Final Stage - Act 1

Natural (ナチュラル, Nachuraru) is the first Act of Initial D: Final Stage.

This episode features the first part of the battle between Takumi Fujiwara and Shinji Inui.

Synopsis
Takumi and Shinji's match thus kicks off on an instant. Shinji is given the lead. Bunta steps out of the tofu shop and breaks his keypouch after accidentally dropping it. Bunta speculates an unfortunate event that will happen. Shinji starts to show his dormant power, leaving Takumi to be shocked himself.

Plot
The episode begins with a flashback from the finale of previous stage where Go Hojo's battle with Keisuke Takahashi is shown where the former desperately tries keeping up with the latter but ultimate loses the battle by spinning out due to tyre wear and snap oversteer. As Keisuke races at full speeds towards victory, Shinji Inui reveals to a shocked Mako Sato and Sayuki that he is the final Sidewinder opponent for Project D who will be battling Takumi Fujiwara. Ryosuke Takahashi explains to Takumi and other Project D members on how Keisuke's pace had surpassed the expectation of the Sidewinder chief Eiji Kubo and how Keisuke's passion for touge racing is slightly above Go. Meanwhile Go Hojo meets his brother Rin near the Observatory, as he talks to Rin on how he felt like 'communicated' with Keisuke as they raced. Rin says Go did his best and will grow up from here on. Keisuke greets Takumi on the top with a hard high-five tells him that he's counting on him. Shinji shows up to Go at the top and tells that he wants to race and become a 'hero' after seeing his race with Keisuke. Go tells him to go for it and race freely and have fun. Shinji and Takumi drives their respective cars towards the starting point as Go and Eiji makes the decision of giving Shinji the lead position in the battle. Takeshi Nakazato and Shingo Shoji who were standing nearby notes on how Shinji is even younger than Takumi, and his car being another AE86 doesn't make any sense either. While Go tells this will be Shinji's first ever street race and Ryosuke states this can be Takumi's toughest battle, Takumi and Shinji greets each other before they start up their cars. Ryosuke tells Takumi that he has to keep up with Shinji no matter what and think of him as the toughest opponent. Fumihiro begins the countdown as members of the Speedstars waiting below gets excited for the race to start. As both cars begins their race, some spectators discuss on the different body type the two Eight-Sixes have. According to them, the hatchback variant is used for circuits while the coupe is used more in rally, hence Shinji's Eight-Six has more advantage in this case. As both the cars approach a corner, Shinji zooms away from Takumi, shocking Takumi. At the tofu store, Bunta accidentally breaks his keypouch which he's been using since he bought the Eight-Six. He throws it into the bin telling it will bring bad luck. Mika who was training golf with her father wants to call it a day as she couldn't concentrate well as she was worried about Takumi's final battle and hopes that he calls her afterwards. Meanwhile Go and Eiji meets Mrs Inui and tells her that they're glad that atleast Shinji came on time for the battle. She reveals to them on how he knew the course very well as she used to drive the car in the course everyday with him for the last 12 years. She states while Shinji does have a good memory, he's not good at studies, yet he has high IQ. She also reveals to them that he's been driving the car since his upper elementary school, which surprises Go and Eiji. She says it was because he wanted to help his mother get rest so he helped in driving at night times. Eiji understood that Shinji is fast because he learn driving like its playing a game. As Takumi had a hard time keeping up with him, Shinji kept humming a tune as he kept on driving. Mrs Inui tells how the car actually belonged to her late husband who was a rally driver. Because of that she knew some techniques, but despite this she never taught him anything. Go realized he's a natural born talent. She also tells them that his technique revolves around utilizing the brakes as little as possible. He uses the inertia from the downhill and finds the best line using his steering work. She comments on how because of this she has slept comfortably in the car while he's driving all the way downhill. After hearing all this Eiji says she doesn't need to worry about Shinji. Meanwhile Nakazato and Shingo discuss on how in the downhill balance between weight and agility is important than power, which is why Takumi kept winning battles, including their battles. However ironically his opponent now seems to hold that trump card as he drives another Eight-Six. Nakazato states that despite the Sidewinder being a more powerful opponent, Fujiwara has more than just skills which backed him up for all those races and he can make anything happen to change the direction of a battle. Meanwhile Takumi who was still struggling to keep up with Shinji realizes that he can't keep up with him in corners, but why he doesn't understand. Meanwhile Shinji keeps on humming as he drives in lead.

Airdates

 * Animax; May 16, 2014

Characters (in order of appearance)

 * 1) Go Hojo
 * 2) Keisuke Takahashi
 * 3) Shinji Inui
 * 4) Sayuki
 * 5) Mako Sato
 * 6) Shuichi Matsumoto
 * 7) Ryosuke Takahashi
 * 8) Takumi Fujiwara
 * 9) Kenta Nakamura
 * 10) Hiroshi Fumihiro
 * 11) Eiji Kubo
 * 12) Rin Hojo
 * 13) Tomiguchi
 * 14) Shingo Shoji
 * 15) Takeshi Nakazato
 * 16) Itsuki Takeuchi
 * 17) Kenji
 * 18) Koichiro Iketani
 * 19) Seiji Iwaki
 * 20) Kyoichi Sudo
 * 21) Bunta Fujiwara
 * 22) Mika Uehara
 * 23) Mrs. Inui

Cars

 * 1) Mazda efini RX-7 Type R (FD3S)
 * 2) Honda NSX (NA1)
 * 3) Toyota Sprinter Trueno 3door GT-APEX (AE86))
 * 4) Toyota Sprinter Trueno 2door GT-APEX (AE86)
 * 5) Honda Civic SiR-II (EG6)
 * 6) Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II (BNR32)

Music

 * 1) Outsoar The Rainbow - M.o.v.e
 * 2) Dancing On The Street - David Dima
 * 3) Gamble Rumble - M.o.v.e

Quotes
Shinji: When I saw you racing Hojo-San... That's when my feelings changed. It made me want to become a hero. I want to drive. I hope you'll let me.

Notes & Trivia

 * Takumi states that its the first time ever he's faced the problem of not keeping up with the opponent in corners, but he has said this earlier in his battle against Sakamoto, who drove an even lesser powered car than Shinji.