Out of any medium, genre, or subgenre, shows that can be considered iyashikei have more self imposed restrictions than most media out there. Most stories would like to exhibit themselves through actions that exhibit great weight. Downtime typically seen is more so just some type of breathing room from the varying turbulent nature of the story. What makes iyashikei stand out primarily is that downtime that is mostly just used to wind down the previous action of a story is nearly 100% of what the whole series is. Iyashikei shows aim to be serene depictions of everyday life, with very little drama with either a nearly unnoticeable overarching plot or nearly none at all. It is the very antithesis of what most stories aim to be. Despite the very concept of the whole subgenre being so inherently boring, there have been plenty of properties in anime and outside of it that primarily have iyashikei components and have also been critically and financially successful. Super Cub is far more hidden when comparing it to the giants that it draws inspiration from. However, out of any of its contemporaries, it pushes many concepts in the genre to such extremes that I have frankly never seen before. Super Cub fully embraces the tropes of its subgenre and makes them their own.

To go over Super Cub’s plot would be quicker than watching the opening. It is inherently an extremely simplistic story. Much of it is just the daily life events of the characters tangentially strung together through the presence of the Super Cub. Without any intriguing overarching plot, Super Cub and by extension most other iyashikei shows have to entice its viewers through its characters. While there isn’t any real story to call its own, it would be a false statement for it to be considered that there is no development. Super Cub develops its characters through its ability to imbue extremely subtle forms of development that build up over time. Some developments may not even be visible unless inspected upon extremely closely, but it is undeniable that by an emotional climax, the characters have definitely changed for the better. Super Cub’s main form of development centers around Koguma gradually finding her place in the world by finding new friends. It isn’t the most original concept in the world, but it manages to find life due to the previously mentioned subtle developments. A lot of daily life is mostly a series of subtle developments that can only really be put into context with hindsight. Life isn’t inherently an exciting thing, since the stakes are so low for most of the time. However, this can also be a source of excitement. Super Cub takes advantage of the fact that in a sea of mundanity, we can learn to find more joy in it. With the stakes so low all of the time, that makes events that can be considered boring to now be turned into a source of excitement. It makes mild events in the context of another show be considered to be one of the previously mentioned emotional climaxes. Super Cub manages to set its stakes so astronomically low in its early episodes, that it makes nearly every minor conflict that props up along the way feel exciting.

As much praise I have been giving to how Super Cub approaches its story and character development, it would be turning a blind eye to the biggest problem with the series, the visuals. The character designs are blurry, the CGI on the motorcycles is extremely jittery, there is barely any visual appeal in nearly every spot, and the contrast is tuned down at times to a point where it makes everything look muddy. While that last point can be explained away by the contrast being dialed up and down to represent the emotions of the situation, but just for that interesting direction, it comes at a sacrifice of much of the series to look awful. I am not going to try and defend the poor visual quality, as a matter of fact, it bothered me heavily in the first two or three episodes. My personal enjoyment of an anime doesn’t really hinge on visual quality much at all. I can easily get used to poor visuals as long as the story being told is engaging enough, which in this case, it is. While it isn’t a dealbreaker for me, I can get why it is to a lot of other people. To not be negative to all aspects of the presentation, I did really enjoy the general audio component. The lack of background noise and music for most of the scenes made for a calming and quiet atmosphere that really added to the generally subtle nature of the plot’s developments.

Out of any anime in Spring 2021, this is really one that shouldn’t have been this good. With it just being a glorified advertisement for Honda Super Cubs, and the production being so obviously stretched thin, it may have been predicted to be a disaster on all fronts. However, Super Cub makes the best of its situation, and creates an example of how to develop a story even in a situation where it would seem like you couldn’t. Subtly quiet storytelling where there is more to see under the hood is a rare breed to come by, and to find something that embraces it fully is a delight to see. By the end, Super Cub manages to be a surprisingly resonant work about the general mundanties of life, and how to find joy in it.

Thank you for reading to the end of the review if you did. If you have any criticisms with how this review was made, you are free to message me to critique what I had to say.