First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots

「にゅうぶ!!」 (Nyuubu!!)
“Club Registration!!”

Vroom vroom

Bakuon!! is a lot of fun and chock full of adorable little high school girls in a club together. Sound familiar?

More specifically, the story follows Sakura Hane (Ueda Reina), a high school student who rides her bicycle to school every day—struggling up grueling, steep hills. One day she catches fellow classmate Amano Onsa (Uchiyama Yumi) effortlessly overcome these slopes with her hot spankin’ motorcycle. The two eventually meet up with other like-minded students in the school’s motorcycle club, where they engage in plenty of fun and quirky antics.

What separates this little moe feature from ones we’ve seen previously is the special attention with which it treats its subject material. Motorcycles is seriously the name of the game here. This first episode charts Sakura’s attempts to gain her license, a ride here and there, a quick jaunt through the local motorcycle store, as well as the benefits and detriments of riding to begin with. Not only this, but the vehicles themselves are portrayed with striking realism, even down to the particular brands and models.

In fact, the narrative focus is often split between its characters and their vehicles—throughout this episode, I often had a difficult time determining whether this was an anime about cute little girls who happen to ride motorcycles or an anime about motorcycles featuring cute little girls. While this may appeal most to those that love both, it might do little to persuade viewers not especially fond of bikes to stick around with the show and see where it goes. While I myself am generally fascinated with motorcycles (despite being unable to ride one), I still found the lack of character-focus to hurt my overall engagement. I’m not asking for especially impressive depth or intricacy, but perhaps they could’ve been a little more fleshed out. A series’ debut should do something to familiarize myself with its characters—something which I feel Bakuon!! didn’t do at quite the level I’d hoped.

But gosh darn if these gals don’t just look so cute. The animation is art style and animation are both absolutely delectable. Soft trims and shading really go a long way in making these characters pop. While the color palette isn’t anything particularly impressive, it serves the somewhat realistic tone of the show pretty well. Adorable, expressive faces bring these individuals to life, who—if anything—showcase convincing emotion

The show’s humor is neither outstandingly hilarious nor egregiously flat. It’s just sort of generally amusing, which is perhaps its only intention. Some moments shone brighter than others, such as the sexual musings of Sakura’s training motorcycle, while others didn’t really do it for me, such as the ramblings Suzunoki (although her wipeout was hilarious to me, does that make me a bad person?). This is perhaps a result of the show’s surprisingly laid-back tone. For a show centered around fast vroomy motorcycles, the pacing is surprisingly slow—it doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to get anywhere. Hopefully this will be utilized to develop (if only slightly) its characters a little more, so that ensuing comedic gags will bear a little more weight.

Overall a fun, if somewhat underwhelming debut from an otherwise promising show. Bakuon!! is a beautiful production from the get-go, showcasing some gorgeous animation and character design. However, the show seems to be in the midst of an identity crisis this early on—is it about the characters or those sweet, tasty bikes? I hope for the former, because these characters could stand to exhibit a little more personality, and in turn, prove for more effective comedic material. However, this is just the show’s opening night, and there’s still plenty of time to amend these easily fixable issues.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「Voon! Voon! Ride On! (ぶぉん！ぶぉん！らいど・おん！)」 by (Hane Sakura (Reina Ueda), Rin Suzunoki (Nao Touyama), Onsa Amano (Yumi Uchiyama), Hijiri Minowa (Rikako Yamaguchi))

End Card

52 Comments

    2. Some says she thought bicycles pedals are kickstarters…and some says she’s the one who subconciously tempt Iannone to crash all the times…

      All we know is, she’s NOT the Stig: but She’s The Stig Japanese Bike-riding Niece!

      kittyraider
      Reply

  5. This is the only anime worth watching on Mondays, as Hundred and Cerberus are really bad.
    I found this one to be cute and funny.

    And looks like Kino’s Journey isn’t too original anymore! Move over, Hermes. Another talking motorcycle is here.

    Mormegil
    Reply

  6. Now, I dunno about you guys, but for me, I laughed my ass off with this one. I laughed so hard the windows broke. Heck, I laughed so hard that I still ended up laughing all the way while I slept. Even though by then my internal supply of nitrous oxide had already been depleted from excessive laughter.

