The story's focus is largely on the main character, Hagiwara Sakura and the challenges facing her each episode. Most of the time it flows smoothly but the pacing of the actual fights range from okay to poor. The fights don't offer much in the way of surprises and feel too staged and forced, especially when the patterns start to repeat and you begin to notice that the fighters seem to take turns beating on each other. The choreography itself is decent, the moves are well done and given a sense of impact, but the submission holds tend to drag out and the cries of pain from the voice actresses become grating and even embarrassing to listen to. The art shares this problem, as the crotch shots, breast shots and the outfits in general aren't very pleasant to look at - it feels like the artists featured all that just to classify the show as ecchi which is doesn't exactly feel like.
The songs used in the opening and ending, as well as the background music is forgettable but not bad. It's standard with a hint of blandness, just enough to not have anything to say about it. As far as voice acting goes the female ones show a huge amount of skill with their in-fight cries and screams, which sound more painful than erotic (I suspect that was the intended effect.)
Sakura is much like the generic sports anime protagonist: ambitious and enthusiastic, though she has a few moments that set her apart from the rest. While all of those protagonists face setbacks in one form or another, Sakura's struggle is painful, brutal and supremely captivating. Viewers watch her struggle and achieve nothing and fall further each time and it's a reminder that real life isn't as forgiving as anime. It was a fresh viewing experience, and while it was frustrating and even agonizing to watch her, I'm glad that I did. Her struggle was noble and the fruits of her labor were infinitely sweet.
Sakura's struggle is like any other, and that's fine. Watching her is inspiring, even while seeing her fall you root for her and when she rises you cheer with the crowd. While this isn't an exceptional anime that should be among to top of this season, it's good entertainment and one of the few animes about wrestling.
Is It Yuri?
With many women comes much speculation. Sadly, there's not much to go on so I would not recommend it for the yuri factor alone.
