Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl

Yawara's Love Message (1x17)

Air date: Feb 19, 1990

Sayaka and Yuki struggle in their semifinal match (Yawara having already won her match with another quick ippon), as Sayaka is distracted by seeing Shinnosuke standing next to Yawara and holding her shoulder. Each wants to fight Yawara in the finals, Yuki having gained 10kg for the match, and the match drags on, much to Yawara's impatience as she wants to go help her judo club and is imagining the worst. Sayaka is pinned by Yuki, but drags the two of them out of bounds to escape. Motivated by her jealousy over Shinnosuke and an perceived insult from Yawara, Sayaka flips the giant Yuki and is able to pin her for the required 30 seconds as Yuki unsuccessfully tries to maneuver out of bounds. Meanwhile, Matsuda is stuck in traffic and receives a traffic ticket from speeding and reckless driving, and is at risk of missing out on Yawara's finals match. At the same time, the Musashiyama judo team is also struggling mightily, losing the first match quickly but eking out a victory by the smallest judoka, Kohno, who keeps to Yawara's training advice. Hatakeyama, another team member, lost after a long match and the score is now 2–1 in favor of the rival high school Todoroki-dai, with the next member Yasui shaking in fear.