Super Cub

Koguma, a reserved second-year high school student, has nothing—no parents, hobbies, friends, or goals. On her way home one afternoon, she visits a vehicle shop in hopes of acquiring a motor scooter. With only enough money to make ends meet, she is disheartened by the price tags and prepares to turn back. However, as she is about to leave, the shop's owner offers her a pre-owned Honda Super Cub for ten thousand yen. Believing that the motorcycle will help brighten her monotonous world, she accepts the deal. As Koguma journeys through her town on small adventures with her Super Cub, she begins to build irreplaceable friendships and eagerly advances toward her new life.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Koguma Main

Yomichi, Yuki Japanese

Reiko Main

Nanase, Ayaka Japanese

Eniwa, Shii Main

Hioka, Natsumi Japanese

Shino-san Supporting

Uo, Ken Japanese

Homeroom Teacher Supporting

Hara, Eriko Japanese

Driver Supporting

Takeuchi, Ryouta Japanese

Store Clerk Supporting

Seki, Kouji Japanese

Announcer Supporting

Takahashi, Shinya Japanese

Worker Supporting

Saitou, Masaki Japanese

Mountain Lodge Owner Supporting

Ishii, Kouji Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Uema, Yasuhiro Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Fujii, Toshirou Director

Reviews

Apr 19, 2024

IrrelevantGuy

Recommended

Watching Super Cub kind of feels like taking a bath. It's a bit plain and simple, yet never fails to soothe you even when you are having a bad time.

Super Cub revolves around high school student Koguma, a timid and lonely girl who has never had anything that she could cherish. As Koguma herself describes, she has nothing—no parents, no hobbies, no friends, and no goals. However, after buying a pre-used Super Cub, she finally finds something that even she could enjoy. The anime chronicles the now adventurous days of Koguma's life, showcasing how vastly she has changed and continues to change.

Super Cub seems like ... a simple CGDCT anime at first glance, and if you take the series at face value, it's likely that you won't change your opinion even after watching it. Most of the times, the characters of the anime simply travel around various places while riding their beloved scooter. Due to this and the seemingly unimaginative subject matter, it's easy to mistake Super Cub for another typical CGDCT, but in reality, there's far more to the show than just that.

The narrative of Super Cub is fairly simple, but the themes that surround it are surprisingly thorough. Unlike most of its predecessors, Super Cub consistently maintains a solemn tone throughout its 12 episodes, which complements the themes that it tackles. That doesn't mean this is a sad show, though. Despite the serious undercurrent, Super Cub is actually very relaxing to watch; partly because the atmosphere is charmingly calm and quiet, and partly because most of the events that occur in the anime are intrinsically light-hearted and easy to follow.

This casual approach to storytelling can be a double-edged sword, though. Super Cub follows a rather basic storyline and mostly relies on the characters to move the plot forward, which places some obvious limitations on the potential scenarios. Due to the apparent lack of "innovation", some parts of the show can feel a bit monotonous. There are other areas where the writing is very lacking—the prime example of this being the first half of episode 11 which suffers because of the characters' unusually irrational actions, and the fact that Koguma's unusual background is never explored despite it being the introductory point of her character.

Luckily, Super Cub balances this simplicity and makes up for its shortcomings with substantial characterization. The most compelling character of the anime is by far Koguma, the protagonist of the story who is a bit of an oddball. If you overlook the fact that her past is shrouded in mystery for no reason, she is surprisingly a very relatable character. Koguma's initial inability to find motivation in her life is something that resonates with me a lot, so seeing her gain confidence and create genuine friendships is uplifting to say the least.

In a way, Super Cub is also a very encouraging show. The entire anime delivers a generally wholesome and optimistic message, and all of the main characters beautifully reflect that statement. Koguma, Reiko and Shii—they all have something they love from the bottom of their heart, and they will do pretty much anything to protect that. At first, that something was simply Super Cub (Alex Moulton bike for Shii), but as the three grow closer through interactions, they gradually forge a precious and long-lasting bond that they don't want to lose either.

This is essentially what makes Super Cub such an encouraging experience. Seeing Koguma and the others wholeheartedly pursue their dreams honestly made me very motivated and electrified, something which very few shows can manage to do. Additionally, all of our main characters display a remarkable degree of realism and relatability, because of which I quickly found myself rooting for them.

For the most part, the script of Super Cub is fittingly simple and straightforward, but the lines are crafted in a way such that they are subtle and meaningful. While there aren't a whole lot of dialogues or monologues in the show which is understandable), ones that are there mostly exist for a significant purpose; they are relevant to the contemporary events and provide insight into the characters' emotions. That said, some of the conversations about motorbikes can be a bit difficult to follow, especially if you are someone like me who has little to no knowledge of vehicles. But hey, this may be something bike enthusiasts can rave about.

