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Magic of Life Performs Theme Songs for Yowamushi Pedal Prequel Anime, Live-Action Drama

The official website for the four-man band Magic of Life announced on Wednesday that the group will perform the theme songs for both the Yowamushi Pedal Spare Bike theatrical anime and the live-action Yowamushi Pedal drama. A single CD with both the anime's theme song "Hajimari no Hibi" (First Days) and the drama's theme song "Skill Flower" will ship on August 31.

MAGIC OF LiFE formed in 2003 as "DIRTY OLD MEN" but changed its name to its current one in October 2014. The group previously performed the second opening theme for the Yowamushi Pedal anime, the second ending theme for the Yowamushi Pedal Grande Road anime, and the ending theme song for Joker Game.

Yowamushi Pedal: Spare Bike will begin its two-week run in theaters on September 9. The anime will have two parts, one focusing on Yūsuke Makishima and the other on Jinpachi Tōdō. Makishima's story will detail how he joined the Sōhoku bicycle racing club as a first year and met scorn from his seniors because of his strange style of dancing. Tōdō's story will reveal how he first got into road racing in his second year of middle school, when a friend challenged him to a race but he initially refused because he wanted to avoid helmet hair.

Osamu Nabeshima is returning to direct the anime at TMS Entertainment. Takashi Muratani is designing the characters and Mitsutaka Hirota and Ayumu Hisao are writing the scripts. Tomoyuki Aoki is handling art setting, Fusako Nakao is handling color setting, and Kumiko Sakamoto is editing. Naoki Tate is the art director, Toshihiro Sasaki is the CG director, and Takeshi Katsurayama is the director of photography. Takeshi Takadera is the sound director and Kan Sawada is composing the music. The main cast is returning from previous anime adaptations.

The live-action series will premiere on August 26 on BS SKY PerfecTV! and will air on Fridays at 9:00 p.m.

Kōta Fukihara (live-action Tensai Bakubon ~Kazoku no Kizuna, Hibi Rock film) is writing the scripts for the series. Many of the main cast members are returning from the Yowamushi Pedal stage plays.

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.

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