Reception
By January 2019, the manga had over 1 million copies in circulation;[76] over 3.2 million copies in circulation by January 2022;[77] and over 4 million copies in circulation by January 2023.[78]
Anime News Network (ANN) had four editors review the first episode of the anime:[79] 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."[79]
Fellow ANN editor Steve Jones chose MF Ghost as his pick for the Worst Anime of Fall 2023, criticizing the "paper-thin characters, shoddy presentation, and almost nonexistent story" as compared to Overtake!, and added that it fails as a continuation to Initial D, saying "Yes, it brings the Eurobeat back, and that's absolutely the best creative decision this sequel makes. But in all other respects—setting, character, stakes, direction, storyboarding—the classic Initial D anime runs laps around this one."[80] Monique Thomas also chose the series as her pick for the Worst Anime of 2023, feeling that the races lacked storyline stakes and contained "long technical explanations", and felt the overall production away from the tracks was "sterile with very little expression," saying, "It feels like someone took all the worst parts of Initial D and cobbled them together into one vehicle. It's a reminder that we're no longer "running in the 90s" and have left them behind a long time ago."[81] Kennedy, also writing for ANN, reviewed the complete first season in 2024 and gave it an overall C grade, praising the racing segments but felt it lacked Initial D's "over-the-top elements" that made it fun and criticized the bland characters throughout the disjointed story, concluding that: "On its own merits, it's (no pun intended) pretty middle of the road—exciting race scenes, which are weighed down by just about everything else. Overall, I wouldn't readily call it a particularly good or bad anime. But, it's the Initial D you have at home: it may also be a racing anime set to a Eurobeat soundtrack, but it lacks the over-the-top fun of Initial D."[82]
Kennedy reviewed the complete second season in 2025 and gave it an overall C− grade, commending the "serviceable" production and various Eurobeat-soundtracked races, but felt it was "another middle-of-the-road racing anime", criticizing the secondary storylines for lacking progression and "connective tissue" involving the central plot and said races for being repetitive and monotonous throughout the episodes, concluding that: "[T]his series is starting to drag, and I'm ready for it to reach the end of its road—which, incidentally, is in the process of happening in the manga, so at least there's that."[83]
