 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | ANIMEIGO | | | ▪ | ASPECT RATIO: | | 4:3 FULL SCREEN | | | ▪ | AUDIO: | | JAPANESE DD 2.0 W/ ENGLISH SUBTITLES | | | ▪ | RUNNING TIME: | | 1000 MIN | | | ▪ | RATING: | | 13+ | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 10/13/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 11/27/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | HOLLY ELLINGWOOD |
SYNOPSIS:
Yawara Inokuma just wants to be an ordinary high school girl. Unfortunately for her, she’s been trained since she was a toddler by her grandfather, Jigoro, to be a judo prodigy. Nothing less than an Olympic Gold Medal and the coveted National merit Award will satisfy him, and he’ll do anything to ensure that she achieves it, whether she likes it or not! This 6-DVD box set includes the first 40 episodes of the 124 episode TV series in six slim cases collected in one box set.
REVIEW:
Yawara the anime is based on the much beloved manga series by Naoki Urasawa, the author of Monster and Master Keaton. Naturally the story about a fashionable judo girl is leaning much more on the light side of stories like Master Keaton than Monster, and Naoki Urasawa delivers a heartwarming and often hilarious tale about a girl’s dream of boyfriends and her unintentional rise to sports stardom. The anime is primarily a comedy with a strong dose of sports enthusiasm mixed in with the revolving door of crushes on boys, sneaking out with girlfriends, and having to reluctantly compete with various judo rivals. The show begins with sports nut and kind hearted (if over enthusiastic) sports journalist Matsuda. During a random purse snatching, he catches sight of a girl who stops the thief with amazing judo technique. He follows his leads and soon finds Yawara, the girl he deems to be Japan’s next athlete superstar. But she has no interest in what Matsuda or her crazy and scheming grandfather, Jigoro, want. She doesn’t want to have the future of judo on her shoulders. She wants to have a boyfriend, wear the latest fashions, and be an ordinary girl having fun. But old Jigoro has all sorts of whacky plans up his sleeve to thwart her boyfriend attempts and get her interested in judo. Many of them backfire and entertainingly so. However, the more she competes, the more Yawara honestly enjoys the competition and striving to be the best one can be. The story builds over her meeting many competitors, including her main rival, the rich girl Sayaka, and aiming for the nationals. By the end of the fortieth episode, she has made it into college but is still trying to keep her judo life a secret from her friends and yo-yoing between her growing appreciation for the sport and her desire for a normal life.
It’s a very amusing and fun show with a lot of heart. Fans of Princess Nine and other sports genre anime will appreciate the judo aspects to it and the striving to better oneself through healthy competition and hard work. Anime fans of classic shows like Ranma ½ and Maison Ikkoku will thrill at the classical style of the animation and zany day-to-day adventures Yawara experiences.
The clarity of the sound in stereo was impressive. It was clear. The theme songs which border on jazzy and the sentimental score will cause nostalgia in the hearts of anime fans who fondly remember such shows in that era like Ranma ½ and other anime from the 1989-90s period. The animation style is that classical look that is warm and fun with quite the cavalcade of unique characters. In fact, Yawara used to play back to back with Rama when they first aired in Japan and Yawara beat out Ranma in the ratings. Another interesting bit of trivia is that Yawara is a case of fiction becoming fact. The manga and anime are about a young girl preparing to compete in the upcoming 1992 Barcelona Olympics. In real life female judo competition was first recognized as a sport in the Barcelona Olympics and a girl from Japan competed and won a medal. The show Yawara was so popular that she was called “Yawara-chan” for the remainder of her illustrious judo career.
EXTRAS:
The box set features many extras. On the sixth disc is a trivia game, an interactive map that gives information on the various areas mentioned in the show, there is also an image gallery and character bios. It should be noted that the anime offers a great asset in the subtitle department. It gives viewers the options of regular subtitles, captions only, and a third option where viewers can have all subtitles which give all sorts of trivia and information about various Japanese cultural and sports references made throughout the series. It is a unique subtitle feature that is singular to Animeigo releases yet so very much appreciated as it offers references to many things that would otherwise be missed without the context being given. It makes for a far richer viewing experience in assisting to appreciate the anime fully. The box set also has a 72 page booklet “The Road of Yawara! Cannot be Walked in a Day” (The Ultimate Yawara Handbook) by Inokuma Jigoro (the grandfather). The booklet is an entertaining list of credits, characters, series notes, educational notes, a judo handbook on all beginners need to know about judo and the terminology used throughout the anime, episode notes giving liner notes for each of the 40 episodes, English translations of the opening and ending theme songs, and Animeigo staff credits.
IN SUMMARY:
Yawara is a heartwarming anime that will make you laugh and leave you smiling. |
