List of recurring Wangan Midnight characters

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Wangan Midnight characters.

[edit] Characters

  • Akio Asakura
Car: Nissan Fairlady Z (S30Z) "The Devil Z"

The main protagonists in the series, a 19-year old live alone student, he was running in the Wangan with Ma and his friends when he was easily defeated by the Blackbird. He then found the scrapped body of the blue S30Z known as the Devil Z in which he bought and restored to a good condition. His racing life began since then.

  • Tatsuya Shima
Car: Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6 (964) "Blackbird" (Wangan Midnight only),

Nissan 350Z BlackBird (Maximum Tune only)

A surgeon by day and a racer by night, this man is the driver of the Porsche 911 dubbed as "Blackbird", he was the one racing with the original owner of the Devil Z when it crashed. A close friend of Eriko, he assumes the role of taking care of her in place of her dead brother. When he met Kitami, he asked him to tune the Blackbird to match the Devil Z.

  • Reina Akikawa
Car: Nissan Skyline GT-R (R32)

A TV personality and magazine model, she does this hectic job and decides to run her GT-R on the Wangan nightly. One night, she encountered the Devil Z and the Blackbird having a race and decides to join in but her car spun out and crashed. She then changed her black GT-R to a white one. Her GT-R is tuned by Kazuhiko Yamamoto. The primary love interest of Akio, she also seems to harbor feelings toward Akio.

  • Jun Kitami

Also known as the "Tuner from Hell", he is the one that tuned both the Devil Z and the BlackBird. He laughs in the face of danger and will gladly take anything past the "safe" 600BHP mark. Unfortuantely, the cars he tunes are so powerful that they are extremely difficult to control, hence his reputation as the "Devil's Tuner." Has a scar on his face, presumably from a past racing incident. Compared to other tuners, he has a few strict requirements: for one, he absolutely hates fuel injection engines, favoring carburetor; even when he accepted the offer to tune the BlackBird just to make a car that can challenge Devil Z, he still complained a lot about it. Incidentally, he owns a Bike Shop, and was once a pro racer, racing in GT back in his younger days.

  • Kou Tominaga

A longtime associate of Jun and nearly as fervent in the pursuit of speed. He got the nickname "The Jet" from his racing days. Tuned the Monstrous Supra along with Akio Asakura, mainly providing the lightening carbon parts.

  • Koichi Hiramoto
Car: Nissan Skyline GT-R (R32)

A hardworking man in the Green Auto Shop who often races on the Wangan with his friend Harada until one day, the two encountered Reina's white GT-R which makes Hiramoto decide to get his own car. He then becomes obsessed with tuning his silver R32 GT-R that his pregnant wife, Megumi left him for that very reason.

  • Harada
Car: Nissan Fairlady Z (Z31)

Hiramoto's friend and also works in the Green Auto Shop who helped him tune his R32 to race with the Devil Z and the Blackbird on the Wangan. He drives a Nissan Fairlady Z31 in which it's engine overheated when he encountered the Blackbird and tried to chase after it.

  • Takayuki Kuroki
Car: Nissan Skyline GT-R (R33)

A devoted student of street racing, he spends hours just analyzing his vast storehouse of data and coming up with strategies. He staunchly believes in the superiority of the Nissan Skyline GT-R R33 and refuses to drive anything else. His intellect is formidable, and he puts his plans into motion with absolute precision and confidence. He's one of the very few drivers who managed to get a clean one-on-one victory over Tatsuya Shima but, when facing Akio, the engine overheated and blew. Also, he is fiercely independent, and not associated with ANY tuners like some of his rivals. He shows up relatively late in the manga and quickly becomes a ubiquitous figure.

  • Koichi Kijima
Car: Mazda RX-7 ∞ III (FC3S) "Legendary FC"

A car enthusiast and writer for numerous famous car publications, also a TV personality, as such, he knows many prominent people, such as Reina. He's experienced a tremendous variety of vehicles in his career and knows how to get the most out of each one. He is highly sociable and frequently seen at parties, get-togethers, and similar functions. Even though he drove a lot of cars, he prefers a Rotary engine-equipped car, and always drove a red Mazda RX-8. However, as the RX-8 proved inefficient on the highway, he ended up driving the legendary FC.

  • Keiichiro Aizawa
Car: Toyota Supra RZ (JZA80) "Monster Machine"/"Monstrous Supra"

The character who drives the Supra RZ, dubbed as the "Monster Machine" tuned by Kou Tominaga and Akio Asakura. After meeting Devil Z, he decided to chase after him. Inspired by his father who drove a MkII Toyota Supra (MA60) and was killed by a drunk driver.

  • Gen Sasaki
Car: Toyota Celsior (UCF10)

A much-maligned character in the manga. Drives a Toyota Celsior, which is regarded as a joke in both the arcade game and the manga. His own vehicle, the Toyota Celsior (Lexus LS400) has everything from underbody lighting, to fancy emblems, to dark window tinting. Staunchly refuses to remove the air conditioner, radio, or anything that's normally removed during the lightening process. Actually a pretty good driver, although he gets clobbered every time he goes up against something built to race. Also, he is quite obnoxious, and frequently brags about the incredible upgrades he's made to psych people out.

