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Yowamushi Pedal Stage Plays Get New Work This Summer

The staff of the stage play adaptations of Wataru Watanabe's Yowamushi Pedal manga announced on Tuesday that a new stage play titled Butai Yowamushi Pedal The Cadence! will run in Tokyo and Osaka this summer. Tuesday marked the 10th anniversary of the stage play adaptations of the manga.

Kousuke Kujirai, who has played the character Junta Teshima in previous plays, will now direct the new stage play. Shatner Nishida will also return to direct the play as the chief director, and will write the script.

Additionally, various streaming services in Japan including d Anime Store, U-NEXT, and Anime Hōdai began streaming all 15 of the stage plays in the franchise on Tuesday.

Watanabe launched the original Yowamushi Pedal manga in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine in 2008. The story of the original 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. Yen Press is releasing the manga in English.

The 15th and latest stage play based on the manga was scheduled to run in Tokyo and Osaka in July 2020, but the play was canceled due to COVID-19. The play instead ran in March 2021 in both cities. The latest play adapted the Yowamushi Pedal: Spare Bike spinoff manga.

The manga has also inspired numerous anime and live-action adaptations. The anime's fifth season will premiere in October.

Sources: Yowamushi Pedal stage plays' Twitter account, Comic Natalie