Yowamushi Pedal Grande Road

Episode 15

We had to wait an extra week for episode 15 of Yowamushi Pedal Grande Road, but it was worth it. In “Naruko's True Worth,” the story focused on the hot-blooded sprinter of Sohoku and portrayed him well with an episode that was just as goofy and intense as he is.

Naruko Shoukichi is a typical shounen hero condensed into a tiny body. In any other sports show, he'd be the main character. As if self-aware of his predicament as a side character, his entire drive is to be as flashy as possible. It's a motivation that can be self-destructive for Naruko at times, like when he helped Onoda chase down a yakuza in order to start a fight. At the same time, Naruko's need to stand out can be a productive thing that helps the entire team. In this episode, the fire and bravado that makes Naruko annoying sometimes have become his greatest strengths. It's a dramatic piece of character development that made me feel like I was really witnessing Naruko's growth as a person.

Overall, Naruko's personality set the tone of the show this time around. There were a lot more comedy gags than usual. During these more lighthearted moments, the score followed suit with silly woodwinds. Tadokoro and Naruko's comedy sketch ensemble (as witnessed by an eye-rolling Makishima) was a great touch. The two have matching loud and boastful personalities, but beneath that there's a sincere senpai-kohai relationship. Naruko pretends not to listen to Tadokoro, but we see him take his upperclassman's words To Heart. Tadokoro calls him a “little red bean,” but there's real pride in his voice as he talks about Naruko's accomplishments to Shinkai.

Toward the end of the episode, the joking was replaced entirely by the other part of Naruko's personality, his sheer intensity. The sprinter picked up some pretty impressive climbing styles that must have taken months of secret training, and then wore his body down to enact them—all so he could show off at the Interhigh, according to him. But there's a part that he's not mentioning, and it doesn't come out until his flashbacks of time spent with Onoda and Imaizumi. Naruko's affinity for the color red and his need to be the center of attention are superficial character traits. His compulsion to help his friends was propelling him forward under the surface all along.

They say you don't know what a person is made of until they're at their limit. As Yowapeda characters continue to go all out in the last few kilometers of the InterHigh, we're witnessing exactly what they're willing to sacrifice everything for. This has been an intense couple of episodes but none so powerful as Naruko's. We didn't just revisit his character motivations, but discovered new ones, too. The story, pacing, and score all came together in perfect synthesis to show us a new side of a character I never thought was all that great before.

Rating: A+

Yowamushi Pedal Grande Road is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.