Kimizero – 02 – Enjoying the Ride

Runa is characteristically full speed ahead in establishing her new relationship with Ryuuto by hanging around and talking to him at every opportunity. But old habits die hard, and both the discouraging comments from his friends and dirty looks from other classmates have him feeling anxious.

He’s simply not used to this level of attention, and still isn’t 100% sure his friends aren’t right about Runa simply dating him as a joke. In order to minimize the stares, he asks if they can keep their relationship a secret at school. Runa takes this to mean he wants to see her outside of school, so a date it is!

The prospect of even taking a girl out on a date, let alone someone like Runa, adds to his anxiety as he frantically googles what to do. But when Runa video chats with him, it puts him more at ease. He decides to let her take the lead and do whatever it is she finds fun. Runa’s never been on that kind of date.

That Saturday, Runa takes him up on that, as her idea of a good time is shopping for cute outfits, accessories, cosmetics, and consumables. That said, as the date progresses she asks him if this is even that fun for him, or if he’s bored. But Ryuuto isn’t bored. Watching Runa look so happy makes him happy.

The next day, the day Runa said she’d have plans, his morning text to her goes unread most of the day, and Ryuuto’s anxiety blends with suspicion, paranoia, and possessiveness. He becomes convinced that this is it, and when he gets a text from her asking him to meet her in the park, he believes it’s so she can dump him.

Of course, that doesn’t happen. This is only the second episode! No, she’s just too excited to delay giving him a gift: a limited edition phone case that matches hers. Ryuuto is so touched and relieved that he actually tears up. Runa is surprised it means so much to him, but is also touched.

While they walk, Ryuuto chalks up his awkwardness with girls to the fact he once asked out his desk neighbor Kurose in his first year of middle school. He thought she felt the same way about him, but turns out she only thought of him as a good friend. Tale as old as time!

Runa doesn’t mock Ryuuto’s story; on the contrary, she’s glad he was turned down because it meant they could go out. When Ryuuto says middle school romances don’t last, Runa says her parents met and fell in love in middle school, then married after high school.

When a blue limited edition Toyota Supra zooms by and Runa notes how cool it is, Ryuuto goes off on an extremely rapid-fire and detailed explanation of how sports cars differ from normal cars. But while it’s a lot of information at once, it gets Runa thinking, and also gets her to open up more.

She wonders if she’s like a sports car, rushing forward as fast as she can to catch up to her parents and become an adult. But despite all her experiences, a lasting relationship has eluded her. We also learn her parents eventually divorced, so perhaps she hopes to succeed where they failed?

While Runa compares herself to a sports car as simply a means to an end, Ryuuto tells her that sports cars aren’t just about getting somewhere fast. They’re built to make the drive, the journey itself fun. From what he’s seen, Runa has been making the most of her life and sees no reason why she should change as long as she’s having fun.

With that, she challenges him to a race to the station. He can’t quite keep up with her pace, either then or in general, but he’s slowly getting there, and more importantly, learning more about the person he fell for. I’m also glad we got a scene of Runa talking to Nicole on the phone about how Ryuuto just “feels right”. We’ll see if the sudden transfer of his first crush Kurose Maria to his class throws a wrench in the works!

Heavenly Delusion – 03 – Sister’s Keeper

Five years ago in 2034 (a decade after the “calamity”), a girl named Takehaya Kiriko did indeed race electric go-karts in Asakusa as the stoner commune resident recalled. She was on a team led by Inazaki Robin, and lived with her little brother Haruki in a makeshift orphanage with other kids.

Haruki admired Robin, who we first meet rather violently curb-stomping two men threatening him. He also taught him not to look in the eyes of his opponents, but instead focus on their collar and the ground under one’s own feet. In a brief scene, we also see that Kiriko and the mysterious “Doc” seem to have some kind of relationship.

It’s a hard-scrabble existence, but compared to the present-day Kiruko considered that time to be akin to heaven. When Kiriko was cold at night, she was about to climb into Haruki’s bed, but an alarm for a man-eater sounds, and Haruki gets up and follows Robin (against Robin’s wishes). Little did he know that would be their last night together.

As much as Robin (and Kiriko) want to keep him out of danger, Haruki is determined to keep his sister and friends safe and make himself useful to Robin. He fashions his own crossbow, and before Kiriko’s next race he surveys the area from a vantage point.

