10 Second Anime - Yowamushi Pedal - New Generation - Episode 12

Kaburagi sees firsthand Sohoku's Power of Six at a prelim race. The other rival teams also start showing their New Generation.

Ride.12 - "Trouble!"

Heh.

Did that episode title mean trouble for Sohoku? Pfft. No way. It meant trouble for the other teams around Chiba.

It's Sohoku's first race with Kaburagi and he really wanted to prove himself. He got an up close and personal lesson on how Sohoku races, though.

Things are getting fun again! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this whole first part of the season, but we had to deal with some angsty issues of separation, transition and establishing new group dynamics. This first race episode marks the start of YowaPeda's real heart. Making jokes about clashing personalities during a race hopped up on nakama power! We had jokes. We had clashing personalities. We had nakama power! My body is ready for the next half of this show's season!

Kaburagi makes a great narrative device for the audience. As the only newcomer on the team, he will get things explained to him about our familiar cast, complete with flashbacks, and he will witness along with the audience the new things the cast has been working on.

Aw. Kaburagi misses Danchiku.

Teshima is canny, which we knew. He asked Kaburagi what he races for. Kaburagi said that he races to win. Teshima just said, he's not wrong and that it was a good enough answer. Oh ho. Kaburagi is going to get an education on what Sohoku races for.

Kaburagi is brash, but Teshima is pretty confident that they could have won that race no matter who was the designated ace.

Oh, hey. Look. A girl. Miki had to run a kilometer pretty fast to get a spare tire for Kaburagi's flat tire. What a perfect and hard lesson to learn about why you race as a team. Kaburagi wanted to win leading wire to wire without any help, then pop! Flat tire in the first 2 km of the race.

Sohoku's jersey isn't complete unless all six are together. I think I heard that somewhere before. Oh, Teshima just told us who said that.

Teshima didn't tell Kaburagi that Onoda made Tadokoro also sing an anime theme song. Maybe Tadokoro never told Teshima that. What happens in the race, stays in the race...

Ha! Naruko still calls Teshima "Perm-senpai." Also, evil scheming Teshima is back too, which we haven't seen since the training camp.

"Hold my bottle. I'm going to need it back when I catch up with you." Oh man, that was a good way to get that guy's goat.

There were quite a few callbacks to last year's prelim race which the Big Three rode by themselves.

That guy Teshima teased was the same one Kinjou talked to last year, saying they were good, but they might only get to really compete against them next year. Yeah, I guess that didn't happen.

Last year too, the first superpower of Sohoku we saw was Tadokoro's Human Bullet Train. This year, Aoyagi showed his improved version: Supersonic Oxygen Human Bullet Aoyagi Train. I think Aoyagi took in all that air just so he could say that name in one breath... It appears that Aoyagi's improvement is that he can hold the lungful of air for a sustained sprint instead of how Tadokoro used it for his initial surge.

Naruko called it: This team always like to cut it close. We need extra drama to fuel all that nakama power!

So, they won taking the first six places, making up that lost lap by the 9th lap of the circuit, meaning the Sohoku Six traveled 12.5% faster than the peloton. They covered 9 laps in what the peloton covered in 8, meaning one extra lap faster, 1/8 equals 12.5%.

I remember how confidently superior Tadokoro's attitude was about his abilities, and I heard that same voice in Imaizumi and Naruko when they complained about letting "Showoff" win the race. They didn't complain during the race at all. They all said that Kaburagi was the ace and they would make him win. After that happened... Tell us how you really feel, guys.

Onoda thought they were going to have a nice, friendly team this year. Ah well. Teshima gave him perspective on that too, and it's not as if his experience with the team dynamic was any different last year.

So far, Kaburagi has three guys that he's going to surpass. I loved the "sure, sure" dismissive tone Imaizumi and Naruko had. It wasn't really mean, but it wasn't really friendly either. They're teammates and Kaburagi's self-imposed rivalry with everyone might be his key to extra motivation.

Judging from the omake, he'll never be like that with Onoda, though. Onoda is his favorite!

With race season starting, it's a good time see what Hakone and Kyoto are doing with their new teams.

Lots of stuff for the fujoshi to squee about. First we had some new guy getting real handsy with Midousuji. This Komari guy is going to be Kyoto's new extra card to play. We saw Midousuji metamorphose during his race with Naruko, but we don't know yet what Komari the masseuse can do. We know he needs to wash his hands before riding his nice Italian bike. And seeing how he judges good or bad muscles, he may be crazy in the same ways that Midousuji is. Aw. Midousuji may have made a friend...

For Manami and Onoda, the bromance is real! It looks like Manami took Toudou's talk with him to heart and he's ready again for that friendly rivalry with Onoda. I'm a little disappointed we didn't get to see his ikemen sparkle on the bottle, but maybe Onoda getting his bike all sparkly was a nod to that.

Ha, nice joke with the wings in Manami's background. I remarked to myself that they looked much more solid than his previous glass wings, and then they were just part of some display in Akihabara.

Hakone obviously filled out the two open slots. This Daboushi guy is going to be a hungry tough guy type. "Dabo" in Japanese is evocative sounding for homonyms meaning plenty (for liquid) or beating or bruising on the body. I'm expecting a violent racing style from this guy. The napping guy with the mask on might be Manami's other climbing partner when Kuroda can't be there, or maybe Ashikiba's new assistant. Keeping some mystery is good too.

Cycling Porn.

This week we saw a random Bianchi, Kaburagi handling a flat tire on his Felt, Teshima's Cannondale as he tossed a water bottle into the peloton, a losing team riding Giant, Komari's Italian Carrera and Onoda making his BMC all sparkly. I make the same face after I'm done washing my bike.

Part of how I knew we were entering the fun heart of YowaPeda again is how the end card took Midousuji's over ripe persimmon and stuck it in Onoda's hand. This Spring season is going to be good!

Next time, it's the thousand kilometer training camp. The Big Three last year had no problems at all finishing it up. How will the seniors and the Big Three 2.0 handle it? What issues will Kaburagi have? I'm getting excited again for this show.