Yawara!

Yawara! (also stylized as YAWARA!) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa. It was serialized in "Big Comic Spirits" from 1986 to 1993, with the chapters collected into 29 "tankōbon" volumes by publisher Shogakukan. In 1990, it won the 35th Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga. A live-action film adaptation directed by Kazuo Yoshida and starring Yui Asaka was released by Toho in 1989.
In the same year, Yomiuri TV began broadcasting an anime adaptation titled Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl!, which ran from October 16, 1989 through September 21, 1992 for 124 episodes. Each episode ended with a countdown of days remaining to the start of the Barcelona Olympics. The anime, produced by Kitty Film with animation by the Madhouse studio, aired on Japanese television contemporary with Kitty's "Ranma ½" but achieved higher ratings than "Ranma ½", despite the latter series being better known outside Japan. AnimEigo licensed the TV series for North American distribution in August 2006. However, as of April 2010 AnimEigo has been unable to license the remaining episodes of the TV series for North American distribution.
Plot.
Yawara Inokuma is a young girl who aspires to an ordinary life but due to her innate talent is forced to practice judo by her authoritarian grandfather, Jigorou Inokuma, with the aim of achieving the championship in Japan and the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Because of the pressure from her grandfather she generally has a bad attitude about judo, avoiding it as much as she can. However, over time she comes to understand why her grandfather loves judo and appreciates it more.
Production.
While Naoki Urasawa was pitching the idea of writing a manga about the medical field, he could tell his editor was not enjoying it. Knowing that the editor was a big fan of baseball, he joking proposed a story about women's judo, but the editor lit up at the idea. Urasawa said that he then scribbled out the whole of "Yawara!" during that meeting in about 30 minutes, from the characters to the story. The series started in 1986, women's judo became a demonstration sport just before the 1988 Summer Olympics with it set to be a fully competitive sport at the 1992 Summer Olympics, so it was perfect to include that goal in the manga. But the author never thought the series would last long enough to reach the latter.
Urasawa revealed that with "Yawara!" being so different from his previous works as a comedy about a cute girl, some of his fans and colleagues felt betrayed and that he had sold out. But he does not see it that way as he never had any intentions of making it a love comedy or a "fight-to-the-finish, don't-give-up-now! sports" story. He said "My subjects of my comics might be taken from the popular mainstream, but I believe they are still embued with my own sensitivities and therefore quite distinctive in their own right." The author said that he intended for "Yawara!" to be a parody of Ikki Kajiwara's works, such as "Star of the Giants". But for some reason readers got something out of it other than he intended; "Maybe it's because they're used to sports comics, but they seem to like my comics for the scenes of victory and defeat. They find them interesting somehow. Those scenes were really supposed to be funny! But they find them touching, so I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do. (laughter)".
Urasawa said that because he is not the heroic type himself, he has difficulty portraying strong-willed leading characters. He said it was even difficult to portray Yawara and Matsuda, whom he described as "very good supporting characters" as it seems to be much easier for him to develop supporting characters. The author cited American television comedies as his comedic influences. Jigoro's habit of forgetting people's names was taken from Samantha's mother in "Bewitched".
Media.
Manga.
Written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa, while he was simultaneously illustrating "Pineapple Army", "Yawara!" was serialized weekly in "Big Comic Spirits" from the 30th issue of 1986 to the 38th issue of 1993. Publisher Shogakukan collected the chapters into 29 "tankōbon" volumes between April 30, 1987 and October 29, 1993. A 19 volume "bunkoban" edition was released between July 17, 1998 and March 16, 1999. A twenty-volume "kanzenban" edition was released between December 27, 2013 and April 30, 2015.
Urasawa created a spin-off manga series titled "Jigoro!" that ran in "Zōkan Big Comic Spirits" from October 20, 1988 to April 11, 1991. He explained that he found Yawara's grandfather so interesting that the character earned his own spin-off, and called it one of his favorite series. It was collected into one volume in October 1994, which was republished on February 15, 2003, and again in a "kanzenban" edition on April 30, 2015.
Anime.
"Yawara!" was adapted into an anime series by Kitty Films. The series was broadcast on Yomiuri TV between October 16, 1989 and September 21, 1992. A total of 124 episodes were produced.
The series was licensed for release in North America by Animeigo. Preorders were opened in early 2008. A box set of the first 40 episodes was released on October 31, 2008 and the boxset went out of print on August 31, 2012.
Live-action film.
A live-action film adaptation of "Yawara!" directed by Kazuo Yoshida for Toho opened in theaters on April 15, 1989. Having Yui Asaka in the title role, the film featured cameos by real life judokas like Kaori Yamaguchi and Yasuhiro Yamashita, as well as shoot wrestlers Akira Maeda and Nobuhiko Takada. Asaka also sings the theme song "Neverland".
Reception.
"Yawara!" won the 35th Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga in 1990.
The significance of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics in the story is that in the real world, this was the first time that Women's Judo would be a full competition event and would thus see the awarding of the first Olympic gold medal for Women's Judo. "Yawara!" was very popular in Japan, so when real life Japanese teenager Ryoko Tamura won a silver medal for judo at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, she was seen as a real-life Yawara (her age, stature, and ability all being strikingly similar to those of the fictional character) and promptly nicknamed "Yawara-chan". She was still known by this name eight years later, indicating perhaps the enduring popular recognition of the series as well as that of Ryoko Tamura.
Mark Sammut of "Comic Book Resources" wrote that while "Yawara!" "might not have many of the trademarks that would come to define Urasawa's later thrillers," the humorous sports series "still serves as a masterclass in character writing and atmosphere." He also called its prequel series, "Jigoro!", the funniest thing Urasawa has ever written.
Reviewing Animeigo's release of the first 40 episodes of the anime, Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network wrote that "Yawara!" seamlessly blends romance, humor, life hurdles and sports intrigue. He strongly praised Yawara Inokuma's character and noted that the series is far more focused on romance and coming of age than it is judo. The reviewer finished by lamenting that they do not make anime like this anymore, as they seem to have forgotten the appeal of a simple story told well; "Yawara!" "is quite simply, the most purely enjoyable series in years." Kimlinger went on to pick Yawara Inokuma as his 2008 Character of the Year and called her "possibly the most insanely likeable character ever devised—all the more so because she is as flawed, selfish and naive as any real adolescent girl." While including the series on a list of the best anime from 1989, his colleague Daryl Surat wrote that she inspired numerous fighting video game characters. Namely in the "Street Fighter" series where Ibuki has a similar background and temperament, and Karin Kanzuki is very similar to Sayaka Honami.