Kandagawa Jet Girls

I have to admit that I barely made it through the first episode, so if 'Kandagawa Jet Girls' surprisingly manages to get any better from episode two onwards, please disregard this review.

In 'Kandagawa Jet Girls', a popular sport is is to ride a jetski down a river and fire waterguns at opponents. If an opponent is hit, they typically seem to lose an article of clothing for some reason. Nevertheless, this is seen as a fairly respectable sport.

School girl Rin freshly transfers to Tokyo and wants to become a professional jetski pilot. She teams up with her friend Misa, who shoots the watergun of their jetski. In the first episode, they are challenged by an opposing team, and I assume that each consequent episode will feature a similar challenge until they win some sort of championship (which Rin fawns over).

This premise could be reasonably fun, but the characters are generic to the point of being irritating. The fanservice is far too plentiful, featuring heaving bosoms in an otherwise touching childhood flashback and bare breasts not soon after.

In total, I'm just not sure what 'Kandagawa Jet Girls' is trying to accomplish. For a genuine show about a quirky sport, it is too bland and oversexualised. For adult entertainment I'm sure that any genuine adult entertainment would be far superior. The only apparent selling point is that all the characters and their relationships are female, which could include romance if you squint really hard. If so... ugh, c'mon, really?

From a technical standpoint everything seems up to par, so I'd give it a 4/10.

I know that the reviewers on the Anime News Network hate this recent show, but I have to strongly disagree with them. In this story, Rin Namiki pilots a watercraft while her friend, Misa Aoi, fires a water gun, as they race against rival teams. With each of their racies, their bond gets stronger. One site said that this anime screams mediocre and that they are left "believing that this is some mindless entertainment that I'll probably forget about in a few months." I could see why they say that, but I'd say this is at least somewhat true. As such, this gets a rating of 6.

I know to those who watched KJG may look just like a fanservice anime. But the humanity and societal values described in it are something to be admired. Namely the relationships of the girls in the show...they all are opponents in jet racing but outside of it they are friends and they care for each other and that is an important message that should be bestowed on the women and girls of the world who are wrongly taught by patriarchal society that they should be enemies and hate each other and bring each other down. So when you watch this anime carefully what it teaches us is worth respect. That is why I truly am glad I gave this anime a chance and would recommend watching it to anyone, but not to those who d enjoy shallowly only the fanservice part of it. (That is why I do not understand why the studio which worked on the anime decided to make it into a fanservice one but what to expect of the studio which created Valkyrie Drive xD Dont get me wrong... I love Valkyrie Drive, dont hate me xD)

The show begins showing Rin Namaki wishing to follow in the footsteps of her deceased mother by becoming a jet ski pilot in jet races.

She quickly becomes best friends with Misa, the other main character. While Rin drives the jet ski in races Misa shoots the opponent with a water gun, this seems to make a computer on the jet ski count it as damage points which, when accumulated ultimately causes the jet ski to turn off. Each time they lose a race they reflect on why they lost and use it to work on how to improve their technique and teamwork.

Everything about this show is great, from the action in the jet races to the cuteness of the show and friendship between Rin and Misa. For example, one time when Rin was feeling unwell and Misa brought her plush dolphin to her, the small actions like this made the show very cute.