Yowamushi Pedal

Sakamichi Onoda is a cheerful otaku looking to join his new school's anime club, eager to finally make some friends. Unfortunately, the club has been disbanded and he takes it upon himself to revive it by finding students who are willing to join. Without much luck, Onoda decides to make a round trip to Akihabara on his old, bulky city bicycle, a weekly 90-kilometer ride he has been completing since fourth grade.

This is when he meets fellow first year student, Shunsuke Imaizumi, a determined cyclist who is using the school's steep incline for practice. Surprised by Onoda's ability to climb the hill with his specific type of bicycle, Imaizumi challenges him to a race, with the proposition of joining the anime club should Onoda win. And thus begins the young boy's first foray into the world of high school bicycle racing!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Onoda, Sakamichi Main

Yamashita, Daiki Japanese

Makishima, Yuusuke Main

Morikubo, Shoutarou Japanese

Naruko, Shoukichi Main

Fukushima, Jun Japanese

Imaizumi, Shunsuke Main

Toriumi, Kousuke Japanese

Kinjou, Shingo Main

Yasumoto, Hiroki Japanese

Tadokoro, Jin Main

Itou, Kentarou Japanese

Midousuji, Akira Supporting

Yusa, Kouji Japanese

Arakita, Yasutomo Supporting

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Manami, Sangaku Supporting

Yonaga, Tsubasa Japanese

Teshima, Junta Supporting

Kishio, Daisuke Japanese

Takegawa, Shingo Producer

Yamanaka, Kazutaka Producer

Takemura, Ippei Producer

Oono, Ryousuke Producer

Reviews

Nov 2, 2024

ajw215799

Recommended

This was quite the unexpected joy ride. What I like so much about this is that it feels like a breath of fresh air in a cluttered anime space. I really like shonen anime like this, especially multi-cour series with this series being paced quite perfectly. But what I find quite strange about this series is that it is surprisingly sadistic. Every episode, it seems to relish in bringing these characters down into despair, especially when sometimes it doesn’t make logical sense in the story. Would definitely recommend this series to others and I can’t wait to continue on to future seasons.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Aug 6, 2024

betarunner

Mixed Feelings

I had this on my plan to watch, and it was a listed anime for a Summer Stack Challenge so I ended up watching it. Sports anime are ones I've not watched a great deal of, but I have watched a few and am aware of the cliches and tropes. Well, for the most part. Plenty cliches were overused, but, still, didn't really retract from the entertainment of it.
This anime has majority of the cliches and tropes that are in sport anime, but they didn't necessarily subtract from the anime. Yowamushi Pedal has the same recipe as the rest, but it does it well. ... That said, what messed up the anime for me was storytelling and pace - which I assume was the same in the manga. Overall, I would recommend viewers who like such genres to watch it, but I have mixed feelings due to how the second half of the season was handled.

Storytelling and Pace: For the first half of the season the show had good pacing and storytelling; however, it became somewhat of an annoyance around the second half. Prior to the second half, there is a 4-day camp to test who will enter the competition - which lasts 6 episodes. 6 episodes for 4 days is reasonable timewise. That said, nearly 20 episodes are spent on the 3-day race. Why? Because half of the time in each episode is dedicated to a flashback, or massive amounts of inner and/or outer monologuing. Basically, half the second arc is either a flashback or the riders talking during the race. The number of flashbacks and monologues during the second half is exhausting at best.
Flashbacks would've been better if they had been more appropriately placed. If most of them occurred during training, it would've been more fitting. Having flashbacks and nonstop talking during a race makes it impossible to really enjoy the sport aspect. Anime that wastes time during important moments may seem like a good idea to keep people waiting and guessing, but as a sport anime, it simply serves to hold back from the theme. In moderation, it is fine, but there is no moderation when it comes to flashbacks and monologues in the second part. In addition, half the runtime of 3 episodes of the second part of the season was a dude monologuing about his abs. That part wasn't funny, nor was it a useful to add to the story. It was just a joke that failed to deliver and humor, along with wasting time for the actual sporting event. He literally spent minutes talking to his muscles. Episode after episode. Those were a slow 3 episodes - watching flashbacks of him working for his abs, him talking about his abs, etc... yeah, you get the picture. Adds absolutely nothing to the story other than the fact that he - like EVERYONE else, worked hard.

Characters: As for the characters, most of them easy to like...except sadly the main character. His determination at times is nice, and his caring nature, however, it isn't until episode 30+ that he stops having a mental breakdown and begins doubting himself the moment something goes wrong. The antagonist character is quite annoying. Antagonist characters can be terrible people and still likeable at the same time, which makes for some fun antagonists. This is not the case. The antagonist in this is very easy to dislike, which is kind of a dull bit, given antagonists can be very fun characters when written well. Other than that, the other characters are likeable.

Music: It was there...

Art and Animation: Majority of the art and animation was great. However, they reused the exact same sky scene so many times within a 15 episode timespan that the image is now burnt into my head. That was just lazy.

I will watch the next season as I did enjoy the season. For those who enjoy sports anime, you'll probably enjoy this, cliches included. Though, be prepared for the enormous amounts of flashbacks and unnecessarily large number of monologues in the second part. I really wanted to give this show's first season a 7, but the second half of the season really just was nowhere near the first half. The second half was a bit of a struggle, but I wanted to see the results, and preserved through this slow section of the story. Since I too, like the athletes had to struggle to finish....I'll give season one a 6. It was fine, as it wasn't necessarily good.
Lastly, another reason why this won't be getting anything beyond 6 is because by the end of the season, it is a cliffhanger, which is completely unnecessary given the race should've already been over. I don't mind the cliffhanger; it is 2024 and I can watch the next season immediately. The reason this is off-putting is the fact that this arc is STILL going despite the fact that it should've been over by now and should instead have ended on a cliffhanger that was gearing towards another goal.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 13, 2022

lorolol

Not Recommended

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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