10 Second Anime - Yowamushi Pedal - Episode 12

Yowamushi Pedal - Episode 12

Training camp! Handicaps that make no sense at first! Getting carsick! Smelling a good bike (I hope...)!

Now is the time in a sports club anime when we go to training camp! We've got your usual jokes about getting carsick, annoying sleeping habits, and insane training goals. Yowamushi Pedal is also an otaku gag show, so when Sugimoto ask-me-anything-kun suggests watching his Tour de France box set to get pysched up about their time at the cycling training center, Onoda has to pull out his inspirational material. Hime-hime! Hime! Suki suki daisuki Hime! (Princess, Princess! Princess! I love, love, love you very much, Princess!) Hmm, doesn't quite do it for me...

Before we get to the training center, though, Onoda gets carsick in the bus, and since they have a tight schedule to register and get checked in, Kinjou decides to let him get picked up by the equipment vehicle which is following a few minutes behind. Unfortunately, Onoda forgot his wallet and can't buy a drink from the vending machines. Enter Sangaku Manami, クライミングのいけ面 (climbing no ikemen - the climbing good-looking guy). He goes to school near there, but he's ditching PE to climb mountains. He hands Onoda his water bottle and immediately notices he is a cyclist too.

Not coming from the Japanese culture, I never know what little things they're going to obsess over, but apparently it is a very rare thing for the average person to know how to open a bidon and squeeze it. Okay. Onoda thinks Manami is a detective for knowing he's a cyclist without a bike nearby. Manami just says he's a cyclist too, and walks over to his bike, and this happens...

Now, I've mentioned before that this show is very popular with the female subset of otaku culture known as fujoshi. Yeah, I wonder why. As a hetero dude I choose, choose! to believe Onoda just appreciated the smells of Manami's awesome white Look bike, with the smell of grease, grit on the tires, and the whiff of Manami's own exertion... Choose! Another bone (ahem) thrown toward the fujoshi is how Manami addresses Onoda as ね きみ (ne kimi - cutely "hey you"). That is exactly how all ikemen talk to shy girls in manga and anime. See? It's all about the smells of the bike. La la la, can't hear you!

Well, Onoda finally makes it to the room he's sharing with his classmates, but there's no time to get some video inspiration because they have to start the 4 days of hellish training. Kinjou wants them to do 1000 kilometers during that time. The 2nd-years who came with them are aiming to complete it this year. They seem motivated and make their own 2-man breakaway to get as many kilometers in as they can, averaging 250 a day, or about 155 miles. Yeah, sports club anime hellish training! No ne kimi crap here (sighs heavily, accepts show's broad appeal). However, our Big Three 2.0 aren't going to have an easy four days if they want to get ready for the big inter-high race.

For Naruko, the mechanic stuck mountain bike handlebars on his Pinarello. Sacrilege! Now Naruko is going to have to figure out how to generate speed and fight the wind without being in the drops. For Imaizumi, they took away his shifters, and made his Scott a single geared bike. At least he can still coast on the downhills, unlike a fixed gear. And for Onoda, he can't figure out why he's going so slow on the hills. Kinjou tells Makishima what they did to his bike, but forbids him to tell Onoda. He's got to figure it out on his own.

Kinjou is savvy. Makishima can't stand seeing his little climber protégé struggle, and tries to give him a hint. He tells him, "if you win the race, praise yourself, but if you lose, blame the equipment." Hah. Unfortunately, Onoda has no competitive streak in him whatsoever, so he doesn't know what that means. Makishima sees that he's just not going to get it, so he cheats and says, "Now, I'm just talking to myself." The mechanic put heavy steel untrue wheels on his chromoly. Onoda will have to do what he always does, but with a heavier bike: pedal faster. Untrue wheels also means he will expend more energy steering the bike to keep straight. Onoda has the least amount of miles in his legs, so this kind of handicap makes sense for him.

However, training camp isn't just for the new kids. Kinjou is training Makishima to watch out for his climbing partner too, knowing that if he forbade him to tell Onoda what was wrong with the bike, he would anyway. Makishima has not had another climber on the team before, so this is all good camaraderie and morale building. Next week, we'll see what Kinjou and the coach are aiming to correct in Imaizumi and Naruko.

This week's cycling porn features a water bottle, a new bike, forlorn components, and a bit of pedaling:

Nice Look! Or Lock... See? It's sparkling from how nice and clean and white it is, not because Manami got his sparkling ikemen scent all over it. Choose! Sigh. It's always a bit sad to see components ripped off a bike, but they'll be put back on soon enough. And the team is choosing to go with shallow dish aluminum wheel sets. Not as light as carbon, but cheaper and more durable in a crash. I've got over 30,000 miles on mine, and they went through a lot of crashes when I was first learning to ride on them. Very forgiving.