Yawara! EP44 - Selected Athletes Announced Tonight!

It is publicly announced that four weight classes (with Sayaka representing Japan in the under 48 kg division; Yamada Kaori in the under 52 kg division; Tanabe Yoko in the under-72 kg division; and Toudoh Yuki in the over-72 kg division) will be at the Judo World Cup, with also a new open-weight class to be represented by Yawara, to Sayaka's consternation. However, Yawara announces that she will not participate. Instead she wants to concentrate on her home economics classes such as cooking and being a normal girl. Itou shows Yawara her blood-soaked ballerina shoes, which she had used to dance even when injured and bleeding; she tells Yawara that she has been "chosen" to succeed, and that it would help fulfill her dreams also if Yawara competes. Matsuda echoes similar sentiments. Yawara finally decides to enter the Cup and start training camp. Matsuda and Yuniko infiltrate the Russian training camp and Teleshikova tells them that she will win the world cup. Matsuda for some reason takes Kuniko to see his parents, who mistake her for his girlfriend; when he vehemently denies that she is his girlfriend, they press him for a meeting for an arranged marriage prospect because he is already 26 and still single. He refuses again, telling them that he is interested in someone who will be in the Judo World Cup.