Appare-Ranman!

Episode 4

It's back baby! After an unexpected pit-stop last season, Appare-Ranman! is back up and running. For the sake of everyone's time I won't bother with a full recap, but last we left our heroes they'd just won a cutting edge car in a race against the pompously posh Al Lyon by turning their boat-car into a catapult to technically win by getting their engine block across the finish line first. We open episode 4 with Kosame belatedly realizing they could just sell the thing off to get the money they need to return to Japan, but of course Appare's already disassembled the whole thing for parts and engineering ideas. It's a somewhat predictable joke, but one that's lighthearted and well-timed enough to instantly remind me why I missed this show through the latter half of spring. Appare-Ranman! isn't particularly innovative, but so far it's a well-executed and consistently entertaining show to follow.

That holds true for the main storyline of the episode too. Jing finally works up the courage to ask her boss for a chance to be a driver for the company, and winds up in a race against their star driver for just the chance to keep her job. This is decidedly softer treatment than a Chinese woman would have experienced in actual 1900s America, but one look at any of the main designs for this show will remind you that realism was never its goal. As a story on its own it's fairly typical – the sexism Jing faces is bald-faced and cocky, just begging to get decked in the face as the team's lead racer insists women just cannot handle a racecar. The resolution is similarly simple, as Jing presents her driving skills, gives her opponent a close run for his money with tactical driving to make up for a lesser vehicle, and even when she loses thanks to his cheating, the rest of the team realizes golly gee, I guess we were wrong about them there ladyfolk not understanding steering wheels. It's not exactly bad or clumsy, but it's a standard approach to addressing sexist exclusion without ever really grappling with the more insidious aspects of these kinds of systemic issues. Granted, a more realistic examination of sexism would probably clash with the brightly-colored energy the show is going for, but it's still a bit frustrating.

What's more engaging is the execution of the central race. I'll admit motorsport has always been a blindspot for me when it comes to sports. Living in the south, I've seen my fair share of NASCAR races and even the odd IndyCar, but it's never been something I could latch onto, and auto racing in entertainment has always made more sense to me when it's cartoony and actively unrealistic. But here Appare-Ranman! manages to make a dirt simple race around a track feel as compelling as a volleyball set in Haikyu!!. Outmatched in terms of machinery, we see Jing use careful planning and strategy to use her opponent's own advantage against him, preserving her tires for the later turns to pull ahead in the final lap. It's nothing amazing, but as a showcase of how the series can portray racing outside of wacky steampunk shenanigans, it's effective sports storytelling that keeps the action compelling even when it's just 2 cars hitting the same turns and straightaways for minutes on end.

Outside of that though, there's not much to say about the episode. It's an effective way to get Jing into the Trans-America race, and there's a few funny moments with the extended cast, but on the whole it feels more like an episode that needed to happen before we can get to the good stuff. That's exacerbated by it having to inadvertently act as a reintroduction to the series when it was never meant to be, but I can't imagine this story would be particularly more compelling if I'd seen it 3 months ago. Still, I'm just happy to have this show back every week.

Rating: Appare-Ranman! is currently streaming on Funimation.