YAWARA! a fashionable judo girl!

YAWARA! A FASHIONABLE JUDO GIRL!

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
124
RELEASE
September 21, 1992
LENGTH
25 min

DESCRIPTION

Yawara! is a sports anime laced with comedic and romance elements. It starts off with Yawara Inokuma, a high school girl who is most interested in doing the things that your average Japanese high school girl does. However, she has been trained in Judo for years by her grandfather, Jigorou (A former Japan Judo Champion), who has much grander plans in store for her as a Judo superstar. He manipulates matters so that Yawara ends up having to perform in matches and tournaments. His final plan is for Yawara to "Win the Gold Medal in the Olympics and be awarded the Nation Medal of Honor".

(Source: AniDB)

CAST

Yawara Inokuma
Yuuko Minaguchi
Kousaku Matsuda
Toshihiko Seki
Jigorou Inokuma
Ichirou Nagai
Fujiko Itou
Chiyoko Kawashima
Sayaka Honami
Yoshino Takamori
Shinnosuke Kazamatsuri
Akira Kamiya
Kaoru Hanazono
Masashi Sugawara
Kyoko Hikage
Yumi Touma
Anna Teleshikova
Yuuko Mizutani
Jody Rockwell
Miyuki Ichijou
Mari Oda
Shouko Saitou
Youko Minamida
Teiyuu Ichiryuusai
Sayuri Yoshinagawa
Mie Azuma
Kojiro Inokuma
Masaaki Okabe
Kuniko Kaga
Runa Akiyama
Gouzou Yuutenji
Ryuuji Nakagi
Yuki Todo
Atsuko Mine
Tamao Inokuma
Toshiko Fujita
Sudo
Yoku Shioya
Kaneko Inokuma
Yuuko Minaguchi
Kamoda
Chafuurin
Yukari Komiya
Yuko Sasaki
Tomioka
Naoki Makishima
Kristin Adams
Ai Satou
Belkens
Run Sasaki

EPISODES

Dubbed

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Not available on crunchyroll

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REVIEWS

C00kieMaster
100/100
A Bittersweet Experience of Acceptance and Facing Reality

Yawara! is an anime by Naoki Urasawa about a cute anime girl just trying to be a 'normal' girl but is constantly pressured by everyone around her to be a Judo superstar from her family, friends and general public. From the first episode we follow not only Yawara's struggle with her desires and passion in light of social pressure but the friends and family around her that wants her to shine brightly as a Judo superstar either from selfishness or genuine care.

Despite ostensibly appearing as a 'sports anime' this anime really has very little to do about sports. Judo is just used as an elaborate plot device or setting for Naoki Urasawa to tell a character driven story about the intertwined interest of Yawara and the various people in her world. The whole schtick of Yawara being a genius Judo practitioner can be easily be replaced with being a talented painter, a beautiful model, an amazing singer or hell, even a tofu delivery driver. Whether this is a good thing or bad thing is subjective and completely up to each individual. For me at least, I did not really care about Judo. I am happy with great storytelling, good vibes and nuanced characters to root for. Or simply for the just banger music of OP and EDs.

What can I say? I am a sucker for retro Japanese city pop.

The early episodes of Yawara! were pretty good in its execution. Great comedy, a likable protagonist and in general just casual light hearted fun. Naoki Urasawa definitely has great patience in his conveying exposition, something I feel is a lost art in comparison in today's fast paced consumer culture. This patience and subtle exposition really paid off for me as I was hooked on the comedy but grew exponentially attached to the characters and curious about the backstory to the point despite having a real slow and weak middle section of the story I continue on watching at least a few episodes a week. The binge worthy-ness of this series starts of well in the beginning but gets bad in the middle only to peak towards the end.
__Here is a 100% scientifically accurate portrayal of my enjoyment/interest in watching _Yawara!___
After the strong initial part of the series definitely felt great to watch because of the comedy but starts to get little slow in the middle where the story shifts on a more character stories. The character arcs in the middle section of the anime is pretty much a hit or miss either providing strong nuanced character development or basic and predictable character plots that felt unnecessary. But those strong narratives persist throughout the end and felt really satisfying to experience. ALMOST every character towards the very end is given a proper conclusion towards their arc, especially our main girl Inokuma Yawara and the hardworking boy Matsuda.

This scene here where he says what everyone was too ashamed to say just made me so damn happy. What he said? its a major spoiler and I won't say.

The mad lad actually has the balls to be upfront about not only his feelings but the feelings of everyone supporting Inokuma Yawara. Everyone flocks around and supported Yawara for the most part from a place of genuine love and care wanting her to shine and succeed as a Judo superstar. But each and everyone of them fail to be honest about their deep rooted selfish intentions for doing so. And this subtle dishonesty is blatantly hidden from each and every main character (except one 'joke' character). that is why when Matsuda said that line to support Yawara, I felt a burden being lifted from my conscious as he owned up to the dishonesty that not only everyone that supported Yawara was reluctant to face but also myself as a viewer. Definitely one of the greatest moments in writing I have experienced.

Yawara! is an anime about coming to accept who you really are and honoring the wishes of everyone that supports you. It is also an story about placing your dreams on others and supporting them regardless if they or you know what is best for them. An amazing story about self discovery, forgiveness, persistence and the positives of being stubborn and selfish every once in a while. Sure there are some really poorly aged jokes and writing conventions, sure there is plenty of really weak and slow paced character arcs in the middle. But all of this shortcomings were totally made up by the rush of emotions that I feel whenever I hear its final ED and retrospectively look back at this series. And that is why I love Naoki Urasawa's Yawara!

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