
Links go to search results. Availability varies by region.
F
329
28
Finished
Jul 15, 1985 to Aug 3, 1992
7.0/10
Average Review Score
67%
Recommend It
3
Reviews Worldwide
"With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high." - Ayrton Senna F (Nobaru Rokuda) is quite possibly one of the most exciting and thrilling manga about the road to F1. If you came from Capeta, this will be a full polar opposite from the calm and composed atmosphere of Capeta and into the gritty*, harsh reality of Gunma Akagi's journey into Formula 1. For about the first 20/28 volumes the story is a dark, harsh reality of Gunma Akagi growing up in a dictatorship of a household having no proper fatherly or motherly figure and a mixof feelings for his younger brother Yuuma and older brother Shouma. Gunma faces a number of tribulations on his road to Formula 1 and many accompany to encourage or rival his efforts as Gunma keeps pushing ahead. Story: 9 This is a very unique story and uncompromising in the sheer grittiness* you can encounter in early volumes and so on. The story of Gunma Akagi's journey into Formula 1 is met with a great detail about joining teams and the perseverance needed to keep pushing forward. Any fan from Formula 1 will definitely appreciate how far this manga goes to show the difficulty of entering the highest level of motorsport. The story is told from Gunma's perspective, a distraught child having no mother or fatherly figures willing to guide him forces Gunma to escape his family and seek out his path for himself encountering many great instructors and a faithful childhood friend mechanic that stood by him since day one. Gunma is an incredibly careless person who is willing to risk everything to win and has little to no regard for the value of life. (Think of Ayrton Senna's devotion to the sport minus his warm loving personality) Gunma's sole purpose is to prove to his family and especially his father that he could achieve the impossible. Art: 10 For a late 80s manga, the art is phenomenal featuring beautifully drawn real world cars such as the Porsche 911 and Honda NSX and various other references not found anywhere else besides Initial D. The setting of F takes place around the years 1987-1990 and while alongside some real cars we become introduced to the native Formula 1 teams of that era such as McLaren, Williams and Ferrari as well as legendary drivers such as Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Nelson Piquet with notable visits to grand prix's of Monaco and Silverstone and loads more! Of course you came here for the open wheeled race cars and boy are there a lot of different and visually real-world accurate renditions of F3000 cars from 1988 all the way to accurate portrayals of 1989 F1 cars. There is not much visual clutter during the heat of races and everything is mostly organized and very ahead of its time. Characters: 8 Gunma is a carbon-copy of his father Souichirou and faces a great deal of hostility from him and a mixed relationship from his brother Shouma and Yuuma. As you read Gunma's path to Formula 1, at the same time you are entertained with a side-by-side story of his family's history and all the internal politics and conflicts that slow down and/or support Gunmas determination. The arrival of Junko Komori and long term influence on Gunma later along the manga is where he is forced to observe a different view of appreciation on the value of life. Junko reflects that of a mother, something Gunma never experienced in his life and its easy to infer that change would be inevitable for Gunma. The character development is plentiful and excellent. Gunma's realizations where he needs to make changes in life add a very satisfactory tone to the story. As a precaution, in some instances the emotions* can be very heavy but expect to be rewarded when you finish. *There are many tragedies and immoral instances throughout this manga* Enjoyment: 10 I have been an F1 fan from when I was a child in the olden days of watching Hakkinen and Schumacher battle it out on the front row and I'm a sucker for these kinds of stories diving deep into someone's path to Formula 1. The fact that this author included real world legendary drivers really added to the atmosphere and made it very exciting and unexpected! The added events of Gunma's family and relationships is a bonus. Rather than enjoying it I was deeply fascinated by a fictional illustration of what sheer determination means despite every possible odd against you. I look forward to reading this again with great interest! Overall: 9 Rather than me listing some negatives about this manga, I would rather like to note that the manga community has extremely few instances of mangas like this in motorsport so I will not list any negatives and rather show appreciation that certain authors out there have a fascination for this sport and delivered a very touching, complicated and beautiful story about Formula 1. Any anime/manga fan coming from Formula 1 would greatly enjoy/appreciate this. A shame these are hard to find. If your interest does spark to read F (Nobaru Rokuda), prepare for the ride of your life.
