Yowamushi Pedal: Episode 29 – “The Summit”

Episode 29 focuses exclusively on the race to the checkpoint at the summit of Mt. Hakone. At first, Toudou is in front on his own, but a guy named Tatebayashi from Nagano Central Industrial catches up. When Toudou hears cheering and references to a guy dancing funny on his bike and has iridescent hair, he looks back and is in disbelief when he sees Makishima. At that point, Tatebayashi passes Toudou.

But Tatebayashi’s lead is short-lived when Toudou and Makishima begin racing against each other and the two of them pass Tatebayashi very easily. Tatebayashi drops out of the race, and it’s a fight to the finish between Toudou and Makishima. It’s an intense race, but there’s only one winner.

I really liked seeing how these two rivals handled themselves at the end of the race. While the loser was noticeably disappointed, he was able to remain friendly with the winner. There’s obviously no hard feelings, and they both seemed to enjoy their final race against each other.

When their teams learn the results of who won at the checkpoint, Kinjou tells Sakamichi to take Naruko and Tadokoro and pick up Makishima. Kinjou and Shunsuke then begin preparing to go up against Hakone Academy’s ace, with the final goal being the finish line.

I was actually quite surprised that Makishima and Toudou’s race concluded in this episode. I really thought they would have ended this episode with the two of them coming up on the checkpoint and not crossing it, and then starting Episode 30 with them crossing the checkpoint. I’m glad we saw the winner in this episode, but was still surprised it wasn’t stretched out.

So now the focus is going to be on Shunsuke and Kinjou going up against their counterparts at Hakone Academy. So now the question is: will the Inter-High take up the remaining nine episodes, or will there still be a little more to the story after the conclusion of the Inter-High? I’m looking forward to watching the remaining episodes of Yowamushi Pedal and finding out how the series will come to an end.

Additional posts about Yowamushi Pedal:

• Yowamushi Pedal: Episode 28 – “100 Man Barrier”
• Yowamushi Pedal: Episode 30 – “Arakita and Imaizumi”