Bakuon!!

One day, while trying to ride her bicycle up a large hill on her way to school, Hane Sakura becomes awed upon seeing another student ride to school on a motorcycle. Taking an interest, Hane joins her school's motorcycle club and gets a motorcycle license. After buying her own bike, Hane begins her exciting, two-wheeled, motorized high-school life along with her new friends; Onsa Amano, Rin Suzunoki, Raimu Kawazaki and Hijiri Minowa. It is a an offbeat Slice of Life series with a leavening of Magic Realism.

Bakuon!! (Roar!!) began as a Japanese manga series by Mimana Orimoto in 2011 and has since been collected into a seven tankobon volumes. An anime adaptation, which this page primarily catalogs, began airing in Japan on March 18, 2016. At the time it could also be seen on Crunchyroll, but as of 2023 is no longer available there. It has been released in North America, sub-only, in both DVD and Blu-ray. It was preceded by an OVA which takes place later, chronologically.

Not to be confused with Bakugan.

Tropes used in Bakuon!! include:

Absurdly High Stakes Game: In episode 7, when the principal sees that Raimu's odds in the motorcycle race are 11-to-1, she immediately slams down a 3,000,000-yen bet (roughly $30,000).

"Oh, look, I had some loose change in my pocket."

The Alleged Bike: Almost everything for sale at Nicoichi Motors.
Analogy Backfire: Onsa dismissively claims that Honda CB400 Super Four ("Su-Four") owners never buy anything other than Su-Fours when it comes time to replace their bikes, and compares them to women who stay faithful to one man all their lives. The other girls basically say, "and that's bad why?" and she wonders if she used the wrong analogy.
Androcles' Lion: Hane suggests this trope might be invoked in Episode 4 if a band of foxes Rin "saved" as a child remembers her and "returns the favor". How, exactly, she does not explain.
Angel Unaware: The robe-clad biker with a halo whom Hane helps out on the road to Aomori (and who makes several subsequent appearances), who appears to be a clean-shaven Jesus.
Animate Inanimate Object: Baita, the Honda Su-Four on which Hane learns how to ride. The two have a number of conversations when Hane goes for her driving lessons. And it's not in Hane's imagination -- Baita and one of the instructors at the school have a conversation after Hane completes her last class there.
Bait and Switch: Rin's first flashback, which strongly implies her father died in an accident when she was ten or less -- only to reveal that he didn't, he was just jerking her around from his hospital bed.
Battle Aura: In episode 8, Hijiri manifests a dark purple one when she decides to take a sledgehammer to the practice motorcycle with which she's just taken an embarrassing spill.
Berserk Button: Touching the principal's new motorcycle -- especially with a tool in hand -- is likely to cause you injury.
Biker Babe: The core five characters are all one version or another of this trope, with Hijiri being the farthest from the archetype, and Raimu completely embodying it.
Binocular Shot: A "through-the-lens" shot from an SLR camera's viewfinder is part of the last moments of the opening credits.
- In episode 5, we get a "goggles-eye-view" from Raimu's P.O.V.
Blackmail: What the girls have on Saruyama-sensei after episode 5, in order to convince her to be their club's advisor.
Bland-Name Product: Completely and utterly averted, especially with the Suzuki brand.
Blatant Lies: "Ducatis never break down," uttered by Hayakawa moments after a broken Ducati has been replaced by a new one airlifted in by a helicopter. Also his claim that his life is linked to the Ducati, and that he'll die when it breaks down.
Bleached Underpants: Bakuon's creator, Orimoto Mimana, mostly draws Hentai manga. Which probably explains the bike-washing scene.
Born Unlucky: Rin's father seems to suffer an unusual number of accidents with his motorcycle.
Brand X: Thoroughly averted. Every trademark that could be there, is there, right down to helmets, convenience stores and canned beverages. And the Amazon.co.jp shipping boxes in the club room.
Cat Smile: Chisame wears one in the Flash Back to her first win on the bike racing circuit.
Censor Steam: When they finally get to the hot springs in Episode 4.
Chaste Teens: Between going to an all-girls school and their unlikely innocence this is no surprise.
Christmas in Japan: Episode 8.
Club Stub: The only apparent member of the Biking Club in episode 1 is Raimu. However, the viewers (but not the other girls in the club) eventually learn that she isn't an upperclassman, she's an alumna -- the club was actually disbanded twenty years before, and she's just been hanging out in the unused club room since then; Chisame's mother, who was in high school with the principal and Raimu, mentions that she knows Raimu's still at the school because she gets a card with the club room's return address every Christmas.
Compensated Dating: In Episode 5, a drunken Saruyama-sensei tells the girls they should stop riding motorcycles and instead do the kinds of things they can only do in high school -- like enjo kosai.
Compensating for Something: Averted in-universe, at least according to Saruyama-sensei, who claims that the size of a man's motorcycle engine reflects the size of his personal endowment -- which is why men don't like women who ride more powerful motorcycles than they do.
Conspicuous CGI: For the most part averted, but there is the occasional moment when the motorcycles look just a hair too crisp and clean.
Contractual Purity: For 16-year-olds, the main cast are entirely too innocent to be believable. When even would-be tough girl Onsa cannot understand a veiled reference about how the size of a man's motorcycle engine reflects on his personal endowment, Suspension of Disbelief starts crumbling. However this is apparently a requirement for heroines in the genre, regardless of how bizarrely ignorant it makes them seem.
Cool Bike: The show revolves around them, almost to the point of idolatry.
Cosplay: While emceeing the bike race in episode 7, Hijiri dresses up like the villainess of a Sentai show.
Cry Cute: Rin, when she manages (with the help of the Holy Grail) to not run over a pair of foxes in episode 4.
