English Dub Review: MF Ghost, “The Kamaboko Straight”

Overview

Impressing everyone with his drifting abilities, Kanata aims to finish his qualifying lap with a flourish. But with a long straight just before the line exposing his car’s deficiencies, will he make it into the race proper?


Our Take

Picking up from the previous episode, Kanata’s Toyota 86 manages to pass through the “death area” of the track where visibility is low, earning the attention of Fumihiro Joyu, the manager of MFG who reminisces on the driving technique of another 86 driver. In the end, Kanata finishes in sixteenth after losing ground in the long straight at the end of the race. However in Aftermath, Ren (as Angel Number 7 who is a flag-girl) proceeds to unexpectedly bitch-slap Kanata for not telling her that he was a racer, but her different hairstyle and appearance means that he didn’t recognize her.

This is incredibly dumb if you think about it. Because It’s not like she made an effort to hide her face. It’s the equivalent of Clark Kent just needing a pair of glasses and a different hairstyle to hide that he’s Superman. And due to an act of dumb luck, it’s revealed that another racer in the top-15 was disqualified for using “unsanctioned tires” (Which I didn’t know was a thing) and Kanata is now pushed up into fifteenth place, allowing him to participate in the race.

Overall, this was another good episode. the only bad moment I disliked the most was Kanata being slapped. It simply felt so out of place and disrespectful for no reason at all. And adding this unwanted drama to whatever the writer thinks how this “love story” doesn’t work. It’s not very romantic and really uncalled for. They could’ve found other ways than having Ren make an ass of herself on the job. I’m more surprised she isn’t fired for that, and she’s lucky the incident wasn’t made viral since it was broadcasted online with cameras around the racing arena with drones, as we all know the Internet’s endlessly toxic the internet can be when it comes to society feeding off negativity. At the very least, I do hope Ren can come clean to him about this later on and do her best to redeem herself, as part of me does like her, despite what she did earlier. (it’s nowhere as egregious as the shit show that was an infamous Tokyo Ghoul episode) as for that act of dumb luck that got Kanata in the race, I do wish him the best of luck, since his opponents, including Shun, will be tough to keep up with. As the next episode’s title preview seems relevant to the plot I guess…