With the school festival coming up, Onsa suggests a race for the club activity. Racing, of course, means that it’s time to tune up and prepare those bikes.
What They Say:
Episode 6: “Prep!!”
The school festival is coming up. The gang prepares for their event: a bike race.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As the cultural festival approaches, the Bike Club sits down to think about what they’ll do for their club activity. Rin is for the lazy route of a food stand or such, but Onsa, of course, points out that the club should decide this and she’s set on holding a bike race. So a race it is.
Instead of serious discussion about preparations, however, we instead move to a chat between the Principal, Tazuko, and Raimu-sempai. From an extended funny flashback, we learn much about the earlier Bike Club and we see that Raimu is far, far older than we imagined. That horrible incident in the past that was shown before…probably had no effect on Raimu-sempai because whatever she is, she already was that twenty-something years ago. All theories about her being a cosplaying 30-something are firmly put to rest now, as the only options that remain are ghost or immortal spirit of some kind.
What follows in the flashback is clearly some kind of bike aficionado joke involving an old Kawasaki model which sadly goes right over my head as I know little about motorcycles. But I do get good visual jokes and the fleet of Kawasakis, in various colors, was well played. Also nicely done in this episode was the musical tribute to a recently revived horror/science fiction show that makes an appearance.
As for the race, the girls have various roles to fulfill. Hijiri is in charge of making the race more fun for the spectators and chooses “gold” as he means of doing it. She somehow gets the principal to agree to allow betting on the race (in real life, likely a no-go for a high school cultural festival). The others are busy preparing their bikes for the contest, with Rin and Onsa as usual butting heads over what modifications can make a winner. Again, little bits of bike lore sandwiched into the comedy.
Last episode’s massive heaping of fanservice aside, what is odd about Bakuon!! is how much it actually has in common with a show like Dagashi Kashi from last season. Both shows are cute little comedies centered upon girls who are really into a hobby/lifestyle and like to show off their knowledge of the subject. And that they do in copious measure as I knew little to nothing Japanese snacks before last season (whereas now I can say that ramune got its start from a youth-speak-infected Commodore Perry), while now I can actually name more than two brands of motorcycles. This episode also slipped in a lot of trivia about failed bikes and unreliable modifications. So, further useless knowledge obtained, we wait for the next episode.
In Summary:
With the cultural festival coming up, Onsa suggests the Bike Club put on a race. That means it’s time to do some bike modding. We also get a little flashback showing us more of the Principal’s and Raimu-sempai’s past. Just what is that cute helmet-wearing girl on a bike?
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 12GB RAM, Mac OS 10.10 Yosemite
