“Yowamushi Pedal” is a very popular manga series by Wataru Watanabe, first published February 21, 2008 in weekly manga magazine Weekly Shonen Champion. Following the success of the manga, 4 seasons of anime television series adaptation aired from October 2013 to June 2018 and a live-action television drama adaptation aired in August 2016. Now we finally have the live action cinema adaptation “Yowamushi Pedal: Up the Road” directed by Koichiro Miki, starring a bunch of idols and popular young actors, for the joy of the fans.
“Yowamushi Pedal: Up the Road” is screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
The film opens with Sakamichi Onoda (Ren Nagase) pedaling happily on a rusty “granny” bike, in a haze of sakura petals along the panoramic route to Chiba on Tokyo Bay. He is cycling towards a new chapter of his life, as high school has just started, and his expectations are high. Onoda is a bit of a loner, he always had problems making friends at middle school, but he is a big anime fan and Chiba Prefectural Sohoku High School has an anime club he desperately wants to join in the hope of making some like-minded friends there. Too bad that the club is suspended due to lack of members! Onoda's despair and his clumsy bicycle attract the attention of Miki Kanzaki (Kanna Hashimoto) who struggles to believe he cycles from Akihabara to Chiba (42.2 km, 2hr 54 min cycling, according to Google Map) and back every day, just to save the train money. She is involved with the bicycle racing club and introduces him to competitive biker Shunsuke Imaizumi (Kentaro Ito). Immediately he proposes a race along the panoramic Chiba – Akihabara route; if he loses, he will join and bring people to the Anime club. Onoda gives his best, driven by the idea of reviving the anime club and earning friends but loses after an amazing performance. However, he realises he can make friends even in the cycling club and is flattered by all the attentions to his talent and resilience.
The other members of the club are Shokichi Naruko (Ryota Bando), Shingo Kinjo (Ryo Ryusei), Yusuke Makishima (Shuntaro Yanagi), Jin Tadokoro (Ken Sugawara) and Terufumi Sugimoto (Mizuki Inoue), and Miki's father Koji Kanzaki (Sarutoki Minagawa) is the adult that runs the family's bicycle shop and supports the members of Sohoku. The club will join an important competition and Onoda will learn that every member has a precise role in the team-play.
Like in the majority of Shonen sport mangas, even “Yowamushi Pedal: Up the Road” retraces the familiar formula of the underdog or a shy or unpopular boy who has one skill, is noticed by a more popular character who tries to push out his potentials and then they meet in between and become friendly rivals. In this case, there is a lot of attention on the team and the specific role everyone must cover, according to their skills and Onoda, whose motivation is mainly making friends, is extremely keen when given a task and ends up growing and inspiring the others to do better. It is a classic feel-good film, without fail, and an ode to the collaborative work. This review comes from someone who hasn't seen any of the original source materials, so no comment or comparing on that, but the film has kept the hyperbolic mode of classic mangas, with a heavy (and a bit mono-thematic) characterisations of the protagonists. Onoda is an extremely positive character, decent, keen to learn and stay at his given place, but his puppy dog humbleness is a bit grating after almost two hours of running time.
The cinematography is crisp and appealing, giving ample space to the cinematic scenes of the racing routes, all following the coastlines of Tokyo Bay, with a keen eye on cherry blossoms and drifting petals. Pop idol and singer Ren Nagase has earned a newcomer award for his role of Onoda and it is well deserved, if only because he plays against type and the movie's theme song is “Key of Heart” by J-pop group King & Prince (Nagase's band). Sadly, the only female character Miki Kanzaki, played by sweet Kanna Hashimoto – who I am sure could do much better than that – is almost embarrassing in its futility, just smiling and distributing sandwiches and drinks to the race team boys.
If you like boys in tight-fitting gaudy clothes, cycling for 1 hour and 52 minutes, screaming motivational mottos over a breath-taking scenery, then this film is definitely for you.