    Haaaaaaaaahhh… Ehahahaha… Pfffft… Gihihihihahahaha… Kehahahahahahahah… Eheheheh… Heeeeeeeehhh… Man, I sure could use a motorcycle now 😀

    Mihashi Nishizawa
    Reply

  7. Y’know, I really love how Hane’s one of those annoying little twerps who are oh so child-like and airheaded, yet comes off as offensive and getting on your nerves? I remember kids like that, it must be so nice to be so blissfully unaware of doing some of the offensive things you do in such a happy-go-lucky manner, not realizing the significance of it all sigh… Stupid little kids… But at least it’s funny here, and I came here to giggidy-giggidy all the way! 😀

    Mihashi Nishizawa
    Reply

  8. Been curious about this series the moment the announcement came out, both because of the motorcycles and the cuties. Not to mention the K-ON feels. I’m definitely following this series. Gotta admit though, the motorcycle jokes went over my head, like all the dislike for the Suzuki brand, and JFK’s speech. I’m amazed too at Rin on account of she doesn’t look the least hurt after slamming back first into a pillar. She hit her back on a concrete pillar for crying out loud. And so far to date, Kawasaki Lime/Raimu is my favorite girl of the group. She’s got that mysterious beauty appeal on account of she doesn’t talk and keeps her face hidden. Not to mention serious riding skills.

    Zhinvu
    Reply

    2. Lol. I looked him up and the first manga that showed up on nhentai is a futanari one with a character that looks EXACTLY like Bakuon’s Amano with the white hairband and all..

      Tepoc
      Reply

  11. I heard this was K-ON on motorbikes, from the blatant title down to even the main girl Hane and her sister were exact mirror copies of Hirasawa Yui and Ui, with their parents working abroad.

    https://randomc.net/image/Bakuon!!/Bakuon!!%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2007.jpg
    But nobody told me the Stig, or rather, the Stig and Celty’s badass daughter, is starring in this.

    Anime of the Season just for that alone.

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

    1. Well, if you want to go with the K-ON motif, then Hane is the love child of Yui and Mugi.

      I like the manga– it’s always amusing, and the OVA was enjoyable, too. If the anime can deliver like the OVA did, then it should be good fun.

      It’s not deep, but not every show needs to be deep; it just needs to be entertaining. And really, all I want is to be entertained.

      s_w
      Reply

  14. Since i’m a motogp and bikes in general lover i found this really well made ahah. That photo with rainey and schwantz ç_ç, arai and simpson helmets, kawa ninja, ducati monster and multistrada, so much love, not to mention the poor yowamushi guy blown away ahah

    Jaguar
    Reply

  22. Sadly I never got on-board with the character design. One of those things I can’t put in words.

    My main turnoff for this premiere was how the characters seemed to come together without me agreeing that they should have. It seemed so sudden and simple and easy that I couldn’t really care for their relationships with each other going forward. K-On! had a much more solid premise for its club dynamic.

    Won’t be picking this one up, but maybe I’m just not the demographic.

    JekoJeko
    Reply

    1. It’s as Jig’s review said that this is more of motorcycle featuring cute girls than cute girls featuring motorcycle, the important part is the motorcycle not the girls. If you’re not interested in motorcycles, this series won’t look appealing for you.

      Imagine this as if K-On is all about the band and real music instrument practices, knowledge and trivia about music, explanation about their instrument’s brand, why they choose certain brand. This series is more educating than entertaing with girly girls doing girly activities.

      cryarc
      Reply

  23. For your information, this show is a parody of cgdct especially K-on! The author knows what he’s doing. So it will be minus 30% fun for you if you didn’t get the sarcasm.

    Heisenberg
    Reply

  26. ep 03:

    This show has fun, jokes and even an tsundre (or how it it writen)… Yeah, this mix is good. Even if you not an motorbike fan, the interaction with this girls is let alone funny to watch. i am impressed that the Motorbike companies in Real Life gave their greenlight to this. And that was a nice decision

    i just hope rin at the end, did not break her leg

    You want something different, funny and “easy pie”? you should give it a try

    Worldwidedepp
    Reply

  27. Ep 04:

    Bakuon!! meets Holly Martin (Martin of Tours)

    They plan to do an night trip to Hokkaido, someone found “Jesus” on the sidelines out pf gas and share he last gasoline with him (there this Holly Martin)…. also she get an nice present for helping him out

    also.. Onsen!!!!…

    curios? Go watch it now!!! 🙂 its funny

    Worldwidedepp
    Reply

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