Training Camp!

What They Say:
Onoda Sakamichi is a rather timid, anime-loving first-year student at Sohoku High School. Upon entering high school, he tried to join the anime research club, but after meeting Imaizumi Shunsuke, a renowned cyclist since middle school, and Naruko Shoukichi, who swept the Kansai cycling championship, he ended up joining the competitive cycling club.

The Review: Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The next few episodes are gonna slow the pacing down of the overall plot of the series, and focus in more on developing the team of Sohoku’s high school bicycle team. It’s already clear that Naruko, Imaizumi, and Onoda are good at their respective parts of racing, so team captain Kinjo handicaps each one in a unique way to handicap their greatest strength. He also doesn’t bother to tell Onoda, but Makashima takes a short break and “talks to himself” to help Onoda understand that his wheels are significantly heavier and don’t roll very well, so the same gears and speeds he’s rode up hills on in the past won’t work anymore. Kinjo admits that one of Onoda’s weakest parts of being on the team is he has limited knowledge of bikes and racing, so part of his handicap was to force him into understanding situations that are different and how to adapt to them, which we can hopefully see more of in the coming episodes.

On top of these insane handicaps, everyone who is participating in the camp has to ride 1000 kilometers over the course of 4 days, averaging 250 kilometers a day. For those of you (like myself) who live in the States where we don’t use kilometers, I looked it up – it’s approximately 623 miles of bike riding over 4 days. That’s roughly half the distance between Oklahoma City, OK and Los Angeles, California. So, an incredible distance. I’m not going to break it down any further because that verges into “anime breaking the laws of physics” territory, and I think that would detract from the kind of tension that’s being built up for the 1st years to succeed at this killer, brutal training camp. But I think we’re gonna see some excellent growth, and some surprising things out of the team in the next episode or two.

In Summary:
Very much like two episodes ago, Makashima once again gives Onoda guidance as the other climber on the team, and does it in his too-cool kinda way, but it continues to be a sincere and really genuine kind of conversation that is a mark of great writing. And it develops the secondary character more, but again, still develops the main characters as well. Usually the pitfall is only developing one character at a time, which can lead to things dragging out and interest being lost in what is going on, but Yowapeda is doing a great job again and again of developing multiple characters at once in a really engaging way that I hope continues as the season goes on.

I think this is going to serve as a really big growing point for the characters before we get into the important Inner-High races that loom on the horizon, and for Onoda specifically. He is growing more and more as he continues to be a part of the bicycle team, but his amusing car sick antics at the beginning of the episode (and the interaction with Manami) still show our adorable, shy oktau is still alive and well. What I think is so great about this show, is Onoda is socially awkward, nerdy, and a little slow at picking up on things. But he can still be all those things, and learn about himself, be confident in his ability to climb on a bicycle, and make new friends in spite of all his shortcomings, and that’s what makes him such a great character, and someone that the audience wants to get behind and see succeed. Paired with great supporting characters, it’s the biggest reason why Yowamushi Pedal continues to be one of the strongest shows of the season, and one of the best shows in recent memory that I hope sees a US release.

Grade: A-

Streamed By: Crunchyroll

Review Equipment:
Intel Alienware laptop, Windows 7, 25” HP2509m screen at 1920×1080 resolution