Jun Namiyama – Male, 27, Club Host & TRD Test Driver, Toyota Supra JZA80 driver


Jun Namiyama is affiliated with Daiki Akiyama and Team Japan for a short time; showing the ropes to the new members on how Daiki deals with his colleagues. Once the group settled in, Jun bid his farewell and returned to his casual life at Tokyo as a host club representative at nights and casually as a test driver for TRD and other big tuning companies. He’s a serious-looking fellow with a warm personality. He’s albeit quite sarcastic with his words oftentimes just to get his point across, especially if it involves a serious discussion with him and the person he’s talking to. An avid Toyota Supra fanatic – he drives both a JZA80 Supra RZ and a JZA70 Supra Group A Twin Turbo.


Bio/ Lifestory:


Jun was initially recruited into Kitami Kitamaru’s roster when he first instigated “Noyzee Tribe” – an ambitious team made up of skilled touge racers around the Kantou area comprising of Tomo Kitsumoro and his R34, Kyosuke Katsumaru and his multiple lightweight vehicles, and Kitami Kitamaru – ½ of the rotary aces of Saitama. It turns out that Jun Namiyama got involved with Daiki Akiyama before and is surprised to see a previous colleague again. On their first international trip to Italy, Jun accompanied Team Japan to show the team how Daiki deals with the professional form of racing and what are his initial expectations are. When the team duly acknowledged the ways how Daiki deals with everyone, Jun freely left the team, leaving them in their own care. Heading back, Jun continues his life as a host club representative on one of the Ropponggi clubs. Before and after shifts, he traverses the Wangan on his Toyota Supra.

*spoiler for season 2* Jun loves to play the Devil’s advocate to “help” out those who are on the deep end of certain situations. He has this belief that “in order to save someone, you’d have to put him in a pinch / push them to the deep end”. He went as far as max modifying Tsubasa’s AE86 who’s yearning for more power, to teach him that too much power is deadly.

Trivia:
• He has/had an artificial eye, originally covered by an eye patch with the Nazi logo from World War II
• Though not stated, Jun is a light smoker; reasons being in Ropponggi, you’re cool if you smoke. It must also be an influence by his work.
• His bio has some resemblance with Kei Aizawa of Wangan Midnight – both drive Supras and both work at Host clubs.
• His tactic of teaching Tsubasa Aramaki by giving him what he wants, even if it is dangerous, is a similar strategy used by the tuners of Wangan Midnight during Kei Aizawa’s arc.




Ryo Haraguchi – Male, 29, Marketing Manager, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V driver
(Adrenaline – Street Racing special character cameo)

Nicknamed “Tokyo Fury” by most around the Aqualine, Ryo has a long standing record being one of the best Evo drivers of Kanagawa. Once in his time, he was part of a team that he and Seiji belong to, a team specializing in Lancer Evolutions. Ryo and Seiji go way back, helping each other out and vice versa in honing their skills until near-perfection. Ryo’s as timid as Seiji and kind of like an introvert but he is more outgoing than Seiji when the time calls for it. There are a lot of similarities between Seiji and Ryo.

Bio / Lifestory:


Ryo Haraguchi works as a marketing manager for a middle-sized business firm for a living who passionately races during the nights after work to relieve himself off daily stress. He seems to prefer highway racing over mountain racing, given his car is designed for the mountains, for practical purposes, his work being one. On gatherings, be it with his workmates or his race mates, he loves to have a sake showdown and he seems to be able to hold his alcohol very well. 

Currently, Ryo’s dictated to help expand his company’s business by heading over to the US to analyze the market and to put up their first multinational branch. Seeing it not just as a opportunity to expand his horizons on both secular and his racing career, Ryo gets ready to traverse towards North American Territory – but not after being sought assistance by his old teammate, Seiji Tsuchiya. Wise with his words, as well as with his driving, Ryo assured him that he needed something simple to get back up on his feet. After fulfilling his request of counseling and his request of a duel fulfilled, Ryo felt content and leaves Tokyo with a smile, leaving anything about the Shutokou on Seiji’s hands.

