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I just want to quietly draw manga Chapter 164 & 165
🕑 Added 2025-06-05 16:19:10 +0000 UTCChapter 164
“The new issue of Echo Shroud magazine is out!”
“I’ve been waiting all week for this. I was so hyped for Mizushiro’s manga, I even picked up a few random racing series from other magazines just to tide myself over.”
“Oh yeah? I heard a bunch of small manga publishers around Tokyo have started pushing their own racing series lately. Too bad most of those only circulate locally—I can’t find any copies out here or I’d give them a try.”
“You’re not missing much. Some are clearly trying to imitate Initial D, but they can’t copy it outright—probably afraid of a lawsuit. So they tack on weird storylines that just don’t work. It’s awkward. Honestly, they might look decent at first, but compared to the rush I get reading Initial D, they’re miles off. And Mizushiro only gives us twenty-something pages a week! That cliffhanger rhythm is brutal!”
“Totally. I wasn’t even into cars before this. I used to think driving was boring. But now, after reading Initial D, I keep watching the teacup in my car to see if the water spins on turns. Once, I opened the lid during a sharp corner, the water spilled all over me. When I met my friend, he thought I’d wet myself. That was... not my proudest moment.”
In one of the popular forums, fans who weren’t at work that morning began posting pictures of their copies of Echo Shroud magazine, casually chatting as they waited for others to catch up.
The buzz was back—Mizushiro and Initial D were once again the center of attention.
Chapter 7 of Initial D picks up right where the previous chapter left off,
The countdown begins.
As the REDSUNS call the start of the match, Keisuke Takahashi’s FD and Takumi Fujiwara’s AE86 launch off the line.
Just like that, fans who had been bracing themselves for another teasing delay breathe a collective sigh of relief—Mizushiro dives straight into the action this time.
In the opening panels, the performance gap between the two cars is clear: Keisuke shifts gears once, while Takumi quickly moves up to fourth.
The FD rockets ahead, instantly putting distance between itself and the 86.
And so the question builds—what’s going to happen next?
Readers familiar with Initial D’s setup already know Takumi is skilled, but how skilled? That hasn’t been fully revealed yet.
On paper, it shouldn’t even be a contest. The FD has around 350 horsepower. The AE86? Only about 150. But this is manga. Fans want the underdog to defy expectations.
Even so, tension hangs in the air. Can Takumi really keep up?
A few pages in, Ryosuke Takahashi analyzes the AE86’s start, while Keisuke shouts, “That 86? It’s not getting anywhere near my rearview mirror again!”
Then comes the first turn.
Takumi adjusts his posture—his usual calm giving way to laser focus. He braces the wheel with his cheek and one hand, shifting gears mid-drift.
The next full-page spread shows the AE86 screaming into the corner—rear tires grazing the mountain road’s guardrail, bystanders recoiling as if it's about to crash.
But it doesn’t.
Next page—the 86 exits the corner cleanly, still flying.
“That was the first corner? The 86 was barely five centimeters from the guardrail…”
“I’ve never seen anyone take a turn at that speed before…”
Ryosuke listens to his teammates’ voices crackle through the walkie-talkie, the tension building page by page.
And the fans? They’re locked in.
Watching Takumi hit that first drift, everyone has the same thought: “This is insane.”
Mizushiro doesn’t change the original plot, but his artistic choices give it new energy. Character designs strike a balance between detail and realism. Fans who might’ve been turned off by the older art style are now immersed in every panel.
He enhances the racing scenes, making the motion and power jump off the page.
And it works. Readers feel it immediately.
A few corners in, Keisuke—still trying to shake the AE86—starts to sweat.
Then, just a few pages later, Takumi begins closing the gap with terrifying ease. After another bend, the 86 is right behind him.
The walkie-talkie lights up again: “He entered the corner that fast… and still exited ahead of pace!”
The visuals and pacing hit hard—fans reported literal goosebumps reading that sequence.
Was this even manga anymore? Or an actual downhill battle come to life?
Could someone actually drive like this?
And whether or not it was possible didn’t matter—what did matter was the feeling.
This was what they’d waited all week for. And it delivered.
Keisuke’s face is drawn in sweat and disbelief. Takumi, driving one-handed, remains composed.
Once the AE86 overtakes the FD, it never falls behind again.
Even on straight sections—where the FD theoretically has the edge—the twists of Mt. Akina always bring Takumi back to his bumper.
On a course like this, raw horsepower can’t be fully unleashed. The real contest lies in technique.
Still, some readers—self-proclaimed driving buffs—aren’t convinced. “They’re probably only going 60 or 70 kilometers per hour, right? It’s too curvy to go faster.”
Mizushiro has an answer for that.
In one panel—directly inspired by the original—he clearly shows the AE86 speeding downhill at 140 kilometers per hour.
Readers who thought they could match Takumi in real life? Silenced.
140 km/h. Down a mountain. On a two-lane road. While drifting.
That’s not something you just try for fun.
Some fans ran to double-check real-life data on touge racing. Turns out, pro drivers can hit speeds like that.
But in an unmodified AE86?
That’s what left them stunned.
Just like the manga says—“Has he lost all fear of the downhill?”
This version of Initial D didn’t just meet expectations. It blasted through them.
Mizushiro wasn’t just drawing manga anymore.
He was drawing adrenaline.
Chapter 165
Looking down again.
At this point, Keisuke Takahashi was still frustrated—his high-powered FD had been caught in the corners by that damn 86.
Meanwhile, Takumi seemed... focused, but not in the way people expected.
“I can’t call it a win if I don’t pass him.”
“I’ll use it. Even with a full tank... should be fine.”
No shouting. No panic. Just cold focus behind the wheel.
But for the readers?