He finds a man-eater with cloaking ability in the arcade where there are no cameras set up, and when he can’t get anyone’s attention, decides to take care of it himself. Only his pea-shooter isn’t enough against its thick hide, and when he stabs it in the “face” it grabs him and starts to suck him in.

Kiriko takes the lead in the race, and is the first to reach the arcade, where she finds a horrifying scene. She crashes her kart into the man-eater, then tears Haruki free, but his arms and legs are already gone. Kiriko holds Haruki’s body and cries for help as his life fades.

After that, things are fuzzy for Haruki, who is briefly conscious for his sister’s embrace. We get flashes of his life with her before the orphanage when it was just the two of them, and during some of the happier times thereafter. These scenes are full of nostalgia, longing, and melancholy, for they are times that will never be again.

While this is going on, the “Doc”, who one of Haruki’s friends said was doing human experimentation, seems to be doing just that to Haruki, sawing off the top of his head in a gruesome, unsanctioned operation of his own design.

After one last vision of the last time he was with his sister, where the arcade and everything around them is blood red and Kiriko walks away from him, Haruki comes to in a hospital bed…and finds himself in Kiriko’s body. Whether she had a traumatic brain injury that meant certain death, or she volunteered to donate her body to her brother, Kiriko is gone.

The other doctors talk as if it’s still Kiriko in that bed, and that due to some kind of mental break she now believes she’s the little brother she lost to the man-eater. But our omniscient POV of the operation suggests that “Doc” really did put Haruki’s brain in Kiriko’s body.

The length of Haruki’s recovery is such that by the time he can walk around, everything has changed in Asakusa. The Doc skipped town, while Robin is rumored to have either been murdered or disappeared. Haruki decides to believe he’s not dead, and longs to find both him and the Doc for answers.

Haruki assumed the name Kiruko (an apparent merging of his and his sister’s names) and began working on his own as a handyman and bodyguard-for-hire thereafter, which led to him to meeting Maru. Having heard all of this, Maru still can’t deny his attraction to Kiruko, and laments he’d never be able to find a girl with whom he gets along so well.

But now Maru and we know the truth, and what drives Kiruko—who I’ll refer to with they/them pronouns going forward. The thus far peaceful ferry ride back to Tokyo is interrupted by the arrival of another man-eater, this time resembling a fish with many human arm-like appendages. After the credits we get a little scene in “Heaven” where Kona is drawing a baby, and Kuku reports she’s seen a real baby, only “without a face”, which she believes to be normal.

It dawns on me that the drawings Kona is drawing seemingly from out of his imagination (like the fish with arms) are the man-eaters in the outside world. Is this simply a form of ESP, or is he actually conjuring these monsters through the drawings? It’s just one of many answers I’m yearning for as Kiruko and Maru hopefully have better luck finding “Heaven”.

Appare-Ranman! – 13 (Fin) – Crossing the Finish in Style

It’s Final Boss time, and the battle with Gil takes on a decidedly Final Fantasy flavor, in no small part due to everyone’s outrageous costumes and the fact that Gil remains one tough customer even outnumbered nine to one. There’s a lot of bullet-dodging and slicing and Xialian and Al hitting nothing but the air around the speedy Gil, but thanks to a well-placed firecracker Gil is sufficiently softened up for a final showdown with Dylan and TJ, the latter finally revealing his steely gaze!

While the Thousand Three go at it, the others chase down the runaway train packed with explosives headed to Chicago. Al and Xialian leap aboard and take out the guards, but the train has no brakes and Al can’t break Sofia’s chain. Their only hope is for Appare’s ramshackle boat-car to take a position in front of the train and give his hybrid engine everything it’s got, slowing down and stopping the train just in time to avert disaster.

Like the anachronistic outfits and music, you just have to suspend disbelief in terms of physics. If people can dodge and slice bullets, it’s not a stretch for a car to stop a train without derailing it. Dylan and TJ end up defeating Gil but spare his life, giving him to the police like their Claudia would have wanted. Two months later the race is back in operation, and Appare & Co. narrowly beat out Xialian, Al, Dylan and TJ with a thrilling photo-finish that involves going airborne in the final corner.

