This is not a sports anime really. The story is about a Judo prodigy named Yawara, who doesn't really like the idea of doing Judo. But it is sort of the family trade and she doesn't have the - I am going to go with the word backbone here for the lack of a better description - to put her foot down so she does Judo even though she strongly dislikes the idea. But hey, everybody else seems to love the idea that she does it, so she does it.
Story:
This is the whole plot of this anime. It is said in the description on
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many websites that it is a sports anime but in my opinion it is a shoujo'ish slice of life anime with the touch of sports in it. The plot moves along the same track over and over in an eternal loop, "She dislikes Judo, she is going to stop, something happens, she does it, and she wins." Then the circle starts again. The sport Judo is not the focal point, it is the reason. At the end of 124 episodes you are left with the impression that she doesn't hate the sports that much anymore but that is it. That is all the real satisfaction you get out of the whole plot of a 124 episodes long anime.
Art:
The art reminded me a little of Itazura na Kiss. I am not a giant fan of that style but I don't hate it either. At least they do have "real" bodies and no matchstick limbs with watermelon sized chest area and giant heads with triangular noses. All the characters are distinguishable and no two characters look the same.
Sound:
All I can say is, it didn't bother me. There was nothing outstanding for me, no piece of music I started tapping my foot to or started mumbling the words unconsciously.
Characters:
If I tell you they annoyed the hell out of me to the point where I started assembling assassination plans for imaginary drawn people, it is an understatement.
Inokuma Yawara: Is the main protagonist. She is a whiny, indecisive, weak and a not very smart girl who wants to have a boyfriend and thinks she cant have one unless she doesn't do Judo. She gets older but does not really evolve in my opinion during the whole 124 episodes.
The Grandfather Yawara: A manipulative old Judo "God" whose only objective is to gather certain medals through his grandchild. Said grandchild could be Male, femaie, plankton or alien. He is not really prejudiced. As long as that holy Judo family genes and -name bearing being practices Judo. To meet his objectives he is not above or below anything that could help this purpose. Admittedly he does provide a comedic relief now and then.
The mother and the father: Each a piece of work. Father up and left. We really do not know exactly why, even though there are two theories, both Judo related. Apparently he is a wimp and a wuss and a sore loser. He left, either because a five year old bested him once or he lost a practice match to one of his friends/rivals. ONCE. After that, he left his wife and daughter and vanished. He is like yeti, they hear stories about him but he is always elusive. And the mother is the yeti hunter. Whenever there is a story of the yeti-father the mother runs to check it, and doesn't come back until she knows more. This could be a day, a month a year. Who knows. We don't.
Love interests.: There are two. One is a playboy, the other is a fan-boy. The playboy gets engaged to the rival. And lo and behold, the Miss goodie 2shoes-protogonist doesn't really see anything wrong still going out with an engaged man and hanging on to him. The fan-boy gets at some point a bo..bie-wonder attachment, a co-worker who decided they are in love. The guy doesn't really like her. He says he likes Yawara, but doesn't really tell the annoying co-worker off, they go on dates, but hey, the guy likes the main character. Same goes for the playboy by the way. But at the end of the day they are both very lukewarm in their pursuit of the girl.
Friends are more or less interchangeable. the main rival is annoying and repetitive at best. And there is no real tension in the air, because she is too mediocre and too lukewarm to be a real villian and yet she is too villainous to become a friend. Oddly enough the only characters that evolve in my opinion are the ones from the judo clubs. Both High school and the College one. But the main characters and the first string supporting characters are always the same. Yawara is whiny, Grandpa is manipulative, mother is a doormat, father is, well, I don't have a polite word to describe him. So think your own words. The rival and the lover-boys also are always the same. Really, I could go on this raging negative review for 50 pages and I would still be annoyed. And this is coming form somebody who actually got over middle-aged looking middle school boys with supernatural tennis shots and glowing, flying bodies for over 178 episodes with giant plot holes.
In episode 1 Yawara is in high school. She doesn't have a boyfriend, but she has a few friends. She is real good at Judo and she wants to quit Judo. 124 episodes later: Yawara is in college, she doesn't have a boyfriend, but she has a few friends. She is real good at Judo and she is kinda sorta maybe ok doing Judo. 124 episodes. And that is all that there is.
