MF Ghost Season 3

Is MF Ghost Season 3 better than Season 2? I’d call it a wash (basically a tie). Is it better than Initial D? Still no—but at this point, MF Ghost has separated itself enough that comparing the racing directly is harder than before. Is it bad? Not really. But like the previous seasons, it comes with a lot of issues that hold it back. MF Ghost Season 3 sits in a very similar position to Season 2. It improves in some areas, but at the same time, it continues to carry over many of the same flaws from both prior seasons. The result is a season that isoverall decent, but still frustrating if you’ve been paying attention since Season 1. Starting with the racing style, MF Ghost is now fully committed to being different from Initial D. This is no longer about street racing or touge battles—it’s much closer to organized motorsports. The races involve large groups of drivers and feel more like GT-style circuit racing or even Formula 1 rather than head-to-head downhill battles. This does help the series stand on its own, but it also removes a lot of what made Initial D special. Initial D thrived on tight, technical driving, driver psychology, and adapting to extreme situations. MF Ghost replaces that with broader race strategy and positioning, which isn’t necessarily worse, but it’s definitely less personal and less intense on an individual level. This also ties into one of the biggest ongoing issues: Kanata as a protagonist. Just like in Season 1 and Season 2, Kanata starts off as an already elite driver due to his off-screen training by Takumi. This continues to hurt the series. There’s very little sense of progression because he doesn’t have to earn his skill on-screen. Unlike Takumi, who had to adapt, struggle, and grow, Kanata mostly just applies skills he already has. Because of that, a lot of the tension comes from external factors—mainly his car—rather than his development as a driver. And the car itself is still a major point of contention. The GR86 continuing to compete with high-end supercars still feels questionable, even with upgrades. While the show occasionally mentions tuning and improvements, it rarely goes into enough detail to make it believable. This has been a consistent criticism since Season 1, and Season 3 doesn’t really address it. Compared to Initial D, where upgrades were at least somewhat explained and grounded, MF Ghost still expects the viewer to just accept it. Now onto the characters. While they are slightly better than in Season 1, most of the cast still feels underdeveloped or forgettable. Many drivers show up, get brief moments of personality, and then fade into the background. There’s a lack of strong rival presence compared to Initial D, where each opponent felt distinct and memorable. That said, there are still a few standouts. Michael Beckenbauer and Emma Green are among the more interesting characters in the series. They have clearer personalities and feel more relevant to the races themselves. Emma in particular still feels more engaging than Ren, and her interactions with Kanata are more interesting than the main romance the show keeps pushing. Which brings us to the romance. Just like in the previous seasons, the romance—mainly involving Ren—continues to be one of the weakest aspects of the show. It still feels forced, underdeveloped, and more importantly, it constantly interrupts the racing in episodes where racing is the main focus. This is a common criticism of the series as a whole, and Season 3 doesn’t fix it. If anything, it reinforces the idea that the show doesn’t fully understand what its audience is here for. Most people are watching for the racing, not for repeated inner monologues about romance that don’t meaningfully progress. Now for the biggest issue of the entire series, which is still present here: pacing and race interruptions. This is easily the worst part of MF Ghost. Races are constantly interrupted by announcers, MFG girls, and Ogata reacting on the sidelines. These interruptions happen mid-race, often with no buildup, and completely kill the tension. Instead of letting the viewer stay immersed, the show repeatedly pulls away to explain things that were already visually clear. This has been one of the most widely criticized aspects of MF Ghost overall, and Season 3 continues the same pattern. The structure still feels like this: 30%: Filler racing where nothing happens 30%: Meaningful racing where positions actually change 40%: Commentary, exposition, or MFG Girls segments that interrupt the race Because of this, races feel artificially stretched. What should be fast-paced and intense ends up feeling dragged out and segmented. Another commonly pointed-out issue is tone. Compared to Initial D, MF Ghost feels much less mature. Initial D had a grounded, slightly gritty atmosphere with more natural character interactions. MF Ghost feels more sanitized and sometimes even leans too far into fanservice, especially with the MFG girls. Instead of adding to the world, these elements often feel like distractions. That said, the season isn’t without positives—and this is where MF Ghost does deserve some credit. When the races