Armyofscipio

Not sure how many of you watch Anime or any type of cartoon for that matter, but I gotta say I really like this one. I was never a big anime fan nor do I watch many cartoons outside of what my kids are watching, but a co-worker started getting me into the Gundam series and through that i stumbled on Yowamushi Pedal.

The premise is that of a nerdy friendless kid who gains some confidence through his untapped cycling ability. He joins his schools cycle racing club and begins to develop new relationships. I am only on like the 18th episode of the new season, but being a new cyclist myself trying to work out on my first real road bike I kind of get a little bit of inspiration from the show. If you are a complete newbie to cycling the show also provides a lot of info on cycling and cycle culture. They explain the importance of cadence and pacing.

I recommend it to anyone with an open mind to these sorts of things

imi

Will check it out. Thanks for posting

Booger1

Interesting.....I'm more of a Warner Bros, or Ren and Stimpy kinda guy.

t x

Where are you watching it? There were a few episodes on youtube, but I haven't been able to find the whole thing.

JohnDThompson 

Crunchyroll has it, under the name "Yowapeda:"

Crunchyroll - Yowapeda Full episodes streaming online for free

Yeah, it's kind of fun to watch.

GhostSS

I tried watching it. It had me seething at some point after episode 15 and I couldn't watch it anymore. Some of the stuff they portray as cool or exciting goes completely against cycling logic and it bothered me too much.

xenologer

haven't felt urgent need to watch since not a roadie, most my bikes are rigid mtb/ conversions

related note
watch the anime Goldenboy
Golden boy Opening intro - YouTube

really want to build a replica of his bike someday...

John Redcorn

Do cycling clubs/organized sports exist in high schools in a big way? in Japan? US? I've never heard of such a thing and went to a giant 6A school but firmly in football-gets-all-the-$s country.

GhostSS

Japanese schools have a much more involved extra curricular program than most of the US. They have boxing, rugby, and a variety of Japanese culture type clubs (like Kendo, naginata, archery, dance, calligraphy, tea ceremony, etc.) at the highschool level.

There's a variety of reasons as to why, but in my opinion it has to do with keeping kids occupied while their parents are still at work, which for a large portion of schools extracurricular activities are required.

Even when I went to college in Japan club activities were heavily emphasized.

Armyofscipio

Really? What in particular bothered you? Maybe I am just not experienced enough to get it but I find it pretty exciting. The character development has been done really well with no throwaway characters so far.

GhostSS

Arg. The list is HUGE. But some examples include:

-2 riders halfwheeling each other so that their wheels are touching and creating sparks. Generally half wheeling is extremely bad etiquette since it's so dangerous. In the peloton it's unavoidable but no one is touching wheels unless they are about to cause a huge crash.

-Climbing out of the saddle for one of the characters is so exaggerated to the point that it's entirely inefficient (on top of being dangerous), but that character is portrayed as a master climber and even gave it a name which I have never heard of (they call it pendulum dancing, which sounds erotic and misleading).

-One of the main antagonists has a bike frame 5 times too small for him so he uses a seatpost that is 4 feet long and a stem 2 feet long, saying that a smaller bike is superior because it's aerodynamic and stiff. It's practically a joke bike. Proper bike fit and rider positioning is FAR superior to having a ridiculously undersized bike that may be negligibly stiffer or aero.

-Another antagonist has the musculature of a body builder, claiming that the most important muscles are not the legs, but the back and abs. He names his Pecs "Frank" and "Andy", gives them personalities, and talks to them while he's racing. Not only are his claims about building muscle completely unnecessary for road cycling, it's touted advantages are completely false. Maybe for a track cyclist sprinter they would makes sense, but it's explained incorrectly, the reasons the character explained via internal monologue are completely made up.

-Don't even get me started how NO ONE teaches the protagonist how to use a road bike before making him race on one.


To put it into perspective, I like Hajime no Ippo, a boxing anime/manga. I used to be a amateur boxer and I still coach and train boxers at a local gym. I have zero issues with that anime (well for the most part, recent chapters have gotten pretty extreme). Even though there are exaggerations, everything is based on actual technique, biomechanics, or boxing precedence. Yowapeda straight up misrepresents the nuances of cycling to the point of lying.

Or maybe my age is showing and I'm just a grumpy old man. Just because Yowapeda is ruined for me doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy it, just take some of the explanations with a grain of salt.

Armyofscipio

I see what you are saying though many of the points you bring up were explained. Such as the climber characters "Dancing" style. He was told all his life it was wrong and goes so far as to tell the main character that it is not right to do it, but that it works for him and only for him. I am sure there are things that even the most seasoned pros do that may be technically wrong but work for them. If i am correct you are refering to the climber with the long green hair.

