Super Cub is an anime that I initially passed over when it first aired. I was watching other shows at the time, so I didn't find time for it. All I knew about it was that it was based on a light novel and supposedly a gigantic advertisement for motorbikes called Super Cubs. But I was bored one day and wanted to watch something new, so I wound up watching Super Cub on the FUNimation app on my Roku—the English dubbed version, to be more specific—and found that I liked it more than I thought I would. The story is pretty simple: Koguma is a girl who lives a lonely life. Her parents aren't around, she doesn't have much money, doesn't have hobbies, and just lives day to day. As far as Koguma is concerned, her life is dull and colorless. One day, she finds herself drawn to a Honda Super Cub being sold at a shop and manages to buy it for fairly cheap. The decision proves to be a fateful one, as the Super Cub bike literally brings color to her once colorless life, allowing her to do more and go places she couldn't before. She even manages to make a couple new friends because of it. The series is mainly about Koguma's day-to-day experiences with her Cub and is pretty episodic in nature, so don't go in here expecting a linear narrative that gets bigger as it goes on.

If you're thinking the show is pretty much a glorified commercial for Honda Super Cubs, you're not wrong. The first episode alone is just 20 minutes of a character discovering the joys of owning a motorbike, complete with dialogue blatantly engineered to sell bikes, with the cameras lingering shamelessly on logos, and while most of the series is shown in muted colors, when Koguma gets on the bike, the show cranks up the color saturation to show how Honda products restore color to your world. All throughout the series, the characters go on and on about how great their Cubs are. I'm pretty sure you could make a drinking game out of it. Hell, apparently Honda Motor Company reportedly supervised the writing for Super Cub. This is especially interesting since Super Cub is based on a series of light novels that ended not too long ago. But what makes Super Cub interesting as a show is that while the show itself makes no secret of the fact that it's engineered to sell motorbikes, every other aspect of it has a surprising amount of subtlety and restraint that's present throughout its entire run.

Starting with the animation, the series thrives on its scenic backgrounds, realistic character designs, and the show's occasional transitioning from muted, washed out, near-grayscale to vivid, radiant, saturated colors. The last one is mainly used to serve as a mood light for Koguma, showing the things that make her happy, whether it be going to a new store off the beaten path or hanging out with her new friends. I also appreciate that the anime's character designs don't try to make the girls into cutesy moeblobs, with the animation and voice acting reflecting this, remaining low key and subdued all throughout. That being said, the CGI for the bikes is fine, and the show does a great job at making sure the details on the bikes are accurate and realistic, but my one big complaint: Did they really have to make the girls into CGI on occasions where they ride their bikes? They just look really clunky and weird! The soundtrack is similarly soothing and nice, and interestingly enough, the series makes use of both its own original compositions and pieces of classical music, like Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune and a segment of Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, which I felt were used to great effect. More details can be found in this thread here. Basically, everything about Super Cub takes a minimalistic approach, preferring showing over telling, which serves the series very well, making Super Cub actually feel more than just a glorified motorbike commercial, never venturing into cheese or melodrama.

Now, the cast for this show is pretty small. One important character doesn't even get introduced until episode 7, so the series has plenty of time to flesh them out throughout its short run. The main cast isn't necessarily the most three-dimensional, and I can imagine a lot of people taking issue with the fact that the girls don't really talk about anything that doesn't involve their Cubs. At least, not until later in the series, and I can understand that. But I think the main appeal of the series is seeing the three girls bond over their hobbies and passions and seeing how those same passions help them grow as people. I think Shii benefits the most from this, as she has the most depth out of all the girls, and the show takes great pains to show her daily life, how she interacts with people, the things that make her happy, how she approaches conflict, and so on while taking care to make sure she doesn't devolve into a moeblob stereotype. In short, the characters are pretty down-to-earth, not too overbearing but not complete blank slates, either. Seriously, it says a lot that Koguma has more characterization than pretty much every bland male isekai lead ever.

That being said, I really want to rate this series higher. I really do. But the series does have one particular flaw holding it back. It's a big one, and it's in episode 11. That particular episode really riled up fans of the show, mainly because some characters are shown making extremely dangerous and reckless decisions, even by the standards of which teenagers behave. Granted, teenagers aren't exactly paragons of knowledge and wisdom. What teenager hasn't done stupid things in their lifetime? On one hand, I respect Super Cub for actually depicting its teenage cast as being messy and not always making the best decisions at times. It gives them more depth and nuance than most anime characters tend to get. On the other hand, even by those standards, the way episode 11 handled the characters dealing with a particular situation left a really sour taste in people's mouths, and without spoiling anything, I can absolutely see where they're coming from. This is especially egregious because the anime actually leaves out an explanation for WHY the characters act the way they do, an explanation that actually somewhat justified one character's actions, which makes said character come off a lot worse in the anime than she did in both the manga and light novel. Said execution of that scene didn't kill my enjoyment of the series, but I can totally imagine people getting turned off by how episode 11 handled its central conflict. It all depends on your suspension of disbelief, and that particular part does leave a pretty nasty aftertaste in what's otherwise a fairly sweet, low-key, wholesome series.

But I don't want to end this review on a negative note, and there is one thing that Super Cub as a series absolutely NAILS: The unadulterated joy one gets when finding people who share your interests and passions without judgment or condescension. Super Cub is a series that wears its heart on its sleeves, oozing with passion and love for its subject matter, from its immaculate attention to details all the way down to how the characters bond over common and different interests. Going into personal territory here: I was the only kid who was deeply passionate about anime and manga beyond stuff like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Naruto, and so on, especially obscure stuff that hardly anyone knows about, but growing up in a small town in New Jersey, none of my classmates had the same interests, and I was often bullied for them on more than one occasion, on top of being autistic and upsettingly gullible. As I grew up though, I gradually found people, both in-person and online, who shared my interests without judgment, who I could feel safe enough to open up to and be my authentic self. Finding common interests was my way of trying to make friends, being an autistic person who often has trouble making friends and keeping them. Of course, Super Cub's entire premise can work for pretty much any hobby, such as sewing, camping, jewelry, sports, books, and so on. Hobbies can bring us joy, keep us sane, or help us cope with bad situations. Super Cub, and another series I plan on reviewing once I get around to it, perfectly exemplifies that philosophy, highlighting the small victories they bring along with finding joy in mundanity and, as the series itself shows, bring color to your life.

Okay, I better get off my sappy soapbox. So yeah, Super Cub, on the surface, is a glorified motorcycle commercial, but if you're looking for an anime to kick back and relax to, definitely give it a shot. Super Cub has no reservations about what it is, and while it has significant flaws holding it back from true greatness, it definitely stands out from the millions of other Cute Girls Doing Cute Things anime by virtue of the fact that it cares about its premise and subject matter.