Kandagawa Jet Girls is a multimedia project created by Kadokawa, Marvelous, and Egg Firm. An anime series, made by TNK, aired from October 8, 2019 to January 7, 2020 as part of the Fall 2019 season. An OVA episode is bundled with the limited edition of the game. A game, produced by Kenichiro Takaki, published by Marvelous and developed by its subsidiary Honey∞Parade Games, was released in Japan for the PlayStation 4 on January 16, 2020. A Western version of the game was released for the PS4 and PC on August 25, 2020.
Jet Racing has become a mega-popular extreme sport across the world, and with good reason! The Jetter pilots a high velocity watercraft and is paired with a Shooter, who blasts rival teams with a water gun. It all adds up to explosive, wet-and-wild action as they race to the finish and compete to earn supremacy. Among those competing is Rin Namiki, and racing is in her blood. Rin aspires to become a legendary Jetter just like her mother, and after meeting the cool and gorgeous Shooter Misa Aoi, it looks like Rin's dreams are finally in reach with a partner who shares her passion! Every race brings them tighter together as a team and closer than ever to their dream of becoming the best Jet Racers on the water.
General Tropes
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The girls and their jets are rendered in CG when they are racing. They go back to traditional animation when the camera gets close, though.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The setting is of the series is, for the most part, identical to our contemporary world. Then you start noticing all the futuristic technology that goes in every aspect of Jet Racing.
- Author Appeal: The multimedia project was created by Kenichiro Takaki (creator of the Senran Kagura and Valkyrie Drive franchises) and the anime was directed by Hiraku Kaneko (director of Witchblade, Manyu Hikencho, the same Valkyrie Drive). It's no surprise that Kandagawa Jet Girls is also overflowing with things both men love, like implausibly huge breasts and gratuitous breast bounce.
- Beach Episode: Episode 10 is one as it takes place at the beach.
- Berserk Button: Fumika Shinshijyuin hates being reminded that she only belongs to a branch family of the Shijyuin family, which Kaguya Shijyuin belongs to.
- Casting Gag: Fairouz Ai, Emily Orange's Japanese voice actress, once more voices a dark-skinned blonde.
- Chromosome Casting: Jet Racing is a sport for women, and on top of that the main characters study at an One-Gender School.
- Clip Show: Because episode 5 was delayed a week, a recap episode, numbered 4.5, was created.
- Clothing Damage: Shooting the water gun at an opponent's wetsuit can cause pieces of it to disengage and fall off in a "suit purge", providing convenient Fanservice. This is described by the commentators as a safety feature.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The opening theme was performed by Yū Sasahara and Riko Kohara, Rin and Misa's Japanese voice actresses, respectively. The ending theme, on the other hand, was performed by Azusa Tadokoro, Kaguya's Japanese voice actress.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: While Rin is lost in thought in the bathtub, her rubber dolphin floating in the water touches her chest. More specifically, it touched her right in the middle of her breasts, with its snout pointing upwards.
- Double Entendre: Yuzu has a special way to describe Emily's water bazooka that leaves Manatsu red like a tomato:She made a lot come squirting out, huh? And it's so big, something that girthy will just get in the way if it got nothing left inside to shoot.
- Everyone Can See It: Whenever the cute romantic Rin/Misa happen in front of others, the people watching often display a knowing smirk at Misa's shy response to Rin's overwhelming warmth and cuteness.
- The Faceless: Rin's dad is heard and seen from the back, but his face is partially obscured.
- Fanservice: The breasts of the girls constantly bounce with little provocation. A nice example is at the end of episode 3: a train passes close to the place where the girls are sitting, and their breasts – and only their breasts – start acting like jell-o in an earthquake.
- Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Rin and Misa, as well as Kaguya and Kuromaru, wear some tight fitting wetsuits that emphasize their assets.
- Funbag Airbag: While looking for Misa, Rin bumps into Emily's boobs since she's a head taller than her.
- The Glomp: Rin does this to Misa after they beat Emily and Jennifer in a race. Her hug causes both of them to fall to the ground.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to its sister franchises, Senran Kagura and Valkyrie Drive. While neither of those is a stranger to lighthearted and comedy-focused Fanservice, they could also be serious and dramatic when needed, and during their moments of action, they could bring very high stakes. Kandagawa Jet Girls, on the other hand, is about a sport, which naturally has much lower stakes and no actual violence.
- Luminescent Blush: Rin seems to have a special talent to make other people go red. Rin herself blushes often, sometimes out of embarrassment, sometimes because of excitement.
- Male Gaze: Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of focus on the girls' chests and butts.
- Mr. Exposition: Syoco, who serves as commentator to explain the rules of Jet Racing for the benefit of the audience on both sides of the fourth wall.
- Mum Looks Like a Sister: Hina's mother looks more like her older sister.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: Rin's mother Furuki wore her wetsuit wide open to show her cleavage.
- Not So Above It All:
- Syoco is the calm and collected announcer. She's also the president and co-founder of the Hell's Kitchen fan club.
- After she gave an unenthusiastic "yeah" prior to the preliminaries in Episode 9, Kiriko gives a heartfelt Big "YES!" in Episode 12 after Rin and Misa win the Kandagawa Cup.
- Old Maid: Yamada, the teacher Rin got to be the advisor of her new Jet Racing club. When Rin makes everyone think she and Misa are together romantically, her first reaction is "they beat me to it". Her second reaction is to ask for dating advice.
- One-Gender School: More than one, as each pair attends a different school:
- Rin and Misa attend Asakusa Girls' High.
- Kaguya and Kuromaru attend Musashino Girls' High School.
- Manatsu and Yuzu attend Shinjuku Takadanobaba Girls' School.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Aqua and Syoco, the commentators of the local Jet Races, have this dynamic. Aqua energetically narrates the race, while Syoco calmly explains the rules of the sport and the strategies of the teams.
- Shot in the Ass: In their very first race, Kuromaru hits Misa in the butt with her high-powered water gun.
- Shout-Out: The reason the Form-Fitting Wardrobe of the cast is so form-fitting is, they have a vacuum-sealing mechanism that visibly makes them skintight after the girls put them on. Basically, they are plugsuits.
- Strong Family Resemblance: The reason Kaguya Shijyuin and Fumika Shinshijyuin both have purple eyes and hair in ringlets is because they belong to the same clan.
- Team Mom: Hina, Rin and Misa's classmate who makes food for them.
- That Came Out Wrong: When Rin tells their team she and Misa became one, she meant Misa finally called her by her first name. Fumika even does a Spit Take.
- Vapor Wear: In spite of the huge chests, apparently no one has heard of a brassiere. The uncensored version shows nipples poking out of shirts regularly.
- World of Buxom: Other than the Pan sisters, all the major racers in the series have large boobs.
- World of Technicolor Hair: This is seen throughout the series:
- Misa's hair is black, but has some purple strands at the front. A photo of her in middle school heavily implies it's dyed.
- Kuromaru has magenta hair.
- Kaguya has silver hair.
- Jennifer has pink hair.
- Emily has blonde hair.
- Wrench Wench: Kiriko, the team's mechanic for the Jet Race club in Asakusa Girls' High.
