10 Second Anime - Yowamushi Pedal - New Generation - Episode 25 [END]

Teshima fights for the KOM line fair and square against Manami. Onoda achieves his own goal to catch Teshima. Season Finale.

Ride.25 - "Look Up At The Sky"

Hmm.

The plot was simple. Teshima waited for Manami to rejoin the race after his dropped chain. They sprinted the last 300 meters up the hill as hard as they could. Teshima narrowly lost out as Manami exulted in his victory. Hakone thinks their two quick victories will demoralize Sohoku, but Sohoku is even more fired up, especially when they learned Onoda took 3rd place on the line. Then the season ends, very much like the first season ending right before the finish line of the 2nd day last year.

But during the episode, we continued with the Teshima character study. He's a hard worker because he's an ordinary rider, but he still has his pride. Getting a top step result because of the other guy's bad luck may be acceptable in terms of bike racing, but not for Teshima. Adhering to these kinds of ideals of fair play keeps him ordinary, he suspects. Manami adamantly disagrees that Teshima is ordinary. In fact, Manami hadn't been pushed that far for a mountain stage victory since the last time he raced against a supposedly weak cyclist from Sohoku. They grow climbers strong and special at Sohoku, apparently.

This also meant, since Onoda is THE NATIONAL CHAMPION OF JAPAN, he couldn't be called the weakling pedal of the show's title this season. That role fell to Teshima, and it was established pretty well from the very beginning of the show. Last year, it was Onoda being caught and held up by his teammates after hard efforts. This year, he's supporting Teshima. New Generation, indeed.

Heh.

Teshima should have just looked forward and up at the sky, instead of hearing disconcerting words of encouragement: "Don't worry! Don't look back! Keep going!" It's not surprising Teshima looked back to see whether Manami had somehow torn his leg off.

From how Manami dealt with his chain, he obviously jumped his chain between the small ring and the frame. Of course, this couldn't happen if he was shifting into a smaller cog, but I did that rant last week. He had to get his hands dirty, because shifting into the big chain ring won't pick the chain up. He also forgot that he needs to push the rear derailleur forward to give the chain slack. But he's a dumb high school climber who's cross-chaining from the small chain ring all the way to the smallest cog.

Hey, look! A girl asking about fair play. Spectators make the best expository narrators, apparently.

Shimomo. Bianche.

Clipping in on a steep incline is very annoying and scary.

Teshima waiting like that in the middle of the road is a ready reference to Onoda waiting for Tadokoro in the 2nd day last year.

Oh, Teshima was just enjoying the view and taking a tea break. Right. Also, now we have greater context for his omake earlier in the season serving tea with Aoyagi.

300 meters. Game on!

Manami did get some bad luck with that number 13 tag.

Oh, look! More girls! Miki and Aya get to sit next to Mr. Pierre.

They got the news. Manami took the line, but Teshima was right behind him.

You can always tell the winner and loser. Hands up, looking up versus panting, looking down.

Teshima still going on about tea time. We get it, Teshima, but you can also accept Manami's gratitude graciously.

Sugimoto somehow believes that Teshima didn't use Manami's mechanical to catch up; that he was always right next to him, challenging him. He wasn't wrong.

This new generation of Hakone is still a little too brash under Izumida. The previous generation would never think Sohoku would crack under two close defeats. Then again, they raced against each other even before they got to high school. That's years of history. This new batch of Hakone will just have to get used to Sohoku's spirit on its own.

You know Naruko is in a good mood if he's calling Teshima Perm-Senpai again.

Yes! Onoda made it to his own finish line in catching Teshima. Sohoku is always stronger when they ride together.

Pfft. That one guy who wanted his team to block Onoda didn't get anything out of it as Onoda obviously passed him on the way to his 3rd place at the KOM. What a loser.

Cycling Porn.

This week, we got some more loving looks at Manami's, er, Look bike and Teshima's Cannondale, the annoyance of dealing with a dropped chain, the added annoyance of clipping in while starting on a hill, and the tradition of putting the 13 tag upside down to diminish its bad luck.

A couple of bad things I noticed this week was how Manami clipped in last with right foot, but when he came to Teshima, he clipped out with his left. Uh, what? Most cyclists have a dominant push-off leg that we always use. About the only time we clip in with the other foot last is if the foot has fallen out during a ride (like a shoe being serviced by a team car, or yanked out during a sprint). So, which foot is Manami's usual push off foot?

The other bad thing is the same thing I've been complaining about since the beginning of this anime: the rear derailleur mech is modeled incorrectly in CGI so that the chain has a habit of coming off the cassette at the wrong angle. This could easily be fixed if they just made the fly wheel assembly point straight down instead of towards the rear. Maybe next season they'll finally fix it.

Epilogue.

We're not done yet? Oh. Oh!

This is something to look forward to when the anime returns.

Makishima kept all of Onoda's letters. Nice.

Makishima's pant legs don't match... This is like when the first years went to his house to look at that marathon footage and Imaizumi noticed that Makishima's sleeves didn't match.

Kinjou is still wearing "Trak" gear.

That ain't no bakery van Tadokoro is driving!

Final Thoughts.

This is more like hiatus thoughts, but we haven't gotten a confirmed date on the next season's air date. It can't be that far away, since we didn't even get a "Thank you for watching" end card. I think it's going to be more like 2 seasons away instead of 1 season away like the pause between the first and second seasons. So, watch this space again for Winter 2018.

So, how was the 2nd year of Onoda's Anime Club (with Cycling) going to match the novelty of the first year? We know now how strong he is, as does the rest of Japan. But there are always doubts, and Doubashi of Hakone insisting it was all a fluke is a reasonable take on it. Let's just ignore that Toudou was third and Fukutomi didn't factor into the finale like he was supposed to. Sohoku's team was strong enough to blow all sorts of plans out of the water.

To catch that novelty again, you use your main character's strengths. Well, in Onoda's case, let's call them well established character traits. He's a socially awkward nerd that has suddenly become THE NATIONAL CHAMPION OF JAPAN. He didn't suddenly gain any charismatic leadership skills or anything like that, so the first part of the season showing new kids bounce off this dichotomy was a good choice.

Add in the drama of change, with beloved characters leaving and having to adjust to new roles of mentorship, and our familiar characters had room for even more development and revelation with the new ones coming in. Of course, you have to have good new characters too. Kaburagi and Kouga were a mix of brand new and old-new, and how they clashed with secondary characters like Sugimoto and Teshima made for a lot of fun and touching moments.

But we're here to see shounen battle with bikes and power-ups, so seeing the new generation of the rival teams was welcome too. The chess match between the sly calculators Izumida and Teshima is going to keep being the underlying foreshadowing device during the Inter-High race, and we've already seen it being used to great effect.

Other than the arcane cycling aspects, I have no complaints so far with this New Generation. My only hope is that Love Hime's new opening song gets used more, because it hasn't even made a dent in my consciousness next to the original song. That's all I really want from the next season. MOAR Hime!