The One With… the incredibly f***ing long episode title. Also, it's Saki's turn for her character arc!
The sun rises on the horizon. We see two worn-out girls after destroying an entire bunch of Korosuke goons in the duration of a single night. One of the two girls, is Saki. The other, is her purple-neon haired best friend, and the boss of Saki's motorcycle gang Dorami, Reiko Amabuki. As the morning arrives for these two biker gals, Saki is craving for some Drive-In Tori for a post-beatdown breakfast.
Saki and Reiko begin their friendly race towards Tenmangu on their motorcycles to celebrate. But as they zoom by, we see that this entire scene was a mere flashback. The year is 1997, and at this point in time...Saki's biking days are almost over.
Fast-forward to the present day, and our zombie girl idols are currently doing their next mission already: Learn the infamous Kashima Dance from the Saga senior citizens! This is because Kotaro wanted Franchouchou to reach into the senior demographic of the prefecture, as Saga is filled to the brim with old folks.
That being said, the girls are going to sweat hard in order to master the Kashima Dance. While these seniors are old and tired, they're extremely good at the dance. With Franchouchou joining in, they easily accomplish their mission with ease. But as the girls dance along with the old Saga folks, we see a young punk around the corner, scoffing at them...
After the dancing lesson, Lily and Tae fetch some water to drink. Sakura tells them to come over so the group can leave, but the three are then interrupted by that punk girl...and she has two lackeys by her sides. They move towards the three idols slowly (and with better quality animation to boot), and while Lily is initially intimidated, she notices the punk trio's bikes...which are cute pink scooters. Lame.
The punk gal tries to bully Lily, but the shooting star idol comes back at the punk by stating she's only a grade schooler. The lackeys then tell their boss (whose name is Maria), that its against their rules to bully younger kids, so the gang leader known as Maria resorts to bullying Sakura, instead.
But then all of a sudden, Tae somehow sees Maria's hair bits as yummy dumplings, and decides to chomp on them. This hurts Maria instantly, so Sakura stops Tae from enjoying her snack. Saki then rushes into the scene, and Maria decides to bully her instead. Unfortunately for Maria, she's bullying a person who died as a badass biker girl, as Saki sternly advises Maria to avoid picking fights that she won't be ready for.
Maria and her two pathetic goons then decide to skedaddle from their failed attempt at being punks, and as they turn to walk away, Saki notices something familiar from what Maria has written on the back of her coat...Saki was dealing with the new boss of Dorami.
The three surviving members of the dwindling biker girl gang have a talk somewhere far from the idol group, and Maria's 'goons' (read: two best friends from school) are pretty much tired from the idea of running a serious gang. However, Maria is pretty much the only person left who cares about the legacy of Dorami as a whole, and won't quit until she says so. What makes matters worse, is that Maria is also the daughter of Reiko, who was the gang's first boss. And Maria does not like her mom one bit.
The trio of wannabe biker girls are then ambushed by Dorami's rival gang known as "Korosuke", who unlike the Dorami gang, are still high in numbers to this day. Their current boss is Misa (aka "The Fallen Angel"), and she's persistent in her goal of shutting down Dorami altogether- even if it ends with the last three members being downright beaten to a pulp.
As Maria comes head to head with Misa, we cut back to Franchouchou heading back home in Kotaro's van. Shenanigans ensue with Lily and Tae fighting over dried squid, Yugiri attending to Junko's car sickness and...Saki rolling out of the van to deal with the two gangs. Kotaro screams in anguish while all of this is happening.
Saki intervenes successfully, but not before she corrects her head (given it was twisted after she rolled onto the scene). Before Saki can be able to 'introduce' herself (without screwing up), our friendly neighborhood Policeman rushes in to save the day! Well, sort of. He's too terrified of the punks, and decides to call for back-up if things escalate further. Misa then tells Maria that she'll soon deal with this situation, and the Korosuke gang depart for now.
Maria was pretty unhappy with Saki pulling this intervention, but Saki reminds the current Dorami boss that she wouldn't have been able to successfully stop the rival gang. Regardless, Maria still wants to reach her goal of making Dorami the most well-known Saga biker gang, even if her mom doesn't run the gang. Saki is somehow wanting to know if Maria's mother is really her old best friend Reiko, but Maria leaves angrily without an answer.
At the Amabuki household, we see Maria returning home late after a tiresome day of dealing with Korosuke and Saki. The motherly Reiko shows her daughter that Korosuke has sent Maria a challenge letter, and Reiko does not want her own daughter dealing with such a powerful gang that might get poor Maria killed. Sadly, Maria doesn't give a damn, and doesn't even accept Reiko's pointless apology as she storms off to bed without dinner.
Meanwhile, Saki is being scolded at by Kotaro for dealing with non-idol related human problems, as he reminds her that Saki (and by extension, Franchouchou as a whole) can only deal with problems if it's related to idol stuff. Kotaro also mentions that anything involving the usage of violence is strictly forbidden, as that kind of stuff would destroy an entire idol group in an instant.
We then cut back to Reiko, who starts to reminisce about the good old days when her daughter Maria was growing up. However, by the time Maria reached high school, her childish attitude was gone. Instead, Maria chose a life of delinquency, and joined Dorami to follow her mother's dark footsteps.
A dismayed Reiko then flips over the photo frame of her with a baby Maria, and opens a secret compartment that reveals a smaller photo of Reiko with Saki, back when they were in their prime. Reiko wishes that Saki could see how much her old purple-haired friend has grown as a person, but that day will never come. Or will it?
