Bring This Back: YAWARA!
After helping lead the trendy delinquent schoolgirl subgenre in film and TV in the key cast for the live-action Sukeban Deka franchise, it was in 1989 when actress and recording artist Yui Asaka became the face of another hit IP. Adapting Naoki Urasawa’s manga and tankubon publication for Toho, director Kazuo Yoshida’s feature adaptation of Yawara! centers on Yawara Inokuma, a humble schoolgirl with dreams of homemaking and falling in love, aspirations she’s forced to contend with her love for judo and the unwanted spotlight it earns her in the sports world after using it to singlehandedly foil a robbery. The film joined Asaka with a cast that also included Keiju Kobayashi in the role of Jigoro, Yawara’s legendary grandfather whose stubbornness supersedes him regularly in his attempts to set the stage for Yawara’s hopeful grand debut in the sports world. Actress Yorie Yamashita starred as Sayaka, the daughter of […]