10 Second Anime - Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu - Episode 10

Hiromi receives her assembled prize bike and the Cycling Club goes on their first trip to Miura Peninsula.

Episode 10 - "Let's Go On a Trip!"

Heh.

Now we're back to good old cute girls cutely riding their cute bikes in cute clothes. Sandy has joined the Cycling Club as officially as it gets for a not yet official club. An unofficial club that got its club funds prematurely. I'm sure having a member as the granddaughter of the principal had nothing to do with it, but the wink and a nod go to their winning the Criterium.

Money to burn? Let's go on a trip!

Before the trip, two of the girls need real bikes. Ta da! Korone unveiled Hiromi's first prize frame assembled with Nagisa's cycle bro leftover elite parts. Cycle bros will do just about anything if a cute girl who gives them food tells them to do it. Cute plus food occupies the only space left in a cycle bro's head after bike stuff and booze.

Hiromi didn't want to accept it for free, especially since getting the frame was a team effort, but the other girls convinced her. It seemed a bit out of place for Sandy to say it was their gift to Hiromi since she was battling for the finish line at the time...

Girls name their bikes. 'kay. That pink light looked like a horn, so why not "Unico" for unicorn. That freaky dream spelled out where this was all going, but unicorns don't normally have wings. Fine. Just load that trusty steed up with all the bells and whistles. Even Tomoe name her bike Momo. Peachy.

Sandy says she wants to name hers "Super Miracle Shado." Shado as in "shadou" (車道、しゃどう) for "roadway." Natsumi knew enough English to ask if she meant Shadow.

Now that Sandy is on board, the club wants to do something unofficial official as a club activity. What about cycling around a place where they have to travel to first instead of from Kamakura? Taking the train there and back again makes it feel like a real adventure, especially on roads you don't know.

Mori explained how a bike bag works. But that's not going to help with Sandy's mamachari.

Ta da! An envelope full of money you're not supposed to have yet! Because Hiromi asked the important question of Hiromi: a bike bag is expensive, right? Right. This is cycling. Everything is expensive. But. Korone will rent Sandy a bike if you buy that bike bag.

Washing that money at that shrine really helped out, huh? What I liked best about that little scene of grateful prayer was how Sandy joined in. This is real cultural exchange happening. It just struck me as super adorable.

In a rushed scene change, we were all of a sudden jumped to the night before the girls' trip to Miura Peninsula. Conveniently, Natsumi got a card and a picture of her parents and their tandem bike in front of the Great Pyramids in Egypt. That's some lazy storytelling to give us some character background on Natsumi.

Fuyune's talk with her sister felt just right. That's all been explained well and it fits a normal narrative to talk with her about a faraway trip to take pictures.

What made no sense was Hiromi taking a bath with some handlebars. What the... ? We're missing a whole bunch of exposition. Like Sandy staying the night so they could go to the train station together in the morning. How about establishing that first instead of Sandy just jumping straight into the bathtub?

This touring trip reminded me of Long Riders! in a good way and now I'm reminded of it in a bad way. Instead of terrible animation through rushed production we're getting great animation with rushed editing. At least I'll always have Yowamushi Pedal.

Yay! Sandy in Cycling Club kit? Niiizze! She borrowed Tomoe's spare outfit. This proves that she and Tomoe are the "big" girls of the bunch. We already established that Sandy shares genki status with Hiromi.

This ride didn't happen if you don't post pics to Instagram...

Ha! Mori-sensei literally told the girls to "get lost," when she abandoned them. I guess Mori needed to get some real training miles in instead of whatever these girls can do on flat pedals and athletic trainers.

I guess we're going to have a part two to this trip. No need to rely on Mori-Sensei if you have a route and a goal in mind. Bikes don't go in reverse! Or something. Let it go, Hiromi's on a roll.

This reminded me of the theme of Yowamushi Pedal: to go fast, face forward. All the leaders in that show say something similar when they're giving advice on how to ride a bike. Bikes don't go in reverse, after all!

Cycling Porn.

This week we got loving looks at Hiromi's pink, pink Anchor bike. The light was pink. The bottle cage was pink. Side note: that bottle cage geometry is no longer sold anywhere. Believe me, I looked. I'm not a fan of that bottom tab design. I used a similar design from Tacx and after a while, that tab just breaks from all the bumps in the road. I went back to the trusty aluminum cradle design, and I haven't felt any anxiety over breaking anything when hitting a big pothole or for the bottle popping out either.

The girls also practiced pace lining, or the "train," as they call it. They should have practiced this the month before the race.

The most important things about packing your bike are the clamps for the front and rear forks. Usually, either a wheel is clamped in between them, or on a bike rack for the car. If you're carrying it in a bag, it's still important to maintain the integrity of these bike parts.

Mori also gave some advice for traveling in trains that I had never heard of, but makes sense for the packed trains of Japan: have the cyclists board at different entrances so you keep out of the way of the other passengers. I was worried that somebody was going to miss their stop, but this isn't that kind of anime.

Mori warned the girls about going too fast on descents. This is good advice if you're on unfamiliar roads. Sometimes those curves end up much sharper than you thought.

Tunnels are always bad. You go from bright sky to dark so quickly, there's no time for your pupils to dilate. You'll have no idea what's on the road surface because you can't see it. Plus, there's much less clearance between the cars and curb. It's a general hazard for cyclists.

The omake turned into a full-on travelogue with menu prices. I think the MinaKama girls actually went to that shop in an earlier episode.

Next time, "Bicycles Are Strange." What does that mean? Hey, if the swimming girls are going to put on tight cycling kits too, I'm all for it.

Mori is back again for the end card. Totally understandable.