Yawara is a prodigy who would rather paint her nails than throw someone twice her size on their back. Her grandfather spent decades training her for gold, then spent the whole series watching her refuse him at every turn. The show knows the real match isn't judo versus opponent, it's a girl versus the version of herself everyone else already decided she had to be.
Yawara Inokuma just wants a normal high school life: cute clothes, a handsome boyfriend someday, the ordinary things any girl her age enjoys. Instead, her grandfather Jigorou, a former national judo champion, has other plans. He has trained her in judo for years and keeps engineering situations that force her into matches and tournaments. The catch: she is a prodigy at the sport, even though she would rather nobody knew. Yawara tries to hide her strength to keep a normal reputation, but circumstances keep pushing her to use it. Jigorou's grand plan is for her to win Olympic gold and earn the National Medal of Honor. Meanwhile Kousaku Matsuda, a reporter at a second-rate sports paper, has spotted her talent and is determined to bring her into the spotlight. The result is a sports story mixed with comedy, drama and a touch of romance.
