So, I played the initial D arcade driving type game, and it was pretty cool. Is the anime as cool? Or does it suck as much as the in-game dialog does?
Well… I’ve only seen the first and second stages, but here’s my impression: The art style is horrible, the races aren’t exciting at all since tofu-delivery-boy almost always wins and they look almost all the same except the other car changes shape and colour. On the other hand the characters don’t overact their roles, their lives do not solely revolve around the racing, the main character is passable, the CG is separated from the common animation well enough so that the contrast isn’t too bad and if you understand it, the car-techno-babble should be interesting for car junkies. The music is… well, I like it.
I watch it when there’s nothing else on and I enjoy it, but it’s not something I look forward to.
The art really isn’t very good, I’ve already seen that much. . . so, no buy then, you’d say?
I understand a good deal of car babble, but it doesn’t interest me too much.
You play ID:AS? So do i 8) I’ve got a completed Trueno and RX8.
To be quite honest, ID:AS captures the spirit of the anime while removing the stupid parts. The best part about Initial D is watching the race scenes to the pounding early 90s eurobeat. The dialog and story really sucks, and the art style is pretty weird also, the artist seems to accentuate muscles way too much, leading to bad looking humans. But its worth downloading just to watch some of the race scenes. The landscapes are pretty nice too, but thats the only redeeming part of the artist’s style.
And also, DO NOT watch the american version. I’m not trying to be weeaboo “america sucks”, but honestly, the american version is terrible. They replaced the AVEXTrax eurobeat with generic english rap. Its so tragic, the music of ID really gives it part of its (limited) charm. 
Second Stage (Read: season) improves the CGI effects A LOT, so the first stage may turn you off.
Second, the characters have lives outside the racing skits so you’ll have to tolerate some not-so-well-written drama. And yeap, the artist must have concentrated on the cars more than the human cast 
That’s exactly what my friend said! Her then-boyfriend was really into ID, and she ended up sucked into it. She tries to get me to watch it every once in a while.