Wangan Midnight  The series has been adapted into several live action feature films, video games, and an anime television series. The anime began airing in Japan on June 8, 2007 on the anime satellite television network Animax, produced by OB Planning. In 1999, "Wangan Midnight" won the Kodansha Manga Award for the General category. The story primarily revolves around street racing that occurs on Tokyo's Shuto Expressway, Bayshore Route. "Wangan" ("湾岸", literally "bayshore" in Japanese) is the endonym of the longest, straightest road in Japan. There is also road traffic to contend with, including a fair number of heavy trucks and buses. Because of this, the action is inherently hazardous, and wrecks are common. Blown engines are also a frequent hazard, especially cars with extremely high-powered engines. One day, Akio Asakura (a high school student with a knack for attracting many girls and taking them for rides in his car), was passed by a black Porsche 911 Turbo (964), dubbed the "Blackbird" (driven by Combat Medic Tatsuya Shima). With his friend in the passenger seat and two girls in the back, Akio attempts to win, but (quickly "eats its dust"), is defeated. Determined to drive a faster car, Akio heads for the junkyard and finds an old blue Fairlady Z (S30) (known as the Datsun 240Z in North America), discovering that it has been tuned from an old and outdated piece of junk, into a souped-up racing monster known as "". Despite warnings about how the car is supposedly cursed, that all of its previous owners happen to share his full name, and that every one of those owners has died due to accidents, he takes the dealer up on the offer and gives the Devil Z a spin, and discovered that the Z (which had a tuned 3.1-liter L28-kai triple-carburetor, twin-turbo engine) not only has unparalleled power, but seems to have a mind of its own, as he soon wipes out spectacularly trying to control it. Despite what happens when he's behind the wheel of the Devil Z, Akio is determined to take mastery of the Devil Z and get back at his new rival. As he develops his career as the infamous owner of the Devil Z, Akio meets many other racers and tuners along the way, though the central plot revolves around the constant battle with Blackbird, for Wangan superiority.