Suitably, Super Cub takes a bit minimalistic approach in terms of its soundtrack. There are quite a few scenes that are intentionally barren of music, which is a clever choice given how neatly it fits in with the calm ambience of the show. Most of the other scenes are fittingly accompanied with tranquil piano music. The sound effects are pretty good; they add more realism to the environment of the anime. The opening song titled "Mahou no Kaze" is alright, and the same could be said about the ending "Haru e no Dengon" which is sung by the voice actors of the main cast.

Super Cub's animation is generally very beautiful, albeit the artstyle is a bit cutesy. Since the characters travel a lot in the anime, the scenic designs are rather diverse, memorable, and beautifully animated. Simple backgrounds such as school, shops, houses, etc. are nicely drawn as well, which has become an uncommon trait in anime nowadays. Occasionally, there are some odd uses of CGI, though (usually while the characters are riding or paddling), that don't really blend in with the background and are a little jarring to look at. Besides that, I honestly don't have much to complain about.

It's a bit sad that Super Cub hasn't gained much popularity—it's arguably one of the better anime of this season in my opinion. Honestly, I didn't expect much going into the series, but it didn't take much time to win me over with its refreshingly calm nature. If you are a fan of the iyashikei subgenre, you will probably enjoy Super Cub as much as I did.

And who knows, you might even become inclined to buy an actual Super Cub.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Aug 2, 2021

PixelB

Mixed Feelings

Super Cub is an attempt at a coming of age story, but places too much damn emphasis on scooters.
Before you come on my profile and say "well dumb dumb, this show IS about scooters." Yes, true. but I really would like to know the main character a bit. Similar to Yuru Camp, there is a lot of emphasis on the "activity" being done, while characters get little to no development other than their base personality traits.
In this case, I really would like to talk about Koguma, our protagonist. While it is true that she does change, make friends, and becomes more cheerful throughout the ... series, it does seem forced and less of import than the scooter itself. Rather than Koguma bettering herself, it seems like the scooter is the impetus for the changes that Koguma goes through. It's quite clear that her relationship with Reiko only happens because she owns a cub. It's quite sad to see that 12 episodes in, and the only things Reiko and Koguma talk about are still about scooters and cubs.
There's so much emphasis on the cubs, but Koguma's character and personality do not really get a chance to shine. For a coming of age story, I really was not attached to Koguma in the least bit just due to the fact that there's basically nothing to get attached to. The beginning episode was quite strong. The beginning morning routine animation, the piano notes and the color tone change when she gets the bike. It's really well done actually, but that was basically the peak. The beginning of the anime clearly paints the picture that Koguma lives in slow-burning gloom with no direction in life, and the super cub gives way to a potential path towards making progress--finding something that you enjoy in life.
It's a great setup, but sadly, the series does not deliver. Whether it be her summer job, or interactions with Reiko, or her relationship with Eniwa, it's all so surface level. It's not wrong to say that the actions that Koguma takes are ones that could be considered fulfilling in its slow paced fashion, but execution lacks in all departments. Reiko is a convenient supporting character in which Koguma takes no initiative to interact with herself, and that could be passable if their relationship was more than moving through the motions. Seriously, I never once thought that there was any genuine dialogue in any of the episodes. It's always, "my cub is cool, let's talk about cubs!" That's it. There's a serious scene about Eniwa getting saved by Koguma, and all Koguma can say is "my super cub saved you, not me." Holy. Crap.
Eniwa, Koguma, and Reiko all have super bland personalties, and I really do not have much of an impression of them at all. Eniwa--she's fine for how little screen time she has. In fact, she's probably the most diverse and well written character out of the three. But what about Koguma, the protagonist? Seriously. When all I can say about her is that she like her scooter, that's a huge problem. There's really nothing in the series about bettering her personal life, going through mental roadblocks, or just trying something beyond something relating to scooters.
CGI is also well, bad. Which means that for half or more of the scooter scenes which are CGI, it looks kinda bad. Admittedly, the show does do a decent job of combining 2d and CGI together. There's definitely quite a lot of scenes where close ups of the faces and body of the characters in the scooters are animated by hand, but bad CGI is bad CGI.
I just had no attachment to to any of the characters whatsoever, given how there is little liveliness in dialogue and most of the topics of conversation can be traced back to scooters. Koguma goes through the motions towards bettering herself, but you never really feel like she's improved by her own mettle. There's no self reflection that's particularly meaningful. If I didn't know better, this is just product placement for Honda super cubs.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jun 23, 2021

GakutoDeathGlare

Not Recommended

Funny

*This review contains some spoilers*

For the first time ever, I felt compelled to write a review for an anime that has just finished airing. For somebody like myself who just doesn't do this sort of thing, it speaks volumes to how either brilliant and memorable the experience was or the exact opposite, an incredibly off-putting and/or insulting viewing . Unfortunately, I am of the latter for this series. Super Cub. What I was initially hyped for turned out to be one of the most soulless watches I've had, coupled with shameful advertisements of a product throughout the show.

