Rin leaves her small fishing village to pursue her dream of becoming a professional Jet Racer. Season Premiere.
#1 — “The Kandagawa is Calling”
First Thoughts.
The Kandagawa Jet Girls anime is just the first installment in a multimedia project. The video game will debut in January, so we have a three-month infomercial to get us all ready to put girls together in teams, upgrade jet skis and weaponry through winning races, and fall in love with these beautiful girls in tight swimwear. To make that goal work, the anime has to fall into the sports genre. That means we’ll see themes of perseverance through adversity, redemption through victory, forging new partnerships and rivalries, and the fruits of hard work. However, these are cute girls in sexy outfits, so that means we need fanservice and yuri.
After seeing the key art and concept, I wondered what kind of tone we’d get for the show. Would we get a shounen battle tournament farce like Keijo!!!!!!!!? Would Kandagawa Jet Girls be a fluffy show with lovable girls getting to love each other even more, like Harukana Receive? Or would you get something where the girl’s beautiful exteriors hide ugly sociopathic motivations and issues like Hanebado!? Thankfully, for my own personal tastes, Kandagawa Jet Girls lands somewhere in between Harukana Receive and Keijo!!!!!!!!.
Jet Girls doesn’t waste any time with procedural tutorials, either. The newly transferred heroine quickly finds her soulmate, er, partner, suits up, and jumps on a tandem jet ski. Plenty of clues about the backstories of the main characters, Rin and Misa, litter the first episode, so I was happy that the story quickly got to the action, and I mean “action.” I’m looking forward to the rest of the season!
Hmm.
Yeah! Busty girls in tight outfits bouncing around a river in a made-up sport is just the kind of summer show that… wait, it’s fall already? Okay, so Kandagawa Jet Girls is busty girls, with sad pasts, in tight outfits bouncing around a river in a made-up sport. Serious sports means serious anime, right? Well, this isn’t really a serious sport if it’s strip laser tag on a tandem jet ski just to remind Japanese people of the Calvary Battle during sports day festivals. Still, the girls have to be fit, need to be flexible, half of them need to know how to ride big machines, and the other half need to know how to handle weapons. It’s a team biathlon, in removable booty shorts. I can watch this.
The most important part of Jet Girls, besides the ecchi fanservice, is going to be the yuri subtext, or overt context in at least one pair I’ve seen so far, for each of the girl’s partnerships. In a large supporting cast with many different fashion styles, I can see that yuri is going to be the glue for the humor, the teamwork, and the dialog. It almost makes sense, because these girls are literally hugging each other for large portions of their competitions. There’s a race aspect in addition to the elimination aspect, so when the girls have to go fast, there’s going to be a lot of clinging, grabbing, and “skinship.”
One last note — the digital streams and broadcasts for Jet Girls have shadows and light beams to censor topless bodies and detailed crotches. There will probably be excessive steam and fog for the inevitable bath and shower scenes too. However, there is an uncensored satellite broadcast, so those local fans don’t have to wait for the disc releases.
Heh.
Jet Girls’ opening credit sequence has lots of nice shots of the other pairs riding their tandem jet skis. The yuri is strong in all of them, but it looks like Rin is going to have to slowly melt Misa’s frozen heart. Rin is also an artist with a cutesy style, which will probably annoy Misa, at first, when those cute logos get applied to their racing machine.
The prologue shows a young Rin watching her mother win a Jet Racing championship. I’m sure the importance of her words (which we don’t hear) and her gesture of placing her hand on her ample chest will be made plain later. The other important thing to note is that Rin had that dolphin way back then and she usually forgot to turn off the faucet.
Fast forward ten years and Rin has developed quite nicely. Aw. Hot mama died. She’s obviously Rin’s inspiration for becoming a pro racer. Also, another sign of maturity for Rin besides her very mature chest — she remembered to turn the water faucet off. Rin’s dad is laconic, but he seems like a softie towards his daughter. He’s got strong shoulders too, befitting a fisherman.
Ah. Here’s the other side of Jet Girls’ main pair. Misa wakes up alone. Boo. This morning Jet Race training routine looks like a habit she can’t quit. After school, she got frustrated at the simulator’s experience. Either the AI didn’t pilot the machine properly for her shooting style, or the course didn’t capture the full experience of the Kanda River. That blowing fan is a good touch, which reminds me of indoor turbo training for cyclists. I noticed how she had an empty bunk in her room. That’s the introduction to Misa’s drama! Also, that must be a tough training machine. Ouch!
This isn’t Rin taking a tour of Tokyo. This is Rin meeting all the other Jet Girls racing pairs! They’ve all got different styles, and different styles of yuri too. The senior-junior pair of Misuda and Fuka is the only one blatant about following the traditional yuri path. I’m sure Rin will get an education in all the more modern and foreign kinds of yuri. Let’s hope!
It’s finally time for the Jet Girls OTP to meet. The great thing about Rin chasing the thief is how it shows that she’s a fit girl with lots of endurance. The girl from the boonies can run! Also, her running style appears to work fine for being top-heavy. Nice trip! Oh hoh. Misa can glare! See? Don’t kick expensive machinery, Misa. These two already have great teamwork. The yuri starts now! Rin thinks Misa is so pretty. I agree!
Rin gets the first turn in the eye catch. There are twelve girls, right? I can’t wait to see the other ones.
Ha! Rin still has that dolphin she used for everything. Nami the Dolphin was probably a gift from her mom. Hello roomie! Yes, Misa, you smell very nice. Ah. Misa is the “that’s forbidden” type along with the “do as you like” type. All the better to corrupt her with the power of yuri. Man, Rin loves dolphins, but she definitely has her own art style. I like it.
Here we go, here we go! Here comes the Jet Girls drama queen! Wow, her maid has big, uh, a big rice ball! Shijuin ojou-sama and her maid are going to introduce us to the mystery behind Misa’s aloofness. Thicc rice ball maid seems to know the name “Namiki.” That makes me wonder how long ago Rin’s mom died. Cute. Thicc Rice Ball is the “nanoda” type.
Fun. Here’s where Jet Girls’ reality splits off a little bit into sci-fi and an alternate reality. These racing suits are automatically form-fitting. Much love for technology marching on. It’s Rin’s first time riding something so big… that’s what she said!
This is a little far-fetched, but it’s anime, so what the heck. This whole district, other schools, and the boats move out of the way for an impromptu Jet Race. Now I know why those parts of the suit lit up. Jet Racing is strip laser tag on a tandem jet ski! No wonder this sport is so popular.
Nice. Let’s end with a “To be continued.”
