Takumi Fujiwara

Takumi Fujiwara is the main protagonist from the Initial D anime and manga.

Takumi is a member of Project D and is friends and associated with the Akina SpeedStars. He is the driver of the Toyota Sprinter AE86 Trueno GT Apex or simply the Eight-Six, originally belonging to his father Bunta, and forcibly became the delivery boy of his father's tofu business, doing deliveries in the morning at Mount Akina.

Despite seemingly not having knowledge of cars, in fact he didn't know that his car was called an Eight-Six, Takumi is a very skilled driver, having driven on Akina since he was in junior high. This caught the attention of other racing teams such as the Akagi RedSuns and the Myogi NightKids who wanted a piece of racing against Takumi.

In his up and coming emergence, he raced against Keisuke Takahashi, NightKids members Takeshi Nakazato and Shingo Shoji, the female racing duo Impact Blue, Kenta Nakamuraand finally Ryosuke Takahashi, in which he ended Ryosuke's winning streak. At the same time he was dating Natsuki Mogi.

His winning streak supposedly came to an end when he raced against Kyoichi Sudo, the leader of Emperor at Mount Akagi, however Kyoichi stated that he didn't consider the match a race and just wanted to prove to Takumi that the Eight-Six is not powerful enough against his Evo III. The Eight Six was fixed by Bunta, with a new engine and some upgrades. Now with his fixed Eight-Six, he went up against Wataru Akiyama, a racer from the Saitama region and an Eight-Six driver.

After having a rematch with Kyoichi and racing against Kai Kogashiwa and making amends with Natsuki before going in their separate ways. He joined Ryosuke's new team Project D, which had a similar goal of his previous team the RedSuns. As the downhill driver of Project D, his skill massively improved, racing against tougher opponents from different regions, at the same time he met his second girlfriend Mika Uehara, a golfer.

His final race within Project D was against Sidewinder member Shinji Inui, and though he won, it left the Eight-Six's engine destroyed. He now currently drives Bunta's Subaru Impreza, continuing to race on Mount Akina while also planning on becoming a professional racer.

Appearance
Takumi is a lanky-looking young man with brown hair and brown eyes.

Personality
Although he appears to be just a high school senior with no remarkable traits, he had been subtly groomed by his father into becoming one of the best street racers in the area.

Although he is totally disinterested in racing, when his friends were discussing drift techniques and Takumi's suggestion of a technique is dismissed as amateur, his boss Yuichi Tachibana realizes Takumi's technique is a much more advanced.

After passing Keisuke Takahashi on the roads, he begins to find himself involved in challenges to race, which he initially agrees to do for petty rewards from his father such as getting to use the car for pleasure and having a full tank of gas. He initially disregards comments about him being a street racer and loving to drive, but slowly he accepts the idea that he enjoys the thrill of street racing.

Although Takumi appears docile and weak-minded in the series, he occasionally shows stubbornness and strong will, as he was once coaxed into a fight in junior high.

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 86.


 * 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 new 86 with a plate saying 86-239 (hachiroku ni sankyu) which means Thank you, Eight-Six.


 * In Initial D Legend 3, a new 86 (ZN6) appears pulling up to the gas station Takumi works at while they discuss the problem with Takumi spacing out before the race with Ryosuke.. It was debadged. Later on, Takumi was challenged by the same 86 into an impromptu race during a delivery, and on that same moment the water in the cup spills and the screen turns to white. 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.


 * Takumi was mentioned in Shuichi Shigeno's new manga, MF Ghost, as the protagonist's tutor by Fumihiro. Fumihiro also mentions the Fujiwara Zone and his signature Panda Trueno in one of the chapters in comparison to the protagonist.
 * In the Animax version of Initial D: Fourth Stage which is the only series to be dubbed in Tagalog in the Philippines except the previous series. Takumi is voiced by Matteo Guidicelli is an international car racer who takes upon international car racing and later became a local singer and actor in the broadcasting network, ABS-CBN.