Super Cub

Koguma, a reserved second-year high school student, has nothing—no parents, hobbies, friends, or goals. On her way home one afternoon, she visits a vehicle shop in hopes of acquiring a motor scooter. With only enough money to make ends meet, she is disheartened by the price tags and prepares to turn back. However, as she is about to leave, the shop's owner offers her a pre-owned Honda Super Cub for ten thousand yen. Believing that the motorcycle will help brighten her monotonous world, she accepts the deal. As Koguma journeys through her town on small adventures with her Super Cub, she begins to build irreplaceable friendships and eagerly advances toward her new life.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Koguma Main

Yomichi, Yuki Japanese

Reiko Main

Nanase, Ayaka Japanese

Eniwa, Shii Main

Hioka, Natsumi Japanese

Shino-san Supporting

Uo, Ken Japanese

Homeroom Teacher Supporting

Hara, Eriko Japanese

Driver Supporting

Takeuchi, Ryouta Japanese

Girl Student Supporting

Fukagawa, Seria Japanese

Announcer Supporting

Takahashi, Shinya Japanese

Boy Student Supporting

Fukuhara, Katsumi Japanese

Clerk Supporting

Yamamoto, Kanehira Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Uema, Yasuhiro Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Fujii, Toshirou Director

Reviews

Apr 19, 2024

IrrelevantGuy

Recommended

Watching Super Cub kind of feels like taking a bath. It's a bit plain and simple, yet never fails to soothe you even when you are having a bad time.

Super Cub revolves around high school student Koguma, a timid and lonely girl who has never had anything that she could cherish. As Koguma herself describes, she has nothing—no parents, no hobbies, no friends, and no goals. However, after buying a pre-used Super Cub, she finally finds something that even she could enjoy. The anime chronicles the now adventurous days of Koguma's life, showcasing how vastly she has changed and continues to change.

Super Cub seems like ... a simple CGDCT anime at first glance, and if you take the series at face value, it's likely that you won't change your opinion even after watching it. Most of the times, the characters of the anime simply travel around various places while riding their beloved scooter. Due to this and the seemingly unimaginative subject matter, it's easy to mistake Super Cub for another typical CGDCT, but in reality, there's far more to the show than just that.

The narrative of Super Cub is fairly simple, but the themes that surround it are surprisingly thorough. Unlike most of its predecessors, Super Cub consistently maintains a solemn tone throughout its 12 episodes, which complements the themes that it tackles. That doesn't mean this is a sad show, though. Despite the serious undercurrent, Super Cub is actually very relaxing to watch; partly because the atmosphere is charmingly calm and quiet, and partly because most of the events that occur in the anime are intrinsically light-hearted and easy to follow.

This casual approach to storytelling can be a double-edged sword, though. Super Cub follows a rather basic storyline and mostly relies on the characters to move the plot forward, which places some obvious limitations on the potential scenarios. Due to the apparent lack of "innovation", some parts of the show can feel a bit monotonous. There are other areas where the writing is very lacking—the prime example of this being the first half of episode 11 which suffers because of the characters' unusually irrational actions, and the fact that Koguma's unusual background is never explored despite it being the introductory point of her character.

Luckily, Super Cub balances this simplicity and makes up for its shortcomings with substantial characterization. The most compelling character of the anime is by far Koguma, the protagonist of the story who is a bit of an oddball. If you overlook the fact that her past is shrouded in mystery for no reason, she is surprisingly a very relatable character. Koguma's initial inability to find motivation in her life is something that resonates with me a lot, so seeing her gain confidence and create genuine friendships is uplifting to say the least.

In a way, Super Cub is also a very encouraging show. The entire anime delivers a generally wholesome and optimistic message, and all of the main characters beautifully reflect that statement. Koguma, Reiko and Shii—they all have something they love from the bottom of their heart, and they will do pretty much anything to protect that. At first, that something was simply Super Cub (Alex Moulton bike for Shii), but as the three grow closer through interactions, they gradually forge a precious and long-lasting bond that they don't want to lose either.

This is essentially what makes Super Cub such an encouraging experience. Seeing Koguma and the others wholeheartedly pursue their dreams honestly made me very motivated and electrified, something which very few shows can manage to do. Additionally, all of our main characters display a remarkable degree of realism and relatability, because of which I quickly found myself rooting for them.

For the most part, the script of Super Cub is fittingly simple and straightforward, but the lines are crafted in a way such that they are subtle and meaningful. While there aren't a whole lot of dialogues or monologues in the show which is understandable), ones that are there mostly exist for a significant purpose; they are relevant to the contemporary events and provide insight into the characters' emotions. That said, some of the conversations about motorbikes can be a bit difficult to follow, especially if you are someone like me who has little to no knowledge of vehicles. But hey, this may be something bike enthusiasts can rave about.

Suitably, Super Cub takes a bit minimalistic approach in terms of its soundtrack. There are quite a few scenes that are intentionally barren of music, which is a clever choice given how neatly it fits in with the calm ambience of the show. Most of the other scenes are fittingly accompanied with tranquil piano music. The sound effects are pretty good; they add more realism to the environment of the anime. The opening song titled "Mahou no Kaze" is alright, and the same could be said about the ending "Haru e no Dengon" which is sung by the voice actors of the main cast.

