What They Say:
Sakamichi acquires the road racer from the van Miki is riding. Despite it being his first time riding a road racer, Sakamichi rides smoothly and surprises everyone.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Five minutes behind from switching bikes, and his first ever real race, Sakamichi faces a difficult challenge ahead of him. He has to close a 5 minute gap with the other first year racers in front of him, and if he wants to catch Naruko and Imaizumi, he’s going to have to go even further, all the while they’re racing to the finish line.
Having the right equipment for the job at hand can literally take hours or even days off a job. In this case, having a road racing bicycle might just be the key to helping Sakamichi unlock his true potential as a bicycle racer – a lighter frame, more gears to ease transitions and find the right settings for hills, slopes, and flats, Onoda speeds off on the road racer he got at the end of the last episode, and within minutes, passes all the other racers and lands himself in third place!
Impressive as it is, all the senior race team members recognize that he won’t make it to Naruko and Imaizumi at the pace he sets for himself. So the captain of the team gives Onoda a choice – he can keep his pace, finish at an incredible and respectable 3rd place for his first race ever, or he can push himself, and try to catch up to his friends and more than likely lose all his stamina, waiting on the side of the road to be picked up by the Recovery Van. Within a few seconds, Onoda declares that he’ll catch them and increases his RPM by 30, shooting ahead. Can he sustain the incredible pace he’s set for himself? Can he catch Naruko and Imaizumi even if he does? We’ll have to wait for next episode to find out.
In Summary:
This episode seems Onoda fortify himself with sheer willpower and determine, and push himself to his limits to try and make his dream of racing with his friends come true. Naruko and Iamizumi are delayed by a few minutes by the appearance of a strange old foreign man who seems to have a joy for bicycles, and points out flaws in their racing habits and techniques, much to their surprise. He seems like he might be the sponsor for the club, but that’s left for us to learn later, as they can see Onoda closing the gap between them.
Great use of music, awesome animation, and a character that’s both lovable and goofy are all part of the chemistry that makes this show so great. And this episode, we see that trope of “I have the will to do it, so I will!” come out. While it isn’t clear if Sakamichi is going to win or not – he’s pushing himself forward on the narrowest path, ignoring the easier routes and instead of accepting third place, he wants to challenge his friends and really show that he can hang with them on the race course. The question in everyone’s minds is – can he do it?
This episode doesn’t see a lot of progression of the story, but it does put Onoda back in the race, and with that, renews his hopes of being on the racing team, and being able to race with Naruko and Imaizumi. We’ll have to see what happens next time as Onoda gets closer and closer to that goal, and what Naruko and Imaizumi will do when they realize they’re not each others only competition.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Intel Alienware laptop, Windows 7, 25” HP2509m screen at 1920×1080 resolution