Back at the mansion, Saki begins to reminisce about her good old days with Reiko. She remembers the time where the two biker girls discussed about what sort of future the duo will have, with Reiko wanting to start a family at some point. This is due to Reiko's childhood not being bright and colorful, and she wants her child to grow up without falling into darkness like Reiko did. Saki's future, on the other hand, is pretty much uncertain (and how!) as Saki herself hasn't really found a purpose in life yet...
Saki's thoughts are then interrupted by the sounds of motorcycles rushing through the street- and it's Korosuke bikes at that. Given that Misa planned to settle things with Maria very soon (too soon, actually!), Saki has to do something to prevent the Korosuke and Dorami gangs from doing something death-defyingly dangerous. Kotaro catches Saki at that moment, and warns her once more about what she's about to do. Luckily, Saki has a plan...and it won't involve violence. It's just idol stuff that she's got planned up her sleeve.
Not only has Saki caught wind of this, but so has Reiko. As she checks up on Maria, she notices that her daughter has escaped through the window to meet Misa and her gang at Kagamiyama. This causes Reiko to experience some major PTSD, as that specific location was where she saw Saki die before her very eyes back in 1997.
Saki's death was the punishment via a deadly game of chicken with one of the previous bosses of Korosuke (who happens to...uh...have quite the hairstyle, don't you think?). The brave-hearted captain wanted to go all out with her A-game, and even stated that "there's no way [she's] gonna die", but Saki managed to shoot through the edge of the cliff, and the ensuing explosion killed her instantly. Reiko cannot let something similar like this ever happen to her own daughter, so she revs up the old motorcycle from her Dorami days in order to reach Kagamiyama.
At the location itself, we see Maria and Misa getting ready for the big chicken game, with Maria's friends and the Korosuke lackeys spectating. Maria is 100% ready for this deadly game, but before the game begins, Reiko rushes in to stop. The badass mother herself attempts to reason with Maria so her daughter can avoid risking death from a foolish challenge. But Maria just wants to be like her own mother...when she was young. Not helping by the fact that Reiko has never shown her guts to Maria ever since she was born, mind you.
Reiko is helpless at stopping her daughter, but all of a sudden- Saki makes an appearance out of complete nowhere! Riding on a small worn-out bicycle, she crashes onto the situation and declares that she'd be partaking in the challenge as Dorami's "Captain-For-A-Day".
Maria attempts to yell at Saki for her to stop this act, but Saki reminds Maria once more that the young boss is not ready for this dangerous game. In fact, Saki tells Maria that someone from Dorami (guess who?) managed to die from this challenge in the past. Maria gives in to Saki's warning, and lets the "Captain-For-A-Day" take control of Reiko's motorcycle in order to win the challenge for Dorami's sake.
But before Saki can begin, Reiko warns the 'captain' (not knowing it's actually Saki) that the blonde punk herself might die from this sort of game. Saki then reassures Reiko that "there's no way [she's] gonna die".
With those specific words, Reiko is reminded of Saki. She asks if its really her...but Saki obviously dismisses her question, knowing her true identity cannot be revealed.
Saki and Misa begin their game of chicken once and for all, and Saki once again, goes in with her entire A-game. Revving up the motorcycle that Reiko once owned, Saki speeds through the cliff like before like the brave-hearted badass biker she was...and of course, this results in a huge explosion that gives Reiko more PTSD.
Fortunately, Saki is already dead, but it did managed to cause some minor pain (surprising for a corpse like herself). Unfortunately, she gets major pain in form of a fist to the face from Reiko, who lashes out at Saki for selfishly destroying one of her keepsakes, as well as surviving the explosion unlike what happened back in '97. With Reiko's true anger revealed to Saki, the captain smiles at her old friend, as she's finally reunited with her old pal. Sort of.
Maria is surprised at Reiko's rage moment, and Saki tells the kid that her mother has the guts within. But Saki also tells her to try and look out for her mom, given that their relationship needs to be rekindled not just with love, but with true guts.
Saki, on the other hand, still hasn't been able to reach a conclusion to her whole purpose in her life (or rather, her afterlife). But that question is for another time. Misa congratulates Saki for her awesome win, and attempts to recruit Saki for Korosuke...but Saki is then reminded that the whole point of her mission was quite the opposite. Saki wanted to not join either gang, but wanted the two gangs to make amends and aim for the true goal in life: by riding the life away with every opportunity given.
As Kotaro and the rest of Franchouchou were helping Saki behind her back, the whole group begins their new song and dance, to prove both Dorami and Korosuke a point- to show how legends are made. As the Legendary Biker Boss finishes her song, Saki smiles to herself about the new biker girl friends she made along the way...as well as her finally reuniting with her old friend Reiko.
Tropes
- Chaotic Car Ride: Everyone is stuck in traffic aboard the van, and they all devolve into acting like a Dysfunctional Family. Lily is fighting with Tae over a piece of squid with Ai in the crossfire, Yugiri is trying to help treat Junko's motion sickness, and Kotaro is yelling at everyone to shut up. And then Saki jumps out of the van...
- No-One Could Have Survived That: Saki, in defiance of her past death, survives a nearly fatal motorcycle crash off of Kagamiyama, having jumped off the bike at the last minute and onto the cliff. The bikers are all at a loss for words.
- Oh, Crap!: Saki jumps out of the van and tumbles down a nearby hill, much to Sakura and the others' shock.
- The Reveal:
- Saki died from a fatal motorcycle crash trying to one-up a rival biker gang.
- Saki’s co-captain Reiko is now a wife and mother. She wants to keep her daughter Maria from starting a new version of Dorami out of fear for her safety.
- Super Window Jump: A variant.
Lily: "Uh... sir?"Kotaro: "Whatever it is I don't care!"Lily: "Saki jumped out of the van."Kotaro: "WHAAAT!?!" WHHHYYYYYY!?
