Impression – Yowamushi Pedal, Episode 01

Impression:

Yowamushi Pedal is a series that was meant for me. What do I mean by that? I mean that nobody else wanted it during the draft and everything that involves demons, sports, or other shounen action ends up with me eventually. This has worked out for me because I usually end up liking those series that fall into my lap. I got Maoyuu Maou Yuusha in round eight of nine in our first draft, Hataraku Maou-sama! also in round eight of nine in the second one, and Yowamushi Pedal in round seven of ten in the third. I almost want to say seven of seven because my last three picks were sequels, but I will digress. My point is that this sports series from TMS Entertainment has some big shoes to fill and it may have started on the right foot. Get it? I hope not.

Sounds like hell to me.

Summary:

I like sports series and this one definitely looks like a good one. Our protagonist may ride his bike to and from everywhere, but he has no intention of taking it up a notch. This otaku is adverse to athletic clubs and he is merely looking forward to biking to Akiba in order to save money. This is far different from the very serious athletes that are at this high school. They all have different styles, but none of them climb hills like Onoda. It seems as though the only interest that he has in the club is the bike nut manager. We all know that he is going to join the club because the seniors talked about needing another card in the deck that is their team. That and the fact that the protagonist has to be in the club in order for the series to work tells us how this anime will go. The next episode will probably feature a race between the young otaku and the serious athlete. How will it turn out? I don’t know, but the result will definitely be the first step in pressuring Onoda into joining the team.

Those are some odd cyclists.

Characters:

We basically met most of the team members in this episode. We got to know three of the characters fairly well and I assume that they will be quite important moving forward. Aside from that, it is pretty easy to notice that the characters in this series can be pretty intense. Someone had fun with these character designs.

Sakamichi Onoda

Onoda is a little different from most athletes. He is a first year otaku that simply wanted to join the anime club. Unfortunately, it was disbanded due to lack of members and his quest to restart it has begun. In the meantime, Onoda rides his “mom bike” in ways that defy logic. He is adverse to joining an athletic club, but that is sure to change.

Shunsuke Imaizumi

Shunsuke is a very serious athlete that spends countless hours training on his bike. This first year appears to be quite wealthy and a fierce competitor. He has not forgotten his defeat at the end of his middle school career and this has led to some intense incline training. Funnily enough, it looks like Onoda may be better at inclines than this pretty boy. Also, Shunsuke appears to be easily embarrassed.

Miki Kanzaki

Miki is the younger sister of the former coach of our main club. She has an obsession with cycling that makes her the perfect manager in a sports series. She has taken an interest in Onoda because of his extreme cycling to Akiba even if her friend states that the kid is lying. She may need to get in line though because Shunsuke has first dibs.

We should be meeting another first year pretty soon because the opening shows us a redhead that is quite friendly with Onoda. Aside from that, we will have members from various teams that will include a guy with a horror movie face and the man who bested Shunsuke.

That face is terrifying.

Current Opinion of the Show:

I think that this is going to be a good series. What tells me that. Well, the best sports series are usually the most realistic ones. As of now, this one seems to follow that trend. Having said that, I have yet to watch an actual race taking place in Yowamushi Pedal. I will admit that I love all sports. This is a big reason for my love of sports anime. In fact, and it may not seem like it, but I enjoy watching sports more than I enjoy watching anime. Bryan doesn’t really believe me on that one, but it is true. What else is good about this series? I am a fan of the character designs. I know that we have yet to see everyone, but the characters are fairly interesting. Sports series often give us extreme people and this one does not disappoint. The opening features a guy that looks like he was meant to scar children and a guy from the main club that should have gotten the snake nickname. Honestly, how does the captain get that one? Do I like anything else about this series? ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D does the opening. I guess that’s a bonus.

He is hotter than that bath water.

I am really looking forward to the race in the next episode. I want to see how they animate the races and judge whether or not I hate it. They will obviously be mixing in some CGI, but that isn’t always bad. I will not prejudge in this regard. Aside from that, I don’t really know what else I am looking forward to. The main character is fairly interesting, but they can’t let him be this antisocial mess for the entire series. We are going to need some character development and I wouldn’t be mentioning it if said development was as standard as it should be. Too many characters show little to no growth in a series and that pisses me off. Honestly, I am more interested in the other characters than I am in the protagonist. The rest of the club members seem pretty interesting. I wonder if any of the guys would like this one. A bunch of my friends enjoy riding their bikes, but they would never sing anime songs out loud on the way to school. Not because they don’t like anime songs, but because you can’t let people know what you like. That is the first step towards getting ridiculed. All joking aside, I hope that they get to bring back the anime club. I don’t want that to be forgotten along the way.