I am currently now on episode 21 and have not seen the part with the guy riding a small bike so i may have some time before i get there

The guy who named his pecs. I'm not a fan of his but the sprinter from the other team talks a lot about how important legs are so i mean the guy could just be wrong. I could see your point if all the sprinters did the same but 2 out of the 3 sprinters are big on legs

To be fair as well they never make the main character race on a road bike. His bike breaks and they have the road bike for him to use. In all honesty being a new rider myself i jumped right onto a road bike with zero issue and i did not ride half as much as the main character did before doing so. I just don't see why that is so hard to believe

The half wheeling seemed dangerous to me as well, again they had an explanation for it but to me it just looked unnecessary. I pay no attention to sparks in anime since almost everything causes sparks. Even gear changes make sparks in this one

Bluecoupe

2nd season of this anime is airing now. I'm enjoying it for what it is but if some of you have complaints about the first season you're definitively not gonna like ep2 for this season.

Canker

Frank and Andy are the best characters in the show lol

If you want to talk about things that are annoying about the show lets talk about how it can take 5 episodes for them to ride the last Km in every stage of a race

JohnDThompson 

They've been less than a kilometer from the finish line for weeks now! How much longer will it drag out?

Bluecoupe

50M takes a full 2 episodes its like dragon ball pacing... but after ep3 they are finally done with the 2nd day race at the inter high.

devianb

I haven't enjoyed an anime series this much since Dragonball Z. Everything that GhostSS dislikes about the show is what I love about it. All those outlandish and ridiculous scenes just adds to the humor for me. A lot of anime shows are like that. Every time I watch the show I get pumped to go for a ride.

t x

I can confirm that you will climb faster if you sing the Love Hime song.

D3AN

I just started this anime and I think its pretty fun. Its very similar to Initial D, a car drifting anime. The exaggerated scenes are a bit silly, but if you dont read into it too much it makes the anime more fun.

Jack Lorington

Bluecoupe

hime, hime, hime tsuki tsuki dai tsuki! that scene at the end of ep5 after the credits had me rolling!!

GovernorSilver

Ah yes, Makishima (long green hair) prides himself in being "irregular" and repeatedly advises his protege to not follow example. Eventually, the protege relies on simple high-cadence climbing to get the job done. Interestingly, Makishima's rival also relies on high-efficiency, high cadence.

I don't remember the other character at all. Doesn't sound like any of the members of Hakone High (the main rival team). Is he a freakishly tall, long limbed guy who always says "Gross! Gross! Gross!". If so, he's kind of insane so anything he says should be taken accordingly - seems like most of his dialog though is trash-talking/psyching out his opponents.

The show is part comedy - his primary role is comic relief. He along with Andy and Frank crack me up, even if it's just slapstick humor. BTW, spending more time in the gym instead of on the saddle was not his idea - it was actually his captain's.

Miki indirectly referred to him when she said in Episode 1 "My brother said that some people are just naturally better than others at cycling... sometimes ordinary bike riders will experience a sudden blossoming of talent". He's just a talented guy, aided by circumstance (living on top of a steep hill so he has to climb it every day on his heavy bike, riding 90km round trip at least once a week, riding on an undersized front gear resulting in his high cadence, etc.). Same reason he's able to hop on the rollers immediately without previous instruction, while other boys with more athletic experience can only do the half-rollers. There is an OVA which depicts his training under the senior climber.

Until now I thought I was the only person here who watched this anime. One detail I appreciate is in the riding scenes you can see some characters are pedaling at faster cadences than others. I also enjoyed brand-spotting, even with the cute deliberate mispellings (eg. "Scolt", "Pinarerro", "Bianche"). I like how the protagonist's ride is first a Dutch style bike, then a no-name road racer built out of spare parts, though apparently Kuromori, which made his frame, has a decent reputation in Japan.

I know some people don't like the CGI but I think the juxtaposition of cell animation and CGI for the racing scenes was fairly seamless. Lots of serious bromance going on, which may bother some and endear others. I personally enjoy the personal rivalries - the trash talking and how they're so eager to compete and so heart-broken when they can't race each other. And what an amazing finale! As a beginning cyclist, this anime provided a lot of inspiration in addition to entertainment. I also like listening to the soundtrack to pump up for a ride.

GovernorSilver

From what I could Google, there are real Inter-High competitions for basketball, baseball, etc. There's even a real Christmas Bowl (American football championship game). This was the only thing I could find mentioning a real Inter-High for cycling - no idea if it's a 3-day Tour De France style race as depicted in Yowamushi Pedal:
Cycling Team of Sakado Senior High School ? University of Tsukuba? to Inter-High School Sports Meet | NEWS | Information | University of Tsukuba

GovernorSilver

Actually, while his mommy bike has been periodically serviced by the Kanzaki bike shop, there was nothing wrong with it at the welcome race. It's just that he was trying to "play baseball with a plastic bat" as another character put it. The shop had intended all along to lend him the road racer because they knew he wouldn't stand a chance in the welcome race on the mommy bike, even against less talented competition. As Imaizumi observed during their own head-to-head race, the mommy bike weighed 10 kg more than his own Scott ("Scolt") road bike. Also it only has two gears (front derailleur), which combined with the 10kg weight difference is a serious disadvantage vs. the lighter 10-speed road racer.

A riskier variation of drafting I guess? When Naruko taught drafting to the protagonist, he said to not touch the wheels - just get close enough to benefit from the "pull"

Damien09

wow didn't realize other people watched this show on this forum. i liked it. the dumb non realistic things made it great to me. why would i want to watch a anime where everything was 100% like real life