My name is Dave and I can tell already that DIGC330 is going to be the most enjoyable piece of my final semester puzzle. I’ve been working towards a Bachelor in Communications and Media with a double major in Digital Communications and Advertising and Marketing since 2010, taking a break in 2011/2012 to pursue my dream career as an automotive journalist. With my role made redundant, I returned to my studies refreshed and with a renewed fervour to finish on a high note.

This redundancy was also a blessing in disguise, providing me with the funds needed to fulfil another dream; purchasing a car in Japan and travelling to the legendary Ebisu Circuit to improve my skills as a driver. Prior to my month-long Japanese adventure, my only interest in Japanese culture had been based around drifting, motorsport and cars in general, but experiencing Japanese culture first-hand has inspired in me a fascination with all things Japanese.

Prior to my travels, I was introduced to the Initial D anime series, torrenting and powering through the first two ‘stages’ in their Westernised, dubbed forms before moving on to the subtitled versions of the later ‘stages’ that were much easier to find. While in Japan, I, at least superficially, learned about the Japanese language’s nuances and how they can make accurate textual translation problematic, let alone verbal translation. I now realise that I would have missed many storyline intricacies by watching a low-budget dubbed version, and also to a lesser extent by watching the more accurate, but still imperfect, subtitled versions. It is this language-based divide in understanding for Western audiences of Eastern media that I wish to further investigate in relation to my past and future interactions with the Initial D series.