Super Cub – Episode 1 – The Bike that Changes Koguma’s Life Forever

Koguma, a normal high school student seems to have a boring life with no parents nor friends. However, something is about to change her life forever.

At a glimpse, we don’t know much about Koguma and what happened to her parents. We see her living a rather mundane life preparing lunch and packing it before riding her bike to school. Yes, she struggled getting up the hill on the bike. As expected, she lives in Hokuto City in Yamanashi. With all the lush scenery, this already gives me the feeling of Yuru Camp. In fact, this show takes place in the same region as Yuru Camp.

On the way to school, Koguma sees one of her classmates ride a moped from school. She also sees the moped in the bike parking area before she left. This of course causes her to take a detour to a motor bike shop nearby. When she saw the prices, they are over 100,000 yen, a little over $1000. I guess her dream of ditching her bike is over.

Thankfully, the shop owner has a bike that he can sell her. It’s an old Honda Super Cub. The plus side it’s only 10000 yen. The only thing wrong is that the bike killed three people. We don’t know why, but Koguma doesn’t care. This is everything she dreamed of having. Of course, she didn’t have a license, so she had to get that. Once she passed the test, the shop owner showed her the basics and put the manual in a special place when she needs it.

Of course, Koguma riding the moped was a new experience. I liked how that after she got the bike, everything turns vivid instead of being dull. This shows how much her life changes with the new bike.

Of course, she didn’t know how to shift gears, so cars became annoyed by how slow she is and passed her. The truck that passed her scared her. Either way, when she parked the moped, it’s kind of cute how she looked at it and smiles. It’s like someone who just got a new toy.

Of course, she ponders about getting a bike lock, but afraid to go out when it’s light out. After all, she doesn’t want a truck possibly to hit her. So, she slept and wake up early in the morning. It’s quite fitting how they have Debussy’s Clair De Lune playing as she wakes up and rides her motor bike to the connivence store.

Of course, after arriving at the convivence store and picking up the thing she needs, she starts up the bike. She starts to panic as she couldn’t start the bike.  After remembering the manual, she looked up the symptoms. Yep, she forgot to fill the gas, but thankfully the manual points out the reserve gas tank. She was able to start it and fill it up. Yes, it’s a rookie mistake, but it’s better than having a coolant hose bitten by rodents. I been there and I panicked just like her while having to pay a little over $300 to have it repaired.

Still, I’m quite surprised how she forgot that her bike uses gas, not electric. Even Rin didn’t make that mistake when she rode a moped for the first time. Then again, it’s probably implied that she didn’t forget to fill the tank up. With Koguma owning a motor bike, I wonder what other things she will discover in her life. Maybe she will start having some friends? We’ll see next time. ¶