Trivia:
• Ryo was 100% based from Adrenaline – Street Racing by Parker Brooks / 1MFILMS
• His theme song is “Tengoku” – sung by KanaraKante & Kosiji
• His Lancer Evo V’s livery is inspired by the Evo III / Evo IV WRC rally livery
• Ryo & Seiji’s team up is a tribute to Tokyo Xtreme Racer Lan Evo teams No Loser (Awesome Osaka / Naniwa Warship) and Top Level (Tarmac Suzuki)




Raymond Yamazaki – Male 28, Owner of Speed Addiction Garage, R35 GT-R Nismo / Corvette ZR1 C6 driver

Nicknamed as “the Lightning Angel” of the Wangan, Raymond Yamazaki is a wealthy tuner who invested on high end sports cars and fine tunes them for whichever purpose requested. Although Raymond is kind-hearted, he is oftentimes prideful, especially about his work and GT-Rs. He is mostly seen hanging out with Kazuhiko Aizawa; he originally had a feud to settle with Daiki Akiyama, but he chose to let go of that and leave his score to settle through Seiji. On another note, he’s too much of a flirt and most often than not, gets shut down rather easily – ending up acting like a 5 year old before and after getting shut down.

Bio / Lifestory:

Raymond was quite an affluent individual who was half American and half Japanese; the latter coming from the mother’s side of the family. He originally had a mentality that foreign sports cars like Porsches and Ferraris are “invincible on their own”; it was when he just got his license and he lost to a hard-tuned R32. He was trained hard by his father to appreciate the beauty of export machines (mostly European ones despite being of American heritage) but to also appreciate the domestics. In time, he learned to appreciate how the local machines work and in turn, though exotics played a huge culture in the Japanese motorsport scene, got ‘converted’ in to main Japanese cars – the R34 being inspired by his fiancée. Through the aid of his father, his fiancée, and his father’s staff; he learned the ways of the locals, completely appreciated the local culture and worked his way on not just inheriting the business but also on his reputation as a street racer. Even before he met Akiyama, Kazuhiko Aizawa was deemed to be his long time rival, ever since his first encounter with him on his white Ferrari 550 Maranello against Kazuhiko’s modified RX-7 FD.

Upon encountering Akiyama, his name is already quite established – both as a tuner inheriting his father’s business, and as a street racer already coming in with his famed white trademark. Raymond, on first encounter, was close to beating Daiki with his high powered R34 but because he has some sort of tuning restrictions, in order to last longer on the Wangan, he expanded his sixth gear for drafting, a skill he just planned on mastering, which also led to him losing to Daiki’s Z. He later became part of what was called the anti-silverblood task force, being deemed as a skilled driver who could last against “silverblood”, he with a couple of others are the only ones qualifiable to keep the Wangan safe from other reckless drivers and from the rumoured curse.

After the events of Mugen, Raymond’s business kept on growing and his preferences kept on expanding; getting hold of the blueprints of the Nissan GT-R NISMO, he gets to work on it converting it to an FIA trim with the retained Nismo internals. He made arrangements to have both Seiji and another haffie to work for him for his LanEvo promotional period to both understand Lancer Evolutions, up his sales, and to help Seiji out who was in a bind with regards to both his personal problems and the problems he’s encountering / experiencing throughout the story.

Trivia:
• Raymond Yamazaki’s failed flirt attempts is parallel to Kitami Kitamaru of Team Japan.
• The pun of his name the Lightning Angel was based off him driving a white car and in reference to his blonde hair – all his cars are white.
• He likes to mess around with Kazuhiko Aizawa
• His “destined” rivalry with Kazuhiko was parallel to the GT-R VS RX7 feud by the auto community
• Raymond Yamazaki was created by a WME member aliased as Paladinoras
• Next to Takumi Takashi, he’s the only Half-Japanese hailing from America.
• Ever since his conversion of beliefs about sports cars, he mained GT-Rs for most of his life, having 2 as his garage’s flagship car
• His more dominant gene or Nationality is being American.
• Ironically, at the start of his career; although priding himself as an American, he’s more inclined to European Exotics when he started.
• His 2 main cars for Fujin – the R35 GT-R base and the Corvette ZR-1 are allusions to his nationality
• Midnight Cinderella treats him with much sarcasm on non-serious conversations




Kazuhiko Aizawa – Male, 30, Journalist at Japan Tuning Tokyo Edition, Mazda RX-7 FD3S Bathurst R driver

Kazuhiko is a well vexed journalist of JTTed, a car magazine situated and distributing around Tokyo locally. He gets into a lot of contracts and opportunity deals with various tuners, drivers, etc to help expand their popularity by covering stories and articles about their achievements. Outside work, he is also a popular RX7 driver of the Wangan, able to utilize the FD on high speed stages, able to keep up with a heavily tuned Ferrari with ease, being one of his achievements, something only cars like the GT-R could only accomplish. He’s mostly seen with either Seiji, his company colleague and friend, or with Raymond Yamazaki.

