The Rolling Girls

Episode 6

The conflict between the Tenmusus and Motors concluded this week, with familial relationships being patched, passions being rekindled, and new symbols of the unified town being born. Everything resolved in exactly the way it was always destined to, and though the beats of this story's second half weren't particularly unusual or even that deeply felt, the whole thing came together reasonably well. Rolling Girls isn't wowing in the way it once might have promised, but it's rolling on steady ground.

We started off with a few more flashbacks fleshing out the relationship between Himeko and Mie Motors' captain Tomoki, with the longest of them fully revealing the moment Himeko first received a moonstone. The stone seemed like it was summoned directly in response to her declaring her love for the shachihoko and desire to create her own, which seems to imply the moonstones are tied not to specific powers, but to an understanding of what you want to become. Rolling Girls is clearly a show that's all about adolescent quests for identity (with a little bit “parent-child relationships” thrown in), and so it makes sense that the show's magical MacGuffins are tied to that theme. The fact that the names Himeko and Tomoki give their stones are “Shachihoko Stone” and “Star of the Circuit” only reinforce that idea.

The scenes between Himeko and Tomoki are some of the best this episode, as they let the two of them demonstrate a few more sides to themselves beyond “troubled by relationship with father” and “troubled by gang disputes.” The characters of this side arc get a little needed texture in general this time - I mentioned last week that this arc's biggest problem was that while its narrative worked, it wasn't really coming through in an emotional sense, and though this episode didn't completely resolve that issue, they certainly felt more likable and human this week than last. The relative narrative simplicity of this week's half-arc also helped there - in contrast to last week's busy setup, once this episode established that both Himeko and Tomoki had lost touch with their original passions and that regaining that passion would fix everything, the rest of the episode was just a slow build towards that final race drawing everything together.

I wish I could say the race was a visual setpiece good enough to sell the arc by itself, but unfortunately, the animation here couldn't match either the first two episodes (I should probably stop assuming the show will ever reach that standard again) or even the final chase scene with Thunderoad. The CG bikes felt clunky, there were no standout sequences of traditional animation, and the few visual highlights were small things - the flashes of color as Tomoki takes off, the sketchy quality his image assumes as he steels himself for the final push, etc. The show's painted backgrounds remain lovely, but considering the story here is fairly simplistic, the fact that the animation isn't good enough to elevate it hurts.

The show's actual protagonists did reasonably okay this week. It's becoming very clear that the majority of the show isn't really going to be about them, and that they'll instead mainly be adding color and charm to other peoples' stories, and in that they more or less succeeded. It really comes down to the gags with the actual Rolling Girls - Ai advising them to leave as soon as they get their first stone, Yukina somehow finding herself trapped in the Mio Motors gang, Nozomi doing her best to mediate in spite of lacking any real talent for doing so. Their scenes were warm and fuzzy, and it turns out this is a pretty warm and fuzzy show. So that's where we're at now - with three arcs down, it's looking like Rolling Girls is a pretty and endearing but largely unambitious series of vignettes about finding your place in life. That's okay. I can deal with that.

Rating: B

The Rolling Girls is currently streaming on Funimation.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.