Altogether, this is NOT a sports anime. This is a shoujo, slice of life, useless personal angst and drama anime, where sports play a role. I am guessing at the time they were trying to create a hype for the upcoming Olympics in Barcelona but apart from a countdown and an honorable mention at the final arc (About 30 days before the Olympics they START training to join the team. Yes you read it right. I said 30 days and start)
That all said, before I got this anime I checked all around and there are more glowing reviews of this anime than not. I am apparently odd ball out here. Still, if you are searching for a sports anime, watch the first couple of episodes before obtaining the entire series. You know, just to be on the safe side.
Alternative Titles
Synonyms: Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl
Japanese: YAWARA!
Information
Type:
TV
Episodes:
124
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Oct 16, 1989 to Sep 21, 1992
Premiered:
Fall 1989
Broadcast:
Mondays at 07:30 (JST)
Producers:
Kitty Films
Licensors:
AnimEigo
Studios:
Madhouse
Source:
Manga
Theme:
Combat Sports
Demographic:
Seinen
Duration:
25 min. per ep.
Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
Statistics
Ranked:
#17382
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#4666
Members:
21,949
Favorites:
139
Resources | Reviews
Filtered Results: 7 / 7
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Your Feelings Categories Feb 7, 2013
This is not a sports anime really. The story is about a Judo prodigy named Yawara, who doesn't really like the idea of doing Judo. But it is sort of the family trade and she doesn't have the - I am going to go with the word backbone here for the lack of a better description - to put her foot down so she does Judo even though she strongly dislikes the idea. But hey, everybody else seems to love the idea that she does it, so she does it.
Story: This is the whole plot of this anime. It is said in the description on ... Aug 23, 2018
Naoki Urasawa's an interesting fellow. An award winning mangaka, he's probably best known in the English anime fandom for "Monster", a dark, psychological manga from which sprung an anime of the same name, an anime that critics often trot out when compiling their "Best Anime" lists. (Disclosure: it's also on mine, though whether I count as a critic is debatable.) Given Urasawa's crendentials, you probably wouldn't expect him to have also written a manga that gave rise to a bright and chirpy long running sports anime adaptation about a young girl doing judo. That anime is "Yawara!", or to give it its full title, "Yawara!
...
Jul 9, 2017
Hi, let's start by saying I am a big classic anime fan and Yawara is one of the best ones I watched. The review will cover all Story, Animation, Sound, Character, and Enjoyment.
Story 9/10 The Story talk about "Inokuma, Yawara" a 3rd-year high school girl, She has been practicing Judo since childhood with her grandfather. However, she never played a real judo match ever, so no one knows about her. Until one day a reporter called "Kousaku Matsuda" for the Daily Sports Newspaper discover her talent by accident, and he wants her to play judo and won a gold medal in the Olympics. In the ... Jun 30, 2016
To think I've been dragging my heels over completing this one the past several months. I was surprised to discover that this was one of Naoki Urasawa's earlier works considering his work on mystery/ thrillers like Master Keaton and Monster. Yawara is a bit more lighter in mood as a sports rom-com in its focus on our titular heroine being dragged into the world of judo competitions due to her natural talent and life-long training for the sport, despite not wanting anything to do with it. The series follows Yawara from high school to her time in the working world as her natural skills as
...
Jun 22, 2020
Wrote a review at Episode 33, so I'll post it below and an updated review follows right after finishing the anime:
-- [ Currently watching the show and at episode 33 ] -- I read that this was on par and even better than Ranma 1/2, so I was excited to watch this show. However, I'm 33 episodes in and I'm kinda frustrated. This may sound like an exaggeration, but the main character, Yawara, literally says the same lines over and over. After 33 episodes, I would have expected SOME kind of development from our main character, but it's only very minor and it doesn't even last ... Feb 28, 2023
This series have many annoying characters, and I can only watch it after 32 eps, after it, I fastforward the story until I find what I want, yeah the love interest between Yawara Inokuma and Kosaku Matsuda, U must wait until the sequel movie so that two end up together
Oh yeah, the first annoying character is Jigoro... Jigoro's very upset to yawara to win his ambition to get gold medal in olympics... Second is that yawara self, she denied judo many times and ended up with doing it again and again... And in love, how could you love that kazamatsuri man... Hmm Third is kazamatsuri shinnosuke, that ... May 9, 2022
"No, all of you taught me. You showed me how great it is... to do your best."
Inokuma Yawara is a teenage girl who wants nothing more than to be normal. She loves fashion, wants to learn how to cook, and someday get a boyfriend, but secretly, she's a judo prodigy, something she takes no pleasure in being. Taught by her five-time national judo champion Grandfather, Jigoro, since she was about four years old, she's now been put through rigorous, daily training for over a decade, but her Grandfather feels this grueling practice behind closed doors will only push her abilities so far, and so before ... |