For those who watched Yowamushi Pedal anime series and enjoyed the thrills of its inter-high competition might be disappointed with this movie as I did. This movie takes place after the inter-high competition and the different school teams once again gathered to participate in a smaller scale race. Here’s one fact: Not all characters from the series will make appearance in the movie.
Before I go on any further, let me warn you that I don’t attempt to not spoil it for you.
What I didn’t like about the movie the most is how it rushed through the races. Given the limited time, I really shouldn’t be expecting much. The movie is about an hour and 30 minutes long. What sort of adrenaline rush can they offer? For those who never seen the series, the cyclist hidden skills and abilities may also seem confusing. I do believe that this is a movie for Yowamushi Pedal series followers, not casual movie goers. Or maybe it has always been intended as such…
Still, Yowamushi Pedal: The Movie offers insights into some of the things I might have overlooked when watching the two seasons of anime series. Because the series put a lot of time and effort into building the character Sohoku’s first year students, I didn’t really noticed how deeply attached the juniors were to their respective mentors: their seniors. When Makishima started acting strangely and subsequently withdrew from the club, it was his mentee Onoda who felt the most impact.
Perhaps it was Onoda’s natural character who isn’t as confident as he should’ve been that this impact was felt. If he’s Naruko or Imaizumi, maybe the outcome would be different. His fellow first years are more confident about themselves. Seemingly losing his sense of direction and purpose in the cycling club, Onoda struggled with his training and also in the actual race day itself. The strength of Onoda isn’t really his high cadence riding ability, if this is the correct way to describe his most valuable skill set. His strength lies in his loyalty to his teammates. His strength lies in his enjoyment of riding with all of his teammates. Any one of them missing, he lost his value. That’s Onoda.
Nonetheless, Yowamushi Pedal: The Movie remembers to entertain the crowd with its famous “hime” song, which by the way, can be addicting. And the fact that all Sohoku members sang along in an off-tune voice is just icing on the cake.
I’m not sure what the purpose of this movie is besides adding another name of its franchise. But I don’t think anyone would miss out anything if they don’t watch this movie.
World of Yamaguchi Hoshiko 
That’s the problem with a lot of anime movies. You’re left wondering what it was they added other than more time to a series. There are exceptions of course, but unless the series is left hanging, I tend to avoid any follow up movies. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I was curious about the movie that’s why I watched. Kinda upsetting to see that it didn’t turn out the way I expected. Still, I like the series in general. Read that there’s third season coming up soon and I’m looking forward to it.
You’re welcome and thanks for commenting!
I like when movies based on anime are no lazy recap, as it happens so often. I like that they continued the story of Yowamushi Pedal a little with it. There will be a 3rd Season in 2017, too.
The Makishima part added a bit of depth, since I like his character a lot, I enjoyed the focus on him.
After Inter High, this event felt rather unimportant, more like a chilled bike tour for friends, although the scenery looked nicer ^^
I couldn’t take the races very seriously, the special shounen abilities in the compressed races felt silly at times, especially at first. The guy who wanted to play Midousuji was hilarious, though everything looked like full power, but it turned out so weak ahah. I liked that Midousuji wasn’t there, unfortunately team green was, I hate them XD
Too bad Onoda failed his first day, without even trying it seriously.My dissapointment was cleared on day 2 odf the race, 6 men singing the complete “hime…” Song was simply epic. Overall I enjoyed the movie, it reminded me why I like Yowamushi Pedal so much.
The Theme Song by LASTGASP was very cool.
Have you already seen the OVA’s Yowamushi Pedal Re Road and Re Ride? I will soon.
Yes! I like the part when they sing the “hime” song. In my opinion, it’s just not Yowamushi Pedal without Onoda singing that song once so I’m really happy they included it in this movie.
Perhaps you enjoyed the movie more than I did because we’re both looking at it from a different perspectives. I was hoping for some serious racing challenges and competition like that from the two anime seasons but the movie doesn’t really have that. I didn’t find myself on the edge of my seat if you know what I mean. As for you, the movie did focus more on Makishima and Onoda so we as audience had a little more insight to their relationship. That is a good thing, just not what I was looking for when I picked up this movie to watch. By the way, the scenery where Makishima and Onoda were watching the sunrise is very pretty!
And yes, same as yourself, I’m really excited about the third season. I believe we’ll see a few fresh faces seeing that the third year students are retiring soon from the club. It’s really sad though to see them gone especially the three characters have been such fun to watch.
What I’ve read about Re: Road and Re: Ride is that they’re recaps of the first two seasons, which is why I haven’t watch them until now. Have you seen them? Are they really just recaps?
The song is so funny I wonder who had the idea.
Well, I enjoyed it, but expected better racing,too especially one day one.
I laughed about the sudden powerups with tongue out and such hilarious things XD
Day two was better, but the event did just not have much impact as a whole.
The whole scenery was eyecandy, it was a nice road there.
I’m looking forward to it ^^ I hope Onoda gets stronger and he might develop a funny trick, too.
It’s really kind of sad that these strong characters will disappear by the time.
Ah sorry I did not manage to watch them in the meantime, I always fell asleep lol
but I guess the Ova are both more recap than anything else.
Lets hope the new characters will be just as interesting too in the new season. Or maybe the seniors will still stop by once in a while. That’ll be nice 🙂