Initial D DVD Analysis

The Initial D Volume 4 DVD opens to its first menu with two main options, either a vintage Japanese license plate with some Japanese writing and the word “Classic” or a newer looking American plate that says, “Tricked Out.” Underneath the words on the plate it says the audio setting, the type of video it is, and the subtitle setting. There are two active selector areas on each plate where the license plate expiration sticker goes. It is a red circle on the ‘classic’ plate and a red rectangle on the ‘tricked out’ plate. When the selection is made it turns to a pale reddish color.

The main menu for each type of video is the same. The top 60% or so of the screen is short clip in what looks like a night vision setting with a car’s speedometer and tachometer overlaid. The dividing line is a faded yellow and black construction bar. Then there is the menu off to the right with the front of a car on the left. The background is an asphalt color. The menu has four items, “play, setup, scenes, and extras.” The selector for each one is a three sharp turn arrows pointing to the item. It turns to a red when selected. The setup menu is the gauges on the car. The item you want selected will highlight in red and when it is selected the needle on the gauge will point to it. There are audio, video, and subtitle settings. To go back to the main menu the odometer becomes highlighted. There are short little motion clips leading into each menu. The scene selection menu has a background of a moving wheel with all the scenes in a line and at a slight perspective fading off to the right. There is an “Opening, Part A, Part B, Ending, and Preview” for each episode. There are also three episodes to choose from. When selecting a scene there is a huge sharp turn arrow in white above each scene.

The color palate is dark, using greens, red, white, and grays. The audio is the sound of a car on the road with a slight beat in the background on the main menu. There is no sound on the other menus. The sound is, however, from the clip taking place on the top portion of the screen. The typography consists of a lot of all lowercase words and white font. The text is sans serif that is kind of blocky but with rounded edges. Overall, I like the menus a lot and the first menu that is seen is rather creative. This type of menu is definitely something that our class could do.