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Yowamushi Pedal Spare Bike Anime Film Previewed in Trailer
posted on by Egan Loo
The official website for the upcoming Yowamushi Pedal: Spare Bike theatrical anime began streaming the trailer on Wednesday. The trailer features the theme song "Hajimari no Hibi" (The Beginning Days) by the band Magic of Life. It also teases at the end that screenings will include an omake (bonus) part that will adapt Wataru Watanabe's Soreike Arakita-kun four-panel gag manga spinoff of his Yowamushi Pedal manga. The trailer will run in participating theaters starting this Saturday.
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, where 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 band Magic of Life (previously DIRTY OLD MEN) is performing the theme song.
The Yowamushi Pedal: Spare Bike spinoff manga series for Wataru Watanabe's Yowamushi Pedal 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 last August, 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.
