English Dub Review: How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? “What’s Your Sports Day Event?”

Overview:

Hibiki accidentally gets selected for the relay for the sports festival.

Our Take:

Sports day is a wild time, and I know because I’ve participated in a few myself. It’s great overall, and a lot of fun with all the wild things you end up doing, but it is also weirdly stressful in its own way. If you’re good at the sport you get put into, then there’s no issue, but if you’re not, then the pressure’s on you. Hibiki this episode definitely feels that; she’s not particularly athletic, but she still feels an acute responsibility to win the event because there is a chance for her class to pull ahead.

Of course, her reasons for training aren’t all selfless. She wants to have a more toned body following the summer, and her getting intense overusing the machine is one of the episode’s highlights. There’s something about art shifts that work so well. Motivation truly comes from all different angles. Hibiki’s laziness doesn’t stop her from trying her hardest in the race either, even if she ends up accidentally breaking a couple of rules. Although she is characterized by her overindulgence, she will absolutely step up to the plate when push comes to shove.

The sauna gag was pretty fun too; it’s like the typical onsen contest, but this time with a sauna. Considering that their teacher was a cosplayer, I was expecting her cool demeanor during the contest to be because she’s used to being out in the sun during the worst of Japanese summers. Comiket takes place in August when the weather is humid and muggy and unbearably hot, and cosplayers have to stand outside in that heat to take photos. Being in a sauna is part of her hobby, in a way, as she’s used to enduring such crazy temperatures and posing for pictures at the same time. I expected her to last a long time but in the end, she collapsed too– truly nobody can beat the sauna, in the end.

More fun facts from the show, I didn’t know that saunas only artificially make you lose weight! It’s such a common misconception, but it does make sense that you’d be shedding water via sweat and any weight fluctuations would be because of that. I do like learning new things, and this show is always willing to teach me new stuff every time (and make me laugh).