Defictionalization: In-Universe, Hijiri somehow gets her family's conglomerate to reproduce a completely unrealistic video game device for use at the festival, The Panel That Somehow Cools Your Engine When You Go Over It.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: Hane's "body wash" of her motorcycle's seat and gas tank in episode 5.
Don't Try This At Home: End-of-episode notices warning viewers not to try the cycle stunts seen therein.
Dreaming of a White Christmas: When it starts snowing in episode 8, Hane joyfully declares that it's a white Christmas.
Early-Bird Cameo: Chisame appears briefly at the end of episode 7 -- she was sitting next to Yume during the festival bike race, and the two appear to know each other. She is at first shown only from behind, and we only see her face in the last seconds of the episode.
Embarrassed Finger-Twiddling: Onsa, when Rin declares that all the bikes for sale at her family's shop are junk.
Epiphany: The ride Raimu gives Hane in episode 1, which pushes Hane over the line from "motorcycles are kinda cool" to "I MUST HAVE ONE!"
Escort Mission: The first time Hijiri rides to school by herself (on a moped), Onsa discovers that she had two cars full of bodyguards making sure she made it there safely.
Everyone Went to School Together: Raimu, the Principal and Chisame's mother were all classmates and members of the original motorcycle club. The team Raimu was racing against when she had that fateful accident was made up of Onsa and Rin's fathers.
Evolving Credits: Chisame gets added to the credits in episode 9 when she joins the club. Interestingly, they blend her right into the existing footage instead of changing the credits entirely.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Panel That Somehow Cools Your Engine When You Go Over It (Trademark of the Minowa Group). Unfortunately, it works too well.
Excited Show Title!
The Faceless: Raimu and Rin's father are only ever seen wearing helmets.
- Chisame's father, a famous racer, is always seen either from behind or with something (like a tablet computer) blocking his face from the camera.
Fan Service: Episode 5, what with Saruyama-sensei's ...little moment and the bike washing scene at the end. Oh, boy, the bike-washing scene.
Festival Episode: Episode 7.
Flashback: Rin gets one in episode 2 explaining her devotion to Suzuki motorcycles.
Flung Clothing: Episode 4, at the hot springs. And Episode 5, when Saruyama-sensei attacks.
Fundamentally Female Cast
Genius Bonus: According to Real Life local legend, Jesus is buried in Shingō, a small town in Aomori prefecture... the same prefecture where Hane helped "clean-shaven Jesus" and was given what might be the (or a) Holy Grail during episode 4. After her adventure with him, Hane wakes up at the site and wonders if she's in heaven.
God Was My Co-Pilot: See Angel Unaware, above -- he spends enough time in the presence of the other characters to count for this trope.
Grail in the Garbage: "Jesus" gives Hane what may well be the genuine Grail for helping him when he was stranded on the side of the road to Aomori, out of gas. It's also a rare collector's Suzuki tea cup, which Hane gives to Rin, apparently without understanding what "Jesus" was talking about when he gave it to her. Unlike most tea cups, though, it seems impervious to damage... and might be a literal Deus Ex Machina.
Hair Decorations: In an interesting subversion of the usual practice, we do get to see the girls without their hair decs and habitual styles, usually upon waking up.
Hood Ornament Hottie: Hane's "body wash" of her motorcycle in episode 5 definitely partakes of this trope.
Hot for Student: It might be just that she's drunk at the moment, but in Episode 5 Saruyama-sensei seems ready to all but sexually assault a sleeping Hane, and claims it's the girls' fault for being "too cute". She then lunges at Onsa instead and then clothes go flying...
Hidden Buxom: Pretty much all the girls in the club. When they get into bathing suits to wash their motorcycles in episode 5, it's very clear that they're all larger than they appear in their school uniforms or biking gear.
Honest John's Dealership: Nicoichi Motors, the cycle shop run by Onsa's family. It's not authorized by any manufacturer, and specializes in junker bikes with their odometers fraudulently turned back.
Hot Springs Episode: Episode 4, which is actually entitled "Hot Springs" (or "Onsen", depending on who subtitled it). Unlike most such episodes, they only get to the springs in the last few minutes of the show.
Hyperspace Mallet: In episode 8, Hijiri walks off-screen for a few moments and then returns with a massive sledgehammer, surprising the other girls.
Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode title is a single word (in Japanese) followed by two exclamation points.
Imagine Spot: In Episode 5, as the girls briefly envision themselves as the characters of Journey to the West.
- In episode 10, Chisame repeatedly imagines all manner of humiliating results stemming from being too short to ride a full-sized motorcycle.
In Vino Veritas: Saruyama-sensei is closeted and in denial about being a Lipstick Lesbian -- until she gets drunk.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: Hane is so very this at the end of episode 5. So are the other girls, too (except Raimu), but Hane turns it Up to Eleven.
Irony: An example of Situational Irony is found in episode 5. During Onsa's Imagine Spot casting the girls as the characters of Journey to West, Hane complains about how skimpy her costume is. However, at the end of the episode, she very happily dons an even skimpier bikini to wash her bike.
Japanese Delinquents: Hijiri is totally delighted to be one, after talking the other girls into playing "chicken" with their bikes and winning. Of course, she doesn't even come close, but she takes such innocent joy in finally being a "bad girl" that it seems cruel to tell her she isn't one, nor are the other girls.
Japanese School Club: The show is all about the members of the biking club at Okanoue Girls' School.
- In episode 9, when the new first-years arrive, there is a veritable scrum of clubs trying to recruit new members, and not always making it clear what they're about:

