the first stage is basically what the film is... but the cartoon tells you so much more, if you watch the first stage then the movie it all becomes soooo much more clear... turns out like the girl who loves him in the film, she is a hooker lol, his cousin in the film in the cartoons, buys a ae85 not a 6 and everyone rips him, his father bunta turns out to be the old ghost of akina and the best downhill racer, which takumi then takes the title of, his dad upgrades the car for him slowly in the cartoons, he puts the race engine in like in the film but he was only used to revving to 6k before and then works out he can rev to 9k and unleashes the power lol....
has loads of little races they miss out in the film like he has a gumtape death match against a civic, which involves 1 hand being taped to the steering wheel.... so he cant get full lock and has to learn to inertia drift and all this bullshit lol, oh and hooking his wheels in the storm drain, it explains everything in the most minute detail really is worth a watch, i borrowed a mates copys he got the full initial d and project d for like 5 quid on ebay... defo worth it.