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The Spring 2016 Anime Preview Guide
BAKUON!!

How would you rate episode 1 of
Bakuon!! ?
Community score: 3.1



What is this?

16-year old Hane Sakura is getting really tired of trying to push her wobbly old bicycle up the hill to school every day. Isn't there a better way? No sooner does she finally lose her patience with the two-wheeled menace than a "vrooom!" echoes up the hill before her and changes Hane's life forever. Inspired by the sweet ride of her excitable senpai Onsa Amano, our heroine decides to get her motorcycle license and conquer the road with a much heavier (but more powerful!) two-wheeled monster. The allure of a motorcycle draws all kinds of girls from the strong, silent, and always-helmeted Raimu Kawasaki to the voluptuous, twin-tailed blonde Rin Suzunoki. Amidst the company of these motorbike fanatics, Hane even begins to imagine she can hear the voices of the machines themselves. It turns out that even motorcycles can have a maidenly spirit! BAKUON!! is based on a manga and can be found streaming on Crunchyroll, Mondays at 12:00 PM EST.


How was the first episode?

Theron Martin

Rating: 3.5

Review: Based on the concept art and premise, I was expecting this new manga adaptation to be “K-ON! but with motorbikes!” Heck, even the title of the series (and its use of exclamation points) suggests that. And that's almost exactly what we get, even down to how the ditzy girl Hane could have practically stepped out of an episode of K-ON! What I – as someone who was not a fan of K-ON! and have never been all that interested in motorbikes – was not expecting is that I would actually be entertained by it.

To be sure, this is a light, goofy series which is about equal parts irrepressible moe and adoration of everything to do with motorcycles. Hane is the kind of ditz who will with quickly endear herself or quickly annoy, and surprisingly I actually found her to be more the former than the latter. I think that may be because her airheadedness doesn't prevent her from getting caught up in the spirit of motorbiking. When established enthusiast Onsa declares that you have to listen to your bike, Hane takes it literally and the bike actually talks back. (Or at least Hane thinks that it does, though given the character of the bike it's hard to believe that it's a voice bouncing around in her head.) That was a cute twist that suddenly turned raunchy when the bike starts turning everything about motorbike riding into a sexual allusion, but I actually laughed at that stark contrast. (I could very definitely see it being a big strike-out for others, though.) Then there's the club president who never says anything or (at least in this episode) takes off her motorcycle helmet and busty potential new member Rin, whose tastes in motorbikes varies so much from the other two established girls that it becomes a source of good-natured ridicule.

The other component is, of course, the love affair with bikes. Both the writers and the artists seem to be showing off their depth of knowledge concerning the machines, whether it be the licensing procedures, the different types of bikes, or the meticulously-detailed animation of how they work, down to the smallest detail. In fact, the technical merits overall are quite sharp; this is easily one of the best-looking series of the season so far. Spicing that up is an unexpected level of visual fan service. Oh, the girls all keep their clothes on, but the prominent figures of some of the girls get quite a bit of attention, especially Rin, who is so much bustier than characters of her base design normally are that her bust line sticks out even more than it normally would. Frankly, the series has enough else going for it that it didn't need to go there, so I actually think it's more of a distraction than an enhancement in this case.

So yeah, if the somewhat incongruous adult elements don't throw you off and you aren't expecting much for depth then you might find this one to be a lot of fun.
 


Nick Creamer

Rating: 4

BAKUON!! is a very silly show. One more entry in anime's venerable “girls do stuff vaguely related to some after-school club” genre, the club in this question is the motorcycle club, and the girls, unsurprisingly, ride motorcycles. They ride motorcycles and talk about motorcycles and take motorcycle lessons, in between random bouts of shouting and silly faces and generally wasting the time away in idle conversation. And as far as shows like that go, BAKUON!! is looking like it'll be a pretty good one.

The main, critical, absolutely most important thing is that BAKUON!! is actually funny. Shows like this tend to rely on a mixture of inviting atmosphere and solid punchlines, and while BAKUON!! seems a bit too farcical to do much atmosphere-wise, it absolutely nails the jokes. The expressions are great, the voice acting is inherently humorous, and the show whips out tons of diverse gags and silly one-liners. For example, when protagonist Hane is told to “communicate with her bike,” she finds out that her bike can actually speak - but instead of giving her meaningful advice, it mainly says stuff like “do you know what it's like to have a man's crotch in your face?” and “this is why I can't stand millennials.”

