You gaiz knew this was gonna happen.
You probably sniffed it when I was talking about too much pedal over at twitter and tumblr. I was so bad at this that I decided to dedicate all my pedal feels in a separate twitter (@pedalbaka)
But then again, here I am with my friends Nozmo (@bakemono91), Mickey (@yowamickeypedal), Yeehun (@_yeehun_), and Megumi (@onkeikun) spazzing about this series that has destroyed our lives at the start of the year and continues to do so. We talked about Yowamushi Pedal, Watanabe Wataru’s shounen manga that runs in Shounen Champion. The animation can be seen in parts of the world via Crunchyroll and Niconico Douga.
Yowamushi Pedal’s manga is currently at its 34th volume. Because of its length, it remains unlicensed as a manga (wink wink, please look into this crunchyroll). But the fandom, while small, have been pooling their efforts in helping other fans get more pedal in their lives. Megumi has been a resource of information on Watanabe’s autograph signings, interviews, and yowapeda events. She’s also been responsible in translating the novel, specially released manga called Special Bike, and the yowapeda stage play. The fandom also participates in various draw events such as the #ywpd_69min in twitter!
For fans of the manga, Ebookjapan, Line Manga, Ibooks and Google Books Japan release Yowamushi Pedal digitally on the same day the manga is released in Japan!
A few weeks prior to my trip, one BL author, Mio Junta, had been tweeting a couple of Yowamushi Pedal goods in her twitter. Not only did she tweet about her dining experience but she also tweeted tons of awesome and really cute images of cakes, pastries, and merchandise with characters of Yowamushi Pedal in it! Apparently, it’s part of an ongoing event held at Namja Town. Given that my trip was a few weeks away and that my life had been completely consumed by Yowamushi Pedal, I didn’t care if I haven’t slept for 48 hours by the time I arrive in Tokyo. My roommate wanted to bring me to the Tiger and Bunny cafe but since we lost the lottery for the reservation, I told him I wanted to visit Namja Town and I wanted to eat the face of my favorite character.
As such, I’m happy to share with you my experience in visiting Namja Town. Not to experience the fun arcade games developed by Namco but what it’s like, as a fujoshi, to experience a special event tied to a fandom. It was honestly an awesome and eye-opening experience.
