Just by the title, viewer will know something pops up. But what exactly happens?
(Spoilers in this review)
Well, Ami starts off seperated from the group because each group can only have a set amount of people. So she has to bike really hard in order to catch-up and ends up cramping her leg. As a result, the girls rest at an aid station.
Saki stuffs her face at the aid station and brings the other some food while she’s at it. As a heads-up, this episode review will contain mostly images of Saki because she’s my favorite character, wahaha.
While she is my favorite character, Saki’s gluttony slows down the group’s progress by a considerable amount since she is insistent on trying food at every possible aid station.
As a result, team Fortuna spends a lot of time visiting every aid station to both rest up and to eat food. Meanwhile, Ami is worried that they won’t finish in time or that she herself won’t be able to finish the race, but her friends claim that they have plenty of time and they continue to encourage her throughout the episode.
There’s actually a lot of eating scenes in this episode, but I think most of us are probably a bit tired of seeing that by now. I’m convinced that this show’s focus is tied between cycling and eating food. The fact that the best girl, Saki, is really focused on food probably doesn’t help my perception of the show. I still like her, though.
At one of the aid stations, the girls play shiritori while waiting for Ami to catch up. It really showcased their (not very deep) personalities, I think. Hinako is glad to have cycling buddies so she says “Fortuna,” the name of their group; Saki opts to mention food because she loves food; Yayaoi has a bike part fetish so she references that…
Once Ami arrives, they continue to play shiritori and even end up teasing Aoi over her attachment to Ami once again. “Don’t fix what’s not broke, I guess?” I think that this sort of (simplified) adage applies to a lot of anime, including Long Riders! since it reuses the same sort of gags over and over.
The girls then finally reach the halfway point!
And then we get an insert song as they continue to eat, cycle, and get strangers to take a group photo for them! Some talk about how food tastes better when they’re together as a team, as well, which I consider to be at least partially true from personal experience!
However, something just has to go wrong and it does, don’t you worry. Team Fortuna has become the last cyclists in the race because of two factors: they kept to a really slow pace due to Ami’s inexperience and the fact that they made too many stops at the aid stations in order to try food. As a result, the staff guy who rides behind all of the participants tells them that they’re close to being unable to finish the race. Oh, no!
Next week’s episode is titled, “The Azumi Autumn Ride! Part 2.” It seems like they’re going to press onwards despite the weather suddenly becoming rainy?! See you next week!
The Lily Garden 
That looks like it would be an awesome waterslide.
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It really does! A shame the girls couldn’t experience it.
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That…is a hella stupid reason to almost screw up a race. I mean, we all know they’ll gird up their loins and pull it off but still,it strikes me as a lame method to add drama.
Fun fact, I actually find food to taste better when I’m alone. Maybe because I like to savor food that I like and eat it slowly which I find hard to do when I’m with friends.
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I think it’s a silly reason, too. What happened to their careful pacing and planning? It’s like the prospect of food blindsided them.
Oh, I can see why you feel like that. That actually sounds more reasonable and logical than FRIENDSHIP making food taste better, in fact.
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I think that it really depends on who you’re eating with. If you’re with friends who are also into food, being able to chat about what you eat and have a shared memory can be great! If you’re with friends who just want to socialise, it does give you less time and space to enjoy the flavours as you’re busy chatting about other things.
It seems like Team Fortuna are all pretty serious about their food. This show is basically 50% cycling, 40% food, and 10% Ami being incompetent and unable to look after herself alone.
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You bring up good points. I need to reconsider my overly strong words.
Those percentages sums up the show quite nicely. It’s a good thing Ami’s almost always got friends or family nearby or else she wouldn’t make it.
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For someone who is supposed to be an adult (well, an adult in the parts of the world where 18 is an adult, in Japan you become one at 20), she really does seem to struggle quite a bit with every day life!
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You make a good point. I’ve never had friends who are into food but none of us were the type to talk about it except for the occasional ‘wow this is good’. So an experience like that could be fun.
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My husband like eating out together as a way of trying different foods. We’ll often check out new restaurants and takeaways in the area, and we always chat about what we’ve eaten. Even really bad food is more fun if you’re in it together (while most places are at least decent, you do get the occasional shocker, but they make good memories).
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