With the race won, the racers go their separate ways. Kosame is all ready to return to Japan, leaving Appare and Hototo in NYC, but at the last second decides to simply send a letter instead. When Appare does the rom-com last-minute chase for his love and sees the ship has already sailed, he gives a very uncharacteristically heartwarming monologue about how building an airplane and moon rocket won’t be as much fun without Kosame…only for Kosame to sneak up behind him, having never left.

Back in Japan Kosame and Appare’s relations learn that not only are they okay, but thriving in America. All’s well that ends well, and so ends a wonderfully quirky fun adventure series that captured both the thrill of a race on a grand stage of sprawling America and the way the racers grew into a family that banded together to defeat the super-charismatic Big Bad. It truly was…[puts on anachronistic sunglasses]…a gas.

Appare-Ranman! – 12 – Showdown at Stone Hill

Holed up in a ghost town chapel, Gil once again demonstrates how ridiculously EEEEEEvil he is by forcing two of his three hostages to shoot the other if they want to go free, then shooting the “winner” in the back anyway. That leaves Sofia as his only hostage, warning her he’s the only thing standing between her and his men making sport of her. Meanwhile, the cars are all repaired thanks to a sharing of resources and skills.

The race as it was has been postponed, and the rules have changed: the ten of them vow to go into Stone Hill, rescue Sofia and take Gil out come hell or high water, which means they’re all on the same team until that’s all been done. Kosame’s wound is still tender but he decides to join the others, but it won’t be easy: Gill has one hundred men in that ghost town.

Even so, there’s never any doubt that the numbers advantage would be irrelevant, especially with two of the Thousand Three as the vanguard. For some reason Gil has his hundred men scattered randomly throughout the town, or his numbers would have worked a little better for him. Instead, the Ten Braves split up into complementary pairs and fight smaller groups of Gil’s men. Chase is the first to reach the chapel after pretending to be shot dead.

Everyone else gets their chance to shine, although it’s clear Al Lyon is the worst of the fighters in both firepower and good judgment. He allows Gil’s one woman fighter to goad him into charging her and almost gets killed. Thankfully that leads to an absolutely badass martial arts contest between Xialian and Gil’s henchwoman, a bout that’s sharp, focused, and simply fantastic fun to watch.

Appare has to use his trump card (an electrified net gun) early and Kosame’s wound reoopens, but most of the henchmen are dealt with by the time Chase sends up a flare, indicating where the others should head. But when they hear gunshots, they fear the worst as Gil learns the ransom is fake. He ordered his men to “slaughter” the racers, and the fact they didn’t obey him makes him extremely cranky. Hopefully the climactic rematch will go a little better for the good guys!

Appare-Ranman! – 11 – A Break in the Clouds

The Bad Brothers managed to survive having a train car derail on top of them, meaning they have the one working car with which to rush Kosame to the hospital. The bullet is removed and bleeding stopped; all that’s left is for him to wake up, but the doctor cannot say when or even if he will.

Appare simply cannot fathom why Kosame lunged in front of him to take the bullet; it defies all logic to him. But with Kosame possibly out of the picture, Appare also loses all will to fix his car or continue the race. Declaring himself useless, he wanders the town, unsure what to do.

Al knows what he must do: get his car fixed at all costs so he can rescue Sofia. Typical youthful hot-headedness; he does remember how Gil utterly owned everyone’s asses, right? No, it will take a plan, not mere passion, to defeat Gil. Also brakes. Gotta be able to stop your car!

Hototo stays by his savior’s bedside, while Dylan and TJ recount their rivalry over the heart of Claudia, which ended for TJ when she chose Dylan. It only takes a couple of stills to learn these two were once friends and partners in noble crime.

As clouds gather and rain starts to fall in sheets, Appare’s mask of numbness falls away, and he bawls like he’s never bawled before. The blood on his clothes washes away, and then Hototo locates him and tells him to come back to the hospital.

There, Appare finds Kosame with a cloth over his head…but then Kosame, who has woken up, blows the cloth off his face. The preview was a complete fake-out! I assumed the show wouldn’t go so far as to ax him permanently. While getting his ability to use his sword marked the end of a character arc for him, he I still want to see him return home to his family someday.

Thanks to modern medicine, he can. Kosame tells Appare that the new idea of blood transfusion defied Gil’s will to kill him. They’ll defy him again, but not alone. The drivers meet to discuss how dire the situation is, but the clouds part just as Appare returns, back to his old self.

