Takumi Fujiwara

Takumi Fujiwara is the son of Bunta Fujiwara, the owner of a tofu shop in his hometown Akina. He rarely shows emotion. His best friend is Itsuki Takeuchi, who is a racing fan.

Takumi works part-time at a gas station with Itsuki, along with Iketani, who is a member of the local racing team, the Akina Speed Stars. In the first few episodes both Itsuki and Iketani think that Takumi has no driving ability because of Takumi’s total disinterest in cars and racing.

The only one who suspects that Takumi has an advanced driving technique is the owner of the gas station, Yuuichi, as seen in the episode where Takumi discusses drifting technique with Iketani and Itsuki. In fact, Takumi has far more experience on the touge than Iketani and Itsuki, as Takumi has been driving his father’s AE86 Trueno for five years (since he was 13 in his first year of junior high school, 7th grade), delivering tofu to a hotel at 4 a.m. every day. Takumi has been manipulated subtly by Bunta into developing driving skills, without being fully aware of Bunta’s intent.

Bunta aside, Takumi’s driving technique is the best on Akina; the very fact that he has managed to win races against far more powerful cars with his AE86 Trueno is testament to his driving skills. As a result of constant everyday practice and over 5 years of experience on Akina, Takumi is able to adapt to nearly any situation that presents itself during a race with astonishing speed. One factor in his nearly unparalleled driving skills is his ability to visualize the road in his head, thus making up for the lack of visibility no matter how dark the mountain pass may be. He is an instinctive rather than an intellectual driver. Although the mizutoshi technique is a great but difficult technique that his father taught him, it lead him to many victories through out the story.

Takumi looks docile and weak minded, but he is stubborn and strong-willed, many remarks are said about that. Yuuichi figure out he was like his father in his behavior. However, to those who have raced against him, Takumi possesses tremendous concentration and instinctive insight once behind the wheel (and these qualities are most evident when he is chasing after his opponent). His apparent docility became traps for many opponents.