Anime Meta-Review
Yawara : A fashionable Judo Girl
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Title Info
- seen: 1-16 of 126
- type: TV
- grade: worthy
- genre: seinen
- made: 1989
- Review created: A while ago, i'll revise it eventually.
- mod: none
The sadness of being a western anime fan mingles with the joy of at least getting a taste of a suprisingly good series. Yawara is, mostly, a normal girl trying to determine her path through life. The difference is that she is awesomely talented at Judo and has been trained since age 3 by her manipulative grandfather towards olympic victory. Yawara, now mature, is both attracted and repulsed by the plans made for her, and regrets many of the ordinary pleasures she has lost, especially romance. Of course those who have dedicated themselves to sports mastery, including a nemesis created by her grandfather to keep her developing, the coach she hires and a sports photographer can't help but see her simply as someone to be defeated or pushed forwards to the glory she deserves. It's an interesting study of character, and Yawara herself is very well represented, although it could be criticised for being a bit contrived (to keep the story spinning) in parts. The writing is excellent, making sure that there is always more than one thing happening and the martial arts has a fine realism about it (including the amount of (painful) training required at her level). The animation is solid rather than impressive, but will quickly allow you to immerse yourself in the very `real' world represented here. I finally have a combat oriented series I can recommend :)
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:27 WST 2009