Takumi Fujiwara

Takumi Fujiwara
18 year old, Takumi Fujiwara (藤原拓海 Fujiwara Takumi) is the son of Bunta Fujiwara, the owner of a tofu shop i n his hometown Akina. He rarely shows emotion. His best friend is Itsuki Takeuchi, who is a racing fan. Takumi works part-time at a gas station with Itsuki, along with Iketani, who is a member of the local racing team, the Akina Speed Stars. In the first few episodes both Itsuki and Iketani think that Takumi has no driving ability because of Takumi's total disinterest in cars and racing.

The only one who suspects that Takumi has an advanced driving technique is the owner of the gas station, Yuuichi, as seen in the episode where Takumi discusses drifting technique with Itsuki and Iketani. In fact, Takumi has far more experience on the touge than Iketani and Itsuki, as Takumi has been driving his father's AE86 Trueno for five years (since he was 12 in his first year of junior high school, 7th grade), delivering tofu to a hotel at 4:00 A.M. every day. Takumi has been manipulated subtly by Bunta into developing driving skills, without being fully aware of Bunta's intent.

Bunta aside, Takumi's driving technique is the best on Akina; the very fact that he has managed to win races against far more powerful cars with his AE86 Trueno is testament to his driving skills. As a result of constant everyday practice and over 5 years of experience on Akina, Takumi is able to quickly adapt to nearly any situation that presents itself during a race. One factor in his nearly unparalleled driving skill is his ability to visualize the road in his head, thus making up for the lack of visibility no matter how dark the mountain pass may be. This ability only takes effect if he has driven on the road before, which was not the case in some later races. He is an instinctive rather than an intellectual driver. Although the mizutoshi technique (a technique where the driver drops the inside tires into the rain gutters on the side of the road to defeat centrifugal force) is a great but difficult technique that his father taught him, it led him to many victories throughout the story.

At first, Takumi was not part of any team (he was just loosely affiliated with the Akina Speed Stars), but later joins Project D, a special team created by Ryosuke Takahashi aimed at breaking every course record in Japan. Takumi looks docile and weak-minded, but he is stubborn and strong-willed, many remarks have been said about that. Yuuichi realized that Takumi was like his father in his behavior. Because he is not as outwardly ill-tempered as Keisuke, the mechanics of Project D tend to find him docile. However, to those who have raced against him, Takumi possesses tremendous concentration and instinctive insight once behind the wheel (and these qualities are most evident when he is chasing after his opponent). His apparent docility became traps for many opponents. Keisuke asks Takumi to become professional racers together and now Takumi's eventual goal is to become a professional racer with Keisuke. Keisuke and Takumi become rivals that aspire to the same dream.

Takumi is currently dating Mika Uehara, a golfer who is training to be a pro golfer.