First Stage - Act 4

The Battle Begins (交流戦突入!, Kōryū-sen totsunyū!, known as Into the Battle! in the Tokyopop version) is the fourth Act of Initial D First Stage.

The episode is the first half of Takumi Fujiwara's battle with Keisuke Takahashi, as well as Takumi's first official race.

Synopsis
The match between the SpeedStars and the RedSuns is set to begin. Just as Iketani makes the desperate decision to put Kenji up against Keisuke, the Eight-Six appears - with Takumi behind the wheel.

Airdates

 * Fuji TV: May 9, 1998

Characters

 * 1) Keisuke Takahashi
 * 2) Kenji
 * 3) Koichiro Iketani
 * 4) Ryosuke Takahashi
 * 5) Itsuki Takeuchi
 * 6) Fumihiro
 * 7) Takumi Fujiwara
 * 8) Takeshi Nakazato

Cars

 * 1) Mazda ɛ̃fini RX-7 Type R (FD3S)
 * 2) Nissan 180SX Type II (RPS13)
 * 3) Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT-APEX (AE86)
 * 4) Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II (BNR32)

Original

 * 1) around the world - m.o.v.e
 * 2) Dance Around The World - Delta Queens
 * 3) Get Me Power - Mega NRG Man
 * 4) Running In The 90's - Max Coveri
 * 5) Rage Your Dream - m.o.v.e

Tokyopop

 * 1) Initialize - Drop Logic
 * 2) Vertigo - Willknots
 * 3) Initialize (Instrumental) - Drop Logic
 * 4) Machine - Full Frequency
 * 5) The American Dream - The drp
 * 6) Initialize (DJ Milky D-Mix) - DJ Milky & b_nCHANt_d

Differences from the Manga

 * Itsuki arriving in his scooter to the top was not shown.

Notes & Trivia

 * In the credits, Running In The 90's by Max Coveri was credited as "Running In The '90s" by "Max Cover i"