He tells Al he’ll help him fix his car (including making him new brakes) and they’ll get across the Missouri no matter what. GM exec Seth Carter decides to deploy his mechanics to assist everyone, as teams don’t matter right now. This is about saving the hostages and foiling Gil’s attempts to stop the race—their race.

Appare-Ranman! – 10 – Snakes on a Train

Their respite over, it’s time for the racers to get back to work, this time racing a train out of Nebraska with Big Boss hoping to prove the era of the automobile has come. Richard is Sofia’s companion aboard the train, and every moment they chat is skin-crawling, because we know Richard is Gil T. Cigar just waiting to strike like the snake he is, and Sofia has no idea, thinking she’s pegged “Richard” as too kind to stay in the race.

When the train baron calls Gil back to his ornate caboose to lecture him like an employee, Gil casually throws him and his chair out the side of the train before returning to the car and telling Sofia her prayer for a safe race won’t be answered. With that, his henchmen rise up from among the passengers and slither through the train, killing the crew and marshals, tossing bombs, and taking hostages.

Gil brings the train to a stop on the bridge over the Missouri River, then runs out to confront the racers he’s blocked. He runs towards them in a fake panic as “Richard”, but Dylan & Co. soon realize something’s not right. They’re too late, as Gil reveals who he is and produces Sofia’s hat, stained with blood, to indicate his cruel intentions.

Nobody, not even TJ and Dylan, can hang with Gil long in a fight. His demands are simple: he wants the 1.51 million in prize money for the winner of the race, and he’ll let the hostages on the train go. Chances are even if they get him the cash, more if not all of them will die anyway; we’re dealing with a butcher, after all. When Appare tries to voice his outrage at Gil’s villainy, Gil shoots him—but it’s Kosame who takes the bullet.

After trashing all of the cars, Gil and his crew take off on the train. Al chases after Sofia in vain. Xialian tries to stop the bleeding, and Appare tries to start his car, but both fail, and a very wan Kosame passes out after declaring proudly that he’s glad his buddy is okay.

You could scarcely ask for a more extreme shift in mood and stakes than from last week’s joyful rest episode to now, when Kosame may be dead, Sofia is a hostage, and the racers have nothing to drive. But like Kosame, I’ll put my faith in Appare: surely he can use parts of all the damaged cars to build something that can get them moving again.

Appare-Ranman! – 09 – Taking a Load Off

The car companies decide that despite the threat of Gil, the race will go on. The route to the next supply point is adjusted for the safety of the race staff. That means all of the racers have a day off, and this episode is all about how they spend that day, which means it’s all about Appare-Ranman’s colorful cast of characters.

This episode features a formidable number of character pairings and groupings, from Hototo an Dylan to Appare and former engineer Seth Carter to Hototo and the Bad Brothers. Appare spends much of the day lost in deep calculations about his hybrid drive, but everyone else basically kicks back.

We learn a lot of little details during this slice-of-life excursion: TJ and Al have a drinking contest, but Sofia easily drinks both of them under the table. Xialian and Kosame spar, and the former brings up how her father taught her kung fu to protect herself. Little things here and there that bring the ensemble cast to life.

Naturally there’s a fair amount of comedy in the episode, from the lost-in-thought Appare collecting objects until he’s riding on a donkey’s back in a barber’s smock with display pennants and a ragdoll hanging from him and his foot in a bucket.

The donkey eventually bucks him straight into a building occupied by one Thomas Edison. There’s even a hot springs session with the whole gang, and Kosame and Appare learn about American modesty the hard way. Sofia discusses Al with Xialian while the boys play an increasingly spirited game of jan-ken-pon.

It’s all a lot of fun despite the fact there’s no racing, and by sunrise the next day Appare’s hybrid system is in good working order, such that he deems the “real race” about to begin. But as Sofia boards the train that will follow the route of the race, she’s accompanied by Richard Riesman, whom we already know to be the real villainous Gil. No matter how much liquor Sofia can hold, that can’t be good!

Appare-Ranman! – 08 – Cutting Through the Past

Appare, Xialian and Al leave Eli, Nevada at dawn in pursuit of the lead pack, only to find them massacred on the road. Only Rich Riesman survives, and describes the bandits as having snake tattoos. Hototo, still seeking revenge for his father’s death after the other Gil turned out to be an impostor, tracks the bandits’ horses to a post town.

