Kodansha and ComiXology Originals announced that the first 10 volumes of Shuichi Shigeno's MF Ghost, the sequel series to hit racing manga Initial D, will be available in English digitally from Jan. 11.
As announced by Kodansha, this is the first time that the series has been released in English. Members of Amazon Prime, Kindle Unlimited and comiXology Unlimited will be able to read MF Ghost for free, while non-subscribers can still purchase volumes individually from the Amazon Kindle Store and comiXology.
Taking place in the 2020s, MF Ghost follows a 19-year-old Japanese-British boy named Kanata Livington. Set in a world where electric vehicles have become the norm, Kanata becomes involved in MFG, a street racing organization which was founded by Initial D’s Ryosuke Takahashi, that focuses on cars with internal combustion engines. While Kanata may be a rookie, he is no amateur when it comes to the racing scene; the young man was trained by Takuma Fujiwara, the protagonist of Initial D, at the prestigious Royal Donnington Park Racing School in the UK. Kanata's motives in moving to Japan are not solely centered around racing, as his ultimate goal being to uncover the whereabouts of his missing father.
MF Ghost has enjoyed great success since it began its serialization in Kodansha's Weekly Young Magazine in September 2017, with over 3.2 million copies in circulation as of Jan. 2022. The series' story is still ongoing with 12 published volumes to date.
The popularity of MF Ghost is no surprise given the success of its predecessor Initial D, which has been named by many critics as the definitive racing manga series. Having sold 48 million copies as of July 2013, the Initial D manga has had many anime TV and film adaptations. The most recent of these adaptations is the trio of New Initial D films, released between 2014 and 2016, which retold the events of the earlier parts of the manga on the big screen. The Initial D manga ended its run after 48 volumes or 719 chapters in 2013.
The release of MF Ghost's manga in English comes just in time for its television anime adaptation, which was announced on Jan. 4 with the release of a teaser promotional video. The new anime's cast and crew have yet to be announced. It is scheduled to begin airing sometime in 2023.
Source: Kodansha
