Hibiki and the girls celebrate New Year’s with a shrine visit, outdoor exercise, and a talent show.
Episode 11 – “How Are You Spending New Year’s?”
Hmm.
This week, Dumbbells brought up a topic that’s been affecting public health in Japan, but it’s also a concern in the U.S. Public park equipment, especially playground facilities, have been changing in America, and not for the better. The old sand pits with steel bars, slides, swings, and jungle gyms have been disappearing. They’ve either been sodded over, like what the Dumbbells episode showed for Japan, or they’ve been replaced with plastic tree house type things with soft mats of rubber mulch underneath. Neither choice appears to be attracting children to play on them, which is a shame, since children are more sedentary than ever, hunched over their electronic screens instead of running around when school breaks for the day.
Speaking of school breaks, I wrote about the holiday season being difficult for one’s usual schedule last week, so it was nice to see the show actively address that issue. We have both students and teachers dealing with the holiday break, and one set is doing more than arm curls with pint glasses. A major theme of this show is that you don’t need to go to a gym or own exercise equipment to work out effectively. This ties in nicely with Dumbbells‘ discussion on the sad state of Japan’s neighborhood parks. It also provides a nice comedic callback to Akemi’s strange obsession with “vintage” exercise manuals. She just happened to be carrying that book with the weird English Lit professor. And she just happened not to have noticed he had a special 20 page insert full of special pictures! Ah, I’m going to miss this show’s humor.
Regarding that humor, Dumbbells‘ mastery of snide commentary and one-liners was on full display this week. That was a nice change of pace, since we’ve been dealing with fast plot developments to introduce characters and set up outrageous situations over the last few episodes. The girls just standing around making jokes about what they see is also fun. What else could they do when they saw a parade of macho muscles in front of that muscle shrine?
Heh.
It’s the New Year’s episode! Happy New Year! That these two women are still single is a travesty.
The girls are doing a shrine visit, of course. A shrine just for them? It’s going to be a macho shrine, right? The shrine’s history must be as long as its stairs. The girls are bringing out the one-liners today.
Macho men warming up. Confirmed. It’s a macho shrine. For the muscle god Takemasukuru no Kami. Small niche god… Must have very devoted worshipers.
Oh, now the girls are motivated. Love prayers get answered here too.
Stair Climbing Exercise Video!
These calorie burn formulas are based on body weight, but they’re not exact. The important thing to note is how you burn more than 5 times as many calories going up compared to down.
I don’t agree with Dumbbell‘s comparisons to light jogging and bike riding. Not the way I ride a bike down a hill! Also, you can climb stairs at a fast cadence too. This is showing the difference between focusing on strength training and endurance training.
Ayaka is doing just fine going up those stairs. The other girls, not so much.
Macho guys everywhere! The one-liners are working hard! “The new year begins with a familiar sight,” Ayaka said.
“Oh, my macho!” Obviously Macho Man is the macho priest.
Hibiki is such a good girl. A shrine isn’t a place for macho jokes! The muscle god of the city has to be here. What did you expect? Machio’s family owns the shrine. Big surprise! And there’s Jason Sgatham again! Macho guys call Macho Man the Great Muscle God. I’m learning many things here on Dumbbells this week.
Oh? Akemi wants a boyfriend this year too? Like the other girls? There aren’t any boy characters in this anime, so I don’t see that happening. Har! When you wish with all your heart, wish from this specific pectoral muscle!
The first sunrise of the new year. With muscles.
The girls want to work out now after a whole night of no sleep? Okay. Zina is used to her urban parks, but Japanese parks are a bit disappointing. Why even put a high bar at that location? It makes even kicking a soccer ball difficult. The parks don’t even allow exercising? What are you supposed to do there?
Oh no. Akemi brought up that weird English Lit professor again.
Isometrics Training Video!
That pike shoulder press looks pretty good. The body weight arm curls are great for biceps and triceps. Also, isometrics is a good aerobic workout, which is why you need to remember to breathe during your efforts. There was a slight change from the manga, where Akemi did the pike shoulder press instead of Hibiki in the anime.
Suddenly Macho Priest and Jason Sgatham are in this video…
The neighbors gossip about the girls doing exercises in the park and a mother covers her boy’s eyes! Well, Hibiki is pretty bodacious, so… But when did outdoor exercising become shady in a nation that used to do radio calisthenics?
Wait. When is this televised talent show going to be? New Year’s Day? Haven’t these girls been awake for more than 24 hours? Isn’t Satomi hung over? And they’re all doing this by 10 AM? This show is on crazy pills!
Oh boy. It’s the same dude from the idol audition. Saying his name fast sounds like “director” in English. That’s in addition to Japanese kanji pun in his name.
Entry #69! I didn’t get a name for this idol group. Also, is that a ranger mask for Satomi, or is she a luchadora?
Uh, 11 hour air chair record is no good for live TV. Why is Ayaka so sure Satomi can do the wrestler’s bridge and sit on her too? We saw Macho Man do this in an earlier Dumbbells episode with three girls sitting on him.
The Muscle God is everywhere and anywhere…
Whoa. That’s hot. That’s also twice that Satomi did the heavy lifting for the idol group.
Somehow that display got 2nd place in the ratings. A nip-slip during a bikini show was always going to win…
The final episode is going to be the actual beach episode! And where exactly is “Muscle Island” anyway?
The omake gets us halfway to the wrestler’s bridge by doing the glute bridge.