At the poor, dusty, remote town, no one is in the mood to talk except those folk who bear snake tattoos—including the sheriff. A standoff ensues, but when the time comes to fight, Kosame freezes up—again—unable to unsheathe his katana. The others are taken away to be hung at sundown, while Kosame is allowed to go free; marked as a coward not worth killing.

The initially surly bartender invites Kosame back into her tavern for a whiskey, sensing there’s more to him than plain cowardice. He tells her the story of a cold winter’s night when he was a child powerless to protect his mother from a bandit’s blade. The chill from that night has kept his blade stuck in its sheath ever since, but the bartender tells him he shouldn’t regret his inaction back then—he was just a kid—and in any case no one can change the past

Bouyed by the bartender’s words, Kosame spends the rest of the day training aggressively for the moment his sword must not fail to come out of the sheath: when he approaches the gallows where his friends are about to be hanged. It’s a beautifully-lit and colored scene with all the requisite western panache as he emerges from the rolling dust, one man with two swords against many men with guns.

For the first time, Appare, Hototo, Xialian and Al witness Kosame’s true swordsmanship as he first slices the apparition of the bandit who killed his mother, then proceeds to dodge bullets and cut the ones he can’t in half until the enemy has been defeated and his friends are safe. Hototo’s opinion of Kosame immediately shifts, while Kosame insists kids like him simply be kids and let adults protect him.

As the five stroll into the sunset to rejoin the race, Richard Riesman, who presumably went ahead to Denver to seek help, is instead revealed as the true Gil T. Cigar, meaning that a Appare’s completed hybrid system and driving skills won’t be enough to survive this race. They may need to call upon Kosame’s steel again, but now that he’s shaken off the winter frost, they’ll be able to rely on that steel.

Appare-Ranman! – 07 – People Aren’t Machines

From what I gather, Gil’s car catches up to the others, mows through the debris, and detonates rocks in the valley, forcing everyone else to take a detour. But thanks to some highly questionable editing we’re shown events out of order, and in some cases more than once, adding needless confusion to the sequence.

Appare’s car manages to make it through the explosion only to break down; eventually Xialian and Al either catch up to them or backtrack and offer to take turns towing him. Neither want an easy win, which leaving Appare behind would cause.

They end up camping for the night, with Appare proving useless at hunting, fishing, and cooking. Kosame dreams of his mother being murdered protecting him and wakes up screaming. Appare is starting to act more human as he realizes people aren’t engines driven merely by logic and science.

By the time the three drivers make it to Eli, Nevada, Gil has already been their eight hours and is ready to go, but they block him. Hototo wants answers about what happened to his father.

When the crowd starts to stone him, Appare, Xialian, Al, and even Sophia shield him with their bodies. Finally, Gil removes his mask and speaks, revealing he and his big brother were merely impersonating Gil, which means they had nothing to do with Hototo’s dad.

 

 

Appare-Ranman! – 06 – Outside the Box

At the start of the rave, favorites Dylan, TJ and Al are in the front, with Appare’s thrown-together contraption just barely keeping up with the second group of Xialian and Richard Riesman. Al stops at a railroad crossing, but daredevils Dylan and TJ jump the track a moment before the train crosses, showing they’re willing to put their lives on the line for this race. Since they’re the first into the first supply town of Lancaster, they’ll be the first allowed to leave.

As teams rest and resupply, Al finds himself feeling discouraged and insecure. He wonders if it would be better for Sofia to go ahead by train and meet him in New York, since the race will only get hairier.

Sofia reminds him that he’s not supposed to be putting his life on the line for the race; he has a future with her and the company to think of. After Kosame spars with Al (and continues to exhibit a kind of “block” keeping him from his best swordsmanship) he buys Appare, Hototo and Xialian a nice dinner.

Appare’s team is scheduled for a 12:07 am departure from Lancaster, but Hototo, having seen Gil’s henchmen all over town, decides to split off in order to “take care of something.” He overhears Gil’s team planning to sabotage the entrance to Death Valley via the Valley of Despair and dynamite the entrance behind them.

Hototo doesn’t do a great job of staying hidden, and one of those henchmen finds him. They tie him up and stuff him in a box. When the start time arrives, Appare pretends the car needs more work to buy Kosame more time to find Hototo.

