Aikawa



Aikawa (会川, also known as the Man of Lan Evo V (ランエVの男 Man of Lan Evo V of Kuro Waru) is the uphill racer for the final team that Project D races in the Saitama Prefecture. He faces Keisuke on the uphill run on the Tsuchisaka pass. Unlike previous opponents, both Aikawa and his racing partner Ichijo are more than willing to use cheap, unfair tactics, such as spilling oil on the road, to defeat Project D (albeit they want to win only to promote a garage they are affiliated with). It is due to this team's slicking of the road with oil that leads to Keisuke spinning out on the road and damaging his FD to such a state that it cannot be used in the race. He is on line with Shingo Shoji in terms of jerkiness.

As a person, Aikawa is depicted as being an "ugly", mid to late 20s, arrogant jerk, an example of which occurs when he confronts Project D after Keisuke crashes his FD, at which point he acts innocent in regards as to who was at fault for slicking the road. In his race versus Keisuke (who drove Kyoko's black FD), he displays little skill (Keisuke compares him to Atsuro Kawai, the ER34 Skyline driver of Seven Star Leaf) and considers the Lancer Evolution to be in a totally different class apart from the Mazda RX-7 FD. He loses when he was spooked as Keisuke takes the inside when the two cars drive along a long straightaway with a barricade on the left side of the road. He was humiliated when he was given a lecture by Keisuke when he complained of "reckless driving."

In Arcade Stage 3 and in the PSP version (and later Arcade Stage 8 Infinity), the Evo V is an RS, while in the anime, it was a GSR.