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I'm joining the anime club!
— Sakamichi Onoda
Manga-warning

Warning!! Proceed with caution!!

Part of the following is not yet in the anime. If you're not reading the manga, be careful.

Sakamichi Onoda is a third-year student at the Sohoku High School and a member of the Sohoku High Bicycle Racing Club, serving as the main protagonist of the Yowamushi Pedal series. During the storyline's third year, after all his achievements for the team, he becomes the captain of the club. Sakamichi is also an anime otaku, his favorite anime being Love Hime. He is known to sing the Love Hime Theme Song while climbing. It is Sakamichi's eagerness to obtain anime goods from Akihabara that drove him to save money on subway fare by biking to Akihabara for free, causing him to develop the strength needed to become a competitive cyclist.

Appearance[]

Sakamichi has straight, somewhat spiky black hair and round blue eyes in the anime, though he has been portrayed with brown eyes in the manga. He is of average height and has a relatively frail build but with comparatively well-developed leg muscles. Jinpachi Toudou stated during their brief meeting at the Inter High that Sakamichi was "less than a three" in looks. However, he later tells Sakamichi that he has "nice eyes." During Sakamichi's second year, a few girls call him "cute," surprising Shunsuke Imaizumi, Junta Teshima, and Sakamichi himself.

In the first few episodes of the anime, Sakamichi is shown riding with a cycling jacket, then a cycling jersey shirt, both which feature the colors yellow, white and red in varying amounts; these colors also happen to be the ones used for the Sohoku Inter High team jerseys.

Personality[]

Sakamichi is quite shy and has a hard time speaking up for himself; he's easily embarrassed and flustered if complimented or seen enjoying his anime interests too much. He is initially very distrustful and avoidant of "sports type" people, although greatly lonely as he never had many friends he could truly share his interests with. Sakamichi doesn't have much confidence nor understanding of his own skills. But ever since meeting Miki, Shunsuke, Shoukichi, and the rest of the Sohoku cyclists, his courage and abilities have been growing and he has jumped full force into the world of bicycles. He is still easily flustered, but he has developed a fierce determination that helps him do what others think is impossible.

Sakamichi throws caution to the wind and instantly bombards people with friendliness and questions when he learns they know even a hint about anime, no matter how unfriendly the person seems. Although sometimes lost in his own anime world, he has a sense of what's morally right and can't stand when people look down on others or destroy the enjoyable atmosphere of cycling. He takes orders from his team very seriously and literally, completing them by all means necessary, and is always looking for something he can do for his teammates.

The desire to help his team stems from his first Inter High team training session when he began to feel pressured to perform and meet expectations. From comments of the others about Sakamichi's downtrodden demeanor, Shingo realized what the issue was and when Sakamichi was about to ride into the road gutter, Shingo raced down to him and supported him. The captain explained that no one team member can carry the entire team themselves and that Team Sohoku rides for each other: Sakamichi will always have the support of the team when he needs it, but in turn, he must give his help and support to his teammates when they need it too, because supporting each other is "how Sohoku rides."

Despite his lack of competitive streak, in year 2, he openly requested to incorporate "Having a race with Sangaku Manami" as an order, which surprised Kimitaka Koga. He also reaffirmed the desire when Teshima Junta wanted him to scale back and become a super domestique by draing Manami to attack early anyway.

Sakamichi prefers to use proper honorifics when addressing others, usually their surname followed by -san. With upperclassmen, he'll alternate this with -senpai in equal amounts. With those he feels particularly close to, namely Shunsuke, Shoukichi, and Sangaku, he uses -kun instead. He has no problem with others addressing him with what they feel comfortable with. It even extends to his juniors, such as Issa Kaburagi. When Junta tells him to watch Issa's growth carefully during the inter high, he addresses Issa by his full name with no suffixes.

Due to him being uncomfortable with being in the spotlight, Teshima intended to scale his roles back and not compete for King of The Mountains after Inter-High, but instead improving his skills on the flats.

As a hard-working cyclist himself, he also openly defended Teshima's hard work, when Kuroda dismissed him against more physically talented riders like Ashikiba.

Onoda easily gets emgrossed in his own thoughts, which causes him to become absent-minded and lost.

Skills and Techniques[]

From a team's perspective, Sakamichi is a great servant (or domestique) to the ace, as shown when he came from the back of the field to pick up Jin Tadokoro and Yusuke Makishima in the first Inter High, and then caught up in the second inter high and caught up just in time to save Teshima from collapsing and forcing him out of the race. However, he can't perform all aspects of being a domestique like shielding the Ace from the wind because his body is too slim to do so from the front, and he is not as effective in the flats, so he can't be used as a lead-out or breakaway rider. Also, he is not as tactically aware as Junta or Kinjou. In the second Inter High, he brushes off Yuto Shinkai's criticism of him having no free will, as if Sakamichi is more comfortable being given specific tasks and try his best to follow instructions. Also he has a lack of competitive spirit, unless if he was under team orders to chase for checkpoints and wins.

