: I won…



I don't believe it either. it only took a million tries


Though the race is set up as a best of 3, in practice it's three in a row. You must lose to Hiro twice before Asami enables the super tune, then any loss from that point on will give Hiro the win...

The game doesn't actually penalise you for losing. I originally thought it might have been cruel enough to make you lose the car or the parts thanks to the super tune, but thankfully, you can just keep going back to the circuit and it plays out the same way.


: Congratulations, Taro-kun. It was really cool.



A confession that you may have noticed in the video... I couldn't actually do it in the Supra.

Even with the super tune, I simply couldn't break the 8 second barrier. It's either impossible, or I haven't quite mastered the gear shifting techniques.

So I had to switch to the NSX, and even then I only was able to beat Hiro by a hundredth of a second. Asami wasn't kidding - you can't make any mistakes - you need to nail every gear shift to win.

Though as far as the game is concerned in the upcoming scene and sprite work, we did it in the Supra.





: Me.


: I won.



Yes, Taro. You. You win.


: Yes, you are the best in Japan.


: I can't believe it..






: Congratulations, Taro! I never thought there'd be a man like this in Japan. I didn't think so.


: The car and the driving were great.



: Thanks to Champ for telling me to find a tuner.


: What's your tuner?






: It's me.


: Mayumi-chan, it was you.


: Umm...Mayumi and Champ what is the relationship?


: You haven't heard anything from her?



No. She doesn't seem to want to talk to us, unless it's specifically about modifying our car to beat you.


: Before I went to America, there are four heavenly kings in zero-yon.


: Among them was a woman named Matsunaga Asami.


: With just an 800cc car she reached number 3 in Japan.



Hey, I remember that.. Gotta say, I love the fact this series has an ongoing through-line through each game. I did not expect that going into it. Then again, this game rarely does what we expect.


: She was an incredible woman.


: The person who tuned the car was her sister, Mayumi.








Wait…

... hold up.

...Mayumi is Asami’s sister?!?

I had it all wrong. I thought it was Asami this whole time…


: She was only 15 years old at the time. Tuned up the third-ranked car in Japan.



Oh. :stare: Given all we've... uh... seen, of Asami, I’m going to choose to believe that Asami is Mayumi’s older sister… Much older sister..


: She's a genius.



She somehow put a mid-engined, 240 horsepower rotary engine into a Toyota Sports 800. She also got another two seconds out of our car. I can believe that she's a genius.


: But why my car?


: I really wanted to beat the champ in my tuned car, so I went to America to study it.



Wait. Mayumi was in America during the events of Zero 4Champ 2 too? How many bloody Matsunagas are there in these series?

We had her Uncle and Aunt. We also ran into Asami's brother, who I named Yuki at the time. I invented the name since the game didn't give them one.





Perhaps Mayumi is another sibling. Or, Yuki is Mayumi before a transition, or perhaps they were always her sister, and the translation messed up the gendered pronouns.

Come to think of it, this game hasn't had any of the usual homophobia or transphobia that the last couple did. I suspect this has more to do with being on a Nintendo console than a change of heart given the time however.


: And when you come back with your tuning skills improved, my sister had stopped doing zero-yon.


: So when I was looking for a new driver, my best friend Ritsuko told me about you I heard that


: Thanks to you, my dream came true. Thank you so much, Taro.






: Thank you …


: I have some complicated feelings


: It's like I didn't win on my own…



Yeah. Kind of feel that this was all a setup for Mayumi to take some revenge against Hiro for defeating her big sister.

I guess it's a running theme for all these games to have a Matsunaga scheming plot.


: What are you talking about? You won on your own merit.


: Your running in this fight was amazing. Even if I drive your car I might not have been able to get that time...



It was a .05 second difference in time… but we'll take the compliment.


: Yes, you won on your own merits, I was just helping you.


: Today's Taro. It was wonderful






: You’re the best in Japan.


: He’s the Zero-Yon Champ!