Rin and Misa give Kaguya and Kuromaru a hard race. Rin needs to restart her school’s Jet Racing Club.
#2 – “The Ace’s Pride”
Hmm.
It’s pretty rare that a sports anime for a made-up sport will explain the rules in the second episode instead of the first, but it just reinforces the idea that the Kandagawa Jet Girls anime is a commercial for the video game to come later. The player will understand all the rules and nuances of choosing different equipment to balance speed, maneuverability, armor, and firepower when they play the game. If this were a standalone anime, or based on a battle tournament light novel, we would surely get the info dump as quickly as possible to satisfy the fans of the source material. Instead, we jumped right into the action.
I was actually okay with getting Jet Racing’s explanations at this time because I know the point of the anime is to get the audience to fall in love with their favorite playable character before the game’s release. Kandagawa Jet Girls has chosen two very powerful devices to make that happen. The first is the “safety feature” that appears to serve no purpose other than to remind you that the game is made by the same game publisher who makes Senran Kagura and Valkyrie Drive. I’m sure it’s also an incentive to make you practice your aim instead of just your driving skills.
The second device is the nudity. Female-centered sports anime, like Kandagawa Jet Girls, always need the steamy shower and bath scenes after a contest to calm down, take stock of events, and introduce character development and backstory. Oh, you can be highbrow and claim it’s a metaphor for vulnerability and stripping away a character’s defenses to see what issues she’s really wrestling with, but you know it. I know it. We want to see dem boobies!
Heh.
The suit purging in Jet Girls is a safety feature. Safety feature! That’s some nice 4th Wall breaking right there from Syoco the color commentator. Shooting a girl’s clothes off in the game serves no purpose other than to serve the fans. What’s that called? Oh right. Fanservice!
Yes, yes, Rin! Misa’s butt is very fine indeed. Oh. She means she’s alright. That butt is more than alright! No, she means her butt isn’t injured, okay?
Here we have the game mechanics tutorial. I’m actually impressed with how openly Jet Girls is marketing a video game. How many points does suit purging get?
Surprising no one in the audience, Rin turns out to be a great bike handler. Oh, right. Misa has a gun in her hand! Wait a minute. These are actually water guns? H-how does the machine know if it was hit by water from a gun instead of from the river? Lasers with a finite number of shots would still be better, right?
The Boostless Queen! Jet Girls is a sports anime! Rin probably doesn’t even know she has a booster… Aw. Rin lost because she didn’t boost, Misa ran out of ammo, and Kuromaru was the better sniper. Rin had fun, though! I’m looking forward to seeing this boost mode, because it’s not just push-to-pass like in Formula One. The jet racers do some kind of transformation thing.
We always need a calming down scene in these sports battle anime. Showers and nudity are good for that. It doesn’t calm me down looking at it, but it’s good for the characters. Nice Dyson Fan. Oh. Rin’s mom didn’t use boosting because the Jet Racers didn’t have them back then. Kaguya thinks about how much Rin pushed her in the race where she almost had to boost. She thought her rivalry was with Misa, but she just made a new one with Rin. Unless Kaguya used to be Misa’s partner, which would make sense with Kaguya being a driver and Misa being a shooter.
It’s Misa’s turn in the Kandagawa Jet Girls eye catch. These pictures look interesting, but why are they cropped so badly? The full version must be spectacular.
Suddenly, Rin is in Misa’s face. It’s too early in the morning for this! Just how long was Rin staring at Misa? Rin wants to make the Jet Racing Club happen. Misa will have issues, but she uses her “do as you like” catchphrase. Is Yamada-sensei really going to refuse that face? No, I didn’t think so. I love how the other girls in the hallway appreciated the scene. They’re all full of affection for the too-nice Yamada-sensei. Yes, Hina, you do look like you can be bribed with extra food. Rin is such an innocent yuri whore!
So, this fishing thing is going to be a minigame in the Kandagawa Jet Girls video game, right? Ah. The Nameless Coach looks just like the person Misa keeps thinking about. The backstory looks interesting enough to fill some upcoming episode time.
This whole scene with the student council is hilarious. Rin tries so hard to be polite. Haha! Rin honed her cutesy drawing skills by putting on story time shows for the neighbor kids. That is totes adorbs! Rin convinced Misa to join up, so she only needs two more members to be an official club. It still sounds difficult because they are in the middle of the semester. Maybe a couple more transfer students like Rin?
