Yawara!

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.

Yawara Inokuma (猪熊 柔, Inokuma Yawara)

Voiced by: Yuko Minaguchi

Played by: Yui Asaka

Yawara is a girl who aspires to an ordinary life but who is forced to practice judo by her grandfather. She is always having romantic daydreams; her biggest dream being to find a boyfriend. (Inokuma means "Pig Bear"; Yawara is the same Chinese character as "ju" in "judo".) Although she has a lot supporters and very close friends such as Fujiko, sometimes she acts selfishly and does not appreciate their commitment toward her (e.g., almost failing to help Fujiko in her All-Japan Selection match).

Jigoro Inokuma (猪熊 滋悟郎, Inokuma Jigorou)

Voiced by: Ichirou Nagai

Played by: Keiju Kobayashi

Jigoro is a seventh-dan Judo Master (though he often inflates this to eighth- or even ninth-dan) and five-time national champion. His passion for judo is rivaled only by his love for Yawara and food (particularly sweets). He has great expectations for Yawara's judo career and is constantly pushing her to do her best and focus primarily on judo. His motto is "Judo was not built in a day." He does work on the side as a bone-setting doctor. He is a bit of a media hound as he often tries to hijack publicity events for Yawara to highlight his own life and achievements. He is often overbearing toward Yawara and is not above using mean tricks to get his way, either to thwart her goals and desires or to force her to do what he wants.

Tamao Inokuma (猪熊 玉緒)

Tamao is Yawara's mother. She is rarely home as she searches all over Japan for her husband Kojiro. Unlike Jigoro, she does not pressure Yawara to do judo, but she does not detest judo either because it was through judo that she met Kojiro. She tells Yawara that there are other ways to be strong other than judo and that it is possible to be a judoka and be feminine as well.

Kojiro Inokuma (猪熊 虎滋郎)

Played by: Bunta Sugawara

Kojiro is Yawara's father. He disappeared soon after winning the 1974 Japan Judo Championship in his debut as an unknown judoka, supposedly training in secrecy in extreme environments (for 20 years?) without letting his family know his whereabouts.

Sayaka Honami (本阿弥 さやか, Honami Sayaka)

Voiced by: Yoshino Takamori

Played by: Yorie Yamashita

Sayaka is an extremely spoiled daughter of one of Japan's richest families. She has never failed to dominate any sport she has cared to try. When Yawara shows her up, she decides to stop at nothing to defeat her and becomes her rival. She has a false tooth, which is a sore point for her, and one that Yawara keeps accidentally bringing up. She becomes Yawara's rival not only in judo but also for Shinnosuke's affection.

Shinnosuke Kazamatsuri (風祭 進之介, Kazamatsuri Shinnosuke)

Voiced by: Akira Kamiya

Played by: Riki Takeuchi

Shinnosuke is one of the finest judo coaches in all of Japan; he idolizes Jigorou and has been hired by Honami. Despite suffering from stage fright, he is an unbelievable babe-magnet and incorrigible womanizer thanks to his good looks and ability to flatter women with ease and superficial caring.

Kosaku Matsuda (松田 耕作, Matsuda Kosaku)

Voiced by: Toshihiko Seki

Played by: Hiroshi Abe

A reporter working for a sports paper (Daily Every Sport), Matsuda becomes convinced Yawara is going to be the next great sports superstar in Japan. He is conflicted by his feelings for Yawara and his goal of making her into a judo superstar.

Kamoda (鴨田, Kamoda)

Voiced by: Chafurin

Played by: Koji Nakamoto

A cameraman working for a sports paper, Kamoda seems to have a knack for taking "the perfect shot" for headlines. He never refuses any offer of food.

Hanazono

Voiced by: Masashi Sugawara

Hanazono, the large, overly emotional captain of the judo club at Yawara's high school, becomes devoted to Yawara when she comes to his attention as a skilled judoka. He has a crush on Yawara and tries to be her chief protector, until he meets Fujiko and the two bond over their mutual enthusiasm for Yawara. He is later trained by Jigoro and becomes his college's strongest judo player.

Yuki Tohdoh

Yuki is a heavyweight judoka who lost to Yawara in the latter's "unofficial" debut, though Yawara was trying to lose the match. She outweighs Yawara by 20 kg (44 lbs) and looks, talks, and eats like a sumo wrestler.

