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I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Mariko Nagai -- YOU AND I


Ah...yes. "Yawara!" That fashionable judo girl. The anime series lasted longer than the time I was in Gunma Prefecture on the JET Programme so I missed out on the final season. Not that I could be a regular viewer of the show on Monday nights anyways since I was regularly asked to dinner to have some English conversation with an elderly couple then.


Well, watching that loopy-and-flashy opening credits sequence that regularly launched a "Yawara!" episode, it looks like the final season finally saw the show's raison d'etre, namely young Yawara Inokuma achieving her mission to make it to the 1992 Barcelona Games for a medal in judo, come to fruition. I never saw that final season but I hope that she did get that Gold.

Also, I didn't know that perky Mariko Nagai（永井真理子）had one more go-round with the opening theme song. My very first Nagai article was "Miracle Girl" which served as the opening theme for Season 1, and so Nagai performed the theme for Season 3, "YOU AND I"...not to be confused with Keizo Nakanishi's（中西圭三）soul tune with the same title that came out a year later.

(karaoke version)

Nope, Nagai's "YOU AND I" was written and composed by singer-songwriter Taizo Jinnouchi（陣内大蔵）as her 16th single in April 1992. It is a song that I had heard before although I didn't know about its connection with "Yawara!" and it plays to her usual strengths of happy and inspiring. The song broke into the Oricon Top 10 getting as high as No. 7. I wouldn't have asked for a better song to finish the series on.
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4 comments:

  1. hugh JackassMarch 19, 2021 at 9:09 PM

    Great song .It wass ent to me by my penpal at the time (Aiko Takahata). Unfortunately, i have lost it die to moving house twice since tben .I don't suppsoe you could help me out with it,please?

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    1. J-CanuckMarch 19, 2021 at 10:46 PM

      Hello, Hugh and I believe that I have also received your request on the Contact Form as well. Unfortunately, I don't have the full copy of "You and I", but I did find Mariko singing an "unplugged" version of the whole song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDzSNTQE5oM

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  2. Atsuke AkiyamaApril 20, 2021 at 6:53 AM

    Sadly, anime watchers never saw Yawara going to the Olympics until 1996 with a TV movie. The manga it was based ended a year after the Barcelona Olympics, and the anime couldn't hold its timeslot after the event ended on August 1992, so it wrapped right before she went to Barcelona.
    That being said, Yawara, like many other Kitty Films produced shows, has a stellar soundtrack. I recommend Yuko Hara's Makeru na Onna no Ko! and Shoujo Jidai, the series' third opening and ending.

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    Replies
    1. J-CanuckApril 20, 2021 at 10:58 AM

      Hi, Atsuke. I never saw "Yawara" right up to the end since I suddenly had to teach night classes on those Mondays and then I went back home to Canada. In a way, it's kinda poignant the original series never showed the main character actually participating in the Games themselves until that movie was released.

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