Yowamushi Pedal

Yowamushi Pedal is not a good show. It's a standard, predictable shounen sports series that does nothing memorable or exciting. Every conflict in the story is caused by not having enough pride in your team, and every conflict is resolved by having more pride in your team. The characters all fit neatly into their pre-determined stereotypes, and nothing really changes between the start of the show and the last end card. But this show does excel in one area, and that is copious amounts of balls-to-the-wall MANSERVICE.

Now, I don't claim to be an expert on the admiration of the male physique. I like my ladies ... more than I like my guys, which is why I lean towards shows like Highschool DxD more than Free. But I started this show with no idea what I was getting myself into, and for the first, oh, 10 episodes it was a so-so show about bicycles. Then it started happening. The outfits got tighter, the shorts got shorter, and the amount of screen real estate taken up by sweaty butts increased dramatically. I was bewildered by this sudden turn. “Truly,” thought I, “these camera angles are those reserved for fanservice shots, but there is nary a panty to be seen!” It wasn't until 2 episodes before the show ended that I finally had a complete conception of what I was seeing. It was a shot of two cyclists crossing the finish line, one positioned triumphantly behind the other with his arms held to the sky, hips thrust proudly into the rear of the one in front. The loser was wide-eyed at this sudden shock, overcome with the realization that the winner had completely taken him by surprise. It was then that I knew just how far from home I had come.

Yowamushi Pedal is a show built entirely on a foundation of manliness. You're apt to see so many sweaty, panting men with their firm butts thrust high in the air, grasping at each other and fighting for dominance, that you'll never want for another slash fic again. There is a veritable smorgasbord of masculinity on display for any tastes you might have. Do you fancy the stoic leader type? Take your pick from any of the team leaders. Do you prefer a foul-mouthed lone wolf who secretly cares deeply for his friends? You got it. Want a tall, awkward guy with a big heart? Well, you're getting one anyway. The dogged nice guy with a dark and troubled past even makes an appearance. Like your guys with a more bishounen appeal? Here's a fun activity: count all the female cyclists you see on the character page. Done? Those are all guys. Do you love big beefy bros? There's not one, but TWO massive mountains of man-meat here, one of which even names his muscles for easy reference in fan fics. “Oh Arakita-san, please rub lotion on my Andy...” Like long, spindly guys with no bones and a sociopathic hatred of humans? You may want to talk to someone about that, but in the meantime, enjoy Yowamushi Pedal! No matter your preference, this show's got you covered.

Should you watch Yowamushi Pedal? If you've read this far, you should already know the answer to that. If you like men's butts and you cannot lie, pick this one up and tough out the first two arcs. You will be richly rewarded. If you just want to watch a by-the-numbers shounen then by all means, pick this up as well. But if you're not in the mood for manservice and you don't want to see something that insults your intelligence, then give Yowamushi Pedal a pass. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go marathon Seikon no Qwaser to reaffirm my sexuality.

This review only applies for the first 10 episodes of the series, it does not constitute for the overall experience of the anime itself and it will be comprised of what I liked/disliked about the anime and the reason I have had dropped it for.

My reasoning for dropping Yowamushi Pedal is fairly simple. It has no element that is unique to itself and presents only themes that have presented in a lot of other sports anime. As a result of such, you have an underdog that finds friendship and determination by getting entranced in a sport, cherishing the friendships he made along the way, being ... entranced in the competitive nature of the sport. He doesn't look impressive to the average person, but unlike them, he has a lot of determination, despite doubting his capability, but he has x trait that really shows off how talented they are. Follow the adventures of 和名 as he finds friends and proves his worth.


