LogFAQs > #969478806

24. Super Cub
https://myanimelist.net/anime/40685/Super_Cub
Spring 2021 (12 episodes)
My Score: 9/10, MAL Score: 7.43/10
Best Character: Koguma

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q74V9Ud_Iok
(Couldnt find OP or ED, linked full OP song)

Premise: Koguma is a girl who feels like she has nothing. No parents, no friends, and no hobbies. Then one day she decides to buy a Super Cub motor scooter, and her life begins to change.

The Good: Super Cub is a slice-of-life anime. It's classified in various places as an iyashikei, which are relaxing healing anime, but it isnt as relentlessly feel-good as something like Flying Witch or Laid-Back Camp. Super Cub follows Koguma, a girl who lost her parents and now lives alone in a self-described life of emptiness. The colors in this are all muted and grey, representing her depression. Then one day she decides on a whim to buy a motor scooter, and she gets a lucky deal on a used Super Cub. The first time Koguma revs it, her world is filled with a flash of color.

This anime is slow and methodical, following Koguma's daily life and all the different ways it begins to change. Some might find that boring, but I personally found it mesmerizing. There are a lot of cute girls anime where the main character finds a new hobby of some sort and then everything in their life is fixed. This isn't like that. Koguma loves her Cub, but it's only the first step. It gives her freedom to go out and do things she couldn't before. Then she needs to learn about maintenance and replacement parts. The motor scooter is an ice-breaker to talk with people. She realizes she needs certain accessories, and that means getting a part-time job. I love how the flash of color from the first episode was only momentary. The colors in this remain predominantly muted and grey. The Cub didn't fix Koguma's life, but it gave her the opportunity to find more and more things that gave her world color. I'm not sure I'm describing these feelings right, but this anime really struck a chord with me. It had some impressive characterization and themes about life for something that could've easily been nothing more than an advertisement for Honda brand motor scooters.

The Bad: This is another anime where I honestly can't think of a notable flaw. Even the one time it got a little dramatic felt earned. I guess this is yet another show where I'm sad there's only one season.

Overall: Super Cub is a slow story about a depressed girl whose life begins to change after she buys a motor scooter. That premise won't appeal to everyone, but I absolutely loved it. Koguma was a compelling character, and this anime is full of little moments where she finds something new to give her life color.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/1/4/AAcDcBAAD47e.png

CHARACTER: Koguma (Super Cub)
https://myanimelist.net/character/175927/Koguma
Voiced by: Yomichi Yuki
TOP 100 RANK: 30th

SPOILERS FOR SUPER CUB

(I couldn't find a good video for her)

I already talked about Koguma a lot in the anime write-up. Her character growth is pretty much the entire point of the show. I love the visual touches where things are mostly grey but every so often there's a flash of color. The Cub opens up her world and forces her to do new things. She finds goals and friends and, over time, a newfound passion for life. All of that is wonderful, and I love how it all feels natural and earned. Buying the Cub didn't solve all of Koguma's problems. It just gave her an opportunity and a reason to begin interacting with the world in ways she never had before, and wonderful things started to naturally arise.

I also really loved how she became friends with Reiko. Koguma has a brief imagination spot where she mentions her new motor scooter in class and everyone gets hyped and suddenly she's the popular center of attention. In reality, Koguma is too reserved to mention it at all. Reiko only finds out when they both make a bag to hold their helmets in class. Even then, her reaction feels so natural. "Oh, you have a motor scooter too? What kind? That's cool." And that's it. I feel like a lesser anime would make them best friends forever right away, but this show takes it slow. A lot of their subsequent interactions are awkward, but they slowly bond over their respect rides and over time they do become close friends. The Cub helped break the ice, but it didn't turn Koguma into an extrovert overnight. I really appreciated that.

The one dramatic moment in Super Cub, when Shii fell into the river, is probably the thing I have the most mixed feelings about. I think she would've been better off calling emergency services or something, and I'm not sure how realistic it is that she gets out relatively unscathed after that long in the cold water. Still, it was satisfying to watch Koguma come to the rescue. The music, Vivaldi's Four Seasons Winter Movement, made it feel so damn epic. In a way, I appreciated it as proof of how far Koguma had come. The girl at the start of the anime couldnt have done that. Her development was just so methodical and wonderful. It really did feel like real life. One thing led to another, and only after looking back does it become obvious how much those little things added up to a big change.