DGFischer

I normally don't watch from the genre of 'Cute Girls Doing Stuff' unless I can somehow relate to all this.  So, the big attraction of Long Riders is the experience of bicycling for distance.  I've done this long ago in my unfortunately long distant past.  I had taken on trips of 10-50 miles on my (SMA ... and please promise not to laugh) Schwinn Typhoon.  Talk about radical dimensions in novelty … similar experiences light-years apart!  The road bicycle of Long Riders is a vastly different machine with curved handlebars, derailleur system of gears, and incredible lightness.  And 10-50 miles?  Pfft, amateur hour!  The distances the MC Ami Kurata endures runs 60-100 miles, with reference to one French touring experience of 720 miles!

The action centers on Ami, a freshman in university who is clumsy and physically weak.  She has forever admired her friend Aoi who has looked good on a bike for years.  Ami begins with a cheap folding bike which is functional for quick trips to store and back, but she needs a higher-tech road bike for longer junkets.  She needs guidance to get around the basics of travel and gets this from  Hinako and Yayoi.  Her early trials are failures, and it takes the skills of pro-biker Saki to prove that bikes can take on mountains ... and win.

Long Riders is an informative series about the skills needed to take on long inclines, the intelligent use of stamina, even the rapid repair of flat tires and upkeep of one's ride.  But it's basic theme is that of the expanding world as Ami gains confidence in her abilities to handle a difficult 100 mile endurance event.  Ami learns to necessity of teamwork as drafting from her teammates is the difference in succeeding in a distance run that she believed she could never achieve.

The 100 mile event could have been the last episode (Epi. 10), but Long Riders offers two more events, the night ride and extended touring.  With each adventure, Ami's world grows, and the clumsy girl even has the opportunity to inspire a classmate to be a biker.  The novice becomes an expert in one year.

The animation is a fine synthesis of flat animation of girls performing before a static background to the finely-tuned motion sequences featuring CGI.  And, while the ending suggests a second season, the finality of Ami encouraging her classmate to take on distance riding makes for a successful season where a try at a second season would seem cheap ... like a short-trek folding bike.