are actually allowed to play out, they can be genuinely enjoyable. The multi-car format creates moments of chaos and strategy that you wouldn’t get in Initial D. There are times where positioning, overtakes, and race flow feel exciting, especially when the show focuses on the drivers themselves rather than cutting away. The visuals are also consistently solid. The cars, tracks, and race sequences are well-animated, and the sense of speed is handled fairly well. This is one area where MF Ghost benefits from being a modern production. The Eurobeat is another strong point. While not as iconic as Initial D at its peak, it still adds energy to the races and helps capture some of that classic feel, albeit, I think season 3 is actually worse than season 2 in this regard sadly. There are also small improvements in character presentation. While still not great, some characters feel slightly more defined than before, and certain rivalries are a bit more noticeable. Finally, there’s the bigger picture. Racing anime is an extremely niche genre. There simply aren’t many modern options. Most fans have already watched Initial D multiple times and gone through nearly every other racing anime available. Because of that, MF Ghost fills a gap that very few shows currently do (even if the racing fans are not a fan of MF Ghost, they still end up watching because there are pretty much no other options). Even with all its flaws, it still has value simply because there isn’t much else like it right now. Overall, I’d give MF Ghost Season 3 a 7/10. It’s about on par with Season 2—some improvements, but still held back by the same core issues. If you’ve made it this far, it’s worth watching, but it still hasn’t reached the level it should be at. I also still recommend watching Initial D if you haven't, its still a very good racing anime, and I would recommend it over any of the MF Ghost seasons so far.

The 3rd season of MF Ghost continues the ongoing 5 race series that this show is about. This season finishes the 3rd race and does 3 laps of the 4th race before ending on a cliffhanger, so that the final season can conclude the series with the 4th and 5th races. I enjoyed this season's second half way more than the first half. If you see some review mention "Initial D" at this point then you should seriously just skip it entirely. It's not the same anime, move on already. This anime has clearly evolved into something of its own thing. This is still a15 person race (but they replaced 4 bad drivers with some better ones over the course of the 3 races) and the races are more Grand Tourismo or Forza style rather than a 1v1. So let's talk about this season. Kanta's overtaking powers are akin to magic in the 3rd race. He injured his hand last season and couldn't use second gear which heavily affected his ability to overtake and fell back in basically last place. Then his painkillers kicked in and he was able to use his hand properly again (I know they say it's supposed to his father or something but that is another level of bs so it's 1000% painkillers) and he goes on a mad dash to regain all his lost positions. And let me tell you, overtake he does. Overtakes the Lexus, two Porsches, the NSX, the Audi, the BMW, the Lamborghini, the Ferrari and other such insanely well made sports cars in his Toyota GT 86 which has 300 horsepower, in no rain and basically no disadvantage to other drivers. He just goes in, rams his car into a corner and poof he's clear. The anime doesn't really explain at what speeds the drivers are driving at, or what kind of course layout is allowing Kanta to do these impossible overtakes. At the end of the 3rd race he's neck and neck with Beckenbauher and the laws of physics start applying to Kanata again and he's unable to overtake him, ending the race in 2nd. The explanation provided is that the tyres wore out. Sure man. Then the anime spends 3 entire episodes after the race on useless slice of life stuff. I was really really hoping to see more interactions between the actual racers outside of the race you know. Like what they do in their spare time, especially since there was supposed to be a 40 day break between the 3rd and 4th race. But nope it's just more dating simulator for Kanta and Ren. But the anime starts redeeming itself with the 4th race starting up. I have to say, that's definitely the most I've enjoyed this anime so far. Earlier it was season 2 in the rain that was super hype but from what we got of the 4th race with the time trial and the actual race? That was pure hard core racing while sticking to one of the most popular concepts in motorsports games, which is slipstreams. Not gonna spoil what happens in that but basically the second half of season 3 is so so much better than the first half. This alone saves the season. The music was alright I guess. I don't really think they're using too many newer songs this season but it's still Eurobeat. I guess they're saving their entire remaining library for the final season which is the next one. Overall just because of the second half of the season, season 3 is a 7/10 from me. But I have very high hopes for season 4. Thanks for reading.