The Rolling Girls

Episode 5

This episode was busy. In contrast to Thunderoad's very simple narrative from the last two episodes, this new arc is juggling all sorts of characters, allegiances, and sub-threads. And though it's not evoking the sincerity of the emotional moments from last week or matching the aesthetic merits of the first two episodes, it's still doing something worth sticking around for - telling a well-constructed story.

The Rolling Girls have rolled on into a new district, and this one doesn't have a name - the top two contenders are Aichi-Mie and Mie-Aichi, but given the members of the Aichi Tenmusus and Mie Motors mostly seem to hate each other, it's unlikely that problem will be resolved before the district's power struggle gets sorted out. This unnamed district is noteworthy largely for its roaming gangs of bikers and its shining shachihoko, tiger-fish statues that line its rooftops and are traditionally imagined to summon rain and ward off fire. The arrival of our main cast coincides with the return of Himeko, the daughter of the district's famed shachihoko sculptor Mamoru. The relationship between Himeko and her father is nearly as tense as the one between the Motors and Tenmusus, and the fact that her return is heralded by the simultaneous explosion of all the district's shachihoko does little to improve either relationship.

There's a lot more to unpack than just that - this episode also has great scenes with both of the gang leaders, each of whom seem interested in peace in spite of their riotous subordinates. The Aichi side is led by Mr. Dandy, whose dandiness provides some of the funniest moments of this week's episode (I know it's dumb, but I couldn't but laughing at his allies wondering how he stays so dandy under pressure). The Mie Motors are led by the mysterious bike taxi racer, who in his off time seems to enjoy rekindling star-crossed relationships with daughters of local sculptors. That's where this episode ends at - Himeko questioning her own motivation and relationship with her father's legacy, Mr. Dandy and the Mie Motors' captain doing their best to keep the peace in spite of unrest in the community, and The Rolling Girls just kind of hanging around and slowly developing in their own not-really-all-that-developed way.

The fact that I've only now fully described the plot of this episode should give an indication of just how much went down this week, but in the context of the show, all of this narrative came off very gracefully. Himeko essentially centered the plot, as the story here is most interested in exploring her relationship with her father, but through the combination of scenes featuring her and scenes checking in with The Rolling Girls, every major character's personality and motivation was established without any drops into strict exposition. This plot is a well-oiled machine.

The only real problem here, and it's a pretty major one, is that the show's not really doing enough to build investment. This story is well-constructed, but it's not one I feel strongly inclined to care about - though moments like Mr. Dandy confronting the Mie Motors' second-in-command are enjoyable by virtue of the gags and personality, many other scenes simply lack much to distinguish them from similar plot beats in a thousand other shows. It's odd to say this about an episode that featured Mr. Dandy, a light-speed bike taxi, and at least a dozen-odd explosions, but my biggest problem with this episode was that the whole thing felt a little dry. Relationships are established, but not necessarily felt.

That said, it's still just enjoyable to see a classic story being told well, and the moving parts of this arc are all playing off each other very gracefully. All the relationships between the core players have been established now - what we're really lacking is a few small personal moments to make those relationships feel emotionally true. It's frustrating to admit, but Rolling Girls seems to be developing a habit of holding its emotional cards up its sleeve for too long for stories to fully land in an emotional sense - the context for the core dramatic conflicts in both of the first two arcs was also held in reserve until right before the climax. That can certainly work, but it requires the scenes where the audience is working from incomplete emotional context to really sell the characters involved, and this episode didn't quite get there. Additionally, this arc gives our alleged protagonists almost nothing to do, which is also becoming a bit of a pattern. I'm willing to take the bad with the good, but it's disappointing to see shows fall into the same pitfalls again and again.

Rating: B