News
Yowamushi Pedal Gets Spare Bike Anime Spinoff Before Season 3's January Debut
posted on by Egan Loo
The previously announced third television anime season based on Wataru Watanabe's Yowamushi Pedal manga will premiere next January. However, an anime adaptation of the spinoff manga Yowamushi Pedal: Spare Bike will have a limited two-week run in theaters this September.
The story of the first 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 Yowamushi Pedal: Spare Bike spinoff manga series follows the early years of the third-year students. The manga profiled Hakone Academy's Jinpachi Tōdō, Yasutomo Arakita, and, more recently, Shingo Kinjō. Watanabe publishes the manga irregularly in various Champion magazines and as extras bundled with the anime DVDs. Kinjō's arc began in Monthly Shōnen Champion last May, and the manga entered a new arc last November.
Wataru Watanabe launched the original manga in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine in 2008, and the story 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 on August 28, and the announcement of the third season followed last October:
Yen Press has licensed the original manga for a release in North America. Crunchyroll is streaming the first three anime films. Discotek Media licensed the first two seasons, and released the first on DVD in January.
Source: Comic Natalie