The show sets up a number of standard gags and character assumptions, from Hame's endearing denseness to the constant plotting of her new friend Amano, but it never leans too heavily or consistently on any of them. The comedic timing is fast, and so is the show's overall pacing - by the end of this episode, we've already met four main characters and established the club proper. Really, the main question is where the show goes from here; there are a couple hanging dramatic threads the show could pursue, but with a show like this, it's important to be sure a “neutral episode” is enjoyable in its own right.

As far as aesthetics go, BAKUON!! is a generally solid but not top-tier production. The expressions are great, and the CG bikes are integrated well, but there isn't all that much animation. This doesn't hurt too much; the show's visual comedy generally gets by with just a couple gag frames, but it does limit the show's options. There's consistent fanservice of both the bikes and the girls, who pretty much get equal numbers of long, lingering shots if you're into that. And the music score is very appropriate, an uncommon mix of guitar and drum tunes that nicely match the show's material.

Overall, while I wouldn't say BAKUON!! is really a show for me, it's a very solid first episode for a club comedy. If cute girls and silly gags is your scene, you could certainly do a whole lot worse.


Lynzee Loveridge

Rating:

Bakuon!! is a show geared toward a very particular audience, one that I am not a part of and thus much of the appeal is completely lost on me. It's a blend of cute girls doing cute things and highly accurate motorcycle porn for gearheads. Quite a few motorcycle manufacturers and accessories brands jumped in to slap logos into the show and get a few of their bikes represented. This is all to stoke the fandom subset that's really into bikes and make a little cash too.

If the sound of two-stroke and four-stroke engines doesn't rev you up, or you don't have a stake in the debates about Suzuki's design choices, Bakuon!! won't do much for you. There's some humor that isn't reliant on an emotional investment in bikes, but it all falls pretty flat. There's a running gag that bright-eyed Hane thinks motorcycle class size is related to the rider's weight that's drawn out for most of the episode, but the only comedic touch that really hits its mark is Hane's sexually experienced driver's ed bike.

Onsa's personality otherwise carries most of the show. The animators give her a large variety of humorous facial expressions, but she needs a better cast of characters to play off than cheerful, agreeable Hane and the helmet-wearing club president who doesn't talk.

On the fanservice side of things, the show is pretty tame. There are some boob jiggles and everyone's clothes, whether it's a school uniform or a racing suit, are tightened within an inch of their life. This is forgivable given where the show could have went with all its revving engines. The character designs themselves aren't particularly memorable, with the exception of Onsa who sports fluffy, cropped black hair. Everything is a little generic, and the comedy isn't keeping it afloat, so what's left is all the highly-detailed motorcycles. If you're into that, Bakuon!! might be worth checking out despite it all.


Rebecca Silverman

Rating: 2.5

I will admit that I wasn't looking forward to this show – the combination of cute girls and motorcycles seemed like a recipe for adorably annoying disaster, and besides, the only motorcycle I really like is my dad's 1938 BMW with its sidecar. And then once again anime taught me not to judge a show by its premise, because with a couple of exceptions, Bakuon!!’s first episode is actually kind of fun. A large part of the draw are the characters of Lime and Onsa. Lime is the one who never takes off her motorcycle helmet, and naturally never speaks. She's the president of the Bike Club at the high school the girls go to, and, when the episode starts, apparently the only member as well. Despite her appearance, Lime is actually quite practical and nice, helping new student Sakura to learn to appreciate motorcycles and how to ride them, all while never saying a word…and while Onsa is mentally flailing to come up with a way to convince Sakura to join the club with her so that she doesn't have to be alone with Lime.

