Yawara!

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! ... A Fashionable Judo Girl!"

Wait! Come back! Before you dismiss "Yawara!" on the basis of its silly title and sports premise, remember this is Naoki Urasawa we're talking about! While he did write "Yawara!" early on in his career, you don't need to look hard under the hood to see the interesting details that distinguishes "Yawara!" from a typical lengthy sports anime.

In many ways, "Yawara!" is a subversive take on the sports genre. A typical sports anime would start off by introducing some total n00b that gets attracted to some sport, and it would turn out that The N00b(TM) is immensely talented in the said sport. Early on, The N00b(TM) would meet a rival who is far ahead in terms of skill level, The N00b(TM) would be inspired to work very hard to catch up with The Rival(TM) and they would form a rivalry that runs throughout the show. Etc.

Well, "Yawara!" mostly dumps this formula on its head.

Yawara, the titular character, just wants to be a normal girl. Unfortunately for her, she comes from a family of elite judo athletes. While both her parents are alive (which theoretically puts her in a better position than most anime protagonists), they're both AWOL so she's being raised by her grandfather (which effectively puts her in the same position as most anime protagonists). Her grandfather, being a famous judo champ, has trained Yawara hard from a young age in the hope that she'll also be a champion some day and even win an Olympic gold medal. But Yawara would much rather go shopping and date boys than do judo, and the story essentially revolves around her grandfather and a bunch of other people pushing Yawara towards greatness in spite of her reluctance.

The first thing to note is that this is not a zero-to-hero story: despite not having participated in any tournaments, Yawara's power level at the start of the show is well beyond even those of a typical rival character in a sports show. Rather amusingly, the show then proceeds to find a n00b rival who has to catch up to Yawara! You can even say that "Yawara!" is a sports show in name only: it takes about five episodes before we even see the protagonist participate in a proper fight. And while the matches are well animated and executed in their action sequences, they're often over quickly, rarely dragging its feet across multiple episodes as sports anime are wont to do. To top it off, the protagonist doesn't even like judo, and spends most of the series trying to get away from it.

So what do you call a sports anime that's not very sporty? In the case of "Yawara!", I'd probably call it a sitcom. Like all good sitcoms, "Yawara!" provides good entertainment value and comfortable viewing; its comedy brims with warmth and its characters quirk and charm. I find Yawara's grandfather Jigoro to be especially amusing: a lot of the show's running jokes involve him, such as his habit of inflating his judo rank and his tireless and shameless promotion of his book. What tickled me the most is how unexpectedly far the anime managed to take his habit of ending all his sentences in "ja". Amusements aside, many characters of "Yawara!" are also infused with depth, with "Beanpole" in particular going through an incredible amount of development in the course of the show.

Unfortunately, the generally strong and endearing cast of characters only ends up highlighting Yawara herself as rather unlikable. Her constant rejection of judo is taken so far that the show can be teeth-clenchingly frustrating to watch. That said, it does end up providing a lot of food for thought: for the longest time, I couldn't make up my mind whether the anime's views about women are progressive or outdated. After all, not only does Yawara harbour no ambitions of becoming a champion, her own lofty dreams consists of going shopping, finding a boyfriend etc, and one of the reasons she rejects judo is because she thinks it makes her less feminine. Also, considering Japan isn't exactly a shining beacon of progress when it comes to attitudes on women's role in society, and it's easy see "Yawara!" in a cynical light. On the other hand, the female characters of "Yawara!" tend to be more successful than their male counter parts, and it's the men who are playing the supporting parts. For an anime to make this role reversal in the 80s - or arguably even now - it has to be making a pretty powerful feminist statement, right? Is Yawara's lack of ambition perhaps meant as a critical reflection on a society that nurtures women to do nothing beyond dress prettily and start a family? Whatever the anime's intentions, this is the aspect of "Yawara!" that fascinated me the most, and I find myself continuing to ponder back on it long after I finished the show.

