[25x03] March 11th, 2018

[freefall]

Tonight it's all about Japan and its exquisite car scene and traditions.

Personally, I think this is one of the best Top Gear episodes ever, old or new, and way superior to anything Grand Tour has to offer. I mean, this is in a completely different league.

 

[MWF]

I'm inclined to agree. This is turning out to be the best TG season for a very long time, all three episodes so far a solid 8/10 for me if not a little higher.

If we discount the Evans debacle it was always going to take a while for the new team to get into their stride but this year they've hit the ground running. The cinematography is as good if not better than ever, Matt Le Blanc is forging a great partnership with Harris, Rory Reid has a genuine enthusiasm for what he does and they've kept a sense of fun without resorting to the inane and feeble scripted fail that plagued CHM for so long and which continues to appear on TGT.

 

[MXM]

Absolutely epic. I was glued to the screen for the whole hour. I'm giving it 10, even though the tandem race was a bit of a TGT move...

 

[Crazzysimon]

That was simply the best TG episode in the past 7-8 years.

Great banter, segments don't feel forced, and a good amount of car stuff to appease us (Best Motoring was name-dropped for crying out loud!). Comedy was done well, and even the fukushima segment was done with great respect (please take note Logan Paul). This episode has a lot of heart -- something I haven't seen from the original top gear since around series 7 with that road trip to France.

I don't know what else to say, except that I watched it twice yesterday and I plan on watching it again tonight when I get home.

 

[blackwind]

Best episode of this season. Chris and Matt are getting along very well and this episode is proof.

The track battle between the Civic Type R and LC500 was good (but I did want to see Ninja Stig's response, since he lost). Not a fan of those animations but I appreciate them being creative and doing something new and fresh.

Rory's segment was pretty good too. I'm definitely not into the Bosozoku cars and neither the Christmas tree Lambos, but his part on the K-cars was worth watching and finally the Porsche 962 on Hakone Turnpike was one of his better films on Top Gear. Bucket list stuff for sure.

The road trip through Japan was very well done. I like their choice of cars, the RX-7 and Skyline GT-T. Usually when people talk about JDMs they always talk about the Supra, GT-R, Evos and Imprezas while these two take the back seat. Good to see them getting attention and they drove the cars pretty hard as well (too hard at the end, sadly). The non-car stuff was equally great, especially the Fukushima nuclear site. You could see both Matt and Chris were pretty moved and Chris almost wanted to breakdown upon seeing the abandoned 964 (so did I). It was heart touching. Apart from Fukushima, there were two other iconic locations as well - Ebisu and Gunsai Touge. Beside the cars and the locations, the banter was good too (there wasn't anything that felt forced). The most enjoyable film of "new" Top Gear by far.

My only disappointment with this episode (and its a tiny one) is that the ending seemed a bit rushed. I wish they talked a little more about their cars, Matt didn't say anything about his Skyline (whether its still in Japan or not, did he sell it or not) and they didn't discuss the road trip either. But all in all, this was a great episode which felt like it was made for true car enthusiasts, and one fans will remember fondly years from now.

Rating it 10 just because I enjoyed it so much.

 

[DanRoM]

1 off for the ruining of the Skyline and the RX-7 with that stupid idea, that leaves it at an 8/10.

Loved the anime style animations.

 

[Ripplin]

I liked the anime-style presentation they used in the first piece. Pretty unique and well done.

Just when you think Rory never gets to drive anything good, he's off in a Porsche 962! Amazing. Shame about the breakdown. When they showed the different types of cars, I almost expected some dekotora, but that's ok, I've seen lots of them.

Loved that auction footage. They could make an entire episode just walking through that parking lot. The whole road trip was fun. RX-7s always look good, even in yellow, and the GT-T was very nice. I like how they weaved some more Kei cars/trucks into their segment, just in a very different way from what we saw with Rory. (and we got some visual kei at the end there with Chris' lipstick, too.) That tandem drifting was pretty funny. What a mess it made, though... Chris says you see the GT-T everywhere. Really? Are they around in the UK? In Canada, I've seen three R32s, but that's it.

After a somewhat standard first segment (which still showed some unique touches), there was so much new stuff after that that I also think this stands high among all the episodes of Top Gear from 2002 on. Quite impressive. I'll give it a 9.

 

[RdKetchup]

1 off for the ruining of the Skyline and the RX-7 with that stupid idea, that leaves it at an 8/10.

Same here. It could have been a 10, but that and the over the top aggressive editing in the Lexus vs Civic race to try to make them look fast deducted 1 point.
​​​​​​
9/10

 

[pete8475]

Really good episode, easily the best Joey Gear so far.

 

[freefall]

1 off for the ruining of the Skyline and the RX-7 with that stupid idea

Yeah, I was quite disappointed with that too.

Ruining such a beautiful yellow RX-7 looked barbaric and absolutely unnecessary. The whole race was utterly stupid. It seemed like it was there for the sole purpose of ruining the cars Clownrson style.

 

[luokyio]

Agreeing with previous posts. Would have been an easy 10 without that idiocy.

 

[Polish]

Have to give it a 10. STELLAR episode, the new team seems to have stumbled upon the correct ingredients of what made Top Gear good and CERTAINLY what makes this new version of Top Gear better than Grand Tour. I also have to admit, Rory did an excellent job as well on this episode. He took some time to grow on me, but his parts of the episode were really enjoyable and added a lot. The tires stunt certainly ruined those cars, but I can't believe it worked! I thought they weren't going to go sideways at all when I first saw it. I wonder if that was an old trick used by the dorifto guys that they decided to try. They key for me is there is plenty of information to learn and take in, in addition to the laughs. More like this!!!

 

[dj.TAKA]

Best episode in ages. All the fun antics (and serious tone) in Japan, no time wasted elsewhere. Loses a point for recking the side of that FD.

 

[Pokyt]

Honestly, I thought it was horrible. Considering the fact that they mention Hot Version and go to Gunsai, and the whole segment with Rory, they must have at least a surface-level knowledge of Japanese car culture. So why then do they feel the need to still be reliant on ninjas, samurai, and sumo wrestlers? They had a Honda Civic Type R going up against a rear-wheel-drive Toyota in Japan, and instead of throwing some Dr. Love on for the soundtrack and doing some cool Initial D-esque editing, they get "Ninja Stig" and have CGI Samurai and Ninjas everywhere to the point where you can't even see the race. They go to Gunsai touge and instead of getting Tsuchiya, Orido, and/or Taniguchi on for what would have been a really sweet crossover, they get fucking sumo wrestlers to sit and do nothing. They go through Fukushima for no other reason than to depress you, then to add insult to injury two mint condition classic Japanese sports cars are ruined for the sake of some stupid gag. The drifting challenge could have been really fun, but it's just stupid.
There are glimpses of what could have been a top 10 of all-time episode here, and that's what really pisses me off about this episode in particular. The entire thing is just ruined by the constant use of what are essentially tropes of western media covering Japan. I got really excited during the touge race because I thought I heard the opening notes of the "Break In2 the Nite" by m.o.v.e. (Initial D's second opening), but it turned out just to be some stock dramatic music. I guess that represents my experience watching this pretty well. Uninteresting, uninspired, absolute drivel, that's only redeemed by the pretty awesome segment with Rory. I don't see what you guys are raving about here at all.

Low 4/10