第8話: 重厚な対戦相手とのデビュー戦に挑むYawara

8

Yawara spends the night at Matsuda's apartment, and Matsuda is awakened in the morning (having slept outside his apartment) by Yawara's daily morning judo exercise. On the news, it is falsely announced that Sayaka is hiring Jigoro as a coach, which surprises and saddens Yawara. In fact, Jigoro has refused the Honami offer with his usual excuse that he does not teach "weaklings." The refusal shocks the Honamis but does not faze Shinnosuke, who finally secures Jigoro's autograph on both his book and jacket. Meanwhile, seeing that Yawara is upset by the false news concerning Jigoro, Matsuda takes her to an amusement park, where they also cannot escape strangers who bother Yawara due to her new celebrity status. To help Yawara, Matsuda cooks up a scheme in which his newspaper would set up a match against the heavyweight judoka Yuki Tohdoh, who weighs 20 kg (44 lb) more than Yawara, in her debut; they believe that if Yawara intentionally throws the match, the loss will cause the media to dismiss her as a judoka and henceforth leave her alone. At home, Yawara is relieved that Jigoro is not "abandoning" her to be Sayaka's coach, but is troubled by her omission of not telling her grandfather that she intends to lose at the upcoming public debut match. Matsuda reveals their scheme to Yamoda after drinks and tells him that his dream of vicariously living through Yawara the judo superstar will be dashed after her loss. (Source: Wikipedia)