Akagi Gunma is a young, impetuous, and rash teenager who decides to move to the big city to fulfill his dream of racing a Formula One car. The story follows how this simple farmer boy from the country moves on to the city in pursuit of his dreams. (Source: ANN)
It's a good racing manga. It captures what racers go through mentally and physically during their careers. But there's too much rape and murder in it, it's ridiculous at this point. I just got to a point where the main girl is letting a fucking like 8 year old rape her. 99% of the main women get raped and something bad happens to them so they get written off, they're either killed or put in prison. I get it was a different time back when this was written but I just personally can't stand it. I came into it expecting a racing novel with thenormal drama happening off track since there wasn't any tags about physiological or drama for it. But there's rape or murder every few chapters it's horrible.
Breakneck speeds on a race track are symbolic of many things, usually the emotions of the race, perhaps the racer, but always the larger than life goal of competition. Competitive racing isn't limited to rivalries between the athletes; often it's a challenge against oneself and their psyche. They battle turbulent passions on the long strip of asphalt, feeling alive only when experiencing the thrill of barely making a corner. The fiery hunger for speed lies in the heart of F as a series, firmly holding onto that pathos throughout dozens of volumes. It follows a hot-blooded youth from the countryside, Gunma Akagi, an egotistical wannaberacer who has lost his position in a wealthy upbringing. Gunma, estranged from the Akagi household, has only his talent, a genius mechanic friend, and a lofty dream to race in Formula One. The highlight of the story as it unfolds is undoubtedly Gunma's growth as a man, and the representation of his masculinity shifts from flashy technique to composed courage. F symbolizes the many facets of his character, evolving into a fictional racing icon and challenging the best of the world for Japan. Needless to say, behind the glory, he's driven by less than pretty circumstances. There's a fascinating theme that reappears throughout the story, and the characters will even verbalize this fact that misery makes Gunma faster. That idea further branches off into a number of possibilities, all of which are intentionally not particularly established. Maybe he's faster as an escape, or his troubles usher away his fear of death, but most likely of all, his concentration has always been on something not really as tangible as the aforementioned. That mystique shrouds the storytelling, and much of the characters are aware of this phenomenon in theory. However, as the reader gets a glimpse of the racetrack, at some point, Gunma's death-defying racing convinces us that everything is swell until conflict comes knocking once again. Generally, that's the structure of the series, where each arc stacks an additional layer of mental pressure upon Gunma that he must come to terms with. Even so, the plot avoids repetition by virtue of moving up the ladder of racing prestige and increasing what's at stake, from racing for hardware to proving a point to oneself. Admittedly, the climactic moments in certain arcs are slightly bogged down by instances of senseless evil that border beyond the realm of reality, but they remain far and few between in the midst of a search for purpose. F's real beauty rears its head when its immersed in the technicalities of the circuit and inexplicable speed. Formula One is the highest class of international racing, and even in the lower classes, the machines are all more or less equal in capability. Power output doesn't create much of a gap at that level of competition, and that is when it's left to the driver's ability to push the car past its limits. The series describes it as a racer reaching a scope outside of casual comprehension—120% of the engine's capacity. Noboru Rokuda skillfully personifies these abstract concepts through opponents, or Gunma, even bringing about the question of why we race. Not just the origin, but more along the lines of our primitive instinct in open space. The circuit is a closed-off loop, and the passion to drive faster is sparked by a desire to return to the start faster. It sounds obvious, although lending thought to the idea reveals that our brains are wired around achieving a personal sensation of perfection, and there is very little as raw as driving through the same track hundreds of times and merely shaving off miliseconds to grasp at idealism. Rokuda's depiction of racing is like revenge against open space. It exists, so it must be conquered by any means. The emphasis of sacrifice to reach such heights elevates F, as we witness not only Gunma but many racers gambling their very lives during accidents. I would argue the element of tragedy secures a spot for this series among the best of the genre, freely experimenting with the lethality of dangerous but necessary racing prowess. The narrative strongly symbolizes the vanity of dreams, a momentary chase that we cannot avoid. It's holistically a rousing drama barring my issue with the extent of sexual violence present, mostly unnecessary and overbearing in glossed over suffering. However, when we shift our focus to the constantly evolving ups and downs of Gunma's career, F becomes a love letter to racing, often referencing real Japanese history in the sport. Rokuda's art illustrates the circuit with a great deal of detail, where many of the panels are full-blown spreads of location and mechanical precision. Humanity harbors a hunger, going to great lengths to tame the wind.