Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl

Hohohoh! The Yawara Boom That Shakes Japan, Jya! (1x7)

Air date: Nov 27, 1989

The media exposure invades every aspect of Yawara's daily life, though her friends and Hanazono try to protect her. Meanwhile, Matsuda is having second thoughts about the trouble he has caused her and rescues her from the media hounds on a motorcycle. Shinnosuke tells Sayaka that she cannot beat Yawara for the time being; Yawara seems equally upset by this as by Shinnosuke's possibly romantic interest with her rival. Sayaka manipulates her dad to invite Jigoro for dinner and to hire him as her judo coach; however, Jigoro is only interested in scoring a free meal at an expensive French restaurant, at which he ate a huge dinner and even took doggie bag home. Meanwhile, after being rescued by Matsuda on the motorcycle, Yawara cooks beef stroganoff for him at his untidy bachelor's apartment and confides in him about her history with judo--she has been a judo child prodigy but really only wants a normal life as a girl. Matsuda tells her he has the opposite life experience, that he has dreamt of being a sports star all his life but has failed at every sport he has tried and finally ends up being a sports reporter instead.