10 Second Anime - Yowamushi Pedal - Episode 37

Yowamushi Pedal - Episode 37

Midousuji thinks he's broken Hakone and is on his way to Stage 2 victory. Fukutomi tells the Kyoto former captain that they have no dead weight.

Heh.

When Fukutomi and Toudou starting glowing yellow and blue, meaning they were about to unleash their superpowers, with the sound of their teammates catching up from the rear, I got chills. It's on like Donkey Kong!

Izumida needs to get a Fukutomi translator. When he heard his captain say that dead weight should be dropped, he thought he was calling him, Arakita, and Shinkai dead weight. As if. This happened to him before, when Fukutomi told him he didn't need to ride his bike anymore to get stronger. Shinkai was there to tell him, uh no, he means you have to work out, your riding is fine.

I liked how Toudou didn't even flinch when he let Midousuji get the mountain sprint. He got his epic battle with Makishima. No one else is worthy for S-Class effort.

It's too bad the Kyoto Fushimi guys fell under the sway of Midousuji. Ishigaki and his team looked like they had fun together.

But even he had to admit that he wanted to win more races, and Midousuji has a plan that appears to be working. Too bad it's too short-sighted and is only good enough to get them over the finish line for that year, but not enough to build a team for future progress.

There's no camaraderie on that team at all.

You don't leave a man hanging! Come on! As if we needed more reasons to hate this Midousuji guy. His pleasure in winning is purely selfish, and his teammates are just numbers to him.

Meh.

The CGI guys messed up the chain coming out of the cassette again?

I hope they build a better model for next season, or I'll just have to let it go like I did with all the sparks flying when dramatic gear shifting happened. At least the sparks are meant to convey some kind of impact. This chain bending on some invisible fly-wheel is just carelessness.

Hmm.

Toudou saying nothing but just barely smiling at the end tells you everything about what Hakone has done to prepare for the race. He told Makishima at the end of Stage 1 that he had his fun for the race that day, but the fun is over. War is coming. And Hakone brought it.

If those two guys on Kyoto Fushimi dropped out, does that mean they can't start the next day? That's how it is for almost any stage race. If so, like I said before, Midousuji's game plan is very short-sighted. He might be a good tactician, but his strategy might be a little lacking. Burning your team up to accomplish all the little victories just means you have fewer cards to play when you need them.

The other Hakone guys have probably recovered, being brought back up to the front behind Manami, but do you think Sohoku might be there too? This is a sports anime with one episode left before the end of the season. Of course they are.

Cycling Porn.

We've got some victory poses, some bike frames, some smooth pedaling, and good leader protection.

Midousuji looks like a big albatross spreading its wings. Ugly.

When I first saw the Answer brand on Kyoto's bikes, I thought for sure they had to be referencing Ridley. The Answer to the Riddle, right? But then I saw Toudou's Ridley become Redkey, and I had to look harder. Somehow the anime came to Answer from Raleigh. The manga, from what I can see in image searches, did not even try to rework the brand names, so your guess for how they got there is as good as mine.

Finally, we see how an organized pace line protects its designated leader, making sure that guy never has is face to the wind as they shuffle their places. He should never be at the very front, and never at the very back either. Being at the very back means no one can see you if you have a problem and start slipping away, so having at least one guy behind the leader means someone is always watching him.