MF Ghost
Plot
The series takes place in 202X, where self-driving electric cars have replaced internal combustion ones. However, in Japan, there is a large organization called MFG, founded by Ryosuke Takahashi (from the Initial D series), that is focused exclusively on street racing with internal combustion cars. Kanata Rivington (カナタ・リヴィントン, Kanata Rivūinton), a 19-year-old Japanese-British man who is competing under the pseudonym Kanata Katagiri (片桐 夏向, Katagiri Kanata), has shown up on the scene driving a Toyota 86. He manages to work his way through the ranks of MFG, beating top-tier cars such as the Lamborghini Huracán LP 610-4, Ferrari 488 GTB, Lotus Exige, Alfa Romeo 4C and Porsche 911 Carrera (991). Kanata has been trained by legendary downhill and rally racer Takumi Fujiwara (the protagonist of the Initial D series) at the Royal Donington Racing School in the UK and is a Formula 4 world champion. He has only one motive: to find his long-lost father.
Reception
By January 2019, the manga had over 1 million copies in circulation; over 3.2 million copies in circulation by January 2022; and over 4 million copies in circulation by January 2023.
Reception
Anime News Network (ANN) had four editors review the first episode of the anime: Rebecca Silverman was put off by the fan service depiction of Ren and felt disappointed with the racing being relegated to "only about thirty seconds of actual race footage"; Richard Eisenbeis felt betrayed by the lack of "awesome dirfting car races and killer eurobeat music" throughout the episode, but gave it credit for being a "solid introduction" and had decent stories involving Kanata and Ren, saying he will check out the second episode; James Beckett critiqued that "automotive-illiterate viewers" may enjoy the series through Ren and Kanata's potential romance but was unsure of its racing anime appeal based on the brief snippets it shows, saying that fanbase "will have to wait another week to get a real taste of the action." The fourth reviewer, Nicholas Dupree, was unimpressed with the "mild-mannered and matter-of-fact" main cast (outside of Ogata) but felt that viewers will get invested in them during the long run. He added that the visuals were a mixed bag, commending the details to the CG vehicles and the "distinctive character designs", but was critical of the environments being "(barely-)edited reference photos," saying "the make-or-break detail will depend on how well they can capture the speed and intensity of racing in the next episode."
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