The legendary pride of the Akagi REDSUNS on the line, Keisuke’s FD tearing through every corner—
And Takumi’s thinking about fuel weight?
There’s Keisuke, pushing to the limit like every second counts—
Meanwhile, Takumi’s eyes are calm, his hands steady, reading the road like it’s second nature.
Not overthinking. Just... knowing.
Some readers rolled their eyes.
Really? Thinking about a full tank in the middle of a race like this?
But sharp-eyed fans picked up on it right away.
“That move?”
What move?
Curiosity soared.
The AE86 had been trailing the FD the whole time. It kept up in corners, but on the straights, it was left behind. There’s no way it could overtake—right?
Or… was Fujiwara Takumi still hiding something?
They turned the page.
Takumi’s expression grew more focused in the next panel.
“It starts… at the five consecutive hairpins coming up.”
He definitely had a trump card!
Readers were fired up.
And then… they turned the next page—
And that was it.
That was the end.
Gone. Again.
Just like getting whacked over the head with a steel pipe.
For readers still riding the high of that intense, edge-of-your-seat battle, the emotional whiplash was brutal.
The more they loved Initial D, the more they wanted to strangle the person behind it—Mizushiro.
Some reactions were immediate and theatrical.
“Why is he like this? What happened to basic human decency?”
“Mizushiro is a menace. Who ends a chapter there?!”
“I swear if someone has his home address, I’ll send him a hundred angry postcards!”
“I don’t know where he lives, but the publisher’s address is printed on the back of Shroud Line!”
“This is the seventh time. I’ve had it. He always cuts it off right there! I’m gonna riot!”
“Let’s all file formal complaints to Echo Shroud. This is emotional abuse!”
“Look, I spent like 800 yen on this issue. What’s another 100 yen to send him a hate letter?”
The Line group chat for intial D fans went from cheerful chatter to full-on pitchforks and torches.
People who hadn’t even read the chapter yet were now desperate to see it. Even those still stuck at work or school were itching with anticipation. They knew how bad Mizushiro’s cliffhangers could be—and that only meant the chapter must be incredible.
So, during lunch break, many of them snuck off, bought the new issue of Shroud Line, read Initial D…
…and joined the angry mob online.
Forums, websites, Line chats, even social media and the Echo Shroud comment board were flooded with outrage—over the cliffhanger, and only the cliffhanger.
Mizushiro’s personal social media was completely overrun.
A strange phenomenon unfolded: Mizushiro was undeniably drawing one of the most thrilling manga on shelves—and getting roasted alive by his own fans.
On the day Chapter 7 dropped, the Echo Shroud editorial office received an unusual volume of angry reader letters.
Most weren’t complaints in the traditional sense. They were demands.
“Give Initial D more pages!”
“I’ll pay extra for longer chapters!”
“Please just let the race finish in one go next time!”
Of course, increasing page counts comes with production costs, so the answer was a firm “no.” But still—the sheer volume of letters was shocking. Especially considering most came from one region, with more likely on the way from others.
It was clear to everyone: this kind of reader reaction didn’t happen unless a manga really struck a nerve.
From the start, everyone at Echo Shroud expected Initial D to be popular.
But no one expected it to explode like this.
That evening, the popularity vote results were released—and the whole editorial team just stared at the numbers.
Even though most online chatter was complaints and memes dragging Mizushiro… people still voted. In fact, they voted hard.
This week’s votes for Initial D surged by over 300,000, reaching 1.1 million total—a huge jump from last issue.
It didn’t just surpass Natsume’s Notebook.
It overtook Ryūkon by nearly 100,000 votes.
Now Initial D ranked second in the entire magazine.
The only title ahead of it?
A Dreamlike World by Airi.
Even fans new to Initial D—drawn in by the buzz—started checking out Mizushiro’s other series, like Natsume’s. Its character-driven theme made it easy to jump in mid-story.
Meanwhile, Rinseki, author of Ryūkon, still reeling from being passed by Initial D, now felt Natsume breathing down his neck.
Since Ashes of Tomorrow ended, his momentum had stalled.
Once seen as a quiet pillar of the magazine, he now found himself slipping—and everyone could see it.
And now, Initial D was just one step away from the peak—something Haruki had dreamed of since joining Echo Shroud.
Back at the serialization meeting two months ago, no one could’ve imagined this trajectory.
Even a year ago, during the debut of Natsume, Haruki was still struggling to get a foot in the door.
Now, he was within reach of the summit.
To outsiders, it all seemed absurd. It took Airi four years to build up to her current status.
Haruki?
It had only been two years since his first manga.
If Initial D overtook Dream World, Airi’s title as the most talented mangaka in Tokyo would quietly pass to Haruki.
Of course, while others were stunned, Haruki wasn’t losing his head over it.
He was happy, sure—but also realistic.
This massive vote spike didn’t mean he had a million new fans overnight. It meant the story had struck a chord, stirring even silent readers to finally speak up.
He still had a long way to go before matching Tanaka’s reputation across the manga industry.
But if he kept this up, word of mouth would carry him far—and fast.
“Climb to the top of Shroud Line…?”
Haruki let a rare smile creep across his face.
“There’s still a gap between me and Dream World. I’ll need time to close it. But once I do…”
“…I hope the system rewards me properly.”
After all, winning the Aurora Award had earned him an S-tier system reward. If he reached the top of Shroud Line—that had to be worth something even better.
Either way, with a strong series already serialized and an anime pipeline secured thanks to his ties with Kazuya, Haruki wasn’t worried about what came next.
Comments
Dhvaj Patel
Yes, I’m aware! I kept both chapters in a single Google Doc on purpose—if I separated them, I’d have to re-add all the email IDs . That’s why both links open the same file.
Banana19
Author - In Google docs both chapters are present in a single doc file. So both links open to a single file which has both chapters.