Bio / Lifestory:

Kazuhiko’s life is quite common although tiresome according to him – going to each and every event he could find just to get a good scoop. He once got the MVJ award on the JT corporate meetings for his eagerness in getting good stories across and how he was on a certain event every time. Kazuhiko in his past time does a lot of researching work that he was able to utilize for both his own car and for his job. Strangely enough, he was never once seen with a book or tons of books around. When he’s not covering a story, he is out challenging people of the same level at high speed stages of the Wangan – daring them to race him at the Wangan where people mostly know how inferior the FD is there and were corrected by that mind set. Kazuhiko was always calm and he was never once found nor felt in a position where he was in a bind. 
When he met Seiji and figuring out he was his colleague and a fellow Hashirya, the two started hanging out a lot. Seiji considered Kazuhiko sort of as his right hand man and a person he could trust his life on. Kazuhiko has that tendency to be quite passive about things, regardless of the situation, and most often than not cares less for it, unless it involves Seiji – showing signs of deep friendship between the two. He was also the reason behind Seiji’s success – being someone who gathers a scoop or information on a technical aspect, he was able to stay neutral to the matter and gathered info about each and every rival Seiji once faced and helped him make an action plan for each – later in time when Seiji decided to form some sort of little group along with Keiichi Iwata, he was nicknamed as the tactical adviser of the team leaving Keiichi with the mechanical work and with Seiji on the aspect of driving, leaving him assigned with exploiting weaknesses during a battle.

Trivia:
• He is oftentimes seen with Raymond most of the time as a running gag.
• He’s the only guy in the group who wears glasses, among the men.
• The team comprising of Seiji, Kazuhiko and Keiichi, named “blue crimson” was a mix inspired by the Red Lancer Evolution and the blue Honda DC5 Integra as seen by the creator back in Highschool at Colegio San Agustin Makati
• It was destined that Kazuhiko, based on his seiyuu back in Speed Legend V, speaks with a british aftertone despite being Japanese by blood.

 
MAIN EPISODE DEBUTS:

Keiichi Iwata – Male, 28, Journalist at Young Motors Magazine, Honda DC5 Integra Type R Owner

Keiichi is a fellow affiliate of both Seiji and Kazuhiko given their profession. Beyond that they share a unique and common affinity when it comes to cars – Keiichi’s a content individual and is simply looking out for Seiji and Kazuhiko. Due to his work, he rarely goes out to be with Seiji and Kazuhiko but most often than not, he can be seen driving around the Shutokou in his turbocharged DC5 Integra. He was the first to witness Tsubasa’s third revival prior to his return from Osaka around the Hanshin loop. Upon traversing back to Tokyo he reports this to Seiji – followed by assisting him alongside Naoko and Kazuhiko when Iwasaki had some theories to test out with Seiji.

Trivia:
• Keiichi and Seiji’s name combined may be a pun of the drift king himself: Keiichi Tsuchiya
• Keiichi’s DC5 Integra is synonymously similar to the turbocharged DC2 from Initial D driven by Smiley Sakai, only Keiichi’s is turbo tuned.
• Keiichi Iwata is the only FF driver of the series; second Honda driver in Fujin, next to Dream Fiend.
• His work scoops, compared to Kazuhiko and Seiji depend more on being the videographer of the report mostly contributing to audio visual articles for the car magazine community.
• Like Kochiiro, he’s more of an oil-type person but unlike Kochiiro, he is not limited to just a certain manufacturer – this was a helpful ability of his even for his work.

Tsubasa Aramaki – Male, 18, Drop-out Student & Mechanic at Black Wings, Toyota AE86 Trueno driver

Tsubasa is a young aspiring racer who works at a tuning shop and just recently got in to Wangan racing after being overly influenced by a dousjin he’s following and where he kept practicing on the mountain passes. He harbors a hatred for 4WDs and is quite obsessed with power throughout the series, hell bent on beating Seiji Tsuchiya, whom he thinks humiliated him by outwitting him on the Wangan. Due to his out-of-control lust to power up his AE86, his car becomes totally dangerous and caused a multiple number of accidents around the highway. He’s the main antagonist of the story representing the recklessness of each street racer, young and old.

