Kandagawa Jet Girls

Kandagawa Jet Girls

Kandagawa Jet Girls anime series cover art
Kandagawa Jet Girls

Overview

Kandagawa Jet Girls (神田川JET GIRLS) is a sports/ecchi anime series which has a game coming out in one week’s time. I’ve watched some gameplay of the game, and I hate to inform you that it looks pretty bad. But we’re not here to discuss the game; we’re here to discuss the anime.

Unfortunately, I also have to inform you that this anime is pretty bad too — as all racing anime are. But, in my search for a good racing anime, I had to watch it. And since there was an uncensored version, that’s obviously the one I watched.

However, the uncensored version of this series didn’t really add anything of value. Almost every episode has a random bath scene, and that’s where the uncensored part comes in. It’s not like there’s any action going on, just a girl sitting in a bath and it’s uncensored.

I really don’t know why those scenes are in this series at all.

Rin Namiki, Misa Aoi, and the Orcano from the anime series Kandagawa Jet Girls
Rin Namiki, Misa Aoi, and the Orcano

If this anime had actually focused on the jet ski races, I think it would have been much better. With that said, the jet ski race portions of the episodes were all CGI that didn’t look quite right — as is often the case. The CGI character movements look stiff and slow.

When your series is about something as fast-paced and potentially exciting as jet ski racing combined with (water) gun warfare, it’s pretty disappointing to see that part of the series handled in that way. And speaking of the water guns in this series, while they look more like real guns in the anime, they look like actual water guns in the game.

Teams

There are six teams featured in the Kandagawa Jet Girls anime, with each team being made up of two primary members: the jetter and the shooter. The teams also have support members, such as mechanics, but I won’t be going over them since we only know about them for the main team.

As their titles imply, the jetter is the one who drives the jet ski, and the shooter is the one who shoots the gun. By shooting certain target spots on opposing jet skis, the shooter can either throw them off balance or completely shut down their unit.

Oddly enough, the way in which these jet ski races work reminded me a lot of another game — Extreme G III, which was the first game I owned for the GameCube back in 2001 or 2002. In fact, I still have that game and it’s still great.

Just to explain it briefly, it’s a futuristic motorcycle racing game in which your supersonic motorcycles are equipped with boost capabilities, shields, and weapons. Really the only difference between that and Kandagawa Jet Girls is that the six, two-person teams don’t ride together on one motorcycle.

Kandagawa Jet Girls

The titular Kandagawa Jet Girls are our main team for the series who we’re forced to root for. Rin Namiki is the daughter of a famous jetter, and has always wanted to become one herself. Misa Aoi is Rin’s shooter, and the younger sister of another famous shooter.

Their jet ski is known as the Orcano and is the oldest model on the field due to the Jet Girl’s lack of funding. But thanks to their mechanic, it’s able to keep up with the rest of the competition.

Dress

Dress (sometimes stylized as DRESS) is basically the main rival team to the Jet Girls. The team is funded by the jetter, Kaguya Shijuuin. Her shooter, Kuromaru Manbu also servers as Kaguya’s maid.

The girls of team Dress are also what the kids would refer to as THICC, especially Kuromaru. This, in turn, translates to their jet ski, Tamakaze, as well. The Tamakaze is one of two jet skis in the series which is designated as being in the heavy weight class.

The six teams in the anime series Kandagawa Jet Girls
Dress, Suiryukai, Hell’s Kitchen, Unkai Surfers, MKHU, and the Kandagawa Jet Girls

Unkai Surfers

The Unkai Surfers are a team made up of foreign exchange students from California, USA. Jennifer Peach is the Jetter and Emily Orange is the Shooter. Both Jennifer and Emily are obsessed with Japanese culture, with their racing outfits based on samurai and ninja respectively. Their jet ski is the Cuisine 2.

MKHU

MKHU are, surprisingly, Japan natives. Based on the way they speak and dress, you might mistake them for “valley girls.” It’s strange how the girls who are actually from California aren’t the valley girl team, but it somehow works for MKHU better than I think it would for the Unkai Surfers.

The jetter for MKHU is Manatsu Shiraishi, while the jetter is Yuzu Midorikawa. They always look like they’re ready to go to the beach, they’re a bit ditsy, and they frequently make sexual innuendos, but they take jet racing very seriously with their Xuiver jet ski.

Hell’s Kitchen

Hell’s Kitchen is my personal favorite team. The jetter and shooter are sisters Tsui and Tina Pan (sometimes spelled Ziyu and Dina Pan), who are also professional pop idols and TV personalities. Their jet ski is the Les Soeurs SL.

If only Hell’s Kitchen was the main team of this series, then it would be a 10.

Tsui and Tina Pan from the anime series Kandagawa Jet Girls
Tsui and Tina Pan

Suiryukai

Suiryukai is the final team featured in the anime and is made up of jetter Fuuka Tamaki and shooter Inori Misuda. Both Fuuka and Inori are shrine maidens, which inspires their team aesthetic. Messie The Hunter is the name of their jet ski.

As a bonus fact, Fuuka’s personality changes wildly when jet racing. She goes from being a rather normal, nice girl to a crazed yakuza member.

Conclusion

For the entire time I was watching this series, I had Kandagawa Jet Girls rated as a 1/10. However, after completing it and thinking it over, I fell like a score of 2/10 is more fitting. Yes, this was a very bad anime, but there was still something about it which I liked.

Aside from the Jet Girls not being the best characters, I actually didn’t think the other teams were that bad. Hell’s Kitchen, Dress, and the Unkai Surfers specifically were all pretty entertaining to watch in their own ways. Hell’s Kitchen are just cute idols, Dress was a pretty good rival team, and the Unkai Surfers were just funny.

I don’t particularly remember the ED other than that it had all the characters naked (but censored) in it, so it probably wasn’t good. The OP is a different story though. The visuals aren’t anything special, but I actually really like the song, “Bullet Mermaid” — I’m listening to it right now.

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