Kendo (?) club member: Want to try whacking people with a stick?
Judo (?) club member: Care to try throwing people?

Jerkass: Rin's father. Not only does he keep the motorcycle her essay won for himself, he's foisted off a refurbished motorcycle with its odometer turned back on her as a "new" bike. And still laughs about it years later.
Jesus Was Way Cool: But he should really pay more attention to his fuel gauge.
Joshikousei: Apparently bucking the general trend for high schools in Japan after the turn of the century, the girls' uniform is a sailor-suit design.
Kabuki Sounds: Episode 3, when Hane puts her stamp on the loan agreement.
Limited Wardrobe: Most of the girls seem to be limited to their school uniforms, nightwear, and riding gear. Raimu doesn't have even that much, riding in her school uniform. Hayakawa always seems to be in a butler's uniform, even when biking. Averted by episode 8, when we see that they do have other casual clothing. Even Raimu, who shows up in a kimono. And her helmet.
Lipstick Lesbian: Saruyama-sensei, who is also closeted and in denial -- at least until she gets drunk.
Loophole Abuse: In episode 8, it's revealed that despite being too young by Japanese law, Hijiri still has a license -- and not just a motorcycle license, but one for every possible vehicle type in the Japanese licensing system. She explains that if you have a license from another country, Japan will just "translate" it into their licensing scheme. And that there are some countries where you can just buy the license you want. Which she's done.
Made of Iron: The Super Cub motorcycle that Hijiri starts learning on. Hayakawa explains how it can survive all manner of mistreatment and still keep running, and indeed, after Hijiri attempts to flatten it with a sledgehammer, it starts up right away without complaint.
Magic Realism: Talking transsexual motorcycles, Jesus on the road to Aomori handing out the Holy Grail to deserving young girls, Ducatis with souls...
- Raimu seems to be able to inspire motorcycles and even scooters to go beyond their physical limits for her.
- For some reason, all the instructors at the motorcycle license school look like puppets and/or ventriloquists' dummies
Magical Land: Onsa seems to regard Hokkaido as one for bikers.
Meaningful Name: Baita, the talking motorcycle, and it's one that total innocent Hane misses. Depending on the characters used, "Baita" could be a boy's name, or a term meaning "whore" or "slut". And given how one of the first things Baita says to Hane is a comment about how her crotch is in Baita's face, and as she's retired she boasts of how many riders' "virginities" she's taken, it's pretty clear which meaning we're supposed to hear. It's just underlined when the technician ends the conversation by affectionately calling her "slut".
Meido: Onsa, Hane, Rin and even Raimu-sempai all find themselves wearing maid costumes -- apparently due to Hijiri -- in episode 7 as part of the school festival. Especially during the motorcycle race they're holding as their contribution.
The Men in Black: The Minowa family security guards, in the brief moments that we see them, seem to fit this archetype.
Moe: A major design element in all the characters.
Motorcycle on the Coast Road: Part of the opening credits.
Nakama/True Companions: Hijiri believes that the game of "chicken" she talks the others into playing will make them this -- and indeed, she seems to be right.
Noodle Incident: Averted with Hayakawa's references to his time in Siberia. While a North American viewer may have no idea what he's talking about, a Japanese viewer will realize immediately that he was one of the POWs held by the Soviets in the post-WWII Siberian Internment.
Ocular Gushers: Raimu when by herself on the ferry to Hokkaido in Episode 4.
One-Gender School: The name of the cast's high school -- Okanoue Girls' School -- says it all.
One-Word Title
Parental Abandonment:
- Hane and Yume's parents are in America.
- Subverted in episode 2: we see an extended flashback which is clearly intended to lead the viewer into believing Rin's father died of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. However, upon exiting the flashback we find that her father is both very much alive and a Jerkass. And, given other flashbacks, prone to both severe cycle accidents and claiming he's about to die afterward.
- Hijiri's only adult supervision appears to come from her butler, Hayakawa.
Pink Means Feminine: Hane's Su-Four, helmet and other gear. Also, Rin's race suit.
Pink Product Ploy: Possibly the reason why there was a pink Su-Four in the first place.
Product Placement: Judging from the show's website, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Ducati, Honda and Yamaha have all authorized the appearance of their logos and vehicle designs in this show.
Screw the Rules, I'm Famous: Happens to Chisame against her will in episode 10 -- when she goes to motorcycle driving school because she doesn't know how to drive on the street and sincerely wants to learn, every instructor gives her a pass, assuming that she must already be a good street driver because of her history as a race champion, and that she's there simply for appearance's sake, or to refresh her skills.
Secret Keeper: Hijiri and Chisame are this for each other as of the end of episode 10. Hijiri is keeping the secret that Chisame is untrained at riding motorcycles anywhere but a race track (and is training her in secret). Chisame is keeping the secret that Hijiri used a bizarre cyclist's "training aid" derided by the other girls in order to get her own bike license.
Sentient Vehicle: Baita, the talking motorcycle at the driving school.
Seinen
Slice of Life
Stealth Hi Bye: During the bike race in episode 7, "Jesus" appears in the stands next to Yume, speaks to her briefly, then vanishes.
Stealth Insult: By Onsa in episode 8, to either Hane, the Japanese education system, or both:

