Inital D Omnibus 1 & Passion
Everyone, with limited exceptions usually caused by ailments, is passionate about something. Some people are passionate about landscaping, wanting the shapes and colors of their gardens and lawns to blend together to make a wonderful picture. Some people are passionate about coding, wanting to create free software for the people to use in our completely digitized age. Some people are passionate about music, putting in as much time and energy as they can squeeze in-between everything else in their day to master their instruments. All such talents were originally created by the Lord in order that people may honor Him [Exodus 35:10-19, 1 Corinthians 12, James 1:17-18.] Some people know what they’re passionate about, but stuff it down and don’t tend to it. This is dangerous. Even for the ailed, one must cultivate their passion, for the Lord has imbibed everyone with one, and in the fallen world we live in, passion can overtake us or undermine us.
Takumi of Initial D is in this lattermost scenario. He is quite skilled at driving but only finds it as a chore, and because of his listless personality does not tend to his passion. Takumi’s journey, however, is one of becoming a good steward of great passion. He finds himself surrounded by many bad examples of passion, which serve to highlight him as the "golden example" of a kind of how one controls passion.
The first bad example is Takumi's close friend, Itsuki. Itsuki does everything in his power to annoy Takumi, it seems. His introduction, with Takumi, is him trying to convince Takumi to help Itsuki buy a racing car, because Itsuki already has a car he can use to drive around with (except that he doesn’t have a license yet.) Itsuki cares a lot about racing. Throughout this entire tome, almost everything Itsuki says is racing related, and while other, more minor characters share this aspect with Itsuki, Itsuki is the only one of the main trio who is like this (for this tome, at least.) Itsuki's issue is his self-centered view of his passion. He only cares about racing as far as he is concerned, and his racing passion is a negative to almost everyone around him because of this. When the Red Suns, a rival racing team to the ones based in where Takumi and company live, challenges the latter, Itsuki assumes Takumi will take him and attempts to bully Takumi into it, even though Takumi has no interest. When Takumi expresses disinterest aloud, Itsuki bullies him for this too, saying "Sure! Because you couldn’t do it if you tried!"[1] Itsuki cannot either, but his self-centered passion will not see this. This reckless passion of Itsuki's makes him accept a challenge on Takumi's behalf, putting Takumi in an uncomfortable position that fortunately works in the latter's favor. Itsuki does not consider anyone else within his passion, but lets it burn undisciplined, favoring only himself. Of course, such passion hurts everyone around Itsuki, including Itsuki.
Iketani does not fair too much better. Iketani is more communal with his passion, running the local racing team and being there to support and guide all of its members, he shares Itsuki's misplacement in his abilities. He is by far the best racer in the Speed Stars, but Iketani fails to realize the Speed Stars's place in the scheme of things before Takumi comes along. When he tries to improve, he remains narrow-minded and cannot see any opportunities to grow or expand. He subconcisouly realizes this, thinking to himself "I thought I knew these corners, but I’ve never seen them bare their fangs like this!"[2] Even when Bunta, Takumi's father, tells Iketani this, Iketani remains narrow-minded and refuses to grow. He says to himself, while practicing, "Just think about it? I’ve tried thinking about it! It hasn’t gotten me anywhere! That’s why I wanted some help!"[3] Eventually, he crashes his car running the race course repeatedly, though this is only somewhat Iketani's fault. Only this moment makes Iketani feel any reprieve, and this humility, plus learning and seeing the truth about Takumi, prepares him to truly grow.
On the surface, Reisuke, who shares leadership of the Red Suns with his brother Ryosuke, seems to have better control over his passion than Iketani and Itsuki. He is a much better racer than those two because he is a better leader than Iketani, because he is dependent on his closest friend and brother, and because he knows what he loves to do. However, it is revealed that Reisuke also suffers from a lack of discipline, as Reisuke does not have any passion at all, only obsession. When he and his brother are doing a tandem drift, their thoughts are compared. Ryosuke is composed, even bored, but Reisuke is bloated with pride. "No one on this molehill can match me! And if that eight-six has the guts to show up, I’ll prove it!"[4] He is completely disinterested from racing the Speed Stars because they aren't worth his trouble, but a chance encounter with Takumi one night changes his perspective. Takumi, the "ghost eight-six," is all Reisuke can think of. Even when he's practicing, he can hardly even focus on his practice. He exclaims to himself, "Racing these so-called 'Speed Stars' is beneath my dignity. I’m here for you!"[5] He is consumed by it. He can't think of racing for himself anymore, nor racing for his brother and his team. He only has eyes for the eight-six, and this obsession with it has consumed him. Ryosuke is shown to be the true master of his passion in the short moments he contributes to this tome, but he is a character being reserved for later.
Finally, we come to Takumi himself. Takumi is disciplined – to an extent. He puts his effort into being a good driver, on account of his father. In fact, all of the driving Takumi does is really on behalf of his father, delivering food for him in the early morning. Takumi is never consumed by his passion for racing. Takumi has the opposite problem: he squelches on his passion, seeing its performance as a chore. Takumi is apathetic. He describes himself this way: "What I'm saying is, I never thought 'Gee, I want to be a great driver,' or whatever. I was just bored out of my mind and wanted to get home as fast as I could. . ."[6] Driving is a chore to him, and as such he cannot help but view the racing scene around him as nonsense. He says to Itsuki, "Is it really that great? Being a racer, I mean. I don’t get it. Why’s it such a big deal to everyone?"[7]
Takumi finds out that you cannot stow away your feelings forever, especially when it is raging all around you. Even with Itsuki driving him away from his care for racing, Takumi eventually encounters a car to race on his own – Reisuke, after the Red Suns finally go home after practicing. The entire set of circumstances which compose the plot of this tome, though, and not just this one defining moment, bring out the roaring passion Takumi has for racing. Takumi is not prepared for these kinds of feelings; he's used to only feeling tired and bored. It begins to take over his own thoughts; when he's going on a date (that's not a date) after beating Reisuke, Takumi can't take his mind off of winning: "When I realized I was gaining on him, it made my pulse pound. I'd never thought of driving as fun before. But then, like, driving Mogi to the beach, that was loads of fun."[8] This is something Takumi will have to wrestle with and subdue. Takumi will have to learn real discipline. At the end of this tome, Takumi does decide to agree to that challenge that Itsuki agreed to for him – not just because he has an obligation to, but (with some sly persuasion from others) because he wants to be faster than the GT-R he's up against and its driver, and racing is how you do that. The volume ends with Takumi absolutely invested, but the resolution to this specific conflict is in the next tome.
Everyone has been created such that they are capable of doing some things and incapable of doing other things; everyone has been created to naturally favor some things and naturally turn away from other things. Our natural inclinations are not enough; we are fallen human beings whose very nature is sin, not the desire for sin but sin in and of itself, and without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, all of our passion will be focused on sin. [Judges 2:6-15, Romans 1:22-32, James 1:14-16.] We must always honor Christ and hold up our brothers and sisters through everything we do, lest what we do be wasteful. We must always be working on ourselves and keeping ourselves disciplined so that we can honor Christ and hold up our brothers and sisters the best that we can.