Cousins fail at imitating street racing series, have charges filed against them.

As fun and exciting as anime and manga can be, it’s always important to remember that the things that look cool in animated or illustrated form can be very, very dumb to do in real life.

Case in point: two young men in Kanagawa Prefecture have had charges filed against them for reckless driving following a self-admitted attempt to copy what they’d seen in street racing series Initial D.

The incident took place in the town of Chigasaki and involved two cars, one driven by a 22-year-old resident of the same city and the other by his 21-year-old cousin who lives in the neighboring town of Fujisawa.

▼ Video of the incident

The video starts with a black sedan, possibly a Toyota Chaser, sliding through a public road intersection. The second car is easier to identify, as it’s clearly a white Nissan 180 SX, which shares much of its internals with Nissan’s S13 Silvia, a perennial favorite of the drifting enthusiast community. The 180 SX can be seen either performing a purposeful donut or recovering from an inadvertent spin stemming from a failed drift attempt, with both vehicles smoking their tires as they skid past a truck waiting at the signal light. The black car’s left rear taillight is out, while the 180 SX appears to have its lights completely off, even though its pop-up headlights are in the up position.

Neither driver appears to be especially adept at handling their car at the limits of the tires’ traction, but the 180 SX driver proves himself to be particularly lacking in (mad) drifting skills. As the two cars circle back around for another pass through the same intersection, the 180 SX driver comes in too fast, then stands on the brakes too late without rotating the car, causing the front end to plow directly into the guard rail at the far end of the T-shaped intersection.

When asked by the police to explain their actions, the cousins said:

“We read Initial D, and wanted to try drifting for real.”

Online reactions to the video have been a mix of exasperation at the pair’s idiotic driving decisions and admiration at the long-lasting popularity of Initial D.

“It’s been more than 10 years since the Initial D manga ended, but it’s still a really influential series.”
“It’s not Initial D’s fault.”
“It must be annoying for the manga’s creator to have the series used as an excuse by people for breaking the law.”
“Watching the video…it looks like they have no prior experience trying to drift.”
“When things like this happen, people say ‘Take it to the track!’, but I don’t want them on the track with me either. Jerks who don’t follow the rules of the road don’t follow racing safety rules either.”
“I think it’s about time to permanently revoke people’s licenses for things like this.”
“When I think about that poor guardrail, I just can’t stop crying.”
“Those guys can’t separate manga and reality.”

Regarding that last comment, one could make the argument that Initial D itself is a case of art imitating life, since it was inspired by the street racing scene and mythos of the golden era of Japanese sports cars in the 1990s. That said, the drifting in Initial D, and the real-life street races that inspired it, took place on secluded mountain roads, not a sizeable street in a relatively populous city like Chigasaki, so even without crashing into the guardrail, it was a pretty sure bet that the cousins were going to get in trouble for their wannabe drifter antics.

So remember, everybody, anime isn’t like reality, and trying to copy the things that fictional characters do can land you in trouble with the law. If you absolutely must inject some anime street racing atmosphere into your life, it’s better to stay safe and just visit the real-life Initial D dessert cafe instead.

Source: TBS News Dig via Livedoor News via Jin, YouTube/TBS NEWS DIG Powered by JNN
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