"Yawara!" also has other aspects that sets it beyond a light-hearted sitcom. Not dragging out judo matches means that the show actually ends up covering a lot of ground in its characters' lives over the course of its 100+ episode run. Yawara starts the the show in school, then goes to college, then ultimately graduates into the job market. Along the way, the anime takes its characters down surprisingly mature routes such as job hunting and parenthood. Judo may be the topic, but "Yawara" is at least as much about its characters' hopes and fears, dreams and ambitions, and general lives. However, with so much development going on in so many areas, I was all the more frustrated with the fact that the only notable aspect of "Yawara!" that settles into the status quo is the main romance.
Don't get me wrong: Yawara's romance thread isn't exactly bad, and there are even pockets of tenderness worthy of a great romance anime. The problem though, is that in the big picture, the main romance is locked in a boringly familiar dance of two step forward, one step back, then one step forward, two steps back, never quite going anywhere significant. This displays in stark contrast against other side characters' love stories, which, like the general trend in "Yawara!", go further and faster than what you would expect. 

It's a shame, really: the main strength of "Yawara!" is built on its quiet, thoughtful, delightful unconventionality. But the few aspects that remain conventional is what holds "Yawara!" back, and ultimately those are what end up preventing the show transcending from merely being very good to being great.

Personal rating: +1.5 (very good)

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 ... other hand, Yawara does not like to judo, she wants to be a normal girl, having a normal friend's normal job and most importantly normal love. So the story is about Yawara's life between judo and having a normal girl life.
Animation 6/10
The anime aired at 1989, at that time this is the best you can get, however, we are in the present now so it pretty old, the animation is not amazing, however in few episodes you will get used to it, the girls' characters are not that cute the guys are not so handsome. However, I have to give some credit to the amazing judo fight spatially for Yawara's fights are so exciting and fun to watch.
Sound 7/10
The sounds are good, it is an ok sound for both voice acting and the music. The voice acting was done perfectly for the main characters and somewhat fine for the supporting characters. The music is all classics, and it fit the anime moment so much, the opening and the ending were ok, nothing is so amazing but it works.

Characters are the main strong point for this anime, all three main Characters "Inokuma, Yawara", "Inokuma, Jigorou" and "Matsuda, Kousaku" are well developed throughout the series, Yawara changed a lot in the anime from an average teenage girl to a wonderful woman the you will feel so attached to her. And the way the main love interest in the anime developed was fantastic. When it comes to The supporting characters there are the really good ones that have a great development, and some bad annoying and useless ones.
Enjoyment 8/10
The main enjoyment of this anime is not the judo but getting to know the characters and seeing their life throughout the series, yes it is a Slice of Life anime that focus on Yawara's life and how every step she makes lead to a happy or sad outcome. The attachment to Yawara's life, her school life her friend's life, her love life is what makes this anime so fun to watch. So if you looking for a good slice of life anime with some romance Yawara is for you.

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 ... a judoka lead her to become an international sensation due to her abilities.

On the plus side, Yawara does a mostly solid job with developing Yawara's character throughout the series as she seeks to live her life normally. But due to circumstances regularly turning against her and her grandfather's manipulations, her regular life and participating in the judo world blur together as she encounters a number of characters throughout the series who come to befriend or rival her due to her talents in judo such as reporter Matsuda, rich girl Sayaka, the Canadian judoka Jody and the cold Soviet judoka Anna. These help Yawara slowly mellow out of her desire for normalcy throughout the series and her reasons for not wanting anything to do with judo get further explored as the series progresses.

In regards to supporting characters to the series, they are a bit hit or miss. Some get a decent amount of fleshing out and make for interesting characters to see develop like Matsuda and even Fujiko, Yawara's college friend from later in the show's run. Others don't get much fleshing out being reduced to archetypes and exist either as opponents for Yawara to overcome, comedic relief or showing off their more obnoxious habits. While I did not mind those serving as Yawara's opponents or comic relief, those who were more obnoxious and self-absorbed (mainly Yawara's grandpa Jigoro, Sayaka, womanizer Kazamatsuri and photographer Kuniko) did press my buttons at points as I watched the series, especially if the show chose to devote a good deal of time to focus on them.

