Yawara!

Yawara!
First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Yawara Inokuma
Genre
Manga
Written byNaoki Urasawa
Published byShogakukan
MagazineBig Comic Spirits
DemographicSeinen
Original run19861993
Volumes29
Live-action film
Directed byKazuo Yoshida
Produced by
  • Yukio Sakamoto
  • Hitoshi Ogura
  • Toshimine Kobayashi
  • Hiro Oda
Written byIkuo Sekimoto
Music by
  • Ken Yajima
  • Kaname Kato
Studio
ReleasedApril 15, 1989[3]
Runtime97 Minutes
Anime television series
Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl!
Directed byHiroko Tokita
Produced by
Written byToshiki Inoue
Music by
  • Hideharu Mori
  • AXISS
StudioMadhouse
Licensed by
Original networkNNS (ytv)
Original run October 16, 1989 September 21, 1992
Episodes124 (List of episodes)
Anime film
Yawara! Soreyuke Koshinuke Kizzu!!
Directed byHiroko Tokita
Produced by
  • Masao Maruyama
  • Michihiko Suwa
  • Tatsuya Mukai
  • Shigeaki Komatsu
Written byToshiki Inoue
Music byMasahide Sakuma
StudioMadhouse
ReleasedAugust 1, 1992
Runtime60 minutes
Video game
DeveloperSofix
PublisherSofix
PlatformPC Engine CD-ROM, Super CD-ROM²
ReleasedOctober 1, 1992
Video game
Yawara! 2
DeveloperSofix
PublisherSofix
PlatformSuper CD-ROM²
ReleasedSeptember 23, 1994
Anime television film
Yawara! Special - Zutto Kimi no Koto ga
Directed byMorio Asaka
Produced by
  • Masao Maruyama
  • Michihiko Suwa
  • Toshio Nakatani
  • Shōji Muronaga
Written byToshiki Inoue
Music byHideharu Mori
StudioMadhouse
Original networkNippon TV
ReleasedJuly 19, 1996
Runtime92 minutes

Yawara! (also stylized as YAWARA!)[a] is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa. It was serialized in Big Comic Spirits from 1986 to 1993, with its chapters collected into 29 tankōbon volumes by publisher Shōgakukan. The story centers around Yawara Inokuma, a seemingly ordinary high school girl, but her grandfather, a living judo legend, has been secretly training her since she was a child so that she can win the gold medal at the Olympic Games. But Yawara has only one desire, to have a normal life.

A live-action film adaptation directed by Kazuo Yoshida and starring Yui Asaka was released by Toho in April 1989. That same year, Kitty Films and Madhouse began an anime adaptation titled Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl!. It was broadcast on Yomiuri TV from October 1989 through September 1992, for 124 episodes. Each episode ended with a countdown of days remaining to the start of the Barcelona Olympics. Two animated films were released in August 1992 and July 1996. AnimEigo released the first 40 episodes of the anime in North America in 2008, but were unable to license the remaining episodes.

In 1990, the manga won the 35th Shogakukan Manga Award for the general category. Yawara! has over 30 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference bestanimeof1989 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference reviewdvd1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ YAWARA!(1989). allcinema.net (in Japanese). Stingray. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  4. ^ Sanseido Kokugo Jiten, 8th ed.


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