Super Cub's animation is generally very beautiful, albeit the artstyle is a bit cutesy. Since the characters travel a lot in the anime, the scenic designs are rather diverse, memorable, and beautifully animated. Simple backgrounds such as school, shops, houses, etc. are nicely drawn as well, which has become an uncommon trait in anime nowadays. Occasionally, there are some odd uses of CGI, though (usually while the characters are riding or paddling), that don't really blend in with the background and are a little jarring to look at. Besides that, I honestly don't have much to complain about.

It's a bit sad that Super Cub hasn't gained much popularity—it's arguably one of the better anime of this season in my opinion. Honestly, I didn't expect much going into the series, but it didn't take much time to win me over with its refreshingly calm nature. If you are a fan of the iyashikei subgenre, you will probably enjoy Super Cub as much as I did.

And who knows, you might even become inclined to buy an actual Super Cub.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Aug 2, 2021

PixelB

Mixed Feelings

Super Cub is an attempt at a coming of age story, but places too much damn emphasis on scooters.
Before you come on my profile and say "well dumb dumb, this show IS about scooters." Yes, true. but I really would like to know the main character a bit. Similar to Yuru Camp, there is a lot of emphasis on the "activity" being done, while characters get little to no development other than their base personality traits.
In this case, I really would like to talk about Koguma, our protagonist. While it is true that she does change, make friends, and becomes more cheerful throughout the ... series, it does seem forced and less of import than the scooter itself. Rather than Koguma bettering herself, it seems like the scooter is the impetus for the changes that Koguma goes through. It's quite clear that her relationship with Reiko only happens because she owns a cub. It's quite sad to see that 12 episodes in, and the only things Reiko and Koguma talk about are still about scooters and cubs.
There's so much emphasis on the cubs, but Koguma's character and personality do not really get a chance to shine. For a coming of age story, I really was not attached to Koguma in the least bit just due to the fact that there's basically nothing to get attached to. The beginning episode was quite strong. The beginning morning routine animation, the piano notes and the color tone change when she gets the bike. It's really well done actually, but that was basically the peak. The beginning of the anime clearly paints the picture that Koguma lives in slow-burning gloom with no direction in life, and the super cub gives way to a potential path towards making progress--finding something that you enjoy in life.
It's a great setup, but sadly, the series does not deliver. Whether it be her summer job, or interactions with Reiko, or her relationship with Eniwa, it's all so surface level. It's not wrong to say that the actions that Koguma takes are ones that could be considered fulfilling in its slow paced fashion, but execution lacks in all departments. Reiko is a convenient supporting character in which Koguma takes no initiative to interact with herself, and that could be passable if their relationship was more than moving through the motions. Seriously, I never once thought that there was any genuine dialogue in any of the episodes. It's always, "my cub is cool, let's talk about cubs!" That's it. There's a serious scene about Eniwa getting saved by Koguma, and all Koguma can say is "my super cub saved you, not me." Holy. Crap.
Eniwa, Koguma, and Reiko all have super bland personalties, and I really do not have much of an impression of them at all. Eniwa--she's fine for how little screen time she has. In fact, she's probably the most diverse and well written character out of the three. But what about Koguma, the protagonist? Seriously. When all I can say about her is that she like her scooter, that's a huge problem. There's really nothing in the series about bettering her personal life, going through mental roadblocks, or just trying something beyond something relating to scooters.
CGI is also well, bad. Which means that for half or more of the scooter scenes which are CGI, it looks kinda bad. Admittedly, the show does do a decent job of combining 2d and CGI together. There's definitely quite a lot of scenes where close ups of the faces and body of the characters in the scooters are animated by hand, but bad CGI is bad CGI.
I just had no attachment to to any of the characters whatsoever, given how there is little liveliness in dialogue and most of the topics of conversation can be traced back to scooters. Koguma goes through the motions towards bettering herself, but you never really feel like she's improved by her own mettle. There's no self reflection that's particularly meaningful. If I didn't know better, this is just product placement for Honda super cubs.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jun 23, 2021

Alfredo_Elric

Not Recommended

Mild Spoilers in a marked section

"I have no parents. No money either. Nor do I have any hobbies, friends, or goals for the future. But, where I didn't have anything in my life before.... now I have a cub."

I have always considered myself as a Slice-of-Life enthusiast. I have hardly rated any Slice-of-Life anime lowly but Super CGI has done it. It has broken my streak and that isn't a good thing.

