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「私のカブ」 (Watashi no Cub)
“My Cub”
THE RACING HORSE & THE CAT
If Reiko is like a racing horse wearing blinkers. Koguma is like your neighbor’s fat cat that likes to stroll around town getting treats from all the houses she passes by. All cats, with their wide eyes and nonchalant attitudes, are going somewhere (God only knows where) but regardless of their destination what they enjoy the most is to look around. Maybe I am a hikikomori who spends way too much time following and observing her cat around the house, but who knows right.
The juxtaposition of behavior between our two main protagonists was a nice play on the sequence of episodes. However what really caught my attention and what I suppose was the main theme addressed on this episode was the independence of thought displayed by Koguma. Which only added to the list of things that make her an unusual character in the context of Japanese society.
A RIDER’S SOUL
A school trip is announced and Koguma is actually looking forward to this. The foods displayed on the pamphlet are a promise of indulgence after a hard working summer. But alas, she wakes up to a fever on the fateful day of the trip and calls in to cancel. And because life can sometimes be a huge irony her temperature goes down after an hour or so. Enough time that she has missed the bus. Feeling frustrated she goes outside of her apartment complex and kicks a rock. This rock reaches her cub and that’s when she makes the decision. No overthinking about whether or not to do it.
She calls Reiko who even tries to walk her out of it saying “it sounds dangerous, you probably shouldn’t (…) if I tell you to stay put, would you listen?” which brings out one of the most iconic answers of all time “hmm… Maybe next time I’ll listen”. Koguma is aware that what she’s about to do goes against school regulations and that she can get in trouble because of that. But now she has experience, a motorbike license and her cub has been slightly upgraded. So Koguma wears her gym uniform—because at least she’s following that rule—works out her route and off she goes.
A BIG ADVENTURE
This willingness to follow a feeling regardless of the consequences shows an independence that I hadn’t seen coming. But I reckon this is one of the unspoken values of a rider’s soul: independence and a bit of rebellion. The entire journey makes it a point to emphasize how Koguma does things at her own pace. How she notices houses, the ocean, the surfers, and the mountains. Kogu’s adventure is not about the treasure, it’s about the journey itself. Insert a little inside joke from last week’s episode. After driving to the parking area at the foot of Mt. Fuji, Koguma cheekely looks up and says “I’ll let you off with just this much today” to the source of Reiko’s frustration.
Other than this main theme, I ought to mention details I thought complemented this episode very much: the conversation about the highway; the class noticing Koguma’s arrival and part of me being like “yeah, she’s cool I know, took you all long enough”; sneaking away together; the fact that Reiko has a helmet with her at all times; the girls driving together for the first time and the overall friendship moments shared between them. Super Cub marketing was a bit heavy on this one, but didn’t really bother me at all. What keeps bothering me is the CGI—something I never mentioned before—it really puts me off. I guess it cuts costs for production. But I would’ve loved if the driving scenes weren’t though *insert a childish pout*.
As always, many thanks for reading and I’ll be down in the comment section! Have a lovely day wherever you may be~
Full-length images: 36.
There’s definitely more to Super Cub than meets the eye. I’m curious to know if you’ve had a chance to read this blogger? Their writing and insight is next level. I certainly learnt things from them that I wasn’t expecting about Super Cub, especially about things like visual metaphors and comparisons. I suppose this is the joy of reading different posts about the series!
Hello there! Writing reviews for me is a very personal process and what makes it unique is how each person interprets it. So in all good heart I end up not actively searching for other people’s reviews about the same things I’m writing!
I’m glad to hear that ٩(◕‿◕)۶
From Hokuto to Kamakura, it costs about 4100 yen and 3.5-4 hours by train. Taking the train would’ve taken the same time, but safer than riding a moped for 100 miles. The episode was definitely an advertisement for the Super Cub.
“It sounds dangerous, you probably shouldn’t”. Reiko, you’re not wrong but after last week you’re definitely not one to talk. Especially as it turns out her bike’s basically a write off.
I liked Koguma’s gradual opening up, enthusiasm and growing confidence, the fact she was actually looking forward to something. The talk about cub replacement parts and reliability was a bit heavy handed. This series continues to be a mix of things I quite like and pet peeves.
I don’t have any issues with them talking about the Cub and its positives. To me, it felt like the natural flow of the conversation among enthusiasts. It’s just the odd decisions they make to emphasize the Cub’s usage. Let’s hope the story doesn’t take them to Okinawa by using a flying Cub.
@Ninin “It sounds dangerous, you probably shouldn’t”. Reiko, you’re not wrong but after last week you’re definitely not one to talk. Especially as it turns out her bike’s basically a write off.
@Bakapooru Let’s hope the story doesn’t take them to Okinawa by using a flying Cub.
Omg, you guys literally made me laugh out loud. I shouldn’t have been drinking hot tea while reading these hahahah.
Disappointed by the latter half where it felt like they were reading bits and pieces out of the Super Cub catalog or something.
I hope they don’t repeat that, but it seems unlikely.
With the show being sponsored by Honda I think these talks will continue to pop up every now and then.
It bothers me, too. Unfortunately, the studio faces multiple problems:
First, as you say, it is an anime with a limited budget. Still, this one does some of it well — especially the wheels when the cub is moving.
Second, is the framerate, which is commonly 12 frames per second for the foreground, less for the background. This is noticeable at about 30 seconds into the episode, where Koguma turns right. Each frame is drawn very accurately, but the judder is obvious.
Third, each frame is drawn very accurately. Yeah, that’s a problem. 36km/h is 10 meters per second, or almost 1 meter per frame. Too much of the motion stutters because successive frames are duplicated. What’s missing is the motion blur we see when pausing or watching non-animated video in slow motion. There are solutions to add motion blur but…
Fourth, again, is ten out of ten for accuracy. All the vehicles are drawn well, but they and the scenes move too smoothly.
I sit watching it thinking: scale the frames up a bit, turn them a bit, crop them to size. It doesn’t matter if it’s blurred because we expect motion blur. Still, they do a good job with some of the backgrounds, especially the bus scenes, and Koguma climbing the hills.
Random thought
If only the piano was playing chopsticks when Koguma crossed the Shonan Ohashi Bridge.
Yes, sometimes CGI are to perfect. Perhaps an Filter here can help them out