Sakamichi is capable of riding with extremely high cadences even when climbing uphill (going way beyond the normal pace of 70 rpm; he can sustain a 90 rpm pace uphill, and though difficult, at least as high as 150 rpm for a few hundred meters), and at least close to 210 rpm on flat road despite having been riding on heavy bikes up until his second year of high school, especially when Teshima gave up his gears after losing to Sakamichi in the Welcoming race. He can also maintain, increase, or decrease his cadence and all states in between with extreme smoothness. His main skill set seems to manifest when given an order, which he will try to achieve without fail, and when he sees a friend or rival in front of him, Sakamichi tends to smile at the sight and desire to reach them. This simple thing motivates him to pedal and climb rapidly. As Shunsuke puts it, once Sakamichi successfully "catches you, he never lets go," and it's practically impossible to shake him. Sakamichi also sings the Love Hime theme to keep his rhythm and motivate himself. While he used to prefer to do so alone out of embarrassment and shyness, over time he became much more willing to do so in public if it helps him. In second year, however: He never sang until the song popped into his head (like how Beethoven's 9th Symphony was playing in Ashikiba's head) he was being left behind by Manami 1300m from the finish line. As a singer, however: He isn't as good as Teshima, either. The reason he stopped singing in year 2 is because he lost contact with Makishima when he left for England.

Sakamichi received his bike, an average youth's model for pedestrian city riding, when he was in the fourth grade. However in middle school, his mother had it modified with a smaller gear, which meant that he had to pedal with greater intensity than normally required and told him she had it 'fixed.' She assumed he'd give up riding to Akihabara when he didn't make as much progress and only ride to the subway station, but he just shrugged off the difference and didn't change his habits. As he got older, he also remained ignorant that his seat height was getting lower and lower in relation to his growing height, resulting in his legs not being able to pedal at full efficiency, with his feet much closer to his body. His legs and body being forced to propel a heavy weight since fourth grade, then having to push that weight with greater intensity since middle school and being motivated to travel 90km roundtrip to get to Akihabara once a week with only one gear, resulted in him becoming a natural climber who can adjust his speed through cadence alone. He also rode his bike to school ever since he got it, which meant that every day to get home, he would have to climb the super slope to reach his house at the peak. When Shunsuke began to realize Sakamichi's potential, he challenged him in an uphill race (with a head start, secretly planning that out as Sakamichi's warmup) and Sakamichi, using his bike after Miki raised the seat to the proper height, and no advantages for road racing, nearly beat the experienced Shunsuke on his road racer.

Sakamichi is also a fast learner even when taught techniques on the fly while riding, and can quickly apply them successfully, if not with the same finesse as a veteran rider. Having watched his riding in situ, other club members came to realize that when Sakamichi's skills put him up against the wall, he evolves them in order to overcome that wall. Shunsuke noted that Sakamichi is a rider that makes leaps and bounds when he rides, much like when a little-known competitor makes incredible progress all throughout a race like the Tour de France. He was able to adjust to riding with the appropriate higher saddle height, ride in the street among traffic while learning to use his new front deraileurs, and use the 'pendulum sway' dancing technique in a very short period of time. He also has good balance on bikes, quickly recovering when Shunsuke smashed shoulders with him in the First-Year Welcome Race, successfully riding on rollers (which requires more balance and attention than other training methods, and which Miki states is like riding on ice) on his first try, and if push comes to shove, ride on a nearly wheel-thick edge of the road gutter to pass other cyclists. In comparison, fellow newbies Takuya Kawada and Gou Sakurai joined the club and were training three weeks earlier then Sakamichi and still could not handle rollers.

Despite the fact that he also seems very clumsy and falls off his bike when nervous, Sakamichi has fallen so often that he shrugs off tough tumbles, and falling usually calms him down afterward. In fact, being used to falling is the reason he states that he would try riding rollers anyway.

Shingo Kinjou asked the Kanzaki family's shop to supply Sakamichi with a road racer for club activities, which is an older Kuromori frame suited for beginners, equipped with spare parts and plastic pedals (as Sakamichi didn't own cleats). Considered a permanent loaner, he takes it home and rides it to school on training days with the club.

