Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu

For the past year I already saw three CGDCT/bike themed shows, out of that Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitenshi-bu was the one that I enjoyed the most, yet. While the three were all Slice of Life anime, this show has that SoL charm that I'm looking for. The info segment which discusses the do's and don'ts on bicycles, and the excursions on Kamakura to search for the best place for sightseeing added to the enjoyment value of the show.

The story and characters surely has it's striking resemblance to the other two shows of the past seasons, I had high expectations to it hoping to be ... a bit more orginal on this aspect, well much to my dissappointment it failed nevertheless there was still a part of it that I enjoyed and that was the criterium arc of the series which shows the camaraderie, teamwork and strengths of each characters.

When it comes to art, J.C Staff x A.C.G.T did a great job on the visuals and background thus earned the highest point for me, the vibrant colors of Kamakura's refreshing nature stands out as the bicycle club cruised the road from one place to another was very pleasant and relaxing to watch, the 3DCG... I don't see any problems to it since it was used the right way, I also found the character designs unique, it's like those characters in the pre-2010 shows.

Sound was good, the bgm fits to the SoL genre, I was a bit surprised in the ED song performed by Ika-san, at first I thought it was a male-female duo but turns out that it's only a one man... errr woman band.

I gave the show a 9/10 as I truly enjoyed it despite the setbacks on some parts. Whether you're a Slice of Life lover, a bicycle lover or just wants to have a change of pace in anime I recommend this show for you to watch.

Ummm...Long Riders, LA thinks Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu will like to have a word with ya.....

Biking anime has been on the "rise" and this is anime feels like an above average endevour for this biking "sports" anime niche.

Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu is about a group of girls wanting to form a bicycle club in Minami Kamakura High School and through happenstance, challenges and tribulations they ride to form their club and look at the sights of Japan.

In terms of characters, we have our typical archetypes cast for this kind of anime. We have Hiromi Maiharu voiced by Reina Ueda, the main protagonist ... and our typical ditz and genki, Tomoe Akizuki voiced by Yuuki Hirose, our smart and stern one that keeps everyone in step, Fuyune Kamikura voiced by Natsumi Takamori the ojou tsundere and Natsumi Higa voiced by Natsumi Fujiwara the athletic one. LA will say the obvious, but the characters chemistry just has something that clicks for LA and this just isn't because of the unified hobby of biking, but that have interaction not just about biking bringing in the character chemistry all the more better and even better once the club's camaraderie through the trials and tribulations comes into play. There is another character that comes into play, that being Sandy McDougal voiced by Emiko Takeuchi that puts a bit more of a dynamic to the group once she enters the club. The supporting characters aren't just expositional fairies and they have a bit of a personality outside of just being exposition (as in they have lives outside of the cast) that being Shiki Mori voiced by Sayumi Watabe, their teacher and advisor and Korone Hououji voiced by Yurika Kubo, the owner of Cycle Flats. The character cast is typical yes, but they have that character chemistry and the supporting cast not just being expositional fairies just lecturing us really making the anime interesting or just passable at worst.

In terms of animation by JC Staff and A.C.G.T, the animation's character designs are ok and decent at best though LA had a strange irritation with their eyes (mainly because their pupils being too big the majority of the time it inadvertently put attention to it). The background designs are decent to gorgeous as well though it feels like the animation's put more emphasis on it's technical bicycles and the characters riding them than the backgrounds at times. No LA isn't saying that the backgrounds are awful by any means but it seems that the animation just tends to focus more on the it's technical bike scenes than the background at times. On speaking of which, the CGI also done by JC Staff and Xanthus is passable a best as the animation tries to keep using it's traditional style and only use the biking scenes only when it needs to (though in latter episodes it starts to become blatant). Overall the animation is decent enough for LA not to be too annoyed by it either way and the CGI isn't annoyingly obvious.

The voice acting is above average for this anime, what with the ever ditzy genki Reina Ueda as Hiromi to some ok standouts like Natsumi Fujiwara and Natsumi Takamori and Yurika Kubo. Some of the more unique voice cast would easily go to Emiko Takeuchi as Sandy McDougal, what with her broken Japanese and occasional sprinkles of Engrish/English here and there just remind LA alot of Nao Touyama or Yukari Tamura from her. On speaking of reminding, Sayumi Watabe reminded LA ALOT of Shizuka Ito's mature non-femme fatale vocals and her vocals CONSTANTLY reminded LA of Shizuka Ito!. Overall decent voice cast but not enough to either rage about or praise the heavens either.

LA should mention that Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu has an extra segment near the end of every episode, pretty much bringing us a live action segment with two voice actors from the show and essentially lecturing and talking about bike safety and biking 101 like a TV special, it was interesting and unique to say the least and this segment kinda brought up the entire reasoning as to why Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu doesn't do the entire lecturing about biking 101 and gets right into it (though yes, Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu still does exposition about biking but more to it's situations and integrates and blends them to mask it's exposition not making it any more blatant).

If what LA first above statement is anything to go by, LA definitely prefers Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu over Long Riders, sure they both have the same elements of girls and biking together and seeing the sights and whatnot, but LA feels that Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu had a bit more in the background and foreground to make the anime a bit more interesting than it's lackadaisical Long Riders. For one, how the anime structures it pacing with the girls pitted as the underdog of sorts and trying to get through their own tough trials and tribulations to get their biking club is a strong point making the sense of urgency of them biking have a cause to it, unlike Long Riders' "let's just do it because delicious food". Secondly is that the characters have a life outside of their hobby in some respect, sure the main cast are hooked on biking and that's just what they do every single episode, but we still learn more about the main cast AS well as the supporting cast members as well making them less expositional fairies and more developed in some respects. Lastly and most obviously is that the anime's animation is at least above average (not perfect or amazing) than Long Riders is.

*ahem*...Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu is a slightly above average anime about biking, sure it still has the same pitfalls of girls with biking anime LA has ventured into what with our reward effectively being the beautiful backgrounds and what we need to get it are characters talking with each other on bikes here and there, but even with this, Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu is still a decent anime about biking and a welcome step forward for biking animes, though they do kinda need to step it up even more than this though...

God damn it, Hane Sakura's anime about biking outdid Rin Suzunoki's anime about biking.

I'm sure every person here has, at one time or another, gorged themselves on something sickeningly sweet and ended up making themselves feel really ill. Well, this anime has the same effect. The main character is one of those nicey, nicey types who smiles with their mouth wide open. It's supposed to make them look adorable, but actually creates the impression that they're a brain-dead halfwit. A lovable one, of course.

This anime was so annoyingly nice, and everyone was so loving and friendly, after only a few episodes I wanted to set fire to my television. It was cringe-worthy. ... And yet the worse was still to come. In episode 8 an American appears. Sally. For those who can't abide dubbed anime because the horrible, valley-girl accents make characters appear one dimensional, dim-witted morons, her inclusion is horrifying. Although she speaks in Japanese, they made her accent that of a dubbed anime character. That's right, she spoke with that infuriating, moronic valley girl voice that has ruined translated anime since the dawning of time. I still don't know how I got to the end without shooting myself. It was horrible! Please, give this anime a miss. There's a fair chance it'll make your flesh crawl.

Excuse me, I need to go and throw up.