Jet Girls has its first great competition, and officially introduces two new pairings who will enter the fray soon
Episode four picks up at the start of the race between Team Kandagawa (Misa/Rin) and The Unkai Surfers (Jennifer/Emily). The winner receives a dolphin keychain. Totally worth it.
(Credit to Ares02 for this stitch)
A sub-plot of this episode are two other teams analyzing the matches. The first of which being the gyaro pairing from episode one. Their gimmick appears to be Yuzu (on the left) making very suggestive phrases to Manatsu who blushes in embarrassment. It’s cute.
The second introduction is of the twin tailed idol girls seen on stage in episode one. They appear to have a symbiotic relationship that enables them to speak in unison. This would be entirely creepy if they weren’t 1) obvious lesbians and 2) almost always shown in skimpy clothing.
Back to the race – Misa lands the first critical hit of the match, obliterating Emily’s clothing
Not to be outdone, Jennifer hits Kandagawa right back with a shot from her Bazooka, partially stripping Rin’s outfit
Misa doesn’t take too kindly to her partner taking damage and gets payback with a pinpoint shot on Jennifer
It’s impressive that none of the competitors are discouraged after sustaining a blow. They tend to quickly shrug off damage and continue to race in spite of any potential setbacks. This is what high level competitive sports are all about.
Jennifer ditches her bazooka after running out of ammo – a consequence of using a weapon with high power but limited ammunition rounds. This is a smart move from her to increase the speed of her team.
After this very welcome distraction from the match, we return to a thrilling conclusion. Misa has a single bullet left in her gun. Connect with a shot and they win. Miss and they lose.
Success! First win of the season for Team Kandagawa; Misa is definitely the MVP of the competition.
adorable
the Unkai Surfers are humble in defeat, exchanging compliments with Kandagawa.
Next Episode Preview:
What a tease. I want to take the obvious bait and believe we’re getting yuri action in episode five.
The match between Unkai and Kandagawa was surprisingly good. We saw two teams with contrasting styles (one focused on power, the other precision) with the winner having to use a strategic measure to pull out the victory. Rather than rely entirely on the announcers to direct the action, two rival groups provided input on the events giving the match better flow than in episode two. For the first time we saw Rin and Misa fully trust in each other as partners, in no doubt a result of the continuous progression in their relationship outside of competition, resulting in the first of what is sure to be many victories together. The animation during the races is still an issue – hard to overlook cheap CGI – but the variety of strategic measures used and a satisfying match resolution helped to compensate for an often ugly aesthetic. Not shown in the review are several first person shots where the viewer gains the perspective of the Jet Rider, making it easier to immerse oneself in the action. This is probably done in effort to entice to viewer to purchase the game. I’d say its fairly effective.
On the downside, for the second week in a row a clear view of nudity was obscured by steam and poor camera focus. While it may not be accurate to call this entirely censorship (we can still barely make out the appearance of nipples) there isn’t any reason for the blur other than to rein in the explicit fanservice, perhaps in effort of making the viewer have something to look forward to in a blu ray release. Not a great sign for near-future episodes insofar as raw nudity, but there’s still a lot to look forward to here.
Episode five is titled “Pop Idol Racers”, clearly setting up a match between the lesbian idol duo. Here’s hoping that preview is more than a fake out.
