Yawara! Is one of those anime series that shows up on “Top 10 greatest 80s sports anime” however calling it merely a sports anime does not do it justice. Yawara is perhaps the most underrated late 80s anime in the western hemisphere - it even surpassed Ranma in screen views at the time, its well known in Japanese circles and for good reasons, Yawara is not merely an anime about judo, its an anime about a clumsy and emotional teenage girl journey to find herself in the adult world her frustrations with judo not for the sport but because of her family which will hithome with many of East Asian cultures.

The storyline is nothing exceptional, but its relatable, its close to home, in many ways to a modern audience its refreshing to see a down to Earth drama anime with such respect towards its viewer, there is almost no expose – overly drawn out action scenes, Yawara respects the time of its audience and pace its story with efficiency.

The characters are well written, they grow, they have goals and wants, it would not be wrong to say that Yawara is one of the rarely written fictions in which the characters shape its story, rather than the story shaping its characters. And for good reasons this is the work of none other than Urasawa, Naoki-sensei, the same man who wrote Master Keaton and Monster. A mangaka who understands human behaviour quite well.

The atmosphere and the technical skills presented in the anime are in no shortage thanks to Madhouse Studio, the summer is well presented here, its warmth and sounds are exceptional, the background sounds are not too quiet, they stand out, the characters must shout in traffic – unheard of in todays anime, this sound design draws its viewers into a scene. The choreography of judo presented in the anime is so detailed and accurate its difficult to think they managed to create 124 episodes with such fluidity which brings me to the pacing of the story.

The pacing is exceptional for something that lasts so long, it felt much shorter, every judo fight are chair gripping, despite you know that Yawara will certainly win they still manage to make you question your very notion from the beginning until the end, it also makes you realise that Yawara despite being so strong, is still but a human and equally prone to emotional faults many of which are not the fault of the main character but rather the situations created by others.

Overall the story is very interesting, but while pacing is great, the overall story arc does not move much and perhaps one of its biggest downsides to Yawara! As a whole is the lack of variation in its story arcs, and when it does pick up pace towards the end it does not explore enough, stronger judo fighters appear but we are not presented enough interactions. In a frustrating sense, the anime ends too quickly and too early despite its 124 episode runtime, with such pacing it could easily have reached 200 episodes and explored far more diverse situations and journeys of the judo master Yawara-chan.