Review: The Rolling Girls “Lightning Speed”

I have to say, “Lightning Speed” plays out a bit better than “Disappointing Person,” however, the episode doesn’t go without problems. There was an improvement, more specifically, we get some story. I was wondering what Dandy’s deal was, and you also get a character that doesn’t give a damn about the current structure of how things are in the Japan of The Rolling Girls.

The race between the two rival provinces bugged me. Let’s talk about the antagonist of “Lightning Speed.” I have no idea what his name is, because no character actually spoke it. It’s just that he’s the vice captain of Mie Motors. But every freaking time he talked, he had to talk like he was motor, over his motor revving. I know The Rolling Girls plays really hard to stereotypes of the land, but if I can’t understand a character, what’s the point of putting him in the show? You could have just had duped Tomoki duped, and race anyway, with the vice captain just screwing things up like he did.

Dandy, on the other hand, this guy was stoic, and baller whenever he was on screen. He accepted the challenge from the vice captain, unbeknownst to the rest of the townspeople, he was a former racing legend. Dandy was sure entertaining, even though he didn’t have a lot of stage time. I kind of wish he was a recurring character. Maybe in season two, right?

The sum of an episode is it’s worst part. And for me, the worst is the vice captain of Mie Motors. The fact that almost the entire episode revolved around this guy, and you could only understand maybe every sixth word, it gets irritating. When the evil plan was hatched to get this race with Dandy, you were seeing things as they go on the screen, because someone made the moronic decision of making the voice less audible than the revving motor. That’s the problem, and that’s why “Lightning Speed” was subpar. So much revolved around this flake of a character. And this flake of a character held “Lightning Speed” down.