I’m just going to begin with the art. Wow, the character designs are ugly. Just take a look at how Studio Kai draws lines. The lines on Koguma's face makes me think that ... a cat showed up and scratched her face. Why did the cat do that? It probably couldn't handle staring at a moe blob anymore. Or maybe the cat had some of the Grappa that the anime staff added "Caution: too much makes it alcoholic and actionable." But there’s more… The lines drawn on the hair reminds me of someone who pulled out their sturdy fingernails before deliberately scratching a chalkboard! My eyes cringe just as much as just looking at the characters of Super Cub. Continuing on, there is so much CG in this anime. I understand with the Super Cub but using CG for almost every background character and switching between animating the Cub motorbike rider as half 2D and half 3D is just too much. Even if the CG is considered fine, I’m sure the blatant usage of reused animation will get anyone’s disapproval. The one scene that always gets reused is Koguma arriving at school. There will always be the presence of two girls walking together towards the right with two other male characters, one walking towards the camera and the other also walking to the right as the camera pans to the right as Koguma arrives on her Super Cub. I should’ve counted how many times they used this one scene in particular. Throughout this anime, there are many moments where Koguma is just driving around on her Super Cub for entire minutes. The same backgrounds were used so many times, especially at that one intersection and that road she sees outside of her classroom. All in all, the shots and scene durations all made this anime feel like I’m watching the same episode over and over.

Speaking of loops, I did not care for the music. There is recycled 'sad' or 'peaceful' oriented music playing for Koguma as she drives around. But these scenes are so long and Koguma’s thoughts are so bland that I don’t care for the music. Many times this music failed to impact me at all since most of it tends to follow a specific formula: 1. Find a cool 2-4 second part, then just keep looping it, 2. Take one finger and play something on the piano that sounds like a song, or 3. Combine 1 and 2! Very creative I say. This even applied to the opening! To start, we hear Duu 40 times in the beginning of the opening! It won't be getting out of my head any time soon even if I duu try. Also, when the characters are talking with music playing in the background, I feel that the music is more important than the actual dialogue (which I can't quite disagree with this). Most interactions between Koguma and others make me feel like I’m waiting in the elevator while trying to ignore the conversation next to me or I’m trying, and failing, to listen to my online Zoom lecture because I fell asleep.

Finally to the plot of the anime. Sad girl gets a Super Cub and finally makes friends. I think that's all you need but I will persevere. Koguma is a girl living alone with no parents, income, goals, or friends. She then makes an impulsive decision to buy a Super Cub without having a license. Thankfully, a sudden time skip happens so she can get her license real fast before getting a one minute driving tutorial from the seller. First off, where does she get her money to buy it? How did she learn road rules before learning what gasoline is? I have so many questions without any logical answers. There is another person at her school who notices Koguma’s cub, therefore wanting to befriend Koguma. Moral of the story: Super Cub makes Super Friends. Koguma then learns more about her Cub and runs into possible issues of not having the right gear nor a full understanding of her Cub. However, whenever these problems arise, there is always another random background character that shows up that just so happens to have the answer she needs. Wow, so realistic.

Koguma is a very flat and basic character. As Koguma continues to understand her Super Cub, the noises she makes whenever she runs into any issues has gotten on my nerves. I’m sick of hearing her whining and I’m sick of her always looking at herself in the Super Cub mirror for no reason. How was she able to take care of herself for so long if she decided to buy a whole cub and not read the owner's manual (or even search up information about the vehicle) online? Later, as she is able to meet a friend, she starts to smile more. Smiles like these in Slice-of-Life anime are generally meant to be touching for the audience since the character is finally portraying actual happiness past all that they have been or are going through. However this smile was not that. It looked ugly and I did not ever feel for Koguma at all. This smile was not character development nor showing us more about her. It was a forced, placed in smile with no emotional impact whatsoever. I have an easier time smiling with the opening song’s super creative background lyrics of Duus than with Koguma.

Reiko is kinda better than Koguma. She is a Super Cub enthusiast who desired to be Koguma’s friend because of their similar interest in Super Cubs. Reiko is the bright, happy friend that contrasts Koguma’s sad, quiet character. However, that's really it to her. She becomes such a side character that she's basically there for Koguma to have lunch in the same spot in their Super Cubs every single episode.

[Spoilers]

Reiko is revealed to dream about being able to climb Mount Fuji with her Super Cub. There's one episode dedicated to this where she is constantly trying and falling off her Super Cub all while boss battle inspired music is playing. Wow it's like the mountain is her final boss, it's as deep as the river in episode 11. Two questions come up during the montage, why is she not looking for bumps in the road to avoid? Why doesn't she just slow down a bit? I think the real question is: Where did she learn how to drive? Sure the bumps and not being able to slow down can be because of the incline of the road but if she doesn't know how to deal with it, then why doesn't she practice and learn how to properly deal with these issues safely? I'm sure off-roaders didn't just up and go one day to begin their new hobby up a steep mountain. They most likely build up to something more dangerous or risky. But no, Reiko decides to just go all the way. Also, why did the adults just keep letting her go on a road that is easy for her to fall to her doom? Well she has a Super Cub so she'll be safe even if she herself is being unsafe about driving it. What Reiko really needs to do is pick up a new book about proper off-road driving instead of reading the same random one over and over in class.

[End of Spoilers]

Overall, this anime is one of the worst Slice-of-Life anime I have seen (To make sure I am clear, I have nothing against actual Super Cubs in real life). Honda really should’ve done better. Now at least I know where to find a real life CG Super Cub if I really wanted to drive one. A character whose name I forgot once said, "Please save me again with your Super Cub." Let me rephrase it: Please save me FROM this Super Cub.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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