If Onsa was the primary protagonist, I probably would have liked this episode more. First of all, she's got a delightfully retro character design; with her fluffy hair and headband, she looks a little like an anime version of a Rosie the Riveter figure. More importantly, she's got a basically grounded personality with some flightiness, as opposed to Sakura, who is all flaky with a touch of stability. Onsa loves her motorcycle and wants other girls to get into biking, but she gets too caught up in how to present it to actually make a difference. It's like she's just so in love with motorcycles that she can't figure out how to say it so that it doesn't sound corny, which she's afraid will turn others off. That's a lot more endearing than if she were just ditzy and enjoyed bikes, and it balances out Sakura and Rin, the pig-tailed blond with the obligatory big boobs, who comes in at the end. Both Sakura and Rin are much less interesting characters than the other two girls, with Rin representing the utter devotee of a particular make (Suzuki, in this case) and Sakura having what appears to be the brainpower of a twig. Neither are out of place in a show of this nature, which is essentially “cute girls being cute,” but both are also substantially more annoying, especially Sakura, who seems to think that the size bike you can ride is somehow related to the size of your breasts.

Speaking of breasts and other sexualized things, Bakuon!! is the second show thus far this season with surprise sex jokes, although I have to admit that I was expecting some in a story about girls straddling motorbikes. What's remarkable here, however, is that apart from Sakura's breast issue (and her grabbing Lime's rather than holding her around the waist when she's riding behind her) is that the purveyor of said jokes is the actual motorcycle herself, Baita. Baita's the motorcycle Sakura rides during her driver's ed course, and she says she's a bad girl because she lets so many men use her before making comments about men's crotches in her face and mounting a man. Apart from the fact that I wouldn't have thought that the seat was the bike's face (shouldn't that be her handlebars and light?), this is actually kind of funny, especially when she tells Sakura to treat a bike like a man and not let it push her around.

This show clearly has a lot of corporate sponsors because there are a plethora of recognizable names and logos (including Amazon) throughout, so it's no surprise that the bikes look really good. The whole show actually looks nice with the exception of Rin's body, which appears kind of misshapen in her pink racing suit, or perhaps like her breasts are part of the outfit and not actually attached to her body. Despite that, even if you're not a motorcycle lover, this is a fun show. I doubt it will go many more places than it does this episode – cute girls, motorcycles, and bike facts – but apart from the scariest looking JFK I've ever seen, this is harmless and fluffy fun.


Jacob Hope Chapman

Rating:

So if you saw the key art or PV for this series and thought, "Oh okay, a snuggly moe show for otaku about taut girl-bottoms on motorcycles," I regret to inform you that this assumption is only half-correct. If you're a fan of fanservice, don't worry, that part is still very much true. (It's astounding how much twin-tail girl's boobs can bounce around when she's not even moving.) It's the "snuggly moe" part you'll be pining for before the episode ends.

Much like Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn from last season, Bakuon!! has decided to hearken back to a simpler time when anime fans wanted their T&A attached to shrill-voiced, empty-headed, reactionary loudmouths, because that also meant you could call the show a comedy, I guess. So Bakuon!! is more like watching an Akamatsu-style 90s harem comedy than K-ON! on motorcycles. Just replace that milquetoast male lead with a shiny Suzuki bike, (the girls even have a fight over their feelings toward it!) and you have a show hovering between two worlds that I found mostly just unpleasant and unattractive. The animation in Bakuon!! is pretty bad, with garish flat designs and an astonishing reliance on speedlines and looped cuts for a fanservice show.

So it's intended to be a comedy rather than a healing anime, but what passes for humor is just annoying and infantile. The punchline is either "this girl sure is stupid/arrogant/weird" or some variation on the old "motorcycles = sex in some way" chestnut. If the show had taken things really over the top like Golden Boy's infamous fifth episode with either booty-tastic visuals or raunchy comedy, Bakuon!! might be more of a draw, but it mostly chickens out when it comes to the one thing it's clearly supposed to do: sell both cute girls and motorcycles. Even when the show has a good stupid joke on its hands, the hollow execution just drops it on its butt. Instead of laughing when I heard the psychic motorcycle tell Hane "Do you know how many men's crotches I've had on my face?", I wanted to break out the Price is Right horn.

Bakuon!! has that unique kind of lameness where it feels like it's not really made for any audience in 2016. If you were hoping for moe motorcycles, there's no innocent charm to be found here, and if you just want to see some fanservice, you'll probably want to hold out for a show with better drawings.


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