Yowamushi Pedal Grande Road

Episode 10

Yowamushi Pedal Grande Road came to us in media res, smack in the middle of a multiple day bike race. It takes weeks for each race to conclude and as a result, the anime's greatest weakness is failing to tell a complete story in one episode. Scenes from the manga are often shorter or longer than an episode's length. Sometimes, in order to progress the plot, the anime will just string four or five incremental events together.

That wasn't the case today, however. “The Domain That Lies Ahead” was a faithful retelling of Arakita Yasutomo's Spare Bike spin-off chapter from the manga, folded seamlessly into the story at large. Instead of piecing together scenes from the manga into a half-hour block like usual, we got a rare beginning, middle, and end that truly felt complete in 30 minutes.

We've already learned a little about Arakita's backstory through the original run of Yowamushi Pedal, in an episode titled “Arakita and Imaizumi.” (Conversely, we learned very little of Arakita's backstory in this season's episode titled simply, “Arakita!”) We knew that Arakita had a failed baseball career and became aimless until Fukutomi turned his life around with cycling. Of course, it couldn't have been that easy. This episode showed us the gritty details of Arakita's rise from angry delinquent to still angry, but with a healthy outlet this time, cyclist.

It's a good thing Arakita is such a fan favorite, or else this trend of exposition would not go over half as well. The more I get to know him, the more I like him. Arakita is bristly on the outside to conceal a vulnerable interior. He's abrasive until you win his trust, and with it, a cute nickname like Onoda-chan or Fuku-chan. This backstory was less about Arakita's maturation as a cyclist than his maturation as a person who could learn to trust somebody else—Fukutomi—after years of feeling like nobody ever tried to reach out to him.

The one note that didn't ring true was Machimiya's wavering resolve. This man is a sociopath, somebody who uses physical touch to make people uncomfortable and manipulates other cyclists into working toward his own ends. We're supposed to believe he's so touched by Arakita's history that'd he'd question what he's fighting for. Not that Arakita's story wasn't incredibly touching. It became more obvious than ever that Arakita is really a big softie on the inside who compensates with frequent angry yelling. We also got welcome cameos of Second Year Shinkai and Toudou, who look just young enough to make me wonder how the rest of the Yowamushi Pedal group is going to grow up as the show spans their multiple years of high school. Overall, it's a respite from an interminable race that puts the focus where it should be: on the characters.

Rating: A

Yowamushi Pedal Grande Road is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.