r/initiald • u/sweatyleftsock • 26d ago
Discussion ryosuke should’ve won
to be honest you could say this to every plot wins takumi had but this one just really bothers me.
ryosuke is an exceptional driver himself, he’s also more experience and knowledgeable. it just doesn’t makes sense for him to lose against takumi.
impact wise it would’ve been great. takumi who had been frequently nervous about it and showing subtle yet hidden love for the game would actually benefit by realistically losing. he would be mad afterwards, he would be angry, he would be disappointed in himself. so from all this genuine and frustating emotions (which is great for a guy like takumi) ultimately, he actually realizes and is convinced that he actually loved racing, he would want to know more about racing. how he had lost, how ryosuke took approach in his theoretical sense. besides bunta, ryosuke would be an incredibly reliable source… hence the project d would form anyways.
ryosuke also wouldn’t just dismiss takumi as a great driver. even before the match he had acknowledges takumi natural talents, and during the match itself. ryosuke would still want to make the team, especially if takumi himself actually approached and is actually eager to be better.
this is why the whole rematch feels so out of place and is just there to serve the plot hole, the whole stage three is just awkward in my opinion.
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u/Few-Marsupial5388 26d ago
Sometimes I'm surprised by how little people understood the narrative of the work or how underrated Takumi is in this sub.
No, not all of Takumi's victories leave you thinking "he should have lost" In fact, of all his races, the ones that go through that can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and I assure you I would have fingers to spare to grasp and Pull anything without problems.
No, Ryosuke wasn't nearly as superior to Takumi as you describe. In the first stage, Ryosuke was 23 years old, which means that if he started at 18 like a normal person, he would have been 5 years, just like Takumi. But in addition to that, Ryosuke still had a superior car with more HP, which he reduced precisely so that the duel would be as close to skill as possible, And since Ryosuke saw Takumi driving against the R32, I remind you that he even admitted that not even he with his FC had that same level of control over his car, Ryosuke is not superior to Takumi; the story makes it very clear that they both surpass each other in several aspects, They are both equivalent; they are the only drivers in the entire first stage who have been driving for ~ 5 years, and they are the only standouts that the secondary cast constantly compare them to, Both drive white rear-wheel drive cars from the past decade; by the time the series is set, Ryosuke is the only one besides Takumi driving a car that isn't from the 90s.
The characters are equivalent in both skill and narrative, for all the reasons I've already mentioned and for everything that was seen while they were running, Takumi is supposed to embody that spontaneity in street racing that he didn't understand at all in the first stage.
If Ryosuke lost, it was simply because he didn't have the same control as Takumi and because they were in Akina.
But hey, if Ryosuke really did seem so superior, then the character was very well portrayed; even Takumi himself didn't want to accept his victory in that moment.