Characters
- Yawara Inokuma (猪熊 柔, Inokuma Yawara?) Voiced by: Yuko Minaguchi
- Yawara is a young girl who aspires to an ordinary life but who, due to her innate talent, is forced to keep practicing judo by her authoritarian grandfather. She is always having romantic daydreams about an ordinary life, her biggest dream being to find a boyfriend.
- Jigorou Inokuma (猪熊 滋悟郎, Inokuma Jigorou?) Voiced by: Ichirou Nagai
- Jigorou is the 7th-dan Judo Master and 5-time National Champion, his passion for judo is rivaled only by his love for Yawara and food. He has great expectations for Yawara's judo career, and is constantly pushing her to do her best and focus primarily on judo. His motto is "Judo was not built in a day". He also does work on the side as a bone-setting doctor.
- Sayaka Honami (本阿弥 さやか, Honami Sayaka?) Voiced by: Yoshino Takamori
- Sayaka is an extremely spoiled daughter of one of Japan's richest families, she has never failed to dominate any sport she's cared to try, and when Yawara shows her up, she decides to stop at nothing to defeat her and becomes her rival. She has a false tooth, which is a sore point for her, and one that Yawara keeps accidentally bringing up.
- Shinnosuke Kazamatsuri (風祭 進之介, Kazamatsuri Shinnosuke?) Voiced by: Akira Kamiya
- Shinnosuke is one of the finest judo coaches in all of Japan, he idolizes Jigorou, and has been hired by Honami. Despite being incredibly shy, he is an unbelievable babe-magnet thanks to his good looks and caring personality. Unfortunately for him, for all the women in the world, and in particular, for Sayaka, the one girl he's got his eye on is Yawara.
- Kosaku Matsuda (松田 耕作, Matsuda Kosaku?) Voiced by: Toshihiko Seki
- A reporter working for a sports paper, Matsuda's becomes convinced Yawara is going to be the next great sports superstar.
- Kamoda (鴨田, Kamoda?) Voiced by: Chafurin
- A cameraman working for a sports paper, Kamoda seems to have a knack for taking "the perfect shot" for headlines.
- Hanazono Voiced by: Masashi Sugawara
- Hanazono, the large, overly-emotional captain of the judo club at Yawara's high school, he becomes devoted to Yawara when she comes to his attention as a skilled judoka.
- Sudoh
- Sudoh is the resident bad boy at Yawara's high school, he begins to pester her when she starts making headlines, and acts as a foil to Hanazono. When Yawara becomes the high school judo club coach, he joins and is the only new member to withstand Yawara's rigorous training program.
- Jody Rockwell (ジョディ・ロックウェル, Jodi Rokkuweru?) Voiced by: Miyuki Ichijou
- Jody is the previous year's female judo world champion, she is a Canadian who comes to challenge Yawara to a match part way into the series, becoming a friendly rival and regular character.
Read more about this topic: Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl
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“The business of a novelist is, in my opinion, to create characters first and foremost, and then to set them in the snarl of the human currents of his time, so that there results an accurate permanent record of a phase of human history.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“I have often noticed that after I had bestowed on the characters of my novels some treasured item of my past, it would pine away in the artificial world where I had so abruptly placed it.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“The Nature of Familiar Letters, written, as it were, to the Moment, while the Heart is agitated by Hopes and Fears, on Events undecided, must plead an Excuse for the Bulk of a Collection of this Kind. Mere Facts and Characters might be comprised in a much smaller Compass: But, would they be equally interesting?”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)