English Dub Season Review: MF Ghost Season One

As electric vehicles dominate everyday life in the 2020s, interest in traditional combustion engine cars is maintained through a motorsports series known as the MFG. Hundreds of ambitious drivers, with a staggering 30 million viewers online, fiercely compete for a spot in the Godly Fifteen—the leading 15 racers—and a chance at the grand prize of 100 million yen. Among these individuals aiming for the top is 19-year-old Kanata Rivington.

Having attended a famous racing school in England, Kanata sets his sights on the upcoming MFG tournament and enrolls in the competition under the alias “Kanata Katagiri.” In comparison to his opponents’ flashy vehicles, Kanata’s Toyota 86 GT, passed down from a former MFG contestant, puts him at a considerable disadvantage. Kanata receives guidance from a Godly Fifteen member but still treats the MFG as only a stepping stone for his true goal: locating his estranged father. Meanwhile, Kanata’s appearance sends shockwaves through the scene as his driving style eerily resembles that of a once legendary racer.

This anime was produced by Felix Film and directed by Tomohito Naka, with Kenichi Yamashita supervising the scripts co-written by Akihiko Inari, Naoyuki Onda designing the characters, and Akio Dobashi composing the music. Yu Serizawa performed the opening theme song “Jungle Fire” featuring Motsu, while Himika Akaneya performed the ending theme song “Stereo Sunset”.

At its core, MF Ghost heavily leans on nostalgia from Initial D and attempts to create a connection within that universe yet it stumbles in carving out its own identity with compelling original elements. If you weren’t a fan of Initial D before, you’d have no clue who any of the shout-outs, references or character name-drops were from the previous series. This presents a problem for newbies going into it blind unless they were previously fans

The worldbuilding is as shallow as it gets. If the narrator didn’t tell you that the automotive industry went fully electric and self-driving in episode 1 you wouldn’t have guessed it. That’s pretty much it for the racing because most of the show is about anything but, from a meandering molasses slow romance B-plot, constant references to people from the past, and a personal quest/goal for the protagonist that currently feels unresolved.

On the subject, Kanata outside of his mixed ethnicity is a genuinely bland Gary Stu. He’s a handsome hyper-capable genius who memorizes everything and never makes any mistakes, whom everyone fawns over. He’s a likable dude who rarely faces any troubles which is a bit of a detriment since he doesn’t really feel like a character audiences can easily connect with. Kanata does not have ambitions to be the best racer, or drifter, or to win anything, other than his desire to seek out his biological father that he grew up never knowing about which has the potential for good drama if it leads anywhere. His perfection undermines potential growth, leaving little room for him to evolve outside of racing scenarios. He even meets a girl named Ren Saionji who does not believe in love at first sight but ends up doing just that. Yet her inability to openly express her attraction towards him drags this one-sided romance subplot and feels grossly contrived when she misses her one chance to say anything to him. She’s part of a cheerleading branch in the MFG races called “Angels” yet neither Kanata nor anyone in his circle recognizes her despite wearing a skimpy uniform with a wig and not making an effort to hide her face, yet Superman makes a better effort with his Clark Kent glasses. And even creepier, the rival character likes to date underage girls (or as he likes to correct others, dating girls that are age 17)…and then dumps them once they become of age because he perceives them as “unlucky”.

The animation does a decent job, with the only CGI being the car driving scenes with random shots of a flying drone keeping track of the cars, and fits it nicely for an immersive experience. I also give points to the English dub cast for putting forth extra effort. Especially Kieran Flitton the voice of Kanata. His character may need some work, but he goes as far as to actually give him an authentic English accent to appropriately fit his character. The music is mostly made up of Japanese pop and techno songs that the franchise is known for to get people riled up at the suspenseful driving scenes when they aren’t weighed down by random commentary by the racing announcer or interviews with everyone else…

Overall, while MF Ghost offers visually improved racing scenes and some catchy music, the core issues with the plot and characters overshadow this. The series would’ve benefited from setting itself apart rather than trying to continue the legacy with recurring characters and frequent references newbies going into the show wouldn’t understand. At the time of this review, season two was announced to come later in 2024 which I hope fixes these problems because we the audience deserve better from an Anime/Manga franchise that’s now a quarter of a century old (1998) at this point.