Yowamushi Pedal Will Give You a Ride

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!

From MAL

This is a sports anime I’ve wanted to write for a while now, cause I never see it mentioned around, nor do I see much love towards it. Heck I see a lot of people dismiss it for the art style, or because it has no bishies to make them want to watch, which is just…ugh. It’s a goddamn sports anime, not a guaranteed bishounen heaven! One of the reasons I love Daiya is that most of the characters are just normal kids, some ugly, some cute, some fat, some tall, some small, each with their own uniqueness and personality to complete the package. Sports anime is not, and shall never be, defined by if it has bishounens, okay? 💢💢💢 But that’s a rant for another day /sighs deeply

I watched this after I finished Daiya and entered into that “I NEED MOAR SPORTS ANIME, ALL THE SPORTS”, which means I watched this, Haikyuu, tried some with girls (oh do not get me started on that, that’s a rant for another day too 😹😹😹), some older ones too. Out of all the ones that I watched, YowaPeda, and Haikyuu, stood out to me as the best ones.

Before I get into all the good qualities, I will say YowaPeda does take a bit to really hit stride and get you hooked. The first 6 episodes is just introducing the dudes, Onoda’s skills and honing of them, until the team gets full and they can start biking away on the races. Bear with it, and you’ll find yourself in a highly enjoyable, super cute and pumping sports anime.

One of the things I like the most about sports anime is definitely that sense of team, of unification, of comrady, and praise be, YowaPeda is exactly that. Team bike racing is different from biking alone, each member will pull the other 5 on the area they’re best at. Onoda is a climber, as is Makishima (lovely green-haired third year oh yeaaah), so he’s best at mountain climbing, which involves stamina and lots of cycles. Makishima may be also a climber, but his climbing style differs completely, he’s all about using his long-limbs like a spider queen on his bike, and it is glorious to see that bike shaking between his legs and ass /coughs

Naruko, our lovely red-haired imp, is a sprinter and does best in straight paths even tho he’s a tiny, rascal thing, which usually means he isn’t as strong and fast as he should be, but he makes it up with fieriness and go-get them personality 🔥🔥🔥 Tadokoro is the third-year sprinter, and is a total bear, his hugeness definitely is what makes his power canon sprint such a strong thing.

Imaizumi is the dark-haired grouch that discovers Onoda’s talent, and pesters him to races at the beginning, he’s an all-rounder, which means he’s fairly decent at all stages of the race but means none is his specialty aside fastness. Kinjou is the team-leader, a third-year, and also an all-rounder, so there’s lots of clashes because Imaizumi is tots jealous that he isn’t the best or fastest hehehehehehe

And that’s our team, and if by the end of the anime you aren’t in love, cried, or suffered with them as you see the lengths to which they go to win their part of the race, then you have no heart, you fiend, and I want you OUT OF HERE, GET OUT 😹😹😹😹

I think what’s so good about this is that the slow beginning is a great build up for the later stages as we start meeting rivals, some despicable and others not, and start seeing them duke it out with who has the best team, legs/ass combo strength, and who is the strongest.

Let me just tell you that even the ones that you absolutely despise, and will HATE, will make you feel things /gross sobs at Midousuji T_T

I’ve never really liked biking, I’ve done it sometimes but I’m not good with my balance on my own two feet much less on two shaky pieces of wire, but this one made me looove the fuck out of it, and feel like I was biking with them. I sweated as much as they did when shit hit the fan on a bunch of episodes, so I did a really good workout courtesy of YowaPeda 😹😹😹

One side note I wanna make is that the biking scenes from behind/lots of characters are all 3D graphics, but key moments, zooms in on faces and such, are all 2D, rest assured!

Also you’ll never be able to hear “ore wa tsuyoi” without laughing, because it is SO used, constantly by Fukutomi, a rival, that it’s just forget it. Whenever I even heard, or see, the word tsuyoi/strong I just remember him and smirk 😹

This has such a strong component of characters, they’re all very themselves, even the side characters. Some are just plain weird, flamboyant, cycling-heads, muscle-heads, but they all bring such a charm to the series, that YowaPeda just isn’t the same without them.

You can find where to watch this anime using Because Moe, and I’m sure you’re savvy enough to find it somewhere else too /winks

Have you watched YowaPeda? Have you EVEN heard of it before? Did you see it but dismiss it because the art style isn’t for you? I wanna know, tell me all about it!