Yawara! is, on the surface, a show about the travails of a young lady, Inokuma Yawara, who is destined to be the shining star of the Japanese judo world. Early in the show the viewer learns that Yawara has been trained since she was a toddler to be the strongest judoka in the world, so that she can win an Olympic gold medal and the National Merit Award. Most of the time when you encounter someone who trains many hours a day in a sport, the reason they do it is because they want to be the best they can be, and compete at the highest possible level. However, in the case of Yawara, she does it because it is the only life she knows, and she secretly wishes to be a normal high school girl, wear nice clothes, and fall in love with a wonderful boyfriend.

This basic plot setup puts Yawara! in both the "sports anime" and "shoujo anime" camps, which I initially thought was an odd pairing. Yawara talks about her feelings a lot, and she spends a good amount of time obsessing about boys and whether this one particular young man she meets actually likes her or not. There is, of course, a romantic rival for said young man's attention, who is conveniently the same general age as Yawara, which sets up a nice love triangle. The setup gets even more confusing as another not-as-young man, a local newspaper reporter, gets more deeply involved with Yawara and develops feelings of his own, which may actually be returned by Yawara. Maybe. She seems as confused about it as me.

The "sports" aspect of the show is solid, though, and it isn't just window dressing. Specific judo moves are utilized in the many judo contests that Yawara and others are involved in, and the announcers and coaches love to call out exactly what is happening, for the benefit of the audience. If, like me, you have no idea what is going on in judo other than the fact that throwing people around seems to be part of it, then the discussions of judo tactics in the show help you understand why certain moves are performed. Some of the judo matches follow typical sports show fashion by taking place over a number of episodes, while others are resolved relatively quickly. And, sometimes, as happens in Yawara's very first major tournament, there is a nice mix of approaches that helps move the story along.

And let's be honest with ourselves; while the original manga author and the director took the judo part of the show seriously, it is not the main thing driving the story. Yawara's development, both as a judoka and as a young woman, is the real focus of the show. Everything else going on around her is of secondary importance. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how well the main character is played and how well the audience can relate to her. This is where Yawara! has its strongest draw, as the title character is one of the most likable characters I've ever seen in anime. She has such a pure heart (to the point of naivety), and tries so hard to please everyone, that you can't help but root for her, even when she is being stupid and makes what appear to be bad decisions, which happens a lot.

The first 40 episodes of the show cover two complete plot arcs and the start of a third arc. The first plot arc covers the first 18 episodes, and deals with the beginning of Yawara's judo career. Yawara's grandfather's plans for his granddaughter to take the Judo world by storm are thrown into disarray, when she is discovered by a newspaper reporter as she uses judo to catch a purse-snatcher on the streets of Tokyo. He adjusts by signing Yawara up for a judo tournament. This plot arc introduces almost all of the main, recurring characters, notably including Kazamatsuri, a lady-killer judo coach who is a university senior, and Sayaka, a spoiled rich girl who easily won championships in every sport she tried before meeting Yawara. This arc ends after Yawara's first major tournament.

The second plot arc starts with Yawara's victories drawing international attention, in the form of Jody Rockwell, a large Canadian judoka who comes to Japan to fight against Yawara. This arc is focused on further development of the main characters, as they continue to interact with each other and drive Yawara forward in her judo career, whether she likes it or not. Also important to this arc is the question of which university Yawara will attend. Her grandfather wants Yawara to attend a university with a good judo program, but Yawara has other ideas that don't involve judo at all. As with the first arc, this one also ends with a major judo tournament, this time the women's all-Japan championship, a much bigger deal than her first tournament.

The third arc covers Yawara's first experiences at the university. She wants to make new friends, meet nice boys, and fall in love. She seems to have the friends part down after a few episodes, but it isn't clear how much progress she'll actually make in the rest of it. Also of note, there are two episodes in the first 40 that are not part of any of the main narrative arcs. Episodes 19 and 37 both deal with stories from Yawara's grandfather's past, dealing with how he met and wooed his wife back in the 1920s.

So, after watching 40 episodes of this show, did I like it? Mostly. I really like the main character, and rooting for her to succeed is easy. However, some of the supporting cast bug me. Matsuda, the newspaper reporter, is the prime culprit here. A couple times his annoying attitude and insistence on butting into Yawara's personal business had me actually yelling out loud at my TV. So annoying. Jigoro, Yawara's grandfather, also gets annoying at times. That character is almost a pure caricature of overbearing grandparents, though, and the comedic over exaggerations make the character tolerable, and somewhat enjoyable at times. The rest of the supporting cast are fine, though I can't say I particularly liked or disliked any of them, with the notable exception of Jody Rockwell, whose exuberant love of judo is hard to ignore.

To summarize, this is an enjoyable anime about a young woman growing up and finding her way in the world. With fighting. I enjoyed most of it quite a bit. It isn't moe, it doesn't have alien girls harboring dark secrets, it doesn't have crazy over-the-top robot action, and therefore it seems pretty tame in relation to most of the anime released domestically these days. What it does have, though, is a lot of heart, and a supremely likable main character. Oh, and lots of judo. In the end, that's good enough for me.