Hototo finally breaks out of his box prison by the side of the road and runs back into town to reunite with Kosame. Appare betrays a brief smile at the sight of their return, and off they go. Fortunately, all the cars that left ahead of them were stopped in their tracks by Gil’s men blocking the entrance with junk, so the delay doesn’t hurt them.

Appare is confident his newly “reborn” engine, improved during the downtime in Lancaster, can catch up to the group, overcome the junk and the dynamite, and remain in the running for the win. He’s tired of relying on shortcuts; he wants to win with his machine, not in spite of it, or all of this is for nothing.

Appare-Ranman! – 05 – Jockeying for Position

Kosame gathers up a sleeping Appare and Hototo for the pre-race banquet, where they are immediately turned away for not abiding by the dress code—something Xialian is doing thanks to her classy new dress. The code suddenly becomes more flexible when Thousand Three member TJ arrives in an outfit even more outlandish than Appare’s, carrying a turntable boombox playing anachronistic music.

Thanks to TJ the others gain entry (once Kosame puts on a necktie), and we soon learn that when it comes to fashion, Thousand Three members are extremely extra, judging by the arrival of the ruthless Gil and his lieutenant Chase. Hototo only came in order to ask Dylan about a snake tattoo. Dylan tells him it’s worn by Gil’s henchmen, but suggests that if he wants revenge (and not to die), he’ll have to be patient.

There are introductions of the B.I.G. BOSS car companies, the race cars, and their drivers (Kosame’s name is mispronounced and they’re given number 0), and then the pre-race lottery for pole position begins. TJ breaks up the ceremony by shooting the raffle box and declaring pole position for himself, which leads Dylan to challenge him. That sparks a very weird pistol duel, complete with unlimited ammo and acrobatic bullet-dodging moves.

The other drivers hash it out with duels ranging from kicking  to cucumber slicing. It’s all a little nutty and arbitrary, and it’s a miracle not one person was shot or even wounded by all the stray gunfire (though if the show takes such liberties with tech and fashion, it tracks that it doesn’t have a problem taking them with normal human ability and gun lethality as well).

That brings us to the next day and the start of the race, which we first saw in the first episode back in April. After five episodes of setup, the race has finally begun, and Appare has a steam-powered car in a race that favors gasoline-powered cars. No matter; he declares the car will never be finished because it will always be evolving, including during the race.

With Hototo as a guide and Kosame as…er, captain, they’ll no doubt take routes and make moves other racers are either too afraid or too sane—or both—to attempt. But even as the racers speed off into the wild, there are conspiratorial elements committed to turning the race into a “tragedy”.

Appare-Ranman! – 04 – Win With Something Else

While working diligently at the diner, Kosame learns how expensive automobiles are, and gets the idea to simply sell the car they won from Al Lyon. Even with just his half share he’s sure he can book passage back home. Alas, Appare has already dissected the BNW down to the last bolt, and is already preparing to integrate its components into his custom racer.

Meanwhile, Xialian’s boss turns her down simply because “women don’t race.” She just wants a chance to prove she’s capable, and thanks to getting into a fight with lead driver David, the team owner decides to allow an informal race before practice Wednesday. If Xialian loses, she’s fired.

The owner also lends Xialian the team’s infamous Number 0 car, which has engine gremlins so bad it doesn’t even make it to Appare’s garage. The odds are certainly stacked against her, but all the elements are present for an vital upset against the sexist good-old-boy club of racing.

When Xialian arrives pushing Number 0, laughing in the face of those odds, Appare recommends giving it acceleration mods so she can easily win the race, but she just wants it serviced normally. Appare, an engineer first and driver second, doesn’t see the point, but he has Al Lyon’s team work on the car.

Then he shows that while he’s not a driver first, he knows what it means to drive, and win, despite not having the best or fastest car. In the previous episode he used his technical know-how and the terrain. With no time for prototypes, he must visualize test driving his racer in his head, and Xialian follows along until the two are steering and shifting in unison.

Xialian takes the creatively-delivered advice to heart on the day of the race. David has his usual sexist comments ready, but she’s the one who gets of to a better start, which the men chalk up to her lighter weight. That may be the case, but no matter the gender a driver must exploit every advantage.

As Kosame, Hototo, Al and Sofia watch and cheer for Xialian, she lets David maintain a slim lead without letting him pull away. Since she started ahead of him, he wore his tires out aggressively driving to take that nominal lead. That puts her in his draft, so his car is displacing air hers doesn’t have to, lessening her fuel consumption and tire wear.