Bio / Lifestory:

Hailing from Hachioji, Tsubasa mainly had his inspirations on driving from doujins that he read while he was young (Initial D primarily) and it’s what got him to save up and buy an AE86 Trueno from the junkshop which he reconditioned at his workplace – Garage Black Wings. Tsubasa, on a regular basis like at the manga that he kept following, practices on the mountain roads of Tsubaki and a region nearby the old Hakone touge district and got cocky about his victories about it ever since. He was warned by his superior that although his skills are good as a driver, his car’s tuning and maintenance begs to differ, let alone he lets his pride get the best of him. His ego started building up when he defeated a 400hp FC on the C1 loop but it was ultimately crushed when he faced off against Seiji Tsuchiya who was driving one of Raymond Yamazaki’s client cars.
*Spoilers* Distraught by the loss, Tsubasa harbors a deep hatred for 4WDs and a hatred of Seiji Tsuchiya himself as well, unaware of Seiji’s reputation. He went as far as visiting his old mentor from the province, Guro-sensei, to revamp his AE86 for wangan runs with a base hi-speed-circuit tune. Upon his return he hunts down each and every LanEvo driver around the metro and humiliated them, taunting Seiji to come out and face him. He raced Seiji, not until he blows his engine, costing him the race. Tsubasa’s hate for Seiji grew deeper as he yearns more for power to put on his car. Treated to access to a High-tuned TD06*, Tsubasa returns with a 600 hp three-quarter ton hatchback that he thinks would be more than enough to decimate the LanEvo he oh so hates. Against Takumi Takashi, another Lan Evo driver, he races both of them for Wangan Superiority only for a third time, Tsubasa’s engine gives on him just after Ooi tunnel. He snaps and starts blaming his AE86 for the loss, cursing it and denting it with his own hands. As a form of a wake up call, Midnight Cinderella snaps him back to his senses with ultimately crushing the rest of Tsubasa’s pride with her words, where he ended up crying for the third death of his hachi-roku. His AE86 was then disposed off, labeled to be a dangerous machine that no one should know of or recreate. Nothing was heard from Tsubasa ever since.

Trivia:
• The idea was not that of the creator’s but that of a contributor who went over his head with the project, turning a sub character into a main character, overshadowing the true series’ protagonist. His overall character was then revamped in favor of the protagonist.
• Tsubasa’s AE86 is based off the famed Shuichi Shigeno grade AE86 Trueno GT-APEX with the modifications in succession: basic (maximum NA tuned 235hp with Tsubasa), AE101 Racing Engine (400hp with Tsubasa), AE101 + Turbocharger kit (600hp with Tsubasa)
• The abilities that Tsubasa “converted” are based off Initial D – examples such as the [Fujiwara] Zone, and the Mizutoshi.
• Tsubasa represented the new generation drivers and race-game players (if put to an analogy between the characters and reality) who blindly seek power with no regard for their own precautions, and self absorbed by nature.
• Tsubasa originally had a sister named Shino Aramaki but the idea was scrapped because it was a gender-bended plagiarized attack on Initial D’s Takumi and Bunta.
• He had the most number of engine blows in a racing series, outclassing Harada, Kuroki (twice each) of Wangan Midnight and Takumi Fujiwara (twice also) of Initial D.
• Garage “Black Wings” was a pun from the Fujiwara Zone wings of Initial D, even the references he noted on his conversation with his mechanic, Guro-sensei.
• Tsubasa has ego and anger management issues; and due to his pride, he tends to be as insulting as Initial D’s Seiji Iwaki or Wangan Midnight’s Motoki.
• He’s an overly obsessed fanboy of Initial D
• *The Turbo installed in Tsubasa’s AE86 on the 3rd rework is a TD06; by turbine logic, higher numbers mean a larger turbine, which means more horsepower with a slower spool; although the power generated fully would vary depending on which RPM level the turbine was set to generate power from.


Takumi Takashi – Male, 28, Mechanic at Speed Addiction Garage, Mitsubishi Evolution VI driver

Takumi was a hired mechanic who hailed all the way from Surfers Paradise of Queensland, Australia hired by Raymond Yamazaki himself for his LanEvo promotion at his tuning garage. Takumi, although haughty about his achievements and praises, seems to have all that talk backed up by his skill. He forms a healthy rivalry with Seiji Tsuchiya while at the same time he adjusts and reforms his mindset about racing in Japan versus racing Down Under. Takumi self dubs himself as the “devil 6” planning to repeat the 6 three times but he scratched the idea because it was Taboo and limited it in relation to his LanEvo instead.