For a slice of life anime to really ... shine bright, IMO, it generally comes down to a couple of major things. That is the setting of the anime and especially the characters driving it. Super Cub failed pretty miserably in both these aspects. An insipid, uninspiring experience.

Super Cub is set in some small bland rural town, actually no, that's not entirely right. Super Cub is set in some small bland rural town schools bike parking lot. That's better. I guess there are a few scenes where they show off the insane capabilities of the Super Cub whilst driving 35 mph through town (exciting) and even venture out further a couple times, but the vast majority of our viewing experience is severely limited to a minor few places where nothing interesting happens (her school, her home, etc). A rural setting can be great by the way, hell, I really enjoyed Non Non Biyori. That anime has a wonderful cast to compliment the setting though, and oh boy, we cannot say the same here.

The main Female MC (Koguma) has to be one of the worst MCs I've ever had the displeasure of watching. The "story" follows an independent (well, codependent with her stupid Cub later on, as she seemingly can't live properly without it) young Highschool girl who has no family or friends to speak of. She is very stoic and standoffish by nature, a girl of few words. The first few episodes actually do a decent job in developing her character further as she meets her first real friend resulting in her slowly but surely breaking down her walls she's put up, but for some reason her personality and development stagnates and she continues to be this quite unpleasant, unfriendly person in the later episodes. There are scenes where you just want to scream at this moron for not understanding and acting accordingly to the situations that she's in (episode 11 for example where time is of the essence). And I've heard the excuses to her actions "oh, she's from a rural town, they aren't used to social interactions that much", lol I'm from a rural town as well buddy, I can socialize just fine. Terrible scapegoat. If I'm being honest, she comes across as mentally ill, but nothing of the sort is explored, her mind, her past, etc. Who the hell wants all that in a cutesy slice of life anyway? It would defeat the purpose entirely.

Next we have Reiko, an energetic girl who befriends MC thanks to their mutual interest in riding Super Cubs. She just so happens to be extremely knowledgeable about all things bikes and teaches the MC the ways of the Cub. Best part of the anime right there, the little teacher/student thing they had going on, the small info dumps on how to clean/maintain your bike, the bike parts that came with it, the extra parts that were sought after etc. Pretty interesting overall, it did remind me of Yuru Camp (that's where the comparisons start and finish for me there lmao). To finish of the trio of young bike enthusiasts, we have Shii-chan who is sadly ultimately used as a plot device to further advertise the Cub. Scenes are set up in place for this entirely. A cute shy girl who is relegated to play the damsel in distress trope. Very one dimensional and lacking in any originality whatsoever.

The art was alright, different, but tolerable. Pretty bog standard for your anime in 2021. The color palette and character designs were ugly mind you. The sound was probably the best part of the anime, the OSTs fit very well with most situations and were generally very easy on the ears. A plus there.

And now to my main gripe with this show. There are examples of Honda's advertising throughout this series, it's not exactly difficult to notice. And it wears on you after the umpteenth time. Where it differs from other anime that advertise product is that it's much more "in your face" and with more frequency to boot. What I thought was truly the most shameful scene though was when MC's friend rides her push bike down some trail, slips and ends in a small stream/river and seemingly can't get up and calls MC to come get her. MC takes her sweet time and screws around with the poor girl, even slapping the crap outta her, finally chucks her in the front basket of the Super Cub (very dangerous) and drives off. A very idiotic scene that should have never happened in the first place, but it's the script that gets me the most...

"Don't thank me, thank the Cub" and other cheesy/horrible dialogue that went with it. "My Super Cub is on it's way" Oh, thank the Heavens and the Gods for the almighty Super Cub, hallelujah! What she's pretty much saying is "this wouldn't have happened if you didn't have this amazing vehicle with you, idiot". I'm surprised she never broke the 4th wall and literally told us, the viewers, to hurry up and go buy one already. They're only $2500 USD brand spanking new!!! You won't regret it!!! Shii Chan sure didn't, as expected, she bought one the next episode.

Overall, a somber experience. One of the worst offenses an anime can make is to simply be boring. And that's what this is. If you're boring a massive slice of life fan, then something is wrong here. Couple it with the two paragraphs above and you have my least favorite anime of the season.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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