  • Tomoya
Car: Honda Integra Type-R (DC2), but later switches to Nissan Skyline GT-R (R32)

A young friend of Akio's who lives with a woman named Kyoko Kitahara. He works for a tuning shop known as ACE, and he tries (unsuccessfully) to "fix up" Kyoko and his fellow mechanic, Gen Goto. He drives a Honda Integra Type-R but eventually switches to his tuning shop's project car, the "ACE32R", a modified Nissan Skyline GT-R R32. He is a timid, insecure character and after trying unsuccessfully to overtake the Devil Z and BlackBird for Wangan superiority, he feels "out of place" and moves away from Tokyo. Known for the quote "I'm a person who disappears..."

  • Makoto Morishita
Car: Originally drives a Subaru Impreza WRX STi (GC8), later switched to a tuned Nissan 300ZX (Z32)

Another model who was friendly with Reina, she got drawn into street racing after hearing of Reina's exploits.

  • Oki
Car: Mazda RX-7 R-1 (FD3S)

A touge ace in the manga. Hailing from Hakone, Oki has long been unchallenged on the mountain road... until the Devil-Z came along. As such, he's decided to give it a try on racing on the Tokyo's highways.

  • Eiji Kamiya and Maki Kamiya:
Car: 2 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI (Wangan Midnight only) Lancer V and VI (WMMT3 only)

Two brothers from Kansai region. Eiji's the serious racer, and he's tremendously gifted. Maki has potential but for the moment mainly just tags along.

  • Ishida-San:
Car: Ferrari Testarossa

A photographer of Japanese idols. He meets and gets to know Reina, who he happens to share the same passion for racing and aspiration to defeat the Devil Z with.

  • Ko-chan
Car: Mazda RX-7 ∞ III (FC3S)

Akio's friend who helps him tune the Devil Z before he met Kitami, he owns a local tune shop with the help of his brother Ma. He is also the one watching over Akio when he tunes the Z.

[edit] Tuning Shops

  • RGO:

Owned by Kazuo Ota. Infamous in the manga for tuning Masaki's monstrous FD3S Mazda RX7, and a light blue R33 Nissan Skyline GT-R driven by Kazuo and Yamanaka themselves. Kazuo is familiar with Jun Kitami and scoffs at anyone trying to chase down the Devil Z. His teenage daughter, Rikako, studies under his wing. She's inexperienced but learning, and she's even developing a taste for actual battling, driving a Nissan Silvia. A man named Yamanaka also works here, who also race with a Nissan Skyline GT-R. This shop is the one that tuned Kijima's FC.

  • R200 club:
Consists of (from left to right) JPP Sonoda, JAPAN Teizuka, and CCR Motoki; a ragtag alliance of speed shop owners who banded together due to their inability to beat anyone alone. Motoki acts as the leader, Ryoichi Teizuka acts as his crony, and Jun Sonoda, the wisest and best driver, is the "go-to guy". They all drive the Nissan Skyline GT-R R33 V-spec II... and quickly got wiped out by the Blackbird.
  • ACE:
Owned by Gen Goto. Tomoya works here, and they tune the Nissan Skyline GT-R exclusively.
  • Tominaga Speed:

Owned by Kou Tominaga. Speciality in ECU Setting and tuned Akio's Z, Tatsuya's Blackbird and Kei's Supra. More of a companion to Kitami's shop than a rival.

  • Yamamoto Speed:

Owned by Kazuhiko Yamamoto; the shop that tuned Reina's GT-R. Kazuhiko Yamamoto drives a Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II (BNR 34).

  • Kitami Cycle:

Owned by Jun Kitami. The shop that tuned Akio's Z and Tatsuya's Blackbird.

  • Works-R:

The shop that tuned the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution of the Kamiya brothers. Based in Kansai region.

  • SpeedShop MACH:

A rag-tag tuning shop specializing in cars that combine luxury with performance. Not a serious shop by any means, it's "owned" by Gen Sasaki.

[edit] Non-racing characters

  • Eriko: The sister of the Devil Z's original owner and Tatsuya's love interest, who shares the same name as the Akio Asakura that is currently driving it. She steals the Devil Z one time and is stopped by the Blackbird and Akio
  • Ma: A friend of Akio Asakura and the brother of Ko-chan, he enjoys riding with him and picking up girls. However, when Akio gets the Devil Z, Ma, like other people, grows concerned of him, as Akio puts his life and chances of graduating with Ma in danger to drive the Z.
  • Rumi Shimada: Akio's homeroom teacher. Knowing Akio's poor attendance record (caused by his obsession with the Devil Z), which forced him to repeat his last year of high school, Rumi is sent to learn why Akio has yet to attend her class.