Live-Action Yowamushi Pedal Sequel Casts Yūya Kido, Yuki Tamaki

Both actors played roles in stage plays

The staff of the live-action series of Wataru Watanabe's Yowamushi Pedal (Yowapeda) manga revealed two additional cast members for the sequel on Thursday.

The new cast includes Yūya Kido (left in image above) as Yasutomo Arakita, and Yuki Tamaki (right) as Shinpachi Tōdō. Both actors played their respective roles in one of the stage play adaptations of Yowamushi Pedal.

The sequel will premiere on BS SKY PerfecTV! this year. The sequel series will continue from the first season and will center on Sakamichi Onoda as a first-year student in the Inter High arc. The main cast members are reprising their roles in the sequel.

The first live-action series premiered last August on BS SKY PerfecTV! and ran for seven episodes. Kōta Fukihara (live-action Tensai Bakubon ~Kazoku no Kizuna, Hibi Rock film) wrote the scripts for the series, and many of the main cast members returned from the Yowamushi Pedal stage plays.

The story of the first Yowamushi Pedal manga centers around Sakamichi Onoda, an otaku at Sōhoku High School. He loves anime and games so much, that he would ride his commuter bicycle to and from Tokyo's Akihabara shopping district in a 90-kilometer (about 60-mile) round trip over steep slopes after school. Onoda's life changes when he encounters his school's cycling team, and he ends up joining the competitive sport of bicycle racing.

Wataru Watanabe launched the original manga in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine in 2008, and the story inspired stage plays and three television anime adaptations so far. The first season of the anime premiered in 2013, and the second season premiered in 2014 and ended in March 2015. Crunchyroll streamed both seasons outside of Japan.

The third season premiered on January 9. Crunchyroll is streaming the series as it airs in Japan.

The first anime seasons inspired two compilation films that opened in Japan starting in September 2014. A feature film sequel opened last August. The Yowamushi Pedal: Spare Bike spinoff manga also received an anime adaptation with a two-week run in theaters last September.

Yen Press has licensed the original manga for a release in North America. Crunchyroll is streaming the first three anime films. Discotek Media licensed the first two seasons.

Source: Animate Times