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Yowamushi Pedal: New Generation Anime's Promo Video Previews Sōhoku's Return

The official website for the Yowamushi Pedal anime began streaming a promotional video for Yowamushi Pedal: New Generation, the third anime season based on Wataru Watanabe's original manga, on Thursday. The video features the returning Sōhoku team.

Text: Original Story: Wataru Watanabe (serialized in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion)
Voice: Sōhoku's new generation starts at last!
Text: The new generation, starts.
Text: The never-before-seen road, together…
Text: Yowamushi Pedal: New Generation
Voice: Starts airing in January 2017!

The cast for Team Sōhoku is returning from the first two seasons:

Jun Fukushima as Shōkichi Naruko

Daisuke Kishio as Junta Teshima

Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Hajime Aoyagi

• Kōki Miyata as Terufumi Sugimoto
• Junichi Suwabe as Toji Kanzaki
• Megumi Han as Aya Tachibana
• Ayaka Suwa as Miki Kanzaki
• Hiroki Yasumoto as Shingo Kinjō
• Showtaro Morikubo as Yūsuke Makishima
• Kentarou Itou as Jin Tadokoro

Osamu Nabeshima is returning to direct the series and Kurasumi Sunayama (Bakuon!!), who worked on scripts for the first two seasons, is taking over series composition. Yukiko Ban (Yowamushi Pedal movie) is designing the characters and Hiroyuki Horiuchi is designing the bikes. Kan Sawada is returning to compose the music. TMS Entertainment is again producing the animation.

Most of the other main staff members are returning from other Yowamushi Pedal anime:

• Art design: Tomoyuki Aoki
• Art Director: Shunichiro Yoshihara
• Color design: Fusako Nakao
• Cgi Director: Toshihiro Sasaki (Yowamushi Pedal: Spare Bike)
• Director of Photography: Takeshi Katsurayama
• Sound Director: Takeshi Takadera
• Editing: Kumiko Sakamoto

The story of the original Yowamushi Pedal manga centers around Sakamichi Onoda, an otaku at Sōhoku High School. He loves anime and games so much, that he would ride his commuter bicycle to and from Tokyo's Akihabara shopping district in a 90-kilometer (about 60-mile) round trip over steep slopes after school. Onoda's life changes when he encounters his school's cycling team, and he ends up joining the competitive sport of bicycle racing.

The story of the third season is set after the previous two seasons and the August 2015 film, and after the previous third-year students have graduated.

Wataru Watanabe launched the original manga in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine in 2008, and the story already inspired stage plays and two television anime adaptations so far. The first season of the anime premiered in 2013, and Crunchyroll streamed the anime outside of Japan as it aired. The second season premiered in Japan in 2014, and ended in March 2015. Crunchyroll also streamed the second season outside of Japan as it aired.

The first anime seasons inspired two compilation films that opened in Japan starting in September 2014. A feature film sequel opened last August, and the announcement of the third season followed last October. An anime film of the spinoff manga Yowamushi Pedal: Spare Bike opened in Japan in August.

Source: Animate Times