Yowamushi Pedal Episodes 1-15 Overview/Review

  Yowamushi Pedal Episodes 1-15 Review

Imaizumi

Naruko

So, to start this stuff out, I have decided to give an overview/sort of review of the anime I have been watching recently. I have finished the first fifteen episodes within the time-span of two days, which should alone show you that it is worth at least a try. I'll get into that more later, but I'll start by giving a rating for how the show has held up in certain sections for now. I shall now talk about the story. It's probably pretty predictable, the anime begins with our protagonist generic but pretty likable otaku Onoda. He is beginning his first year of high school, and is in the high hopes that people at high school will actually like anime, as we soon find out he kept it in a secret in middle school since no one seemed to enjoy it there. I guess it's important to let you know this is an anime about bicycle riding. I hate sports anime, so if you are about to throw this one under the rug thinking "Well shit, it's a sports anime, so it must be bad by default right?" You are wrong. At least based on this impression of the first 15 episodes. Moving back onto the story, our main character rides his bike a couple times a week to some place in Japan where they have tons of anime related things, so he can buy the blurays on release and what not. This is important, since apparently the route he takes every day is super far and long, and even difficult. He also has to ride down/up a giant slope every day. This impresses Imaizumi, who is a dude who plans on joining the cycling club. He is already a very great cyclist as he has been doing so since he was a kid. He meets our main character while training one day. They happen to both be first years going to the same school, but Imaizumi is much more toned in stature than Onoda. This may be partially due to the fact that he does not spend his days watching tons of anime. I'm going off topic again, so let's get back to the story. I will try and not spoil too much, but basically Onoda wants five members to join the anime club so it can become a thing again because there are not enough people (zero other than Onoda) for it to become an actual club again. Imaizumi and him race, and Onoda loses so Imaizumi does not end up joining. I don't exactly remember when, but Onoda ends up joining the cycling club (I think roughly episode 4 or 5 but don't shank me if I'm wrong) Onoda meets another major character a bit earlier than this named Naruko. Imaizumi, Onoda, and Naruko are basically our three main main characters. The ones that are the utter most important. We have more members on the cycling team, and some are still pretty important, but I feel like those three hold the shine. Ah, I forgot to mention, each character on the cycling team is specifically good at something, for Onoda it's slopes, but it's different for the others. Naruko is also a first year for the record. The cycling team trains and trains and trains and Onoda becomes better as expected. I like that he starts out as a failure and gradually becomes better. But not right away. I'll tell you right now the first 15 episodes are still training, as they are training for the huge race coming up probably later this season? I mean it's 38 episodes, I would hope they at least make it to that race. Later on into the 15 episodes (not sure around when but I think roughly episode 8 or somewhere around there?) we meet another cycling team from a separate cool. It's full of some cool and eccentric members that I can't wait to learn more about. There's a third school team we briefly get to learn about/see a bit about, and I believe they will end up being the main antagonist of the series, but we shall see later. The story is so simple it's kind of hard not to expect. It's your generic shounen/sport anime theme. Our character starts out bad, becomes good, does his sport, probably wins. But that does not make it bad. It's very enjoyable. Let's move onto the art. The art is nice. The animation is well done, and 3D is used a lot. Instead of your traditional 2D. Now 3D can be done poorly in anime when mixed with 2D, or the right way. I think in this case it is done the right way, so don't worry. I think it was the right route to take, as it better showcases the races and characters on there bikes. I don't have much else to say about the art, but it's nice. The sound is where I'll go next. The sound is absolutely outstanding, every opening and ending thus far is just great. And I have already spoiled all the future openings (which entail 3 more and I have currently made it to opening 2/5 in the actual show) the openings are just super well done and display the mood of the show greatly. The actual sound effects and music within the show are great too. I know I'm shoving the word great around a lot, but I don't know how else to describe it. The characters, let's move onto those. I won't get into any depth here, let's just say most of them are just one specific trait. Not very deep, but likable enough. On the main team, we have a guy who's the size of a bear, and is constantly referenced as one. We have a creepy dude who everyone's afraid of but is really nice. We have a stoic guy who wears shades all the time (The leader of the cycling team). We have our character who is super outgoing and is passionate about everything he does. And the list goes on. It's fine though, as they are designed well enough to look cool or interesting (or a combination of both) and you really don't need all of the characters to be deep if they are well done enough in other aspects. I think there is pretty good development at least for our main three that I talked about earlier, so that's good. I think one of the most important things to note here is like all great sports anime, there's that initial slope you must ride over as hard as you can to get to the outstanding parts. I'm not saying it's bad, as it is not in any aspect bad. But there is a lot of training to get through before you get to the big leagues (which I hear are outstanding in this anime). With that being said, I think 15 is a lot to watch in only two days, and that usually does not happen to me with anime, but with this one I have been hooked. Take note I'm in school, so I have all that to do and go to as well, so my time is not unlimited unfortunately. I think Yowamushi Pedal is worth a shot for anyone who is interested in a fun ride with likable and interesting characters. Give it a chance, and if you enjoy it, stick with it. You might be surprised. I'll be placing some personal ratings below based on the first fifteen episodes, and than I'll give an overall score thus far. I'll make a future post in regards to future episodes and how I feel about them.

Story: 7/10

Art: 9/10

Sound: 10/10

Characters: 9/10

Enjoyment: 9.5/10

Overall: 9/10

Onoda