Rinkai! is a 2024 Japanese sports anime series created by Mixi and produced by TMS Entertainment . It received a prequel manga called Rinkai! Azalea in the same year.
The story follows Izumo Itō and her friends who are big fans of the "Rinkai! League", an organization that revived women's track cycling (also known as Keirin) in Japan. After watching their first race together, they all become inspired to become professional cyclists and compete on the Rinkai! League.
This series provides the examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The scenes with bicycles combine CGI models with 2D backgrounds.
- Bathtub Bonding:
- Episode 1 has the lead heroines visit the bathhouse that Izumi's family owns, and they all bathe together while bonding over their first real-life meet-up and have a discussion about their new inspiration about becoming professional cyclists themselves.
- Episode 5 has Izumi and Hiratsuka bathe together as they have their first heart-to-heart.
- The Big Race: Given it's a sport about bike racing, the story features several. And when the characters aren't racing, they're prepping themselves for the next big race.
- Boyish Short Hair: Most female cyclists have short hair, fitting with it being a tomboyish sport.
- Commonality Connection: The five leads all got to know each other thanks to their shared interest in pro-women cycling and Kurume & Tachikawa in particular, as they're all Fangirls of them, having all met via a fan website run by Miko.
- Evolving Credits: In episode 4, the opening is updated to include the rest of the cast introduced in the academy. Their scene replaces the shots showing footage of the race in episode 1.
- Good Parents: Despite Izumi fearing she may disappoint them when she reveals to them she wants to pursue being a professional cyclist, they're both very supportive of her pursuing her dream.
- Graceful Loser: Despite being introduced as ace riders, Kurume and Tachikawa actually lose their race in episode 1 to Mukomachi, but they both take it in stride and are happy for her. Tachikawa actually gets peeved when the news focuses more on them losing more than on Mukomachi's success.
- Hot Springs Episode: Izumi's family owns a Ryokan Inn with a large hot spring, meaning scenes with the cast visiting the hot springs aren't rare. The very first episode has Izumi inviting all her friends there for their first real-life meet-up, and almost a third of the episode is the girls having a Bathtub Bonding moment.
- Kimono Is Traditional: Izumi's parents and sister are often seen wearing kimonos around the Ryokan Inn they own.
- Obsessive Sports Fan: The main leads are such huge fans of track cycling that they did an offline meet-up just to watch a race together, and they own several merchandises of their favorite racers. They're so awed by watching a race they all become dedicated to joining the sport as competitors.
- Port Manteau: Miko's fan channel for Kurume and Tachikawa is a combination of their (Ta and Kuru) Takuru / Tackle Channel
- Sexy Surfacing Shot: Episode 1 features a fanservice scene of Kurume stepping out of the hot spring, with the camera providing Male Gaze angles of her toned features.
- Talent vs. Training: Subverted. The training arc has the other trainees feeling dejected because they can't reach Hiratsuka's skill as she was simply "born talented" and their hard work will never compare. But it's then revealed she actually trains even harder than most girls there, and that is the reason she's so skilled.
- Team Hand-Stack: When all five girlfriends make a pledge to become professional cyclists, they all stack their hands together.
- Theme Naming: The cyclist's surnames are based on velodromes in seaside towns that exist in Japan (Izumi Ito is named after the Ito Onsen Keirin velodrome
- Time Skip: The story tends to skip ahead a few months and weeks as the girls train. A year has passed between the start of episode 1 and the end of episode 2, and after that things slow down to weeks and months passing by.
- Toplessness from the Back: When a naked Kurume stands up in the hot-springs the camera remains positioned on her back.
- World of Technicolor Hair: The characters have all sorts of impossible hair colors that are treated as unusual, such as white, pink, green, or purple.
