Leave it to anime to work an onsen episode into a series set in turn-of-the-century America.  While that depiction was pretty far off-base, there were some nice cultural touches in this mostly comedic episode.  Not a lot of plot or character movement (with a couple of exceptions) but the series has been in race mode for a while and figures to be right up to the end, so I don’t begrudge it a breather week.  And in terms of the comic and slice-of-life aspects, it was surprisingly winning.

• The race goes north in an attempt to avoid the saboteurs.  But of course since Richard is obviously the ringleader (and probably the real Gil), the “accidents” will follow the series on its new route.  I don’t necessarily blame anybody, since there’s no obvious reason why Richard should be under suspicion.
• What’s Richard’s plan with Sophia?  What value does she represent for him?
• Speaking of Sophia, I was pleased to see Appare-Ranman accurately depict the consumption of tequila.  It’s not unheard of in Japan but hardly well-known.
• Fake Gil being a wild bird magnet was pretty amusing (let’s just look past he and his partner almost killing the racers they’re now frolicking with).  The larger point there was his helping Hototo learn how to act like a kid, which is a message I don’t disagree with.  Someone his age shouldn’t be carrying around the stuff he’s carrying around.
• That barber scene was such a tease.  Dylan being sheepish about his locks after T.J. mocked him was amusing, but I was really hoping that would lead to Appare losing that ridonkulous haircut (and the makeup would be nice, too).
• The Edison gag was a stretch, but Appare dragging a Raggedy Ann doll around was a nice bit of cultural awareness.  Even most Americans under a certain age don’t remember those dolls (Andy is her brother), much less Japanese people.
• The onsen..,  It was a funny take on cultural differences with the nudity.  That said, at the time and place in question a hot spring in America would basically be a come-what-may affair where anyone who felt like it would strip naked and dive in (in fact, hot springs in the rural West are often still like that).  Setting it up with lockers as if it were some spa in Arima or Hakone was innocently absurd.