This is the exact setting. The sport is cycling. The protagonist is an otaku with no friends that kept riding to Akihabara which was 90 kilometers away and was sad because he has no friends, literally. He wished to get friends and noticed he actually had potential in something, so he started developing a passion for the said something. The sport itself isn't particularly interesting, not because cycling itself can't be entertaining, but because it can't be written in a way in which you can measure the skill of the participants, so every time it just showcases the characters constantly reiterating the fact that they're determined, and then they speed up. It does explain cycling techniques and how to cycle more efficiently, but watching a battle of endurance/determination is just not something I consider fun, when there isn't really anything else to it other than that. It's just like lighting up a couple of candles and watching which one melts the fastest. Can't contain that excitement. At the very least, the candles can't say cringy things such as "He's one with the bike." "He won because his feelings WERE THE STRONGEST!!!" "I'm only good at talking... with my pedals." and there's plenty more that I don't remember.

The characters aren't particularly interesting, and are merely safe archetypes that worked before in the setting. Like the reserved introverted guy, that is really passionate for the sport, or the guy that wants to stand out and be in the spotlight, with the colored hair and the short height, or a goof that wants to brag about how good he is, despite the fact he's mediocre, or a tall guy that is intimidating due to his height and because he is socially awkward, or a guy that learns about the power of friendship. I mean, their entire character can be boiled down in a few single words, like otaku wants friends, i'm muscular, i'm short but i can pedal and so forth, you don't see any depth. They're just a blend of bare minimum character traits with singular motivations. Frankly I watched for 3 hours and 20 minutes, and this is the impression the characters left on me, and I think that that is more than enough time to display at least one out of the ordinary element in your story or characters. There is no such thing to the point that I got in Yowamushi Pedal.

There wasn't really anything I particularly enjoyed about Yowamushi Pedal. I appreciated some of the information about cycling, but everything else was not really noteworthy, and this is what I think Yowamushi Pedal is, not noteworthy. It doesn't try to do something inherently unique in any measure and presents a story that was done to death, without altering the formula in any way. It simply banks on the audience reaction of "cheer for the underdog because they're the underdog." There wasn't anything unique about it and I noticed how it went with safe formulas that were used before, as well as its focus on a theme that has been done to death. There isn't really anything about the sport through which you can measure the skill of the participant, and it mostly comes down to determination and endurance, which are all decided by the narrator at his own leasure, which eliminates all of the tension. Yowamushi Pedal tells the story of an underdog's journey of developing friends and getting better at a sport. If that's what you're seeking, this is a good choice for you. But if you want more than a repeat, or have prior knowledge of series of the sort, I would steer clear of this series. But I think a good underdog story is a story where you can understand how the underdog changes in order to overcome the odds. And I just can't see this not going into a direction that is settled by "I wanted it more/You didn't want it enough." Which is a required element at the basis, but one that needs to be largely built on to stand out, and not be constantly said on screen. That is how Yowamushi Pedal failed me.

So I've noticed no one has talked about how Yowamushi Pedal utterly fails to portray cycling as a sport, so that's what I'll briefly cover here.

As an avid road cycling viewer I have found it impossible to ignore how any real world logic and strategy was completely thrown out the window for this series, how the teams are fully organized 100% of the time during races, how no one drafts off of anyone who isn't their teammates(I especially found this straight up insulting) and how there apparently is no such things as break-aways or random attacks to try and push an advantage. This anime makes ... road cycling look like a stupid and simplistic sport, with no depth and very little strategical elements.

The fact that having a really strong upper body makes you faster makes no sense at all (just look at cyclists like Wout Van Aert, Mathieu Van Der Poel, Peter Sagan and even Julian Allaphilippe) and had me laughing at it untill I realised the show was taking it 100% seriously, at which point I started crying.

This and the fact that the storyline is exactly what you'd expect from a sports shounen makes this show a tough watch, even for someone who enjoys the subject. 3/10 Wouldn't recommend unless you know little enough about cycling to not be triggered or you just really enjoy the generic sports shounen template.

By episode 25, I have to say I've dropped this show for good. It's just a waste of time. This could be an entertaining show if you're a noob in anime. But for those who've watched anime for like, 10 years and more, this was just a rehashed of the elements of shounen-types with all its stereotypes.

