Yuri & Megumi
On the Japanese island of Miyakejima, two high school girls prepare for the competitive motorcycle sidecar racing event held there: highly skilled driver Yuri Miyata and her trusty passenger Megumi Meguro. The two have been best friends since childhood with highly matching personalities, which has aided them in achieving the chance of participating in the racing event held on their home island.
Alas, a wrench gets thrown in their relationship when they both fall in love with their coach. How will the two girls fare in the competition where they have to collaborate intensively, while also battling it out for the affections of the same man?
The SILVER LINK.-produced anime started on October 7, 2017, with a simulcast on Crunchyroll. It depicts Yuri and Megumi's struggles with each other and their interactions with the other sidecar teams residing on the island, all consisting of quirky personalities with their own issues.
Two Car contains examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The race scenes are done in 3D animation outside of closeups.
- Abuse Mistake: Happens to Nagisa when in the onsen. Her driver Izumi has a very aggressive driving style which means Nagisa tends to wind up with bruises from where she collides with their bike.
- Always Identical Twins: The Shishido sisters, Maria and Yuria. Zig-Zagged when Maria cuts her hair in episode 6 to look different, and then in Episode 7, Yuria cuts hers to match again.
- Bait-and-Switch Lesbians:
- The way Megumi and Yuri act all tsundere toward each other led many viewers to believe that this was because of some UST between them. Alas, both of them have appear to have formed a crush on their coach, a guy, which becomes the main source of their mutual resentment.
- Some of the other pairs do show signs of romantic affection, but it never amounts to anything or influences the plot in any way. This is even true for Mao and Hitomi, whose openly flirtatious behavior is mostly used as a source of comedy.
- Bifauxnen: Katakura Mao. Referred to as the Crossdressing Beauty and wears a male version of her school's uniform with trousers rather than a skirt.
- Cool Sidecar: Given the nature of the sport they blur the line between an independent sidecar and an integral part of the bike.
- The Faceless: Megumi and Yuri's coach until episode 10, when he finally figures into their plot, is portrayed as this. All the other coaches however are reduced to being simply in Unknown Character status, if that.
- Extreme Doormat:
- NAGISA. Willingly obeys Izumi's word even if it ends up hurting her in the process. A bit unique in her case though is that while she gets an arc where she tries to gain a bit of independence and backbone, she ends up submitting to Izumi by the end of it anyway, something which severely disappoints the other characters in-universe.
- In Misaki's arc, she believes that she is one, and initially also believed that, due to Chiyuki's rich girl persona (later revealed to be a mere facade she puts up) and her family being rather poor, that the former chose Misaki as her partner so she could have a doormat to walk all over and push around (subverted once we find out the real reason, which is that Misaki was the first person that Chiyuki felt looked past her wealth and prestige; and she was holding back with her because she doesn't want her to get severely injured, a worry that was formed based on trauma of her previous partner which suffered the same fate).
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Episodes 2 and 3 show the girls taking part in practice sessions without helmets.
- Game-Breaking Injury: Happens in episode 11 when Nagisa is thrown off her and Yuri's bike and injures her leg, putting their participation during the finals at risk. It's only through some arm pulling from their coach to switch roles and a modification to the bike to accommodate for the injury that the pair are able to continue.
- Left Hanging: The show ends without stating what the outcome of the tournament is.
- Motorcycle on the Coast Road: Inevitable given that it involves motorcycle racing, and the episodes take place on an island. One of the coast roads is actually part of the racecourse.
- Real-Place Background: The show explicitly takes place on the Japanese island of Miyakejima, and many of the roads and local sights have been carefully reproduced.
- Scenery Porn: Sure, Silver Link is no Kyoto Animation, but they still tried their best to show off Miyakeyima's eye-catching surroundings as best as they could.
- Shout-Out:
- The Motegi Twins are a clear reference to the Twin Ring Motegi Course
- Maita Ai's energetic "GOOD MORNING, MIYAKEJIMA!" (in English, no less) sounds an awful lot like Robin Williams shouting, "GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM!" (which in turn is based on what radio DJ Adrian Cronauer did in real life).
- The Motegi Twins are a clear reference to the Twin Ring Motegi Course
- Significant Haircut: Maria gives herself a haircut in episode 6, making it possible to tell her apart from her identical twin sister Yuria.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Outside of racing, Mao is the tomboy to Hitomi's girly girl.
- The Unreveal: Despite the conflict of the main pair being who'll go with their coach to the Isle of Man as his racing partner, it's never revealed whether or not either of them are chosen or passed over.
