F

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
28
RELEASE
January 1, 1992
CHAPTERS
328

DESCRIPTION

Gunma Akagi is a hot-headed youth from the countryside. When some extreme circumstances cause him to leave his home, he moves to Tokyo to pursue his dreams of competitive racing. Along for the ride is his best friend and engineer, Tamotsu. Meeting with mishap after mishap, will Gunma really be able to achieve his dreams?

(Source: Creek & River Co.)

CAST

Gunma Akagi
Junko Komori
Souichirou Akagi
Tamotsu Oishi

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO F

ANIME SportsF

MANGA DramaF REGENERATION Ruri

REVIEWS

Frc
67/100
A series about a Japanese Ayrton Senna with a side of corporation scandals.
Spoilers ahead for the entire series:

Noboru Rokuda has decided to write about a racer in one of the biggest, most remembered era in single-seater motorsports, the late 80s to early 90s, yet Alain Prost is promptly dropped in favour of Jesus Christ (yeah) and Senna himself is apparently only capable of saying he communicates with God regularly.

The entire series revolve around Gunma and whoever the author has decided to introduce, every other driver being limited to being a car on the track that may or may not be faster. There are no interactions, no rivalries, don't come here expecting Gunma Akagi to butt heads with the legends of F1, the only people that matter are the Japanese guys and Jesus Christ. This is a massive chance wasted considering this manga was being written at the time when legendary battles were fought on and off the track (it is one of the most political eras in F1 history, yet everyone seems to be just an NPC that might or might not be faster than Gunma's car).

It really is a shame because there is almost nothing compelling about F's driving unless you are expecting someone to crash, burn and die (in that order). The racing is mostly limited to talking about racing techniques over still images and people overtaking each other in the back straight. The focus on actual racing expertise is almost nonexistent.

As I mentioned, F's appeal doesn't reside on Akagi interacting with the legends of the time or a profound look at F1 dogfights. So, what about the characters?

Part of the appeal of this series will be you hating them and wishing for them to eventually meet their deserved, often terrible fates, but even here F will leave you bitter and disappointed. Shoma gets practically scot free of being an absolutely terrible excuse of a human being. Soichiro has an excuse since he's a war veteran and he does have some compelling moments in his fall from glory, but Shoma literally gets away with terrible things and all the redemption he gets is "wow gunma i don't hate you anymore you are my brother fr let's go racing".

Another part is the well-written characters that will support the story and make it interesting, namely Tamotsu, Toyota, Yuma, Soichiro and Kasai. Hijiri fades out way too soon and feels like a cheap imitation of Rikishi Tooru. Otoya ranges from interesting rival to nonsensical cartoon villain. Yuki's story is extremely cheap from start to finish. Everyone else is simply not worth mentioning, they exist but don't make a compelling case for the series quality.

This series idea of dealing with adult, mature themes is throwing the word "rape" or "kill" every 3 chapters, sometimes showing it in a PG-13 kind of way. The themes about death, the worthiness of life and how people surpass their limits are so repetitive and overdrawn that you won't care about them by the time the climax is being reached.

All in all, an enjoyable read, yet a disappointing one for F1 diehards such as myself. It doesn't really leave you satisfied in any front.
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