Spring 2021 First Impressions – Super Cub

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Story Summary: Koguma lives alone and doesn’t have much money or any friends. Her hours pass by wordlessly as she spends the day at school and then rides her bike home. But she’d give almost anything not to have to huff and puff up the hill on a manual bike, and when she notices some classmates riding to and from school on scooters, she decides to check out the local bike shop. Almost every new scooter and motorbike for sale is way outside her meager price range, but the old shop owner shows her a refurbished model – an old Honda Super Cub he’s willing to sell her for 10,000 yen (around $100). She takes him up on the offer (once she’s gotten her license, of course), and suddenly a whole new world of freedom opens up to Koguma. Getting to school is no longer a chore, and she can ride to the convenience store without the same hassle of a bicycle. But she still has some lessons to learn about her new motorized companion; luckily the user manual can help with some of that.

Impressions: I went through heck and back to finally watch this episode; It wouldn’t load on Funimation’s page, nor through their app on my phone. I had to figure out some kind of goofy workaround where I downloaded it through the app and started watching it there and then was able to continue on my computer… anyway, to make a long story short there was a point at which I wondered if the episode would actually be worth the effort I’d put into trying to watch it. While I can usually see the appeal of many hobby-based anime series, that doesn’t necessarily mean the hobbies themselves interest me, and motorcycles and other small motorized vehicles have never really been my style (don’t tell my dad, or he might ride right over on his Harley Davidson and shake his head at me with disappointment).

But one thing I do understand is the feeling of freedom that comes with having mobility. I’ve probably not mentioned this here before, but I didn’t get a driver’s license until I was nearly 32 years old, mostly due to my own anxiety about it (I’d tried to learn to drive a few times but I was always too nervous). I was in a bad living situation, and I think because of that something finally just clicked in my brain (that “something” was probably desperation) and I managed to pass my test the first time I took it. The freedom it brought me – the freedom to get groceries without having to ride the bus out of my way, the freedom to see friends without begging someone else for a ride – was priceless. So, Koguma’s experience makes a lot of sense to me; the privilege of fast, private transportation allows for so much more than minor conveniences and can literally be a life line in some situations.

This episode uses the power of silence to its storytelling advantage. There’s very little dialog, and even when the characters are speaking they seem predisposed to use as few words as possible (especially the old man selling the bikes). Most of the story is told through imagery, action, framing, color… many of animation’s particular specialties. There’s a focus on small actions – the bike shop owner tightening a screw with a coin, or Koguma pouring a glass of tea and buttering her bread in the morning. They’re actions that are made to feel important despite being otherwise mundane. Some aspects of this episode’s visual storytelling do feel a little gimmicky, namely the way the color becomes subtly warmer the first time Koguma sits down on her new Super Cub. But there’s a big part of me that loves animation for being gimmicky and obvious; the same technique used in a live-action film would probably feel a little over-the-top and, well, cartoony, but in a literal cartoon it just seems right.

Pros: This episode just feels cozy to me, even if the tone isn’t always what I’d describe as upbeat. There are many moments that feel a little bit melancholic and others that are subtly triumphant, especially as Koguma stretches her wings and goes on a midnight ride to the convenience store. I like the use of music for these moments; Debussy’s “Claire de Lune” seems an obvious choice for riding on a beautiful moonlit light, but it has special meaning to me since I tried to set an AMV to the song years ago (curse my computer for crapping out in the middle of it) where the story I was attempting to tell was about small triumphs in the face of adversity. I think that fits this episode well, in that respect.

This episode is also all about the scenery porn. Having just come off the end of the second season of Laid-Back Camp, I’m not sure I need any specific reminders regarding how pretty the area around Yamanashi prefecture is, but this show seems to want to emphasize that anyway and I can’t really complain. The episode opens with several scenes of Koguma’s town at dawn, and they’re total eye-candy.

Cons: I don’t really have any major issues with this episode since this is really, really my kind of series. I suppose I’ll mention that some parts of it feel like a commercial for Honda, although it’s an extremely minor aspect of the whole package. Some folks may find it off-putting.

Content Warnings: Subtle depictions of depression and isolation.

Would I Watch More? – I was actually looking for something kind of soothing and low-key to watch this season, and I think I’ve found it.