Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl

Garden, I Love the flames! (1x109)

Air date: May 25, 1992

Over the past month, Hanazono is training hard with the Inokumas (6 hrs per day on top of his college training) in preparation for the Shoujiki college cup taking place 2 months later. Later Yawara tells Fujiko that she will be able to meet with Hanazono in a month. Ebitendo’s coach tells his 3 seniors that 1 of the starters positions will be taken by the vastly improved Hanazono, who still has doubts about himself. The coach decides to test Hanazono against Yoshida, whose place he’s taking as a starter. In the practice match, Hanazono is surprised to discover how fast he can read Yoshida’s moves and realizes how good his training has been under Jigoro and Yawara. Hanazono leaves a voicemail with Fujiko to announce he’s entering the Shoujiko cup and promises that if he wins, he’ll “show himself” to Fujiko. Fujiko worries that what that will mean to them if Hanazono doesn’t win... At the college championships, the Ebitendo team loses quickly but Hanazono wins and continues to the next round as an individual. Fujiko, however, hears false news of his loss. Jigoro teaches Hanazono a secret equivalent to Fujiko’s “un-deux-trois” technique, which Jigoro jokingly calls “I-love-you!” Fujiko is too worried to listen to any messages at home. In the individuals, all of the Ebitendo members lose quickly in the first round except for Hanazono (entering the 98kg+ heavyweight category) who wins with his secret “I-love-you!” technique. Paralleling the silent bus newspaper scene, Fujiko spots a news article (written by Matsuda) featuring Hanazono being trained by a “Coach X” and winning, and runs to the championship arena.