Yowamushi Pedal - Grande Road - Episode 3
The younger Akira Midousuji is motivated to win for his mother's memory. His insistence on being cunning to win proves to be his tragic downfall.
Meh.
It's too late. This show tried to humanize Midousuji too late. I feel sad for the younger Akira losing such a nice, loving mother, but how he channeled that awkward devotion to her memory into pure cunning and deception makes his ultimate loss satisfying to me. He got what he deserved.
In a sense, the author even robbed Midousuji of having a winning smile. Tearing a quadriceps for a worthless sprint tag and denying him overall victory was bad enough, but also taking away his mother's wish for him to have good teeth was just sticking the knife in a little deeper. Good.
Other things too ham-fisted or not developed well enough was showing a dying fish on the edge of the lake and Midousuji losing his little glowing marble. The dying fish was totally unnecessary.
Now, if the little glowing marble was established to be Midousuji's conception of his mother's yellow colored love for him that he's been holding tight to him through each victory, that would be a nice image. Almost poetic. But in the anime, all it looks like is another prize slipping from his grasp.
The image also doesn't work because we didn't see a younger Midousuji think of his victories as this light in his hand. Maybe if we had a few minutes less of a wagging tongue, frog eyes, and chopping teeth this image could have been developed into one with more emotion. But no. They spent too much time making us hate a freakshow instead of giving us evocative hints at his motivation. Meh.
Heh.
At least Midousuji's flashback episode answered some questions for me. That heavily modified
De Rosa is the same little frame he's been riding since his middle school or junior high days. He can't give it up because his mother liked it so much. It also means he's been riding big 700mm wheels all this time too.
Kyoto is known for its Keirin cycling tradition. It's a track cycling event where the big pursuit guys follow a pace bike, usually a special motorcycle made just for the track, that slowly ramps up its speed until there's a lap and a half to go. A skinny Midousuji would in no way have fit in with the big gorilla thighs of the track specialists.
That one scene in the first season where he wore gloves at home probably came from dealing with hospitals, a sickly mother, and an invalid grandfather in his aunt's house.
Yup, burning that match to demoralize Shinkai was a total waste. It didn't demoralize him and it cost Midousuji the overall lead. He might even have to pull out before the 3rd stage.
Fukutomi beat out Kinjou in the sprint. At least the celebrating figure of Fukutomi and dejected pose of Kinjou show that. We'll have to see how close it really was next episode.
The single character 翔 used for Akira, Midousuji's given name, is a name only kanji pronounced Shou, but can also be used for the verb kakeru, meaning to run, dash or sprint. By itself, it means to soar or fly. Maybe it's a Kyoto region thing to use this character for Akira.
Another pun on Akira - akirameru (諦める), to accept defeat. Looks like Akira will have to do just that, with his
broken smile and broken legs.
Cycling Porn.
There was a little bit of actual cycling amid all the flashbacks.