Xialian re-takes the lead and David can’t get it back, so on the last corner he makes contact with her car in order to take the lead. Her car spins, but she never loses control, keeping her foot on the gas and keeping the car out of the wall.

At the end, David is ready to celebrate his win while Xialian is ready to slug him. But to her shock, it’s the owner whose fist reaches David’s face first. He saw exactly what he did, and it nearly got two of his cars wrecked in an exhibition race.

Meanwhile, he also saw how Xialian handled herself, both during the race and when David hit her, and he’s impressed. His “hate the culture, not the owner” stance regarding a woman pro racer is still a cop-out, but he won’t deny she’s a true racer. He also decides to lend her Number 0 for the Trans American Race, while the similarly impressed mechanics offer to help outfit the car for cross-country racing.

The scenes in which Dylan and his ambitious business friend discuss the players in the upcoming race, and in which the press only has time for one hasty photo of Kosame shielding his eyes from the camera flash, feel out of place at the end of this episode, and more like a prologue of the next.

Nevertheless, Appare-Ranman! emerges from its three-month hiatus having not skipped a beat. It was cool to see two conventional race cars go at it on a track, and I’m glad Xialian’s hard work paid off. Appare was mostly his usual passive self, but his “mind-driving” session with Xialian was beautiful. It looks like we’ll be out of L.A. and on the road soon!

Appare-Ranman! – 02 – Even if the World Won’t Allow It

Note: Due to covid-19 the broadcasts of Appare-Ranman after the third episode have been delayed indefinitely. We’ll be reviewing future episodes if and when they become available.

It dawns on Kosame that returning to Japan (something he’d very much like to do) is no easy matter, and could take as much as “ten years of toil” to manage. Fortunately, his fighting skills are readily street-applicable skill than Appare—his fighting skills—and Appare puts him to work showing them off.

Then Appare picks up a flyer for the Trans-America Wild Race and stumbles upon the speedway where state-of-the-art driving machines are pitted against one another. While drivers like Dylan enjoy celebrity status, “the cars are the stars” here. It dawns on Appare he’s exactly where he needs to be: in a position to do something people say can’t be done. He’s going to enter the race and he’s going to win it.

A win will net him a cool 1.51 million dollars—them, if Kosame sticks by his side in this crazy venture. As they sit in an anachronisitc Art Deco diner(!) the samurai can’t deny that his share of the purse could solve many of his problems—his fiancee won’t wait ten years!—but he’s still skeptical, and rightfully so. Appare may have a dream, but they both just got there, and barely earn enough at the moment for food. They’re staying in a storeroom for free, and have no budget for a race car, let alone one that can beat the big manufacturers.

But absent a viable alternative (and fearful of FOMO), Kosame follows Appare, who breaks into the racetrack that night to check out the machinery. There they encounter Jing Xialian is already racing there, and almost accidentally runs a fearless Appare over. She damages the car—whih isn’t strictly hers—and when Kosame approaches her she exhibits her own martial arts prowess. In an effort to de-escalate, Kosame lets himself get hit by her kick.

As he recovers in the garage, Appare and Kosame learn more of Xialian’s story: she’s always loved cars and racing and joined the team as a chore girl. She’s good enough to race herself, but due to the sexism of the time she’s told she can’t be, and has come to believe it. Someone like Appare is clearly a good influence, as he doesn’t let the world tell him his limits, and doesn’t see why she should either. If you can do it, do it; don’t worry about the world’s rules. It’s hard to argue with him considering how far that attitude has gotten him so far.

Xialian’s story is not a particularly original one, but she’s another fun, colorful character I’m compelled to root for, even if she becomes Appare’s competitor in the race. Then there’s the celebrity driver Dylan, who saves Appare and Kosame when the latter is trying to help a young Native American kid from a group of racists. Notably, Kosame cannot physically draw his katana due to PTSD from a bloody incident in his past, so he needs the save. Dylan may well only be intervening because his peace is being disturbed.

There’s a lot of disbelief to suspend in Appare-Ranman from the total lack of language barriers, to the anything-goes dress code and futuristic technology/architecture. But once you let all that go, it’s a tremendously entertaining ride that’s just getting started. It’s just a shame we won’t be able to see much more of it due to delays. I just know I’ll definitely be tuned in when it returns.