After the Inter High, Sakamichi is given a yellow BMC road bike with a complete carbon-fiber frame. This bike is half the weight of the Kuromori, allowing him to pedal at greater speeds and travel greater distances with ease. Despite this, Sakamichi lost badly against newly-appointed Captain and Vice Captain - Junta and Hajime, coming last in the flats sprint race behind Shingo and Jin. On Day 3 of 42nd Inter-High, he needed the high cadence riding style to break away from Nobuyuki and catch up to Shunsuke because the start of Day 3 course is mostly on flats and small downhills.

He also has average bike control, especially poor at making U-turns, as its shown when he couldn't make sharp U-turns to continue watching the subsequent rounds of the uphill bike race between Jinpachi and Yusuke after the second day.

During the final day on the second Inter-High, his skills on the flat has actually improved enough to keep pace with Nobuyuki Mizuta, before he launched his high-cadence ride on the flats to leave him in the dust, just so Sakamichi can regroup with Shunsuke. After they were back together, Sakamichi was able to match cadences and gear selection without overt instructions, and that was done during a short, steep downhill section, with sweeping turns taken at twice, even triple the speed at which Sakamichi has ever taken before. Later: Both were entrusted to thwart Yuto's solo attack at the beginning of Moutain stage using big gears and high cadences.

His average control on the bike is again magnified on the latter stage of 42nd Inter High. With rain fogging up his glasses, he bounced on the puddle and locked up his brakes.

Both Sakamichi and Shunsuke are both slow at decision-making. Both takes time to overanalyze and consider options, but at least Imaizumi would still snap out of it and make solid decisions. In Onda's case, because he's so over-reliant on team orders, and gets clouded by sentimental yet trivial things when left to his own devices, it was quite a shift when he abandoned the 1-2 finish order with Imaizumi and started competing in earnest against Manami, thus still fulfilling Manami's wish and his own personal request before Day 3.

At the end on 42nd Inter High Race, Onoda made the seemingly unusual choice of shifting down on the final climb of 300m to ease himself into the final 100m climb, but it proved decisive as Manami opted to shift up to top gear to give himself a bigger gap up the sprint. Onoda won out as he was more stable on the final 100m sprint while Manami tired out and lost stability as his unusally large sway lost him the race. Both, however, aren't known to lunge for the finish line as it is unhelpful on climbs.

Known Personal Achievements[]

Year Race Placement Repesenting Team
Year 1 41st Summer Inter High 1st Sohoku
Year 1 21st Annual Minegayama Hill Climb 1st Sohoku
Year 2 42nd Inter High Qualifiers 4th Sohoku
Year 2 42nd Summer Inter High 1st Sohoku
Year 2 Mount Tsukuba Race 1st -
Year 2 22nd Annual Minegayama Hill Climb 3rd Sohoku
Year 3 43rd Inter High Qualifiers 3rd Sohoku

Year Race Placement Repesenting Team
Year 1 Kumamoto Fire Country Mountain Range Race 3rd or 4th Sohoku

Etymology[]

  • The name Sakamichi means "slope, hill road" (坂道).
  • Sakamichi's surname Onoda means "small" (小) (o), "field, wilderness" (野) (no) and "field, rice paddy" (田) (ta/da).

Trivia[]

Likes
  • His mother's udon noodles with seaweed and meat
  • Watching anime
  • Love Hime soundtrack CD
  • Black Manyu figurines
  • Visiting aquariums and museums
Dislikes
  • Big, barking dogs
  • Rainy days, downhill rides
  • Bugs (formerly)
  • Tall grass (formerly)
Collects
  • Anime figures, especially Black Manyu from Manyu Manyu
  • DVDs
  • Royal Force anime stickers
Best Subject
  • None, but according to Ride 19, he does enjoy Japanese history.
Misc
  • He lives on top of a very steep hill and nobody wanted to go to his house because it would take ages to climb. In the anime, it's shown to be a super slope.
  • Sakamichi can get carsick when exposed to closed-in scenery for long periods.
  • His regular bike has a handlebar speaker mount and MP3 player mount so he can listen to soundtracks. On the rear fender is a Royal Force sticker (its positioning reminding one a bit of a bumper sticker on a car).
  • In Yowamushi Pedal: Special Ride during training for the Inter High, Sakamichi placed a rare event Royal Force sticker on the back of the Kurimori's seatpost.
  • He collected all of the character can badges for Love★Hime 2nd season.
  • He had the courage to ride down the monster trail behind his home on his custom MTB.
  • He's curious about the MTBs that he sees throughout town.
  • He sends heaps of letters to Yusuke.
  • He found Yellow Manyu's cape.
  • As an unwritten rule, yellow jersey holders and No.1 zekken wearer should be given a free pass on the peloton, but Sakamichi was only given the right of way after he fought through the initial block.[1] But given the Inter-High only lasts for three days, the pack never stops competing after one holds the yellow jersey after Day 2.

References[]

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