TRIVIAS ABOUT THE STORY IN GENERAL:

 

• The Speed Legend series started out as a spin-off fanfic of Initial D and Wangan Midnight.

 

• Majority of characters were mostly based off people the character encountered with during his lifetime in real life. To the writer, only those who significantly affected him join the cast, other than a sense of gratitude to some of them.

 

• The original Speed Legend story was more fantasy-related with a lot of references with a lot of other series. Throughout the development, a lot of the content was revamped for originality's sake.

 

 

TRIVIAS ABOUT THE PLOT, THE CHARACTERS and THE CARS:

 

• Tomogashi Kitsumoro's hairstyle has a lot of similar designs with other characters from other anime series such as Kira Yamato of Gundam Seed, Suminoe Keita of Kiss X Sis, Shun Ukiya of Gatekeepers, etc. Other than the third mentioned, the other 2 were mere coincidences. Other characters from other series may apply as well.

 

• Kasumi Nadeshiko's physical character and personality was highly, if not fully based off Kasumi from TECMO & Team Ninja's Dead or Alive series. In order for her to become an original character for the series, her identity being a Runaway Shinobi of the Mugen Tenshin Clan Tenjin-mon guild was removed from her character background. Her relations to Ayane, Hayabusa & Hayate were all removed for the sake of series originality; although there are some characters in the series who share similar cameo appearances but mostly in physical build (Akane Murasaki & Ein respectively).

 

• Each Series story with its own protagonist has its own theme - such as Keisuke & Tomo's arcs being more shonen-like while Seiji & Daiki's arcs have a darker and more serious theme.

 

• Hiei Kamura's personality & voice tone are 100% based off Hiei's Seiyuu. No one can voice him other than himself.

 

• Ryuusen Kennichi's cat helmet was based off Celty Sturlson from Durarara!! This was a request by Ryuusen's Seiyuu.

 

• Despite the upload dates, there's a certain timeline the series follows:

Mugen --- Mugen Epilogue --- Main Story --- R Series --- S Series --- Z Series/Viaggio Grande --- Fujin --- V Series

 

• In reality, there's no 350Z Z-tune that ever existed; the Z-tune reference was based off Gran Turismo's take on the Fairlady Z Z-tune which debuted on Gran Turismo 4. Same applies to the V-tune R34, which was a direct original spinoff by the writer with slight revisions to the original referenced tune (Z-tune + R-tune).

 

• Most minor teams in Speed Legend's R-series were a spin-off of Initial D Fourth Stage character teams (SSR, Todou School respectively with Turbo Division & Yokohama Alliance respectively).

 

• Speed Legend V's OVA was a tribute to Wangan Midnight given the S30Z Takara Nakayama was using midway through the episode was a direct shout out to the Devil Z of W. Midnight by Michiharu Kusonaki. The one difference from the original WM is the missing duck-tail spoiler on the S30 and the side mirrors revert to the original chrome ones.

 

• The design theme of Lucas Scott's Corvette Z06 C6 body color was inspired by the Corvette C4 Grand Sport.

 

• The livery of Nathan Archibald Sr.'s Ford GT Heritage model was 100% based off the 1969 Ford GT40 which participated in the LeMans. The same livery is selectable in the Gran Turismo car line-up (as the Ford GT LM Race Car 05'), as a livery design in Need For Speed (Carbon and up), and as a downloadable mod in Test Drive Unlimited 1 by third party modders/users.

 

• The V16 engine reference with Kitana's Lamborghini Diablo in Speed Legend R Epilogue was a reference to the Cizeta-Moroder V16T since it had a similar build to the Lamborghini Diablo, which is also related to (according to Wikipedia).

 

• It was never mentioned if the entire Silverblood Fiasco in the Mugen Web novel was a total hoax or was all in Daiki's head but it was implied that Silverblood may represent the overly-perfect driver with the perfect machine in every driver with the only desire to win by any means necessary - it can also be implied that this perfect driver within each person could turn against themselves just to assure/expect a flawless victory even if it meant taking a life or two... or a lot of lives.

 

• Fujin's upcoming storyline was highly based off the writer's stay at Australia and a lot of characters were inspired by those who had made a huge impact in his life. Special mentions are Takumi Takashi, Mari-chan, Stanley, and Aya as to name a few, whose character personalities, physical builds and profiles are based from their real life counterparts.

 

• Because there were no copyright ownerships to certain characters from the Tokyo Xtreme Racer series such as Jintei, Midnight Cinderella, and Death Driver, other than their names from certain versions of the TXR series, their character designs are purely original, made for the Speed Legend series alone. Facts to support this are the ever changing names of the characters such as Jintei ---> Speed King ---> Emperor Speed, Midnight Cinderella ---> Late Night Cinderella ---> Cinderella after Midnight ---> Past 12 O'Clock Cinderella, and Death Driver ---> Devil Driver as to name a few. The badges/symbols however are under rights to Genki Co. and the Tokyo Xtreme Racer Franchise.

