Episode 12 — “Strive For the Future!”
Hmm.
Have you ever watched coverage of athletes’ rituals before a big game like the
World Series? Superstition is the usual angle, referring to a lucky sock or
not washing a glove. However, the underlying reason is mental health. The set
steps for mindset preparation are like a mantra to lock in motivation and
soothe nerves. I like hearing the stories behind the pre-game rituals because
they humanize celebrities and reveal their personalities. Is ‘Rinkai!’
showing a future ritual for Izumi, where she visits her home bank to remember
her journey as a pro cyclist? Izumi has come from simply
being a spectator
to the heights of racing in her first championship. The anime’s season has
been this journey for the Tackle Channel friends.
Heh.
Fun! The entire Ito family can watch Izumi’s Rookie Final race. Carpool!
Convoy! Oh. Everyone noticed Izumi’s wilted demeanor about negative online
comments. Tsutsuji has a plan, though. Uh oh. Coach Sono thinks she made a
mistake letting Tsutsuji handle sports psychology. Let’s visit Izumi’s
home bank. It’s where her whole cycling story began in Rinkai!. Oh,
good. Headpats and tickling solve everything in anime. Tsutsuji’s advice
is good for drowning out the haters: ride for your fans and repay them
with victory. The
haters
will still buy betting tickets, too. Monetize the hate! Haha. Remu
similarly had to endure Tsutsuji tickling attacks. The memories gave her
perspective. Also, the betting windows are open. Several of Izumi’s fans
are in the stands, already cheering for her.
Hoho. Izumi joins the ranks of cyclists going through rough patches,
either mentally or physically. Tsutsuji fills her in on the nickname the
pros gave Coach Tsubonosuke: Dotsubonosuke!
土壺
(どつぼ, dotsubo) means “bad condition, awful state, terrible situation,
in the shit.” You’re not alone, Izumi.
Rinkai League rookies, assemble! Tsutsuji and Remi Hiroshima provide the
color commentary for the Rookie Final race. Oh no. Remi can’t get her
words in. Look at all the fan club banners for the riders. Why did Izumi
ever care about a few online comments? You can’t even hear the detractors
through all the positive cheering.
Rookie Final start! Rinkai! is cycling anime now. A keirin race is
six laps around a 250-meter track, translating to typically two minutes of
racing as the derny or pacer ramps up to 50 kph. Here, the show takes six
minutes of broadcast time, which is nowhere near the stuff
Yowamushi Pedal got away with. Two episodes stretch for 200 meters!
Everyone gets their moment of inspiration, but the focus is on Izumi and
Nana. Oops! Remi said Nana would surge at the last moment, but the race
favorite broke away already. Ooh.
Ai Kumamoto
showed up at the end.
Aha! Izumi used her mind-reading powers. Aw. She has time inside the race
to appreciate the crowd. Who wins? Izumi? Nana? Shoot. I wanted to see the
photo finish. Officially, Nana won, Izumi placed, and Midori showed. Nana
attained her revenge! But look how quickly Izumi caught up to Nana.
Celebratory
ramune
for everyone! Midori thought she needed to win the Rookie Final to join
the international team, but the team called her anyway. Poor Papa Gunma.
Ha! Nana brought
Hiratsuka fluffy omelets
for everyone. She also has Izumi’s number: the Ito girl needs the crowd’s
energy. Toasting with ramune and omelets! Hey, Izumi, you’re not that
great. Aw. The
L14 Term has its own inside joke. Confirmed: Ai joined the L15 class. Will she meet her L14 friends at
next year’s Rookie Final? The End.
Final Thoughts.
Earnest. That is the one word I would use to sum up the voice of
Rinkai!. It openly promoted the
keirin racetracks
in each city the main characters came from. The girls’ surnames were the
cities themselves! The racetracks and buildings were real places. Heck,
the main character, Izumi Ito, lived at the
hot spring inn
that sponsored Ito’s velodrome! As
Hokkaido Gals
earlier this year and
Bartender Glass of God
in the spring season, Rinkai! put fictional characters in real-life
places to tell its story. The settings were as much a cast member as the
cycling girls. The purpose? Come visit our racetracks, root for our
athletes, and think about becoming a pro cyclist yourself. Especially you
young girls watching!
The openness and artlessness of Rinkai!’s sales pitch for local
sites and tourism reminded me of anime as a promotional and advertising
tool for products a generation ago. Back then, ecchi and eroge lured horny
otaku into buying their software through anime like Shuffle!,
School Days, and To Heart. Children’s cartoons still sell
toys and merchandise, video game adaptations lure you into
microtransactions and gacha pulls, and eroge still puts
cat girls
onto your video screens. So, anime has always sold something the
production committees hope to make money on. But recently, promoting
tourism and Japanese commercial products has become more prevalent. The
third season of
Yuru Camp, which supports real-life camping grounds with views of Mt. Fuji,
started that trend before Hokkaido Gals, Bartender, and
Rinkai!.
Unfortunately for Western cycling fans, Rinkai! was too Japanese to attract streaming licenses in the Western Hemisphere. The English subtitles, aimed at the Southeast Asian market centered around Hong Kong, often felt like the Japanese audio went through a Chinese filter before landing in English. The subtitles regularly used “games” for races and “players” for riders or cyclists. Although cycling fans could figure out the meaning in context, those moments still punted a viewer out of the watching experience.
The
Uma Musume: Pretty Derby
franchise is the closest analog to Rinkai! as an anime. The horse
girls in it take the names of famous racehorses, the tracks all exist, and
the racing schedule matches Japanese horse racing. Cygames aimed to suck
its player’s wallets dry for accessories for the sexy little horse girls,
so its anime adaptations reflect those goals. For Rinkai!, I expect
the Ito Hot Springs Inn to see a few more reservations this year.
But what about the cycling action? I saw nothing here that detracted from
professional track cycling. Keirin events usually take a whole day or an afternoon, full of
elimination heats, qualification times, and tiers of competitors. I would
have liked to have seen more attention paid to the equipment brands. But
Rinkai!’s ultimate purpose was city tourism and racetrack
promotion.
What is next for Rinkai!? The franchise has a
manga set seven years ago, telling how Tsutsuji became a tickle monster for Remu and how the pair
ultimately became the world individual sprint and pursuit champions in
Glasgow, Scotland, in 2023. And for the anime characters? Take a dip at the
Ito Hot Springs Inn and enjoy some tanmen and fluffy omelets in
Hiratsuka if you ever visit Shizuoka. What if you have a spare afternoon
during your trip? Bet on a couple of keirin races as you enjoy thicc
thigh-pumping action.
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