After Kosame’s bravery from last week, the Trans-America race can still move on! But because they have to watch out for Gil and keep the racers safe, Seth brings the racers together to tell them that they need to make adjustments and that they will all travel to a new supply point they created at the last minute. At this point Richard retires from the race, and none of them know that the real Gil is right in front of them and now knows the new route the racers will take! That ain’t good….BUT! We get a fun episode with silly shenanigans, a deeper look into some of the characters, and some possible romance?
Ahh yes, I love our very American tradition of hot springs. The writers I guess I wanted to fit in some Japanese stuff in this show and I guess we needed a hot springs episode? This was probably the most fun hot springs episode I’ve seen and was a fun twist, ignoring the fact that we don’t have hot springs in America. At least…I don’t think we do? I’ve never heard of it because I don’t think we have any areas in the country that would work. There are places like Yellowstone with hot geysers but those things can quite literally kill you. 🙂 So…no.
I’m not sure which part to focus on because there’s many parts to this episode. To summarize it best, it was a filler episode where the racers were able to take a break. There was lots of silliness to it with Sofia beating TJ to a drinking contest, TJ making fun of Dylan’s hair and him being self-conscious enough to get a trim, Appare being lost in thought and getting himself into messes without realizing it, and of course the hot springs. It was a really fun twist this time where everyone is clothed, because getting into a pool/jacuzzi/any water naked is NOT a normal thing in the West like it is in Japan. As an anime watcher it’s probably more normal to see the characters naked, so seeing them in clothes is actually weird, when to many viewers in the West the opposite should be weird but we’re used to anime so it’s not weird and…you get the picture. To be honest, getting into a hot spring naked is still really weird to me no matter how many times I’ve seen anime, same with public baths. Even though I’ve seen it countless times, I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable trying it out. I think if I went to Japan and stepped in with a bathing suit on, I’d get weird looks haha.
TJ and Dylan continue to be funny as a pair, but I love how things became chaotic at the hot springs. While Xialian and Sofia were sharing a nice conversation, the boys caused such a ruckus but it was very funny. I wish when people said “boys will be boys”, this is what they meant. Just carefree stupid fun like turning rock-paper-scissors into an excuse to kick each other’s asses, and a big dude throwing people into the water. Just stupid fun.
On the other hand, while we had lots of fun and laughs, we had at least a couple enlightening moments with some characters. We learn that Seth used to be an engineer whose ideas kept getting shut down, which is pretty disappointing but is pretty common whenever big corporations are involved. Seeing where he is now, he probably learned this and had to give up his previous engineering dreams. It’ll be cool to see what else we can learn of his character later.
Hototo’s conversations with both Dylan and the Bad Bros. were nice, and it’s great that they were able to share a heart to heart with him without anything escalating. It’s obvious that Claudia was Dylan’s lover, and he’s still feeling the pain of loss. He tells Hototo to find someone to protect, and when Hototo mentions this around Chase, he mentions that the person he should protect isn’t necessarily the one you’re supposed to. There’s a lot to think about for just a child, so it was nice to at least see Hototo enjoy himself at the hot spring. And Chase isn’t too bad I suppose, though I still can’t forget about the stuff he did before. His little brother is like a Disney princess though, anywhere he goes animals follow him!
This episode was just plain fun since we got to see all parts of every character. TJ may be more lonely than he looks, Dylan is dorkier than he looks, Sofia is strangely badass, and there may be a budding romance between Kosame and Xialian? I wasn’t expecting that but I’m not opposed to it. They always have nice conversations and they get along great, so it’ll be cool to see what they do with it and whether it’ll get serious or not, and if that’ll make Kosame conflicted about leaving.
The race continues next week! As excited as I am for it, I’m scared for Sofia now that Richard/Gil is tagging along with her. We don’t know what he’s going to do next but I’m not getting a good feeling.
