print. An anime adaptation was announced in YOUNG MAGAZINE in November according to an ANS article. It was not specified if the anime would air on Spring or if production would begin in Spring. Wangan MIDNIGHT has spawned several arcade and console games, with the newest PS3 version slated for a 2007 release; a little-known series of live action movies is also loosely based on the manga.

The manga is currently unlicensed and being scanlated by New Comer of Wangan.

OP: 「lights and any more」 - TRF
ED: 「Talkin' bout good days」 - Mother Ninja

I think it's probably a good thing that the series is being broadcast on a PPV channel. Racing anime does not exactly equal popularity for the general otaku public. It'll boil down to people who are waiting for more Initial D and people who play the CS/AC games. I'm hoping that great care is given to the car designs, as well as the exhaust notes and other various automotive sounds (the Devil Z's blow-off valve as heard in the games is very distinctive). I was happy with these things in ID 4th Stage, so my hopes are high.

I'm looking forward to this series. Just started reading the manga and I'm liking it. Also gonna get the PS3 game once it comes out since PS3 games are region free. :)

So, as NeoSam has noted, WM was listed on this Kodansha page sometime yesterday but has since been removed. MOONPHASE now lists this anime as starting on 06/08. However, I'm taking this news with a grain of salt since the webpage was taken down.

Double-post, sorry, but I'm the only person here interested in this. :D

The anime is now confirmed via the TAF2007. Production will be by OB Planning, who also did the Initial D anime. This is both good and bad... The CG cars in Initial D 4th Stage were very nicely done with pretty realistic-looking physics, but it's a well-known fact that the character designs weren't the best.

Don't worry I'm the other person interested in this anime. :heh:

Some staff info lifted from ANN.

Reiko Suhou as Reina Akigawa
Shinichiro Miki as Tatsuya Shima
Shun Oguri as Akio Asakura

Director: Tsuneo Tominaga
Series Composition: Nobuaki Kishima
Screenplay: Nobuaki Kishima
Music: Atsushi Umebori
Original creator: Michiharu Kusunoki
Character Design: Hisashi Kagawa
Art director: Michiko Morokuma
Mechanical design: Hideaki Yokoi
Director of Photography: Masaki Nakamura
Art Setting: Satoru Kuwabara
Color setting: Michiyo Iriomote
Editing: Shinji Kobukata
Editorial Supervision: Keiichi Tsuchiya (Hot Version Editorial Dept.)
Sound director: Masafumi Mima
Theme Song Performance: TRF

A lot of these people also worked on Initial D at one stage or another, and seeing the name of legendary Dori-dori Keiichi Tsuchiya on an anime staff listing aways makes me smile.

Not to sound too ignorant, but how does this differ from Initial D in terms of story? I know both cover the same subject matter, but I'm hoping that it'll be different enough to not feel like a rehash.

I do know the arcade game's soundtrack is quite awesome, using trance instead of eurobeat...

I don't know the long-term plot lines since the manga's only been translated up to chapter 10 or so, but I'll try to sum up the beginning.

Main character
Initial D: Takumi has been driving the touge since he was 14 (or whatever) and has developed a skill for it through much practice and whatnot. He drives his dad's old car as a delivery driver, but doesn't let it interfere with his school life/work. He's not really competative (at first).
Wangan Midnight: Akio has his own car, a Nissan Z31 (1983-1988 300ZX). He races as much as he can on the wangan. He misses class often enough that he is held back a grade, and he's fired from his job as a waiter as well. One day he encounters and races a legendary car/driver and loses big time. Akio is extremely competitive and immediately goes out to find more go-fast parts, leading him to find the Devil Z.

Antagonists
Initial D: the Takahashi brothers. They are legends; rich playboys who are dead serious about their hobby.
Wangan Midnight: Tatsuya Shima, medical doctor. Driver of the Porsche 964 Turbo known as the BlackBird. His street racing is just a hobby and nothing more, but he's extremely competitive, especially towards the Devil Z.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ct/wm13yv0.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ct/wm12iq2.jpg

Couple new screenshots of he Devil Z and BlackBird. At least the cars will look good. :heh:

Wangan Midnight
 

is there a place i can download the anime by torrent seeds i really need to know:confused:
by the way hi 5 for 86 pride:heh:
it would help me out a lot i have been looking for a long time

Just because it's racing it's not completly similar it has it's own style, this will be out soon and those screenshots look great. :)

Well, I am hoping that there will be something different in terms of music, hearing Eurobeat in this anime would sound a little too strange (got too used to WMMT2's trance-style music).

To prepare for the premiere of Wangan Midnight, Best Motoring has come out with this:

http://www.bestmotoring.jp/HV/087/

That's right, a track test of 5 replicas of WM cars, specifically the Devil Z, Blackbird, F512M, JZA80, and R32.

That DVD also includes a track test of the new Civic Type-R plus 2 different batles at Maze Circuit (Stock CTR vs S2000 and then SPoon CTR vs J's Racing S2000 vs Seeker S2000) and the latest on the 2007 season of the Super GT championship.

Okay, at FTV, a new member, who's part of a fansub group called "SD Project" said they have picked up this anime.

Looking forward to seeing the first episode. :)

Thanks for the info, good to know that someone picked this up. :D

I'm looking forward to this, too.

What's "FTV"?

Fansub TV forums.

On another note, not sure if I like the look of this show after flicking through episode 1. I had high hopes for Oguri Shun's 2nd anime appearance, but I'm not sure based on episode 1 if this series is going to deliver.

I understand what do you mean. It doesn't feel like 'being at 300km/h' at times, but give them time, this is entirely something new for OB Planning (even if they worked on racing animes before).