I watched this because I just got myself into the venture of cycling. And I did my research and could tell the hybrids, MTBs, and road bikes apart; and cyclocross, and touring, and brands like Specialized, Giant, Trek, Cannondale, Cube, KTM, Boardman, and more.

What you get here is the ... same vibe when watching Initial-D, Prince of Tennis, then character stereotypes found in Slam Dunk, and add some slight yakitate!Japan-type of humor in the mix, for a theme of cycling, and that's it for Yowamushi Pedal. The story is predictable and mediocre, you'll get a weak but not epic protagonist. Gurren Lagann already smashed the "weak protagonist" with Simoun, and thus no other anime might come as good, not until two decades or so.

Art is okay, I'm not mindful about the art, whether it's as fluid as KyoAni's, or intricate as CLAMP's; or quirky as PingPong; or epic as Kill la Kill or Gurren Lagann; as long as the story is befitting to waste time, art would be the last thing on my mind.

Sound is alright.

Again, for the characterization, you'll have a weak character for a protagonist, a quite arrogant second-placer deuteragonist, then some bishoujos on the sides reminiscent of Initial-D or other shounen anime (Saiki-K maybe? But that anime's epic, and this one isn't) ; some dude that reminded me of another dude in Akame ga Kill, in fact, the cast here kinda reminded me of Akame Ga Kill, and I last watched that show in 2016. It's all a set of varied, BUT predictable characters at best. So what charactrerization you've seen here, I'm sure you've seen them elsewhere.


Enjoyment... right. I was thinking it'd be like Initial-D on bikes, like I get to know what Specialized is and all that, but it is none of that. I should have just watched ESPN, or Long Riders if I was aiming to get the fancy delivery of bicycles and its parts and those.
Still, you still get those flashbacks as the action was about to progress, and some backstories that we've seen on other anime. But well, can't help it. At most, this is a generic, rehashed elements molded into a different story of road-cycling.
Only SAO and its cousins (like Rei-Zero) are the type of anime I'd hate more; and this is me who's a fan of Gen Urobuchi-type of anime (Fate/Zero, Puella Magi, Psycho Pass, those kinda).

OVERALL, well, you watch this and be entertained and love this because you're a noob on the realm of anime.
Maybe you still haven't watched DeathNote and would freak out once you've seen it---like it's the best anime evur; then you'd have a high-blood pressure and atrial fibrillation when you watch Attack on Titan, and get a brain aneurysm when you watched Psycho Pass.

But if you've watched the type of anime where more than half of them are NOT mainstream, then you can waste your life on something else, like go have a real cycling around town.

Get a bicycle of your preference (hybrid, MTB, road, BMX) Specialized, or Giant, or Trek---you'll never be wrong with any of these three brands. :) Cube, Whyte, and Orbea are also great enough. Scott, and Marin are like... on the third-tier.

Get a reliable cycling helmet--- Kask, Giro, or Specialized;

then get a strong, robust bike-lock: Kryptonite, or Abus brands if you still want to find your bicycle where you left it off (and lock it properly and correctly, no bike-lock is infallible to a dimwitted owner).

And that's it, you go cycling instead than watch this crap.

ok, let's start with the story

Story 2/10
The story is just a cliche of the main character is this one weeb wearing glasses,
but turned out to be this super talented boy. Pretty predictable if you ask me

Art 5/10
The art is an eh for me. It gets pretty boring from time to time.

Sound 5/10
... tbh I am not the type of a person that will remember the ost so I'm just gonna give a 5

Character 7/10
I don't like the mc that much but I do like the relationship between maki and that one character with a blue hair that I cannot remember the name of. And the guy who's a mama's boy, It's pretty cute not gonna lie (and yup I cried) Overall the character is not memorable at all

Enjoyment 3/10
I actually started watching this anime because of a clip I saw on YouTube. It's the clip when all of the members of the team sings the 'Hime song' Together. But I realized when I got to this season I just wasn't enjoying it at all. And that is when I dropped this show

Overall 3/10
It's not a good anime. I would not recommend it. But I could see someone enjoying this. I'm just not the type of person that likes sports anime I guess