-- [ 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 long.
The grandfather is quite manipulative, and i don't understand how he can be the 'comic relief'. The only comic relief I get is when Kazamatsuri runs away from the reporters. Other than that, nothing in the show has ever made me laugh... And I'm the type of person to laugh at anything, even the stupidest things.
So 'comedy' in this show is kind of a no-go.
Yawara wants to be like a normal girl and feminine, however, she fails to realize that she can still be a normal feminine girl and good at sports. Yawara's friends are pretty judgemental and don't really support her doing judo, even if she's good at it. For a long time, her 'friends' are unsupportive of her doing judo and could not be considered her true friends.
Considering it's an older anime, I didn't come in with high expectations since anime from now and that time ago is very different. However, I wasn't prepared for how bad the show is.
Pretty much what happens each episode:
Yawara says she hates judo, grandfather manipulates her, she does it, Yawara is 'meh' about it, then continues to complain about wanting to act like a girl. Then repeat.
Overall, to describe this show in one sentence:
The show is very repetitive with its dialogue and Yawara, only having cheap comedy with poor execution of the story and character development.
I'm gonna continue watching, perhaps until I can't take anymore. I was hoping to find a good anime that has a martial arts theme with a female MC/lead, but this was the worst example. If anyone has any better recommendations, let me know!
-- [ Finished Watching All Episodes; FINAL REVIEW ] --
To be honest, my review didn't change much. After episode 33, things start to pick up a bit, and then things get really slow again.
I think that's one of the fatal flaws for this show; random or unnecessary scenes are sometimes dragged on for a whole episode (i'm not even exaggerating here), and then the 'climax' scenes get rushed and only take up a really short time. The random scenes that get dragged on get pretty ridiculous so a lot of times I have to speed up the video.
The last 2 episodes are a perfect example LOL ^^ Literally the fight gets resolved within 30 seconds of the next episode... No buildup, nothing.
The pacing of the show is done very terribly. There have been scenes that had SO much potential to evoke a lot of emotions, but they were often rushed really quickly or executed poorly.
I think we saw more development with Fujiko than our main character. I won't say exactly what happened, but I will say that by the end, I felt like we were taken back to square one. Really frustrating to be honest, ***so please don't bother trying to continue watching this anime if you're hoping to see the loose ends tied.***
*** Lastly, I will say this upfront because if I knew this beforehand, I would have never watched this show— Yawara is not a likable character (as in, viewers most likely won't like her character).
The only decent character was Fujiko and her friends at college (absolutely not the ones at her HS).
