MF Ghost (MFゴースト) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno. It is a sequel to Initial D, and it also focuses on the Japanese street racing scene. It was serialized Kodansha's manga magazine Weekly Young Magazine from September 2017 to February 2025, with its chapters collected in 23 volumes.
An anime television series adaptation by Felix Film aired its first season from October to December 2023; a second season aired from October to December 2024; a third season aired from January to March 2026; a fourth and final season has been announced.
The series was followed by Subaru and Subaru, which started in July 2025.
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), a 19-year-old Japanese-British man who is competing under the pseudonym Kanata Katagiri (片桐 夏向), 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.
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno, MF Ghost was serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine Weekly Young Magazine from September 4, 2017,[2][3][4] to February 17, 2025.[5][6] The series is a sequel to Shigeno's manga series Initial D.[7][8] Kodansha collected its chapters in 23 volumes, released from January 5, 2018, to June 6, 2025.[9]
Kodansha USA and Comixology published the 23 volumes digitally from January 11, 2022, to November 18, 2025.[10] Kodansha added it to its K Manga online platform in May 2023.[11]
A sequel series by Shigeno, titled Subaru and Subaru, started in Weekly Young Magazine on July 22, 2025.[12][13]
Volumes
Volumes
Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced on January 4, 2022.[51] It is 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.[52] The series aired from October 2 to December 18, 2023, on Tokyo MX and other networks.[53] The opening song is "Jungle Fire feat. Motsu (singer)" by Yū Serizawa, while the ending song is "Stereo Sunset" by Himika Akaneya.[55]
Following the final episode of the first season, a second season was announced,[56][57] which aired from October 7 to December 23, 2024.[58] The opening song is "Rock Me Kiss Me feat. Motsu" by Yū Serizawa,[60] while the ending song is "Side U (Prod. AmPm)" by Himika Akaneya.[61]
Following the final episode of the second season, a third season was announced.[62] It aired from January 4 to March 29, 2026.[6][63][64] The opening song is "Timeless Power feat. Motsu" by Yū Serizawa, while the ending song is "Yokan no Tochū Prod. Taku Takahashi (m-flo)" (予感の途中 Prod. ☆Taku Takahashi (m-flo)) by Himika Akaneya.[65]
Following the final episode of the third season, a fourth and final season was announced.[66]
Crunchyroll is streaming the series.[67] Medialink licensed the series in Asia-Pacific for streaming on its Ani-One Asia YouTube channel.[68][69][70]
Episodes
Season 1 (2023)
Season 2 (2024)
Season 3 (2026)
Season 1 (2023)
Season 2 (2024)
Season 3 (2026)
Episodes
Season 1 (2023)
Season 2 (2024)
Season 3 (2026)
Season 1 (2023)
Season 2 (2024)
Season 3 (2026)
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]
External links
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