Training for the Inter-High is a worthy goal, but it takes a certain something special to really make it.
What They Say:
Onoda Sakamichi is a rather timid, anime-loving first-year student at Sohoku High School. Upon entering high school, he tried to join the anime research club, but after meeting Imaizumi Shunsuke, a renowned cyclist since middle school, and Naruko Shoukichi, who swept the Kansai cycling championship, he ended up joining the competitive cycling club.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The first third of Yowamushi Pedal did a pretty good job of giving us a look at a group of characters with a real passion for cycling that fits in with most serious club cultures and sports. While we got our introduction to it with a bit of an unexpected prodigy, as such tropes will go, it allowed us to see the way the form and sport works through new eyes without being talked down to. Sakamichi, you typical otaku, founds himself caught up in something fun and exciting largely because of Imaizumi, having suddenly admired him for his cycling skill when the two had met and since Imaizumi was pretty interested in Sakamichi and his raw talent that wasn’t being well used. Thankfully, Sakamichi’s otaku side was just a blip on the radar overall and the series has focused heavily on the cycling itself with a dash of good character material outside of it and a solid look at the love of the sport by the Sohoku boys and those aiming to go to the Inter-High.
While I didn’t grade it highly, I really enjoyed those episodes for what they were as it largely went through the familiar new to sports routine and gave us likable characters all around. The cycling aspect was new and I liked what I learned and the passion of the boys, the attention to detail and the inspirational aspect of it all, but it was also quite familiar, which hampered the actual grading. This third of the series largely falls into the same “trap” if you will, in that it’s very well executed as it continues on the story, expands the cast and delves a bit more into some of the characters as they strive towards their goals. A good chunk of this batch of thirteen episodes focuses on the finishing half of the training camp and its brutal thousand kilometer ride that everyone had to achieve by the end of camp or they were going to be eliminated from the group. Sakamichi is continuing to do his best and we do see that like when he was riding his mommy bike, he’s not as slick and decked out as the rest. His bike is heavier than it should be, he’s not wearing cleats that would keep his feet firmly attached to the pedals and he’s actually using plastic pedals, which is really bad with his power and intensity and the cadence he uses when he’s doing the climbing routine. But even with all of that, he’s still surging forward and really going at it, doing all that he can without the technical knowledge he really needs to exceed.
The challenges that come into the training camp are certainly interesting since the other members, the new first years and the pair of second years, are all struggling to gain a spot so they can go to the Inter-High. The second years actually have a pretty interesting routine that they use to succeed where one sacrifices himself for the other in a way, and it shows the kind of collaborative aspect of the sport that many don’t think about when it comes to racing teams. With their intent on making it through, that would leave only one slot open and that would force a lot of competition between the first years when you think about it. But what makes it work in a really great way that truly does make sense based on the first third of the series so far, Imaizumi and Naruko are going to compete with each other but also work with each other to support Sakamichi since they can see so much in him. And they’re inspired by him as well with how he manages to push them without realizing it because of his innocence in it all.
The training camp doesn’t go on overly long since there are so many twists and turns in the road as they go through it and we get a decent bit of back story on the second years that helps to humanize them. They can’t become villains since they are part of the time and spent the past year working with Tadokoro to achieve this dream and that helps to make them accessible and interesting to watch. But it does come down to the competition between the five and it’s beautifully intense with how it unfolds, going through the final laps, the competitive nature of it all and shifting to a nice race with its own special rules that add in some intriguing complications. Suffice to say that when the races do draw to a close and you get down to those final kilometers that are needed in order to complete the training camp, you feel as exhausted as the kids do. But in a very, very good way.
Thankfully, we do get a little down time between the training camp and the Inter-High itself, which is largely focused on the characters at school and doing some riding on their own, which includes Sakamichi getting his uniform. He’s so wide-eyed and innocent much of the time that even though he thinks he’s going to be booted for any variety of reasons, he’s become valuable and is part of Kinjou’s plan to win at the Inter-High. This also gives us a bit of time to get some back story on what happened at last years Inter-High where Kinjou, while in competition with the Hakone Academy kids, had quite the accident along the way that had caused Kinjou to be injured and really lost position along it. It’s something that was definitely interesting to see since Hakone went on to win but their rider, who is now leading the school in this years competition, felt utterly horrible about it and realized that the only way he could make it up to Kinjou was to race against him this year and win or lose honestly. It’s an interesting approach to the honorable side of things since the incident being revealed wouldn’t have changed anything at that point, and sets up for some really solid sportsmanlike competition for this years Inter-High.
With the Inter-High running over three days, we don’t even cover the first day in the half or so of this batch of episodes that it runs. In fact, it’s largely focused on just getting us past the first marker really where it’s delving into the sprinters who take off after the first two kilometers that are part of the parade aspect. This shifts the focus to Tadokoro and Naruko as even though they’re competing against twenty other schools, they’re heavily competing against each other as well but with the kind of camaraderie that makes it great to watch. They’re given a strong opponent to deal with in the form of a Hakone rider who has truly built himself into a proper physical specimen over the last year and he has a great catchphrase of “abs! abs! abs! abs!” as he rides since it’s all about the upper body supporting his legs. He’s even gone and named each of them as Frank and Andy. His story comes into play well, but it works because it allows both Tadokoro and Naruko to reveal things about themselves to each other and to the Hakone rider in order to show why they really have what it takes to win compared to him.
With this just being the first leg of the Inter-High, it’s pretty intense and has a lot going for it, as well as a dangerous twist towards the end as the focus starts to shift back to Sakamichi, though it’s still a team show overall. Yowamushi Pedal is like a lot of the better sports shows in that while we have our ostensible lead, we really get to know all the players and it feels more like an ensemble than anything else. As much as I like Kuroko’s Basketball for example, it’s really all about Kuroko and Kagami and half the time you’re pressed to name other players. With Yowamushi Pedal, they’re far more involved in telling the stories of the characters, but in relation to the sport itself and how it may have defined them from an early age. That connection works very well spread across this batch of episodes as we build upon the heavy time with the first years there and expand it to the second and third years this time around while still keeping the rest involved in a very good and engaging way.
In Summary:
A series like Yowamushi Pedal really does need to be watched in marathoned doses, something that most sports series tend to make out better with. This batch of episodes takes us through the strong training period that really clues is in more about several of the characters, their motivations and what really drives them before it throws us headlong into the Inter-High itself. Watching this as Sakamichi really discovers this big, new world for the first time is a lot of fun and it’s very welcome that his teammates tell him what’s going on rather than berating him for not knowing. Though they could have told him beforehand, but how would the viewer know? That said, I liked the first thirteen episodes of the series a good bit but it’s this batch of them that starts to elevate things as Sakamichi really becomes a part of the group and we see the struggles of not just him and the other first years, but the second and third years as well. That helps to make all of them much more realized and engaging and that helps to carry each of the stories forward well as they begin their quest to win the competition with the strategy that Kinjou has devised. Like some other sports shows, I always get surprised at how invested in it that I become as it goes on and Yowamushi Pedal is no exception there.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.