Onsa: See? She can state the answer, even if she doesn't understand it. That's how education works in this country!

Subliminal Advertising: Hane thinks she's doing this in episode 9 by making motorcycle noises while the other girls recruit potential members from the girls coming to take entrance exams for the school.
Super-Deformed: A chubby, naked Raimu cherub (complete with wings and bow) is part of a screen wipe when Raimu holds up a pad on which is written "Merry Christmas" in episode 8.
Surfer Chick: Judging by the completely random surfboard always leaning next to the door of one of the other rooms near the biking club, there's at least one in the school (and possibly a small gang of them).
Surprise Santa Encounter: In episode 8, Rin tells the story of one such encounter she had in third grade. In the same episode, Hijiri describes a Danish Santa with a genuine reindeer-pulled sled whom her parents airlifted in to surprise her one year. Being even more innocent than Hane, she still believes he was the real thing.
Take That: The show in general seems to have low opinions of both bicyclists and Suzuki cycles, and isn't hesitant to express them through its characters or its action.
Technology Porn: One of the trademarks of this show is the incredibly loving detail in which it shows each and every motorcycle.
Thanks for the Mammary: When she has her first couple motorcycle rides with Raimu, Hane inevitably holds on by grabbing her breasts. Oddly, Raimu doesn't seem to mind.
Theme Naming: The girls' names reference their bikes. See Meaningful Name on the Trivia Page for more details.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: Onsa and Hane, respectively, have this dynamic.
Transgender: In the original Japanese, Baita (the talking Honda Su-Four on which Hana learns to drive a motorcycle) describes herself as "transsexual" because the engine components that would have provided sufficient power to make her a proper road vehicle have been removed from her engine, effectively "castrating" her.
Visual Pun: In episode 8, Hane gives Rin (who wanted a Yoshimura muffler for her cycle) a heavy scarf ("muffler") with what appears to be a "Yoshimura" patch on it as a Christmas gift. Rin, who is normally a little bitchy about stuff like that, allows that the physical pun is so lame it's funny. At least until Hane rides off and Rin discovers the patch actually reads "Yoshiwara".
World of Buxom: The bike-washing scene at the end of episode 5 reveals that none of the girls in the club are particularly small, no matter how well their everyday clothes hide it.
X Meets Y: K-On! meets Easy Rider.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Hane's younger sister, Yume.