Impression:

What is the most surprising thing about this series so far? It is definitely the fact that I like it so much. Honestly, this is another one of those series that made me think I would be gutting it out for a season. I may like sports, but a series about cycling seemed iffy. Luckily, it has been fairly entertaining. I just hope that it continues.

Shout out to Duc.

The episode started off with a very persistent challenge. Iwaizumi refused to take “no” for an answer when he challenged Onoda. Obviously, someone like Onoda was very shocked by the challenge, but a chance to get a new member for the anime club was far too intriguing to pass up. Iwaizumi offered to join if Onoda won. The day of the race finally came and things got kind of awkward. A bunch of girls showed up to cheer for Iwaizumi because he is kind of a big deal. That was all Miki’s fault because she told everyone about the race. Onoda doesn’t do well with people watching him and the nerves kind of got to him. Luckily, some words f encouragement from “the nice girl” got him through it and the race started. Onoda did well with his fifteen minute head start, but his inexperience and mommy bike basically got in the way of his natural talent. This talent comes from his weekly trips to Akiba that he has been biking on since forth grade. Miki didn’t give up on Onoda though. She raised his bike seat which was stopping him from biking properly and the race started up again. The actual finale will come next week.

Miki needs to calm the fuck down.

Current Opinion of the Show:

I am very pleased with this series. The comedy is good enough to give me a laugh or two and the characters are fairly strong in my opinion. They may not be “strong” characters, but the writing for them is solid. Onoda isn’t annoying me as much as he used to. I want to see him getting into cycling more, which will happen, because he isn’t as much of an idiot when he is actually doing what the series is all about. It is also nice to see his hidden talent coming out. Miki’s older brother was very surprised by Onoda’s ability to climb that hill. I assume that the next episode will have an Iwaizumi victory that is way too close for comfort and some subsequent badgering from Miki and company. They will try to force him to join the cycling club and Onoda will reluctantly do so saying that he will quit as soon as he can revive the anime club. I just assume that such things are going to happen because I don’t read the manga. Having said that, I am kind of interested in reading ahead.

Miki is a little scary at times.

I sure hope that the series starts pacing itself better in the near future. I know that I often complain about fight scenes not lasting long enough, but this race is already taking too long. I know that it is a learning experience and Onoda’s coming out party of sorts, but he was initially challenged at the beginning of the first episode. I doubt that we will get a quick resolution at the beginning of next week’s episode and that means we will be spending like 1.6 episodes on this first race. I don’t mind that later on when we have the actual competitions, but I just feel like not a lot was accomplished in this second episode. They could be losing viewers due to the pacing and that is bad. Having said that, they are setting up for some nice stuff. They explained how Onoda became so good at cycling with his weekly trips to Akiba and Miki’s brother saw Onoda climbing the hill. If anyone is going to convince the club to make Onoda join, it will be that guy. Aside from that, I am mostly concerned about the training period. Onoda will have to learn how to use a bike with gears on it and that better not take too long. We only have so much time.

Iwaizumi must not know how to handle women.