We finally reach the day of the race at the end of the episode, but first we have the pre-party to deal with and if the actual race is going to be as silly and insane as the pre-party was, then I’m pretty excited.
With the race only a day away, the organization behind the race throw a pre-party for the racers as well as all the sponsors and whatnot to attend. It’s important for the racers since they take part in the pole position, and they also get to see the other racers since they haven’t met them all. Suffice to say once Crazy TJ joined the party, things got…well, crazy. There’s, uh…many things about TJ’s design that catches my eye. He made quite the entrance with his car, and of course because he’s a black guy he carries around a boombox. Oh, I mean a boom…gramophone? Also, is that a noose around his neck???????
Uhhhhh Japan????? Th-That’s not very…..uhhh…
So Appare and gang have a bit of trouble getting in because of not wearing formal attire, which led to TJ being the okay for letting that rule slide, but Kosame still having to wear a tie even though he tied it wrong. Got a laugh out of me. And I thought it wasn’t possible for Xialian to be even more beautiful, but then they gave her that dress and my goodness she’s so goddamn pretty.
The pre-party was also important that they also explained some of the rules for the race while giving us some great details such as the supply points. It’s interesting because the supply points are optional, but because this race is showcasing gasoline-powered cars the racers are going to have to use these supply points sometime. We also learn that there’s a bonus prize of $10,000 for the pre-race so seeing that should be fun. There was the process of the pole positions, which would have been the normal “pick out a number from the box” type of event, but then Crazy TJ said fuck that and had a gun brawl with Dylan (they somehow never ran out of ammo), there was arm wrestling, Kosame and Al cut cucumbers, and Xialian just kicked someone’s ass. It was utter chaos and it was great.
One serious note was when Hototo confronted Dylan again about the snake tattoo and he finally explained that it belongs to Gil the Snake’s group. Not necessarily him but any one of his henchman loyal to him. Dylan seems to have his own baggage, I’m guessing losing the woman in the picture who was probably his lover. It’ll be nice to see the backstories and relationships among the characters.
This episode was pretty simple but very crazy. I love the presentation of this anime as the woman announced the racers and their cars, really making it feel like a real race. The characters are just really goofy and so are the things that happen randomly and it’s great. This was a nice lead-in to the race, where we ended on the first scene we saw in the first episode. One thing, however, is that it looks like there’s going to be some corruption from the higher ups since they say the race is going to end in “tragedy”. I’m guessing the companies funding the race just want to show off their brand-new cars so people will want to buy them, but they’ll tamper with the race so they don’t have to give away the prize money. You know, just typical corrupt corporation stuff. Probably why some of these companies brought in literal criminals and outlaws into this mess. 😐