The anime also does a great job at believably showing off the various rules and applications of judo for tournament competition. The normal weight classes, rules and point systems for competition; as well as the different grapples, throws and submissions utilized in spars and matches are authentically explored as such where judo enthusiasts will appreciate the authenticity. There is the occasional dependence on drama tropes in some shoddy attempts to create tense moments and Yawara being mostly unstoppable against her opponents kills some of the intrigue of her matches, but this doesn't get in the way of the authenticity of judo competitions that Naoki Urasawa shows off for this series.

While having some hiccups, Yawara is a mostly solid sports rom-com exploring Yawara trying to juggle her life as a normal girl and gifted judo-ka, while also doing a great job at believably portraying the sport it focuses on. While sports anime mostly struggle at finding an audience due to heavy focus on their sport of focus, Yawara does a decent enough job to balance focus between judo and the ongoing storylines involving Yawara and other characters within her life. This is one of the better sports-themed anime titles to watch if the genre grabs your interest.

"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 ... he reveals her abilities to the world and announces his plans to send her to the Barcelona Olympics and earn the People's Choice Award, he proposes a slightly unusual plan; he wants to find her a rival, a professional athlete good enough to crush her and in the process, teach her just how high of a summit the top of the world is to surmount. Enter Honami Sayaka; a rich heiress, roughly the same age as Yawara, and hailed as an all-round athletic genius, being an international champion in tennis, horse-riding, and gymnastics among a litany of other sports, to the point that shes become completely disinterested in her achievements and regularly trashes her trophies and medals for fun. Yet there is one sport shes never dipped her toes into, namely judo, and when coaxed by Jigoro's abilities, witnessing him toss her bodyguard twice his size and half his age in a split-second, and his teasing that he has a pupil capable of taking on the world, she knows immediately what her next sports venture will be. Thus begins the story our main character, Yawara, and her heated rival Sayaka, a judo prodigy versus a jack of all trades but master of none, as they and a large cast of judo players of all sizes and backgrounds vie for the titles of national and world champion in their respective weight classes. Since this is quite a lengthy series that also covers a lengthy span of time, at 124 episodes, an hour long special, and a 90 minute sequel film, I'll try to hold back but there will be some spoilers.

Going into a series all about judo, I was more than a little hesitant, since I've absolutely no experience with or knowledge of the sport, and they certainly don't hold your hand either, only allowing you to learn all the terminology, rules and moves by paying attention to the matches as they occur, with no info dumps or long explanatory dialogue scenes to get you up to date. It doesn't pose much of an issue though, as there's enough consecutive matches particularly towards the beginning for you to get caught up on how points are earned and such. Once I bought into the hype, especially as the series goes on and the stakes continually rise, I found myself really getting excited with the matches. They're fast paced, and limited only to grapples and throws, making it a rough and tumble, yet deeply strategic game. Yawara's signature move, the lightning fast Ippon Zeoi, an overhead shoulder throw, is such a simple yet mesmerizing move that leaves both the fans and the viewer stunned, with her opponent being flung at such a startling velocity that they look as if they're being brought to light speed. Sometimes you could even hear a pin drop with how her flawless moves leave the spectators with bated breath. Her Grandfather's idea of judo is "The gentle way wasn't built in a day", or in other words, "The flexible command the strong; The small command the large", and Yawara is the embodiment of this style of judo. She's short and slim, completely unassuming, yet she's always entered into the open weight divisions, meaning the players aren't separated by weight classes, and she's often facing challengers who tower over her, making it all the more interesting seeing how unstoppable she is. Another great inclusion is not only having multiple angle shots of some of the finishing throws, but they'll occasionally have the commentators watching the slow-mo action-replays to see how the move was performed inch-by-inch. It's not just Yawara that's a treat to watch either, I was engrossed in the matches fought by all of the biggest players, and was torn several times in who to root for, not just because I'd like to see them as characters succeed and have their hard work pay off, but I also simply want to see more. More of their unique fighting styles, and more crazy match ups too. Even off the mat, Yawara is still a treat of a main character. She's lovely, bubbly, and always lending a helping hand, even to her opponents. Even though she knows full well that Sayaka wants nothing more than to flatten her, she'll still tell her how much fun she has playing against her, not to mock but encourage her, in her own way. She does have a strange naivety that prevents her from reading the room, but it plays into her innocence. Regardless of the fact that she's a girl who's touted as the worlds strongest, she's still gentle in every sense of the word, and a rather unique trait of hers is that even though shes on the fast-track to becoming the Queen of Judo, she doesn't feel a drop of pressure to win. Rather, she outright wants to quit by any means possible, to leave it all behind.