Bio / Lifestory:

Takumi grew up in a very secluded environment at Surfer’s paradise with a lifestyle nearly but not totally related to that of a Hikkikomori, spending most of his time with games and the like. Takumi felt quite lost with his life course until he was able to get his license and legally drive around his state – he felt a sense of freedom. But that freedom of his soon came biting him at the back as he focuses more on improving his driving and demotivating other sports car drivers when he started and learned how to tune his own car – A Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI RS. He soon participated into track meets with his car and his unorthodox way of driving – unfortunately, his ego overwhelms any form of compliments that go his way. He barely had any lasting friendships with his attitude. His ego also got in the way of his supposedly long term sponsorships and contracts, but they backfired after the event. Upon receiving Raymond Yamazaki’s offer to work at Japan for his tuning shop, he swore a reformation of his entire personality to become both a better driver and a better person.

The moment he met Seiji, his old habits never die so to speak, but unlike the rest, Seiji retaliated with his smug attitude and friction started to develop between the two. He, later on, rode with Raymond where he encountered Kazuhiko at the loop line. Raymond demanded to switch seats in order to catch up to the leading FD. Takumi swore to experience the same feeling once again by swearing to race against Seiji to understand the local culture’s way of racing more. When he’s not working on client cars, he spent his time fine tuning his Lan Evo and his skills in preparation for his race with Seiji. It was hinted that Takumi is as skilled as Seiji and nearly won against him on their 3-way with Tsubasa, but he spun out and crashed. He lived but his Evo 6 was out of commission. He later switched to an R33 LM Road car while still working with Raymond. He faces off, with Raymond, against Motoya Iwasaki when he is fully reborn. His part of the story ends when Raymond bids him farewell from Narita Airport and where the two of them share a brofist moment thanking each other for the help and experience (Raymond with the newly attained technical knowledge, and with Takumi for getting the chance to go toe-to-toe with Seiji)

Trivia:
• Takumi’s character design, personality, car choice, and racing style were based off an actual person the creator met while in his stay at Surfers Paradise, QLD Australia.
• The teal color of Takumi’s Lan Evo 6 was hinted or referenced from the Devil Z’s pale blue color from the WMMT arcade platform.
• Takumi’s Evo VI was a mix of the JUN Evo V and the Tommi Makinen Edition with the extended carbon lips.
• Next to Seiji, Takumi is a devotee to the Lan Evo series when he was initially introduced but he willingly traversed to manning other machines while his Lan Evo was still being repaired – this was a similar influence and mentality to that of Raymond Yamazaki’s backstory of not being too reserved to one kind of vehicle.
• Takumi’s favorite route on the Shutokou is Yokohane
• He worked on an R33 GT-R which he converted to a GT-RLM Road Version


Keisuke Mamoru – Male, 30, Royal Blood Guild Member & D1 racer, Nissan GT-R R35 Spec V driver

Little was known about Keisuke Mamoru at this point in the Fujin Series. For now, he merely set the stage for the Fujin characters during his conversation and chess game with Gonsuke Hamagaki, his former rival and client when he was a freelance car journalist. Keisuke mainly gave hints of some sort of gathering of the pieces for Tomo’s growth & awakening. 

Trivia:
• Kogure’s initial physical appearance and wardrobe was inspired by the protagonist of the year 2000 Playstation 1 game by ATLUS Games called Touge Max 2.


Gonsuke Hamagaki – Male, 32, D1 Racer, Honda S2000 4WD-conversion driver

Hamagaki used to be Keisuke’s client and Keisuke Mamoru’s former rival while the latter was still known by the pen name “Kogure Seishiro”. He helped sort things out for Keisuke, making him the D1 driver he is today, while amidst his knowledge, accomplishing his tasks as a member of Royal Blood – the forgotten Racing guild. Hamagaki was skeptical about Keisuke’s return when he promised he’ll forever be gone from Tomo’s sight and knowledge. During his chess match with Keisuke, all he did was raise some questions that piqued his interest more about Keisuke’s purpose of return.

Trivia:
• Hamagaki was inspired by HAMAGAKI a.k.a. Kaido President of Genki’s Kaido Battle 3 – Touge no Densetsu & Kaido Battle 2 – Chain reaction.