【Yowamushi Pedal】Sports x Comedy x Drama Winner of the Best Shounen Manga Award at the 39th Kodansha Manga Awards!!

Yowamushi Pedal is a Japanese sports franchise written and illustrated by Wataru Watanabe.

The manga was published in Akita Shoten’s Weekly Shounen Champion in 2008. Its chapters are compiled and published into 75 separate volumes. The manga series has over 17 million copies in circulation, worldwide.

An anime adaptation of the manga was also released in 2013, with the anime adapted by Studio TMS Entertainment.

The story follows Sakamichi Onoda, a high-school student who loves to cycle. He hopes to make otaku friends at his school, but unfortunately for him, the anime club had been disbanded. It’s then that Onoda meets a cycling prodigy, Shunsuke Imaizumi, who challenges Onoda to a race after seeing him cycle near an infamous slope. The encounter sets the path for Onoda as he ventures into the world of competitive cycling.

We start off by seeing Onoda Sakamichi, the protagonist, cycling through the city, as he does almost everyday. The people around him go about there everyday lives. Onoda seems overly happy today, as he is heading to Akiba, a practical paradise for anime fans and nerds.

After being interrupted by the Judo Club on his way to Akiba, he thinks of never joining any sports club. Onoda starts singing out loud as the road is empty, but gets hit by a car. He get’s up as if nothing happened since he’s used to falling from his bike. The person gets out from the car and hands him his number in case there’s a problem and leaves.

To the person’s surprise, Onoda was riding up the steep slope using just a utility bike without any gears.

We cut to a scene in the class, where everyone is talking about joining some club. Onoda finds an advert for an anime club in his school and decides to join. He has never had the chance to talk about his interests with someone since he used to live in the suburbs. He’s ecstatic about making friends with similar interests and going to Akihabara with them.

Onoda learns that the anime club has been disbanded due to the lack of members and falls in despair. He frantically asks around other students to join so that they could revive the club but they refuse, saying that they’re going to join some sport clubs.

After being disappointed, he plans to go to Akiba. We cut and see Imaizumi, a cycling prodigy, getting ready for his daily practice. On his way, a girl approaches him and says that she went to see him in the finals, though it was a shame that he ended up in second position. He completely ignores the girl and continues to walk away.

As he’s about to leave on his cycle, he comes across Onoda who is also riding on his cycle. Onoda introduces himself to Imaizumi upon being asked . Imaizumi says that he shouldn’t be on this slope as it is very dangerous and has an inclination of more than 20%. Onoda ignores his warnings and continues down the slope. As expected, he has an accident and falls down.

Imaizumi stops to help him up. Onoda explains that the reason he uses a bicycle is because he can save money on train fares and roll more on the toy capsule machine.

Onoda realizes that he has left his wallet in class, turns around, and starts heading back up, to get it.

Imaizumi preps all his gear to begin the uphill journey. He systematically starts climbing the slope on his cycle. Noticing someone cycling ahead of him, he struggles to catch up, only to find the person to be Onoda and he is leisurely singing on top of that!

The girls atop the hill are waiting for the cycling club members to return. Imaizumi keeps staring at Onoda in awe as he casually continues climbing the slope.

Will Onoda realize his talent for bicycling and join the cycling club?