BAKUSHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN
It’s funny how they made her the class president. The real horse was described as being very obedient near humans so that checks out… he was also described as being quiet which… no.
Bakushin’s “Long Distance Training” (where she ran three 1200m races in the guise of training for one 3600m race) is a sneaky bit of design. It means one less turn of summer training, but summer training tends to be designed in a way where by the 4th turn you often end up choosing between resting or taking a risk, so locking one turn away for the player is one hell of a tactic to relieve stress for rookie players (since story races don’t consume energy).
Sakura Bakushin O’s career was defined by being a regular in the Nakayama racecourse. This gets a funny nod in an event where she’s playing a sort of school-wide scavenger hunt following clues and one of the clues is “Nakayama”, the player can tell her to go check the Nakayama racecourse… or talk with Nakayama Festa. The latter one turns out to be the right choice.
Many of the truncated races of her campaign are from races not run by the original one, or for the convenience of the difficulty curve. For example, the Kurotake Sho and Sakurasou Tokubetsu are ungraded races not in the game (as in, they’re not even Open-grade races).
North Flight is a name that was mentioned very little in the post but North Flight was actually considered Sakura Bakushin O’s rival due to how many times they clashed in 1994… North Flight was also a mare, and many wondered what the offspring between both of them would be like, but that never materialized.
North Flight is descended from Tony Bin incidentally, just like Winning Ticket, Air Groove, Jungle Pocket, Vega (Admire Vega’s mother), and Spring Ticket (Curren Chan’s mother).
I didn’t indulge as much in the other post about the many examples of Bakushin being the peak dumbass everyone loves… so let’s fix that!! Some examples include:
An incident where she tells Bamboo Memory about a story she heard of a ghost in the dormitories and instead of being scared they’re both OUTRAGED at the shameless breaking of rules of this pale girl by breaking curfew to crawl on the cieling.
That one time she explains to Sakura Chiyono O that スピード (speed) and 速さ (speed) are things you should focus on, and also they’re completely different because you get スピード from トレニンーグ (training) and you get 速さ from 練習 (training).
The fact that she’s convinced she’s an honor student due to her teacher needing to put her in supplemental lessons two months in a row now. After all, why else would you give extra schoolwork to someone unless you had nothing but the highest aspirations for them, right?
One time she drew a friend’s face for art class and when she showed it to them they asked her if she drew an alien… so of course Bakushin decides that that’s a sign that her art skills are so good that they’re beyond this planet.
She gives the player a pop quiz where she asks why she lets so much of her face (read: forehead) show and the options are: a) Because she’s an honor student b) Because you can see her face better c) Because it’s a gift from the heavens. The answer is ALL OF THE ABOVE and as a participation prize she’s giving you a smile.
One time she reads a romance manga that Daiwa Scarlet was lending Mejiro Ryan, and while discussing it, Bakushin declares that she will fall in love too! …because Scarlet was talking about how the manga’s main character (a class president that falls in love with a delinquent) grows stronger thanks to the relationship. So obviously “Falling in love” is just another form of training.
Bakushin is featured heavily in Kitasan Black’s story, and that’s because the real Kitasan Black is actually Sakura Bakushin O’s grandson, with Kitasan Black’s mother, Sugar Heart being descended from Sakura Bakushin O and Otome Gokoro.
…now that I think about it, maybe the whole “I will fall in love” bit was a nod to this? (TL Note: Otome Gokoro means “Maiden Heart”).
Her outfit has that sort of dignified commander-like style to it. But during an interview (the event where she talks about the clothes) she says how from the moment she was given her name her destiny was decided, “to be as bright as Sakura in full bloom”. So it has the two things personal to her: Being Class President (hence the commander-like motif) AND being like the cherry blossoms (hence the sakura motif).
Incidentally, an important element of the Sakura motif in real life is how ephemeral they are, leaving as fast as they come, which feels super fitting for both a really fast girl and a girl with zero stamina.
Her two secrets describe that she’s great at making Green Tea and that she keeps a Kyousha piece of Shogi on her as a talisman. I couldn’t find any specific real life correlation with the green tea outside how funny the idea of this girl having the patience to prepare green tea is… so let’s put a pin on that, but the second one is actually handily explained by another loading screen comic.
Kyousha, knows also as Incense Wheel, Chariot, or more commonly Lance, is a shogi piece whose movement pattern is to go straight ahead non stop. So of course Bakushin feels kinship with it and keeps one as a charm.
In the SR card where she has a megaphone, the episode tab talks (in that megaphone, lest you forget) about how there’s a hidden meaning in おはよう (Ohayou, Good Morning), because はよう (Hayou) sounds like はやい (Hayai) or 早い (Fast), thus by greeting everyone she’s spreading the power of Speed.
Speaking of the Episode Tab, the one in her first SSR card actually includes the phrase “Sakura-colored eyes” and I kinda wonder if her petal eyes are something that’s acknowledged in-universe or if it’s like when a character has shark-like teeth (see: Twin Turbo and Air Shakur) but it’s treated as a stylistic flourish instead of something tangible in context.
In the other post I commented that if she managed to go from 1200m to 1600m then it’s only a matter of time before she can reach 2400m. That’s actually not entirely a joke. Mihono Bourbon got his real life nickname of “Cyborg” in part because he was able to train intensively from sprinter to stayer seemingly overnight.
Bourbon is also another dumdum with a smooth brain that claims she’s an actual cyborg… and Bakushin honestly, truly, sincerely believes that Bourbon is actually at least half mechanical for realsies.
There’s something to be said about a friend so supportive that if you tell her you’re a cyborg she will accept you as a cyborg and respect your cyborgness though.
I didn’t mention it, but the fact that her Unique Skill says “…Bakushin Power (?) comes through…” absolutely kills me every time. Not even the game itself knows what her deal is.
Her evolved skills have a similar thing where it’s like… Sprint Turbo becomes BAKUSHIN SPRINT and Overwhelming Lead becomes BAKUSHIN LEAD.
Oh, and if you wondered what “Bakushin” means, there’s actually a bit of a pun going on. It both means 爆心 (center of an explosion) and 驀進 (rush, dash), both of which are VERY fitting definitions. So when she shouts BAKUSHIIIIIIIIIIIIIN while doing anything, she’s basically shouting “DASH DASH DAAAAAAAAASH” except Dash is her name, and also Dash means explosion too for more effect.
…there’s also Bakushin (幕臣 vassal of the shogunate) so make of that what you will.