 

• Fujin - Tsuchiya Chronicles was originally named as Hachioji - Tsuchiya Chronicles with the main protagonist being Tsubasa Aramaki. However, given the initial scripts were too long and too much character development was focused on Tsubasa and not on Seiji (given the title SHOULD focus on Seiji), the initial Idea was scrapped, along with the initial title given Hachioji never had any meaning other than it being a city in Japan; in contrast to Fujin which has an etymology with more impact being a name of a Japanese Shinto God of Wind which is normally paired up with Raijin, the God of Thunder; which is a fitting contrast for Jintei - given his aura in-game (TXR3) was based off blue lightning around his car.

 

• The Speed Legend series, in its entirety, has a lot of FD3S RX-7 Drivers - name dropping them all, we have: Hiroto Agesoma, Takeshi Musashiro, Himiko Amatsuka, Shinosuke Kitamaru, Kyosuke Katsumaru, Kazuhiko Aizawa, and White Charisma; coincidentally similar to nearly all the popular trims of the 2nd generation FD3S RX-7 line up: type R, Type RZ, Type RS,  Touring X, A-spec, Type R Bathurst R, and Spirit R type A (excluding the Touring X, type RB, type RS-R, and type RB-S), this made a contrasting answer to Initial D's excessively numerous Lan Evo Drivers and Wangan Midnight's R33 GT-R Drivers (amounting to 5 and 7 drivers respectively for each series)

 

• It's very easy to conclude that Tomo's a hopeless romantic given he has numerous crushes and got turned down by most of them. Name dropping all his intimate partners: Rikona Shimmitsu, Natsumi Tanoshiku, Sakura Johina, Reia Kitsune, Kitana Tioseco (for a span of 10 panels only), Minami Suzuki, Akane Murasaki, & Kasumi Nadeshiko, he had a total of 8 love interests; although he was either dumped or friendzoned by 6 of them, while one was because of her strong bond with the will of the Awakening while the last one being the person who stood by him, and dealt with him the longest time. It was never implied if Tomo did have the hots for Adrianna Eizaguirre; there were hints that he did fall for her although these were overshadowed by his current state of mind in relation to Daiki Akiyama on the Viaggio Grande arc.

 

• The sacrificial act of Claudia Fortescue for Daiki Akiyama in the Mugen arc is a form of Irony to the typical love-partnering in romance stories and a change of pace in the sacrificial moment in any story where this time it is the girl who rescues the guy and dies trying to save him.

 

• Hiei's "You got a point there, Stupid." to Ryuusen in My Little Supra: Drifting is Magic is a direct quote from Pinkie Pie in season 1 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The same could be applied also to Hiei's "... ah, Good times. Good. Times." quote from Cosmo of Nickelodeon's The Fairly Odd Parents.

 

• Ein's role in Viaggio Grande was inspired by both Ein from Team Ninja / Tecmo's Dead or Alive Series AND Hayate Ayasaki of Hayate no Gotoku - given that his name IS "Ein" and how his intimate closeness to Adrianna is somewhat similar to Hitomi of DoA (prior to regaining his true identity as Hayate) and how his job in the Mansion at Oahu is being Adrianna's one [and Only] Butler taking care of the entire house / mansion / kingdom.

 

• There are some religious connotations about the Royal Blood guild explained in Viaggio Grande 3.3 and in Speed Legend V. The Old Kingdom's order being related to God's true purpose of the world and reverting it [Reverting the Old Kingdom back from the current New Kingdom] is similar to post-events in the book of Revelations for cleansing the Earth into the "New Heavens and the New Earth" are small hints of this phenomenon. The statement quoted that the Old Order's fall being related to past human governments repeating the same mistakes being linearly similar to that of Bible Prophecy is another. There might be more to this.

 

• This isn't the first time the "heart is the engine" metaphor was used in a racing anime. It was first implied in Initial D 2nd Stage where Takumi Fujiwara accidentally called the engine being the brains of the car, only to be corrected by Iketani saying the car's engine is its heart.

 

• Joseph's design & diction was inspired by Bob Marley. Also, his way of saying "Anthony" as "Antoine" is merely a personal revision by Joseph's Seiyuu who also voiced Ryuusen Kennichi. We're keeping that pronunciation of Anthony's name. He's planning to make "Shut up, Antoine" a running gag for Viaggio Grande IV.

 

• The tuning shops of Fujin: Tsuchiya Chronicles are inspired by popular tuning shops around Japan although as per the storyboard, they are replications of these aforementioned tuning shops, replicated around Tokyo / Kanagawa - some are as follows:

  • Speed-Ad tuning shop inspired by HKS Kansai Garage located at Kyoto (住所 ／ 〒632-0111 奈良県奈良市小倉町1080)

    • website: http://www.kansaisv.co.jp/index.html

  • Garage Black Wings is inspired by Tec-Art's Tuning & Body Making Shop located at Saitama (〒340-0835　埼玉県八潮市浮塚54-1)

    • website: http://www.tecarts.com/

  • Purple Meteor's tuning shop is inspired by Endless-R located at Kobe  (〒651-2404   神戸市西区岩岡町古郷字南場960-8)

    • website: http://endless-r-tuning.blogspot.com/