Takumi Fujiwara

Takumi Fujiwara (藤原拓海 - Fujiwara Takumi) is the son of Bunta Fujiwara, the owner of a tofu shop in his hometown Akina. He rarely shows emotion. His best friend is Itsuki Takeuchi, who is a racing fan.

Biography
At the beginning of the series, Takumi worked 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, due to his apparent disinterest in cars and racing.

However, the owner of the gas station and an old friend of Takumi's father, Yuichi, began to suspect that Takumi has advanced driving techniques; during a work break in which Takumi and his friends were watching a drift race on TV, the group began to discuss drifting techniques.

Though Itsuki was quick to point out what he thought were Takumi's apparent "mistakes" in understanding, Yuichi understood that even though Takumi was unable to come up with the technical terms required to demonstrate a common base of understanding, his hand motions were suspiciously indicative of an experienced driver, if not a racer. Until the race against Keisuke Takahashi, it had remained speculation on his part.

In fact and unbeknownst to most people, Takumi has had 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.

Takumi's driving technique makes him the second best racer in Akina, the other being his father; 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 early on in his touge racing career.

As a result of five years of experience on Akina - chief of which Bunta's paper cup training comes to mind - Takumi is able to quickly adapt to nearly any situation that presents itself during a race. One of his greatest strengths 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 only takes effect if he has driven on the road before, which was not the case in some of his later races.

He is considered an instinctive, rather than an intellectual driver, as Ryosuke might be. The mizo-otoshitechnique - a difficult "gutter-drop" technique involving driving his AE86's inside tires into rain gutters to defeat centripetal force, arguably defines Takumi, as the use of the technique led him to many victories throughout the story, especially during the initial stages of his racing career.

At first, Takumi was not part of any team - he was just loosely affiliated with the Akina Speed Stars and had only helped during his first race at his father's behest - but, later on, was convinced by Ryosuke Takahashi to join Project D, a special team created by Ryosuke aimed at breaking every course record in Japan.

Takumi often appears docile and weak-minded, but he is stubborn and strong-willed, and many remarks have been said about that by both friend and foe alike. Yuichi 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 mental traps for many of his 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.

As he faces on with his last match against the strongest driver of Sidewinder, and probably his last match as a driver of Project D, his car engine blows a last time, leading till both cars spinning out as Shinji follows suit. With the tires of Takumi's 86 locking up, it sent Takumi's 86 into a spin. Shinji had no choice but to follow. At this moment, with the experience gained from the engine blow in Akagi when going against the Evo III, Takumi instinctively presses on the clutch, freeing up the tires and regained control of the 86 momentarily. However, Takumi was going in reverse with inertia alone. Shinji, on the other hand, lacked actual dogfight experience and didn't know what to do, spinning a full 360 degree, causing him to lose more momentum than Takumi did. Takumi won by crossing the finish line backwards with his 86. Shinji's 86 ended up facing the finish line after the 360 spin. It is debated who actually won, normally a blow engine automatically means defeat but since he crossed the finishline first means that he won.

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

Information
Likes: Green seasons, Rear end of his AE86, naps, racing

Dislikes: Showoffs, Losing, Girls that flirt, cheaters, fraudsters

Special skills: Machinegun Shiftdown, Blind Attack, "Fujiwara Zone", Gutter Techniques

Trivia

 * The kanji in his given name, Takumi, mean "wide, open" and "ocean", and his family name, Fujiwara, refers to "wisteria field".
 * In Volume 5, its revealed Takumi's weakness is gone.
 * His mother has not shown up throughout the series, and Bunta has never made any mention of his mother. For his part, Takumi has never questioned why, either.
 * It can be assumed that Bunta and Takumi's mother are divorced, or Takumi's mother may had passed on.
 * He apparently resembles Shinji Inui. Both had driven on their own home course respectively for a long time since their younger days, due to a similar reason which is to help their parents.
 * He made a cameo in a print ad with an orange Toyota GT-86. (pictured) Ft86.jpgP1-1-.jpg
 * In the manga, Takumi wears a Maple Leafs jersey while dating Natsuki Mogi at Lake Akina.
 * In the last episode of Final Stage, he seems surprised after driving past a GT-86.
 * At the end of Initial D Legends 3, Takumi is seen racing behind a GT-86. The identity of the driver isn't revealed, but his voice and face lead many to believe it may be a nod to a future-Takumi.
 * Another character, also named Takumi Fujiwara from the manga and anime series, Dear Boys.