sp1ti

7/10

Figures I never wrote something about YowaPeda so what better moment for that than the start of it's second season (and 4th cour). Bike racing is not exactly the usual theme for a show but Japan is capable of doing manga about just anything (it's also not the first anime of the sport). To make it's appeal a bit wider the main character of the show is well... an otaku. Because he fails to form an anime club at his school he ends up joining the bicycle club. By appearance he certainly does not look like he would be any good at that though. The twist however is that because his parents didn't want him to ride too far away they not only gave him a granny bike but also manipulated his crank so that he has a harder time to speed up. Being the otaku he is he regularly rides to Akihabara down a steep hill and then back up again (while singing his favorite anime theme song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrshPMtH0CY). So without even knowing he had quite the harsh training which translates quite well to an actual racing bike. While I just made it sound like the otaku stuff is strongly present in the show, it's actually not at all. It hardly ever comes up or is just used in the omake. The core of the show is the bike racing and it's huge cast of characters. Now what about the story? There isn't really all that much here except for the races which brings me to one of the show's issues: The pacing. It is all over the place! I guess it started with the training camp arc where some episodes would cover just a small piece of the route and push cliff hangers. Despite being enjoyable it is a bit tedious when watched on a weekly basis. The first big race is the Inter-High race whose whole first day and parts of day two (of 3) are covered by about 16 episodes - that are ending season 1. That's right! A race that is still ongoing when the seasonal break comes. One could argue that they fucked up rather badly OR they knew all along that another season was coming (which isn't typical). Another issue is the formula of the show. Race -> focus on a character in the race -> flashback episode. The cast is big and it's an efficient way to go about it but you can see it coming from miles away. Unlike other sports show the power ups here are not that frequent or at least not too fantastical. The cadence gets insanely high and the convenient catch up is there but it would be boring other wise. Presentation wise it's not the prettiest show but it looks good enough. They make heavy use of 3D models for the races though which might not be everyone's cup of tea. The score is good and I found myself enjoying the upbeat OPs and EDs. I doubt that anyone is going out of their way to catch up on the 40 episodes released so far (there is a compliation movie out) but if biking is your thing (which isn't for me) or just like sports anime it's worth it. The fujoshi will keep the show strong and I'm certain we will get more of these weird stage plays too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTrKr-iWyWs.