Common Name: Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu
Alternative Names: Minami Kamakura High School Girls Cycling Club
Score: 5/10, 4/5.
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Sports, School Life, Comedy, Idol
Summary: When Maiharu Hiromi moves to Kamakura in Nagasaki, she decides it would be best for her to finally learn how to ride a bike. Luckily for her, the people of Kamakura are happy and giving people who will not only teach her to how to ride but give her an opportunity to learn and make friends. Now it's become her dream rebuild their school's treasured cycling club and form a proper recreational cycling team with her new friends.
Review: This title is probably the best example I can give of a mediocre anime that was done well. Subjectively, I can't say I didn't like it. Objectively, there wasn't anything special or different about it that would make it worth a higher grade. In almost every factor, this show was middle of the road but did its job well enough to be enjoyable. It followed and industry standard that has proven, time and again, that mediocrity is fine so long as it keeps the lights on.
At least I'm able to give it points for honesty.
Now, when I say mediocre I suppose it'd be more accurate to say that it simply follows "established trends." Nearly every aspect of the show I have seen done a few dozen times before, sometimes better and sometimes worse. In this case, this isn't a detriment to the show. It just has a solid foundation to build one of those ticky-tacky suburban houses on. To elaborate, the characters of this show are little more than 2-D stick figures with two characteristics to their name. Hiromi, for example, is dumb but determined. Her first friend, Akizuki Tomoe, is smart but insecure. The boyish Higa Natsumi is athletic but reckless. Kamakura Fuyune is delicate but considerate. Lastly, Sandy is...the standard American transfer student. All these characters are weak, two-dimensional, but all have hearts of gold, thus making them perfect friends without much effort or reason. They've been done so many times that I can't help but see them as reskins of characters from other series. To be specific, I could not shake the feeling that all these girls look like they're from the Idolm@ster franchise. To repeat, though, this isn't really to the show's detriment. It's a solid, safe, but unimaginative choice to have characters that aren't more than they appear. Of course, what's the point of a story like this without some threat or challenge for the girls?
Isn't friendship convenient? Might as well call it fate in this case though.
When I say "challenge," though, I mean they get coddled with basic training until their teamwork and sheer determination will solve all their problems. It really isn't much of an understatement to say that the problems that arise over the course of the show get resolved because the answer to their problem was just handed to them on a silver platter with some candies and a note signed "I got your back. --Deus ex Machina." So, in reality, there's not really much of a plot here. There's no threat and nothing at stake. They get their club because the principle wants them to and the characters are hardly going to say no to whatever she throws at them. It's all plotted out and sensible aside from that bit where Hiromi's roadster bike is also a unicorn or something. I guess that's just a little something for those Sailor Moon fans. This isn't all that this show has to offer though.
Boy do I wish it was though.
Attached to the anime is something of a guide to biking brought to you by the show's idol Voice Actors. The anime itself only runs for about 20 minutes, leaving 4-5 minutes for a segment where the VAs for the two main girls learn to ride bikes and go on adventures, just like their anime counterparts. What I don't understand though is who is this segment aimed toward. I was under the impression that biking in Japan had seen something of a Renaissance over the past few years, but perhaps I'm wrong on that account. Even if that's not the case, though, who would turn to an anime to teach them about bike safety and repair? Eh, maybe I'm just making myself out to be an "old" man who doesn't get the importance of every form of media engaging an issue. I'll admit that this section definitely wasn't for me since I generally dislike idol culture and couldn't get past how cringey each one of these segments felt, but that's the anime and idol industry at work for you.
In all honesty, I do like this show. It was light and easy to just veg-out with. It wasn't particularly offensive to my tastes and didn't make itself unwelcome in any way. It wasn't horrible and it wasn't good. It was just bland and unremarkable. Give me a couple seasons and I'll probably forget it ever existed, but until then I'll say it's worth a watch if you have nothing better to do with your life.