The battle between Takumi Fujiwara and Dr. Toshiya Joshima is the thirty-ninth battle of Initial D and the final battle of Initial D Fourth Stage.
Prior to the Battle[]
After defeating the Lancer Evolution drivers in Saitama, Project D moves into Ibaraki. There, they are challenge Purple Shadow. Takumi goes up against Dr. Toshiya Joshima, who drives an S2000 and is referred to as "God Arm" due to his great cornering skill, described as neither drift nor grip. He is known for driving with one hand on the wheel while the other on the gear stick. Ryosuke later compares his technique of that with Shingo Shoji's duct tape technique, which Takumi had already experienced.
During the Battle[]
The race is incredibly tough for Takumi, who has no answers for Joshima's consistency and speed. Only after seeing the data does he realize what's happening, that Joshima was using different lines for every corner entry and exit each round they battled, so that Takumi cannot perceive how to counterattack properly. But he is still no match for the S2000.
Just before the the 7th round started, Ryosuke warns Takumi that some significant event will happen, so he has to be aware. Then as Takumi was on the lead, Joshima suddenly overtakes him from the inside of a corner while running over small vegetations, which causes a shocked Takumi to move over to the side, making Joshima take the lead by having the inside of the next corner.
Forced to push his car beyond the limits, Takumi risks it all on the high tracksides, using the rough non existent 'gutters' of the course and using Blind Attack when he nears Joshima, a move that scares the God Arm into putting two hands on the wheel (something he never does) and gives him the lead for that round. During the 8th round, Joshima finally decides to end the battle by pulling away from Takumi using sheer cornering skills and vehicle power, which makes Takumi use the 'gutters' again, but the excessive force from those rough gutters snaps his suspension and basically confirms victory to Joshima, until he feels sick from the insane pressure and is forced to stop and vomit, thus allowing the crippled 86 to roll across into the finish.
After the Battle[]
Since Takumi broke the suspension on his AE86, God Arm pulled away him, which only a few moments later causes him to pulling over to vomit because he was not able to take all that amount of mental and physical stress of having many rounds of battle, while the limping Eight-Six crossed the line winning a Pyrrhic victory. Joshima later tells Ryosuke Takahashi that he doesn't believe that Takumi won the race, something that both Takumi and Ryosuke agree with.
Following the battles, Takumi asked Joshima to give him a ride in his S2000 so he can see his technique, which was something that Joshima happily agreed with.
Music[]
Fourth Stage[]
- Stop To Give Up - Eurofunk
- Eldorado - Dave Rodgers
- Chemical Love - Kevin & Cherry
- All That I Want - Mr. M
- Lucky Man - Dave Rodgers
Battle Stage 2[]
Trivia[]
- This was mostly one of the longest battles in the series, lasting 8 rounds, although only round 1, 2 6, 7, and 8 were shown. However in Battle Stage 2, only rounds 2 and 7 where shown.
- In the anime, this was the final battle with Purple Shadow as well as that of Fourth Stage, which is after the battle between Keisuke battles with God Foot. However in the manga, its exact opposite, with Keisuke battling God Foot after Takumi battles with God Hand.