Remembering Japanese cars from the past
This video of driving through the Tokyo Sendagi area in 1989 synchronized with a drive in 2023 is another amazing video by Kamepo! Last week I posted another one where he drives over the Shuto Expressway C1. In that video there were a few interesting cars, but today I found an enormous amount of interesting cars! So let’s start to identify them!
Continue readingWhat do a Subaru Rex Combi 4WD, Nissan Skyline GTS-R R31 and a 1989 RUF CTR 3.4 have in common? They are all featured in today’s You’re Under Arrest manga! Yes it’s another Manga Car Spotting video and we will continue the You’re Under Arrest series with this sixth manga by Dark Horse. It will be a longer video today as we will have to cover 15 cars and two mystery cars.
The young petrolhead Kosuke Fujishima started out as an editor and assistant of, back then not so famous, Tatsuya Egawa mangaka. This inspired him to create his own manga and the first successful manga series drawn by him was You’re Under Arrest! (逮捕しちゃうぞ) which revolves around a Tokyo police station in the business district Sumida. The two protagonists are two female police offices called Natsumi Tsujimoto and Miyuki Kobayakawa and both of them are petrolheads. Natsuki is the more blunt one who catches thiefs, thugs and tramps singlehanded while Miyuki is the more intelligent one who loves tinkering with cars, engines and motorcylces.
In today’s manga we will spot more than 15 cars and various motorcycles. The Honda Today police special is the main car as the duo patrols the Sumida area in this car. The Honda Today is no longer bone stock and is specially tuned to keep up with the sports cars owned by the businessmen of Sumida. Some examples of these cars are the Nissan Skyline GTS-R R31, Mazda Savanna RX-7 FC3S and RUF CTR 3.4 than can be spotted in this manga. Also a bit more luxurious cars like a Toyota Mark II Grande GX71 can be spotted. Or even the high performance pocket rocket Subaru Rex Combi 4WD!
Initially created as a spin-off of You’re Under Arrest! manga, Ah! My Goddess surpassed it in fame. Belldandy turned up in one of the manga of You’re Under Arrest and this inspired it’s creator Kosuke Fujishima to create the Ah! My Goddess manga. In this a goddess, Belldandy, meets a lowly student Keiichi Morrisato and this series ran from 1988 till 2014. I have also created a Manga Car Spotting episode for this series some time ago. As Ah! My Goddess surpassed You’re Under Arrest! in popularity, the final manga of You’re Under Arrest was released in 1992.
You can find the video and the high resolution scans of the panels containing manga cars below: Continue reading
What do a Shelby GT350, a widebody Koenig Porsche 928 and a 3WD Mazda T2000 truck have in common? They are all featured in this fifth episode of reading spotting manga cars! I’ll read these two Japanese mangas of Ah! My Goddess and I found 13 different cars in it!
The story revolves around a student called Keiichi Morisato. He attends the Nekomi Institute of Technology (NIT) in the fictional Japanese town called Nekomi in the Chiba prefecture. Kosuke Fujishima modelled Nekomi after his own home town: Chiba.
Keiichi has to take calls for his fellow sempai in his dorm. He get’s hungry, so he decides to order a pizza and dials the wrong number. Instead of the pizza delivery he actually phones the Goddess Helpline who will help anyone in distress. After some wrong assumptions Keiichi decides his sempai are probably pulling a prank with him and he wishes that the Goddess in front of him stays with him for the remainder of his life. That’s basically the beginning of the Ah! My Goddess story.
So what’s the connection with cars and motorcycles then? Well, Kosuke Fujishima is a petrolhead who loves cars and motorcycles. Keiichi is probably his likeness and is into cars and motorcycles as well. He’s also member of the NIT CC: the Nekomi Institute of Technology Car Club and this obviously helps to increase the number of motorized vehicles in this manga!
You can find the video and the high resolution scans of the panels containing manga cars below:
Continue readingI spotted this picture with a nice looking Bluebird SSS 510 on PhilsCarBlog , but it wasn’t the 510 that drew my attention:
Bluebird 510 with Liteace
It was the Liteace!
Why? Because it is sitting on a set of Celica A40 alloys somewhere in 1989!
Why? Because you can!
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