Yowamushi Pedal: Grande Road

This is simultaneously an improvement on the previous season and isn’t. Picking up right where Season 1 ended might have been a mistake in of pacing but it definitely doesn’t let up throughout 24 episodes. I definitely do like that it toned down the unexpected sadisticness of Season 1. But the protagonist is the weakest part of the show, he has zero chill and keeps freaking out in every episode for no reason. Just chill bro. I am looking forward to continue on with the franchise. But I think I definitely need to see some changes if I am to be convinced of any ... long term success beyond a typical shōnen first two seasons.

I wanted to like this anime more but unfortunately its to much a show about cycling and more an ANIME about cycling. It does the jojo thing where it slows down the world so much and gives us 10 minutes of inner monolouge in what are supposed to be 10 real world seconds, also overdramatizes certain aspects of racing, during the race in the show, there were a few characters that needed to be left behind and every time it was treated in a similar manner to when a shonen protag's friends all make noble sacrifices so that he doesn't have to fight the goons ... and can save his energy for the main antagonist.

In the context of fighting this makes sense, but in races people can only go as fast and as long as their bodies will allow, if the fastest person on the team is ahead of the pack the second fastest being faster than some dude on the other team ain't gonna have a bearing on whether or not the dude is gonna be able to catch up lol.

ALso the show kinda acted like people not being able to keep up near the end had any significance at all when it doesn't. In a real world race without all the anime fuckery if they're near the head of the pack they can probably rest for 10 minutes and pedal on minimum speed to complete the race before the cutoff lol. Since they aren't judged as teams either its like..... dude who tf cares? Your ace came in 1st or second, you aren't scored as a team, you aren't injured, you can just rest for a couple of minutes and even if everyone es you you'll still complete the race before the cutoff just to say you did lol.

Its also kinda annoying how it does the thing where everyone needs to have an anime superpower. One guy has a high vo2 max, one guy is really aerodynamic, one guy eats enough his glycogen is never deplete, one has abs.

Its true that there are different types of atheletes within the sport whose different physical attributes give them different advantages, but the reality is everyone competing at a high level in cycling has a high vo2 max, almost all of them are going to do at least a modest amount of resistance training, they're all going to make efforts to be more aerodynamic, the vast majority of riders are going to slam back those nasty gels or sugarbars, but not all of these advantages are equal and the show kinda acts like they're similar in power level, you pick a "style" and depending on how hard you work on it you have equal potential as someone else to be the best.


I already know people are going to say things like "stop whining its an ANIME, its NOT SUPPOSED TO BE REALISTIC" but *shurg* art imitates life and since this show isn't meant to be wildly unrealsitic in the same manner as a show about yokai or a shonen anime with crazy power levels like hunter x hunter i think it makes sense not to enjoy those aspects of it and to criticise the show for it, i'm not saying the show is bad, just that some of its anime tropes are overplayed and i think perhaps not appropriate for its specific genre, its okay to criticise aspects of a show you enjoy or even not to like things that other people like.

The Anime started well with the first season giving a glimpse into cycling. It baffles how uninteressting and simply bad this season was.
Not only was there basicly no character development, no plot twists that seemed in any way interesting nor did the anime feature anything I would like to see in a story.
The Animation and Sound were almost the same as the first season so thats fine,
but this season felt like a Dragonball Z copy on bicycles.

Maybe 50% or even more of an episode are two or more characters screaming each others name, ed by cut ins of them pedaling or leaning over ... their bikes.
Any other interaction between the characters were surface level deep, meaning it had no impact on the story or the relationships.
Even worse is the aspect of expertise. When you look at the first Season you sometimes get some information about cycling and sports in general.
These information are sometimes even relevant to the story (see training camp in season one and other scenarios). But in this season there are almost no such infos.

All in all this anime was something i looked forward to but which dissapointed me in the end.

If I had to find one positive aspect about it the solid animation and sound design would come to mind.

My verdict: If you want uninteressting screaming and very simple entertainment without deep story or knowledge about cycling give it a go but don't expect much from it.