Jody Rockwell (ジョディ・ロックウェル, Jodi Rokkuweru)

Voiced by: Miyuki Ichijou

Jody is the previous year's heavyweight judo world champion (>72 kg division); she is a Canadian who comes to challenge Yawara to a match part way into the series, becoming a friendly rival and regular character.

Kim Yonsky

Kim is the South Korean "secret weapon" whose judo incorporates Korean close-in wrestling. She and Sayaka have a judo match in which they come to an exhausting draw and pronounce mutual hatred.

Anna Teleshikova

Teleshikova is Soviet/Russian judo star who looks like a platinum robot with a butch haircut. She kicks Jody Rockwell in their first match and severely injures Jody's leg. Her habit is to study tapes intensively to figure out her opponent's weak point, which she attacks relentlessly.

Belkins

Belkins is the Belgian judo champion who is also a model, known as the Judo Queen. She loses to Yawara in the semifinals match at the Judo World Cup and crowns Yawara the "New Queen".

Yuutenji

Yuutenji is the judo coach for Sakai College, reputed to be the best in judo. He has been scheming with Jigoro to recruit Yawara.

Kaga Kuniko

Kuniko is a new photographer for the Daily Every Sport. She wears glasses, flaunts her big breasts with revealing clothing, and uses her ability to cry hysterically on command to get her way. She develops a crush on Matsuda and falsely pretends to be his "girlfriend" in front of others, repeatedly plotting to ruin the relationship between Matsuda and Yawara.

Ito Fujiko

Played by: Reiko Hirayama

Fujiko is a very tall student (180 cm, a little over 5′11″) at Mitsuba Women's College whose goal is to experience a "once-in-lifetime youth" and meet a wonderful man. She is somewhat gloomy and sensitive about her height, which she inherits from both sides of her family. She is not popular with men (until she meets Hanazono) and often ends up drinking alone at social gatherings. She dedicated her youth to ballet dancing until she grew too tall. She becomes Yawara's best friend at college. She organizes Mitsuba's first judo club to help restore Yawara's passion for judo. Under Jigoro's training, she becomes an excellent judoka herself due to her ballerina training, height, and hard work, but lacks confidence and psychological toughness as a competitor. The latter part of the show features her development as a judoka as much as Yawara.

Komiya Yukari

Komiya is a short-haired student at Mitsuba Women's College. She is flirtatious and a veteran dater. Her stated goal is hook a rich man for marriage. She is friends with Yawara and Fujiko but never joins the Mitsuba judo team.

Minamda Yoko

Yoko, aka "Paddy-field", joins the Mitsuba team out of frustration after being repeatedly dumped by men (13 when she joined; 19 when she graduated). She uses "(Man's name) you jerk!" as a battle cry when she fights. She becomes a police officer after judo.

Kikage Kyoto

Nicknamed "Kyon-kyon" (the shadow), she is a small sickly woman who is usually "invisible" in gatherings. She weighs only 36 kg (about 79 lb). She joins Mitsuba judo to get stronger in health. Although weak, she is also brave and great with details by keeping notes on opponents and is able to absorb Yawara's instructions even without being taught any real moves by Jigoro.

Yoshinagawa Sayuri

Sayuri joins Mitsuba judo to lose weight. Although not skilled, she often is able to use her weight to pin down opponents ("Thank God I'm fat!") and can take great punishment. She believes that each match reduces her weight by a few kg. People often mispronounce her surname.

Oda Mari

Nicknamed "Marilyn", she is the least serious of the Mitsuba judo club and is mostly seen preening for the camera. Often attracting men's attentions and sometimes molesters, she joins judo to fend them off. She is buxom and wears makeup and earrings to matches, causing her to be disqualified. She aspires to be an actress.

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.[6] 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.[7]

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)".[7]

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.[7]

Yawara! won the 35th Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga in 1990.[18]

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.[19] 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".[20] She was still known by this name eight years later,[21] indicating perhaps the enduring popular recognition of the series as well as that of Ryoko Tamura.

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."[2] 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."[22] 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.[1]

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Official Madhouse website (in Japanese)
• Official Fuji TV website (in Japanese)
• AnimEigo Official site
• Yawara! (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Yawara! on IMDb