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Crunchyroll to Stream Minami Kamakura High School Girls Cycling Club Anime

Crunchyroll announced on Thursday that it will stream the television anime of Noriyuki Matsumoto's Minami Kamakura High School Girls Cycling Club (Minami Kamakura Kōkō Joshi Jitensha-Bu) manga. The simulcast will begin on January 6 at 12:00 p.m. EST, and will be available worldwide outside of Asia.

The series will premiere in Japan on January 6 at 24:00 (effectively January 7 at 12:00 a.m.) on AT-X. The series will also air on TV Osaka, TV Kanagawa, and TV Aichi. Additionally, the series will stream in Japan on AbemaTV, Anime Hōdai, U-NEXT, J:COM On Demand, Niconico, Amazon Prime Video, and d Anime Store. Each anime's episode will feature a live-action "AŌP's First Cycling Club" segment after the episode.

Susumu Kudo (Mardock Scramble: The First Compression, Dear Boys) is directing the anime at J.C. Staff and ACGT, and Kurasumi Sunayama (Bakuon!!, scripts on Yowamushi Pedal) is writing the script. Ryoichi Oki (Potemayo, Twin Angel: Twinkle Paradise) is both the character designer and chief animation director. Chikako Shibata (Honey and Clover, Toradora!) is credited for background art, while Tomonori Kuroda (A Certain Scientific Railgun, Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma) is the art director. Rumiko Suzuki (Gakkyū-ō Yamazaki) is in charge of color design. Yutaka Kurosawa (Golden Time, Love Stage!!) is director of photography. AŌP is performing the opening theme song "Jitensha ni Hana wa Mau" (Flower Dances With Bike), and Ikasan is performing the ending theme song "Nij Yume Road" (Rainbow Dream Road).

The story begins with Hiromi Maiharu, a girl who moved from Nagasaki to Kamakura. She begins her new life in Kamakura and her first day in high school by bicycling to her school, but she has not ridden a bicycle since she was young. On the way to the ceremony for the first day, she meets Tomoe Akitsuki, and Tomoe helps her train to be better at bicycling.

Matsumoto launched the manga in Mag Garden's Monthly Comic Blade magazine in 2011, and the eighth compiled volume shipped in Japan on April 9. The ninth volume will ship on January 10. The series inspired a drama CD and original song that shipped with the second volume. Matsumoto previously drew the illustrations in the Mini-Skirt Uchū Kaizoku (Mini-Skirt Space Pirates) light novel series that inspired the Bodacious Space Pirates television anime.