2014, 24 episodes:
AniDB
Sports. Onoda Sakamichi, cyclist with huge natural talent, continues
his racing career. (Sequel to Yowamushi Pedal.)
Actually it would be fairer to say "continues to race". The
first season ended just before the second day of the three-day
Interhigh, and this one takes us just as far as the finish of that
race, so the actual time portrayed per episode is significantly lower.
There are still some training sequences, but they're given as short
flashbacks, rather than being part of the main narrative. As before,
we spend a fair bit of time with other riders, not just the members of
the team but those in the other significant teams too; most of them
are back, and there are a few new characters who didn't show up in the
earlier days of the race.
Day three, we're told, is the really hard one, and plenty of
characters drop out of the competition along the way. (Which doesn't
necessarily mean they stop riding; Unexpected Comebacks are always a
possibility.) As before, the psychology is the major point, with the
eventual order of finishers determined by moral ascendancy and
willpower more than anything else. There's plenty of incident
(including a thoroughly implausible Grand Peloton), and the catharsis
at the finish is well-earned.
There are still basically no female characters in anything like a
significant role, and the overall arcs of the various characters are
quite predictable, but the minimal characterisation still manages to
hold some appeal, and if you enjoyed the first season this is
certainly more of the same.
Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.