Yowamushi Pedal: Grande Road

Sohoku, the team that never gives up.

This season of Yowamushi Pedal started off with a bang, finally quelling the much awaited cliffhanger in the season prior. The story is a fresh burst of excitement that further develops the characters and evidently concludes this exciting race.

Story: 6/10
Each episode begins with a quick recap of the episode that came before, helping the viewer understand where the bikers are in the race. The story encompasses the entire middle - second half of the Inter-High. It is no question that the first season of this anime needs to be seen beforehand, but it is definitely worth the ... watch. Though each episode was filled with exciting plot twists and moments that keep you on the edge of your seat, the show lagged in a few areas. Most episodes spent half of the time reflecting on events that had happened in previous episodes. The vast amount of flashbacks made the story drag and frustrated me because the race could have been finished much sooner. Thankfully, there was enough character development and intense scenes to keep the viewer thoroughly entertained. You would think that an anime about bicycle racing would grow boring after a few episodes; however, I can personally say that this show had me excited for a new episode every week.

Art: 7/10
The art style was relatively average, but stayed clean and consistent throughout both the first and second seasons of Yowamushi Pedal. The scenery presented in the show was well drawn, as were the fast-paced racing scenes. Nothing obscure was drawn and nothing seemed out of place, but nothing spectacular was shown either.

Sound: 8/10
The music definitely was a perfect fit for this anime. It was an exciting blast that would get you excited to watch the show, even if you weren't excited at the start. The opening was very suitable for a sports anime, since the aim is to get you pumped for the chase. The voice acting was also very satisfying. All of the voice actors adapted to their respective characters and there were thankfully no unnecessary exaggerations in tone. At times the characters would shout in excitement, power, or dismay, but it adds to the overall pathos of the show.

Character: 9/10
One thing that Yowamushi Pedal has excelled at the most is its character development. Of course there was a much broader look into the lives of the characters in the first season, but each new character that was introduced was never forgotten. The supporting cast on the sidelines as well as the opposing bicycle teams were thoroughly developed and well introduced. There was one set of character that was introduced that seemed to play more of a menacing filler role, however, the arc tied into the story very well and enhanced some of the main characters' own personalities. The beautiful character development has you rooting for every single character that is competing in the Inter-High and has you resonating a connection with them all.

Enjoyment: 10/10
If I were only grading this anime on enjoyment, it would have a definite perfect score. I would definitely recommend this show to sports anime fans as well as standard anime lovers. It is no question that the first season needs to be watched first in order to comprehend the story, but it is worth the watch. I absolutely loved this anime and I can't wait to read the manga.

Overall: 8/10

I wanted to like this anime more but unfortunately its to much a show about cycling and more an ANIME about cycling. It does the jojo thing where it slows down the world so much and gives us 10 minutes of inner monolouge in what are supposed to be 10 real world seconds, also overdramatizes certain aspects of racing, during the race in the show, there were a few characters that needed to be left behind and every time it was treated in a similar manner to when a shonen protag's friends all make noble sacrifices so that he doesn't have to fight the goons ... and can save his energy for the main antagonist.

In the context of fighting this makes sense, but in races people can only go as fast and as long as their bodies will allow, if the fastest person on the team is ahead of the pack the second fastest being faster than some dude on the other team ain't gonna have a bearing on whether or not the dude is gonna be able to catch up lol.

ALso the show kinda acted like people not being able to keep up near the end had any significance at all when it doesn't. In a real world race without all the anime fuckery if they're near the head of the pack they can probably rest for 10 minutes and pedal on minimum speed to complete the race before the cutoff lol. Since they aren't judged as teams either its like..... dude who tf cares? Your ace came in 1st or second, you aren't scored as a team, you aren't injured, you can just rest for a couple of minutes and even if everyone passes you you'll still complete the race before the cutoff just to say you did lol.

Its also kinda annoying how it does the thing where everyone needs to have an anime superpower. One guy has a high vo2 max, one guy is really aerodynamic, one guy eats enough his glycogen is never deplete, one has abs.

Its true that there are different types of atheletes within the sport whose different physical attributes give them different advantages, but the reality is everyone competing at a high level in cycling has a high vo2 max, almost all of them are going to do at least a modest amount of resistance training, they're all going to make efforts to be more aerodynamic, the vast majority of riders are going to slam back those nasty gels or sugarbars, but not all of these advantages are equal and the show kinda acts like they're similar in power level, you pick a "style" and depending on how hard you work on it you have equal potential as someone else to be the best.


I already know people are going to say things like "stop whining its an ANIME, its NOT SUPPOSED TO BE REALISTIC" but *shurg* art imitates life and since this show isn't meant to be wildly unrealsitic in the same manner as a show about yokai or a shonen anime with crazy power levels like hunter x hunter i think it makes sense not to enjoy those aspects of it and to criticise the show for it, i'm not saying the show is bad, just that some of its anime tropes are overplayed and i think perhaps not appropriate for its specific genre, its okay to criticise aspects of a show you enjoy or even not to like things that other people like.

The Anime started well with the first season giving a glimpse into cycling. It baffles how uninteressting and simply bad this season was.
Not only was there basicly no character development, no plot twists that seemed in any way interesting nor did the anime feature anything I would like to see in a story.
The Animation and Sound were almost the same as the first season so thats fine,
but this season felt like a Dragonball Z copy on bicycles.

Maybe 50% or even more of an episode are two or more characters screaming each others name, supported by cut ins of them pedaling or leaning over ... their bikes.
Any other interaction between the characters were surface level deep, meaning it had no impact on the story or the relationships.
Even worse is the aspect of expertise. When you look at the first Season you sometimes get some information about cycling and sports in general.
These information are sometimes even relevant to the story (see training camp in season one and other scenarios). But in this season there are almost no such infos.

All in all this anime was something i looked forward to but which dissapointed me in the end.

If I had to find one positive aspect about it the solid animation and sound design would come to mind.

My verdict: If you want uninteressting screaming and very simple entertainment without deep story or knowledge about cycling give it a go but don't expect much from it.