Cultural Context and Impact
The significance of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics in the story is that in the real world, this was the first time that Women's Judo would be a full competition event, and would thus see the awarding of the first ever Olympic gold medal for Women's Judo.
Yawara! was very popular in Japan, so when real life Japanese teenager Ryoko Tamura won a silver medal for judo at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, she was seen as a real-life "Yawara" (her age, stature, and ability all being strikingly similar to those of the fictional character) and promptly nicknamed "Yawara-chan". She was still known by this name eight years later, indicating perhaps the enduring popular recognition of the series as well as that of Ryoko Tamura herself.
The track "Miracle Panda" on the Ranma 1/2 Fighting Karuta soundtrack is a parody of the Yawara opening theme "Miracle Girl" (both Yawara and Ranma 1/2 were produced by Kitty Film). The 2nd OP of the anime was then resung by Shimokawa Mikuni. Shoko Nakagawa resang the song again in her 10th single "Arigato no Egao".
Read more about this topic: Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl
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