English Dub Review: How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? “What If We Get Lost?”

 

Overview:

Two new ladies try out the gym.

Our Take:

New characters! This time we meet two of the girls’ teachers. They also don’t act like going to the gym is a bad thing, but something that’s perfectly understandable. Girls supporting girls!

I really, really like Kure. She is the oldest of the group, middle-aged and married, even dresses in a kimono regularly. At the same time she is incredibly physically fit, able to do side exercises with relatively heavy weights and can hike no problem, which means she has a lot of stamina. From her introduction to hiking, she seems to live in a very nice traditional house as well. (Is she yakuza perhaps…) At the same time, although she puts up a polite front, she can be very terrifying whenever someone insinuates that she is old or mentions her age. She sounds a lot like the fit older women that I know, especially the older ladies that do routine exercises in the mornings. Just because someone is older doesn’t mean that they’re frail, not by a lot!

I do like the introduction of more older women into the show. They aren’t focused on the same problems that the high school girls are, but more of how to maintain their body. Things aren’t as easy when you’re older, and people worry about how your body will hold up with age. Tips like these are good because it shines a light that it’s not just young people who are into exercise, but older folks are quite devoted as well. No grandmas have appeared in the show just yet (although don’t mess with grandmas), but it’s still good that they’re exploring this aspect as well.

Also featuring a class trip that goes completely wrong. I do like how they included practical exercise like hiking, because they don’t really talk much about outdoor exercise so much overall. Gym membership is expensive, and hiking is something that people do quite frequently, especially people who live near the mountains or by trails. Also, I hike a lot, and it’s definitely taxing. The stuff they talk about really does work to help conserve stamina!

Then there’s that end. I have so many questions. Who is this rich menacing bodybuilder? And for that matter, who is Machio? We don’t know much about Machio after all, but it seems like he’s hiding something in his past… I definitely didn’t see that coming.