Rinkai! — Episode 7 — 10 Second Anime

The L14 term ends, the class’s last event will be a Graduation Memorial Race. A surprise guest comes for the final race. Who?

Episode 7 — “Graduation Commemorative Race”

Hmm.

Japanese hospitality: what can’t it do? It can’t make a track cyclist better, can it? According to Rinkai!, yes, it can! Izumi can anticipate other riders’ moves because she served guests at her family’s hot spring inn. A perceptive attendant reads subtle body language cues, so that skill should be valuable for the fast-twitching competition of track cycling. Get the jump on your opponent before she gets the jump on you! However, the service industry anticipates what people want and then helps them. That’s not the nature of competition. What if Izumi successfully applies her predictive instincts to her racing career? I hope she doesn’t start taking people’s food away if she helps serve again at her family’s hot spring inn.

Heh.

Neat. The other girls in Rinkai! took Nana’s notes to heart. The cycling academy’s course takes ten months to complete. How did they do on the last measurement test? It also counts as a final exam for graduation. The eighteen remaining students passed! Ai Kumamoto flunked out, and Nana Hiratsuka graduated early. And how will they celebrate? They’ll race against each other at the Ito Hot Spring Keirin. That’s Izumi’s home track! Look at how cyclists feast at graduation: KFC, vegetable platters, pizza, and Fanta.

The graduation race will have two heats, with the top two advancing to the final heat. How did the officials figure out the seeding? Rinkai! can be specific on aspects of track cycling but also vague when we have questions. Oho. There’s room for one more in the finals. Is Nana coming back from her racing circuit to join her classmates? Nana is glad to see Izumi finished at the top of the class. Oops. Nana had a laptop in one scene and then a Surface tablet running Windows 10. Ha! Tsutsuji is Nana’s hotel roommate! Eating crackers in bed… Nana wants to race against Izumi but needs to fly there from wherever she’s at. The neo-pro has to consider how participating will affect her racing schedule and results.

What a fun day for the family and parents of the cycling girls. Izumi and the Tackle Channel friends have come full circle in Rinkai!. They watched a race two years ago at the Ito Hot Spring Keirin. Now they’re racing at the track. Haha! The loud Gunma Maebashi is here to cheer on his daughter. Midori has told her father that Izumi is her rival. Isn’t Izumi’s everyone’s rival now? Coach Kasuga used to compete against Gunma.

A day at the race track is like any other track meet. Lots of sitting around and waiting. Rinkai! captures this part of a day of track sprint racing well. Who are the top six girls? Izumi finished second in her heat, with Momoka Tamano in first. Midori Maebashi was first in hers, with Kinusa Takamatsu second. Remi Hiroshima (first) and Chigiri Toyohashi (second) completed the six slots. Izumi saved some energy for the final heat. Will Nana show up in time to be the seventh? Aw. Miko barely missed out, according to the photo finish, with Kinusa pipping her by a tire rim width. Izumi’s friends think her experience working at a hot spring hotel makes her anticipate people’s moves. The elder Maebashi is fun comic relief as an overbearing, doting father.

Look who’s here! It’s Nana! That’s big news for the Rinkai! reporters to blast out. She took a fourteen-hour flight to make it in time, meaning she probably came from Japan’s cycling center in France. Nana only has eyes for Izumi. The final race follows the keirin rules with another human-powered derny. The girls jockey for position before the derny drops off. Ooh! Izumi jumped into Nana’s lane before she could move into it! Wow. Izumi won it on the lunge for the line! Nana Hiratsuka isn’t that special. That’s not a dig on her; it’s motivation to catch up to her.

Nana has a request for her friends: a reunion next year at the Rinkai League Rookie Finals. Eligible cyclists are rookies recording successful results within their first two years as professional athletes. Is this how Ai Kumamoto rejoins them? Graduation time. The diploma that matters is a racing license.

Next time, the girls adjust to professional cycling away from each other.