Long Riders! Complete Collection

In her first year at university, Ami Kurata admires her friend Aoi’s bicycle and the freedom it brings but feels too clumsy to try riding herself. Aoi encourages Ami to buy a cute folding bike, which changes both of their lives. Long Riders! could be accurately titled "How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bike." With no real plot, the story follows Ami over the course of a year as she gains proficiency and confidence in bicycling. Along the way she and Aoi join three other female cyclists, who are eager to help Ami and welcome her to the cycling life. While they inevitably form a team, this isn’t a typical sports anime with an eye toward competition and the big win. The girls do hope to race in Paris someday, but right now they are happy to simply bike together. With no real drama, high stakes, or personality clashes, Long Riders! relies on building positive thinking (with a hint of crush) coupled with the occasional dash of didacticism (bike maintenance and the monetary and physical costs of cycling are often touched on). Based on a long-running manga, this is a laidback and loving paean to biking with friends. Presenting all 12 episodes from 2016 in a Blu-ray edition, in Japanese with English subtitles, rated TV-14, this is recommended. Aud: P. (L. Martincik)