The driving factor of the series, initially coming as quite a surprise given her immense talent, is Yawara's struggle with wanting more than anything to become a regular girl, not unlike Usagi Tsukino's reluctance to go back to being a sailor senshi and give up her everyday life in Sailor Moon R. Yawara feels that if she continues down the path her Grandfather has locked her into, she'll never be able to live a normal life, or go to her dream college doing a Home Economics course. On the other hand, her Grandfather won't even try to see it from her perspective, and while it's understandable that he'd be so adamant she doesn't stray from his teachings after all these years under his wing, his approach isn't to talk to her one-on-one and convince her to get back at it, instead resorting to constant schemes that back her into a corner or guilt her to the point that she feels forced to take part in her upcoming matches. This formula is repeated multiple times through the majority of the series to an exhausting point, and is only really interesting the first or second time; Yawara doesn't want to do judo anymore, he guilts her into playing, she feels the love of the sport again, before quickly finding another reason not to participate anymore. It gets pretty stale, pretty quick. This is where Sailor Moon greatly differs. While Usagi steps up to the plate and accepts her fate, winning over the viewer with her bravery in choosing what she must do, not what she wants to do, Yawara never makes the distinction right to the end. She never fully commits to the sport, yet she never permanently drops out, and I'll commend her for begrudgingly choosing to play regardless, but it doesn't mean much when her heart is never in it. The other repeating pattern is with Yawara's love interests. There's two romantic partners presented, the third-rate reporter from the third-rate sports newspaper Matsuda Kosaku, and the rich womanizer Kazamatsuri Shinnosuke, with the former being the clear one to root for, and the latter being being the one to worry about. While Shinnosuke says time and time again he's in love with her, he sleeps around on a regular basis, on top of having a fiance, yet Yawara always seems taken in by his silver tongue. On the other hand, Kosaku only has eyes for her, but can never find the time to get the right words out, or regularly falls victim to misunderstandings, and here's where the second issue arises. Every time Shinnosuke is about to finally win her over, his fiance magically appears. Every time Kosaku is about to get the words out, his camera-woman and admirer Kuniko says something to give Yawara the wrong impression and Kosaku does nothing to clear up the misunderstanding, prolonging the "Will they? Won't they? Who will she choose?" ever more. It gets even more stale than her inability to quit judo, as at least in that aspect, her Grandfather is sneaky and creative in how he goes about tricking her, while on the romance front, several times its only prolonged because Kosaku refuses to speak up and clear the air, leaving Yawara feeling like it'll always be a one-sided love. I genuinely like all the characters named, except the shrill and spoiled Kuniko, but I can't get past the glaring issues that they present, as this series already has mild pacing issues with the down-time between tournaments, and the prolonging of these two central points only drags it on longer, not to mention that its rarely stated how much time is passing episode-to-episode. A certain a block of about 10 episodes takes place over the course of a year, a far quicker pace than any other point in the series.

