Yowamushi Pedal Grande Road

Episode 23

After eighteen episodes (and one day of racing), we're now at the penultimate episode of Day Three of the Interhigh in Yowamushi Pedal Grande Road. The finish line is actually crossed during this episode, though we don't know by who. Instead, we get thirty minutes of increasingly tense buildup to a cliffhanger I'm going to be yelling about all week. Onoda and Manami's race continues this time, keeping the focus on them for another week. However, the other characters' reactions to Onoda and Manami's actions keep the ongoing climb from getting tedious.

For the first half, the focus is on Manami as both he and Miyahara (who Manami calls Class President) reflect on his progress as a cyclist. Even as he cycles at the front of the InterHigh, Manami observes that he still has room for personal improvement. For the majority of his character arc, Manami's angel wings have represented his power and attunement with nature. As he tests his body and mind by switching to increasingly higher gears, these wings take on never-before-seen appearances. Apparently, Manami's final form is a set of artificial wings. My theory is that he brings these forth with pure mental ambition, after he's given everything else he has to give. Manami has come a long way, as Miyahara reflects, though there's something a bit off about her rememberances. Miyahara believes Manami doesn't notice her, but in one flashback he literally asks her out on a cycling date, and she says she's too busy. Manami sometimes gets pigeonholed as the airhead character, but Miyahara is the one who needs to see what's right in front of her.

The focus shifts to Onoda not only through his thoughts, but through his mother's. Mrs. Onoda ought to win Parent of the Year for not knowing where her son is or what he's doing, but still somehow cheering for him at the final stretch of the race. Through Onoda's memory of his mother scolding him for doing dangerous things, it's apparent that Mrs. Onoda has matured along with her son. When Onoda told her he was cycling, she wouldn't believe it was for a race. When she heard her son's name in first place, she instead told herself it was another person with the same name. Previously, she went to great lengths like having his bike rigged to keep him from cycling long distances, rather than risk him falling in harm's way. Now, with the evidence directly before her eyes, Mrs. Onoda is finally ready to cheer on her son instead of panicking or scolding.

As we wrap up the race, it's heartening to see every single team member at Sohoku and Hakogaku—and even Midousuji—star in his own cameo and offer a perspective on the race. These moments are lighthearted, played either to tug at our heartstrings or make us laugh. One of the irksome things about these intense one-on-one battles has been the focus on just two people, when the larger theme of the entire show is that road racing depends on teamwork and friendship. There is no funny skit after the credits this week; the episode reserves that space for everyone to cheer for their respective champion. They can prolong the characters' wishes all they want, but by the time this episode ends, the race is essentially over. That cliffhanger is going to bug me all week, but it's gearing up to a storyline that matters far more than the outcome of the race: how each character reacts to it.

Rating: B

Yowamushi Pedal Grande Road is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.