Wangan Midnight - Characters

Characters

• Akio Asakura (朝倉アキオ, Asakura Akio?)

An ambitious racer who started when he was very young, Akio was in his final year of high school as the story began. He was driving his red until, after a humiliating loss to Tatsuya Shima, he discovered the "Devil Z", a Nissan Fairlady Z (S30)(known as the Datsun 240Z/260Z/280Z in certain markets) which is supernaturally fast and extremely hard to drive. Akio is regarded as a legend on the Wangan, although he is a humble young man. Still, despite his gentle demeanor, he is so serious about racing that he skips school to the point of repeating a grade to drive the Devil Z. Akio has trouble forming intimate relationships, although he has made some slight inroads with Reina Akikawa. His day job is a waiter for a night club, but was later fired for showing up late too often due to late night racing. He is regularly exposed to the active social scene at the heart of Tokyo. He was already an accomplished racer with his old car, but behind the wheel of the Devil Z, Akio is nearly invincible. He is very adaptable and can learn to drive virtually anything.

Voiced by: Shun Oguri

• Reina Akikawa (秋川零奈, Akikawa Reina?)

Reina is a very attractive model who also co-hosts a driving television show named "Drive Go Go!" where the latest automotive trends are discussed. She finds Akio on the Wangan and becomes obsessed with him and the Devil Z, driving her to tune her car and even steal the Devil Z one night. After getting her Nissan Skyline GT-R (R32) tuned and modified, she discovers a previously unknown aptitude for street racing, something that does not sit very well with her manager. She is very sociable, and has lots of acquaintances, but has no real boyfriend. While she is an idol, she is quite modestly dressed. Like most of the women in the series, Reina is very sensitive and bursts into tears easily, although she calms down considerably in later volumes.

Voiced by: Reiko Suhou

• Tatsuya Shima (島達也, Shima Tatsuya?).

He is the main rival of Akio Asakura, as Akio is the only one who regularly gives him a challenge. He drives a Porsche (in fact, it is a RUF CTR "YellowBird", renamed "BlackBird" because of its color) in the anime and manga, and a Nissan 350Z in the English version of the arcade racing games. The car has 470 hp (350 kW) stock. Tatsuya becomes annoyed with Akio becoming faster all the time so he hires Kitami Jun, the man who built the Devil Z, to tune the Porsche. Kitami tunes the suspension and adds a second turbo and boosts the car to 700 hp (520 kW) and beyond to try and keep up with the Devil Z. He is an extraordinarily skilled driver and has only been in one wreck during the course of the manga, when he swerved to avoid two drunk men on the road, only to swerve again to avoid a taxi and end up hitting a pole. He knows the limits of his vehicle and will never risk disaster by pushing it beyond its safe limits. This cost him a couple of battles, but he always learns from his failures and comes back even tougher. He is a very skilled surgeon and uses his large salary to fund his Porsche.

Voiced by: Shinichiro Miki