It can look quite dated at times, most evidently in the beginning, as the series began in 1989, but after running for three years the quality certainly rises, to the point that I was a little taken aback comparing just how much it's changed from episode 1 to episode 124. It's certainly the kind of anime I'd love to see a remake, or at the very least a remaster of, because there's some truly stunning scenes that still hold up even to this day, but I'd like to see them do more than just hold up. There's some good camera work too, with the transitions between a lot of scenes keeping things fresh, and a lot of the backgrounds are well detailed too, but its pretty clear where they cut corners, particularly at tournaments when you can see the crowds blurred or out of the shot altogether. Yawara! is based on a manga written by Urasawa Naoki, famed mangaka for monstrously popular works such as Monster, 20th Century Boys, and Pluto, all of which are high-tension, psychological thrillers full of suspense and embroiled in mystery, yet the only real sign he had any hand in this work is his signature character designs, which I've always loved. Everyone looks uniquely styled, and Madhouse did a great job in animating them, especially with Yawara undoubtedly being, as the title suggests, a fashionable judo girl. She's pretty, petite, and certainly prioritizes being fashionable above being a judoka, cycling through plenty of outfits and hairstyles as the series goes on. Most notably in each of the OPs we see slideshows of Yawara modelling dozens of different styles, almost unrecognizable at times with how she's dolled up. Fashion in anime is something I've always had a great interest in, and it goes beyond simply visual appeal. While that is a major factor, it should also serve to tell us more about the characters from one look, like how Kosaku rarely ever changes clothes due to his poor paychecks, while Sayaka is draped in the latest and most expensive dresses and jewellery at all times, never wearing the same clothes twice. Even while throwing people through the air, she and Yawara still manage to portray an image of beauty.

The special hour-long episode wasn't much to talk about, a simple story to be watched roughly toward the end of the series or afterwards. Slightly higher quality in terms of animation, but barely any of the usual cast of characters as it primarily follows Yawara as she teaches judo to a group of kids. Not much happens but it's a nice little side story, so if you enjoyed the series you'll enjoy this too. More noteworthy is the 90 minute finale film, made to truly and definitively finish out the story. Episode 124 was honestly a little lackluster and left me wanting far more than we got, but I at least still liked how open-ended it was. If you use your imagination you could easily picture how things play out in the future. Then comes the finale film, which sets out to tie up every loose end, which I wasn't opposed to, but the execution was a little jarring. It's seems to be set several years after the series finale, but it becomes evident early on that they've done a light retcon. From what I could tell, they just moved all of the previous events forward so that the main series ended in 1996 instead of the actual year it ended in, but everything else was roughly the same. It turned out to be pretty good in the end, with almost everyone getting a happy ending, or at the very least getting what they deserve, but unbelievably they still manage to cram in another one of Kuniko's ridiculous ploys for attention, having her steal and purposely crashing a car just to pull Kosaku away from Yawara's matches. With only an hour and a half to work with, I was really disappointed that they had to drive one last unnecessary wedge from the girl who wants what she can't have between Yawara and Kosaku. The matches at least were a joy to watch, with one I wanted to see being glossed over, but all the rest being well animated and hard-fought. I also would've assumed the art would be better given that it was released four years after the TV series stopped airing, but it's of almost identical quality in terms of animation and such, which is to say while it still looked very good, it should've looked far better than it did.

As mentioned, the source material for this show is a manga by Urasawa Naoki, but I was more than a little skeptical when I realised this and really couldn't see it panning out well, given that all I'd seen of his work was the polar opposite of Yawara! It's a borderline-shoujo series, almost predominantly slice-of-life with plenty of romance in it, a mix that I wouldn't have even thought he'd be interested in writing. I wouldn't say he absolutely nailed it, but it's a definite testament to his talent that he can jump into such a different genre and still create an enjoyable story. It's unnecessarily dragged on by the recurring delays I talked about, and there's a number of characters introduced that are sort of just phased out, never to be mentioned again, but that doesn't subtract from it being a fairly original series that has plenty of exciting and suprising moments, oozing with his usual brand of reactionary comedy. There's a variety of talent that worked on it, such as the director Tokito Hoshino who worked on Touch, the sound director Urakami Yasuo who worked in that role for a massive catalogue of shows such as Detective Conan, Code Geass, and several Gundam entries, and the voice of Yawara herself Minaguchi Yuko, long-time VA who played Sailor Saturn among many other characters. Yawara! is certainly worth a watch if you like a longer series or a less portrayed sport, and certainly if you like slice-of-life, girly anime. It's got some good messages in there, like how a single photograph can capture a perfect moment in time, immortalising it forever, or just how fast life passes you by when you're always too busy to notice. Plenty of great voice acting, a great cast of characters, and a great, fashionable judo girl.