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  • rr-5681128 June 2022
    Viewed on Funimation.

    Anime series that follows pop idol Sakura Hagiwara whom decides she's going to beat Pro Wrestlers at their own game after her idol group, Sweet Diva, is humiliated during a cross promotional event with the wrestling gym Berserk.

    In terms of narrative I actually think it's paced pretty well for the first half, it takes her that long to finally get a win and it shows her genuinely struggle to actually make this work. However, one that happens it has just a bit too much going on. She almost immediately gets the attention of the world champion, she gets a protege (in a storyline that doesn't really go anywhere), and becomes embroiled in a conflict with a mysterious figure assaulting the other wrestlers of her group. I will say they do end it in a reasonably satisfying manner.

    Animation wise, it's okay. It's clearly a show centered around the cheesecake fan service, and such shows usually don't have much of a budget & it shows. I've seen better, but I've also seen worse (in terms of the cheesecake itself, while the wrestling action provides ample opportunity to show close ups of certain features, the show provides surprisingly little in terms of actual nudity, maybe 3 scenes at most). I will say they make effective use of submission holds to actually have to animate very little while keeping the matches relatively interesting (I joke, but it seems 50% of the show is someone in a Boston Crab, lol).
  • Warning: Spoilers
    As this series opens protagonist Sakura Hagiwara is the lead singer in popular idol group 'Sweet Diva' but her life is changed when the group's manager organises a bout between Sakura and her fellow singer Elena and a group of pro wrestlers. Rio Kazama, one of the wrestlers, doesn't like being used as a publicity gimmick and doesn't hold anything back in her fight against Elena. At this point Sakura challenges the Rio to a proper bout… inevitably she is defeated but rather than return to 'Sweet Diva' she announces that she will continue wrestling until she can defeat Rio. After a string of defeats she finally achieves her goal but by then she has fallen in love with pro-wrestling and is determined to become the best; that is until a masked fighter issues a challenge… if she loses she must quit wrestling and return to 'Sweet Diva'.

    Before this series had even started it looked as if it was going to be yet another slightly sleazy echii show; the trailer featured much moaning and groaning and close ups of Sakura's ample chest during a wresting scene. Even after it started it sounded distinctly dodgy as fan's warned that one really needs to wear headphones because all the moaning made it sound pornographic! As it turned out it wasn't that bad… yes the camera did linger on certain areas a bit too much but it could just about be justified during the wrestling scenes that make up most of the show. I don't know how close to real wrestling these scenes were but they looked painful even though the characters are animated. The string of defeats Sakura suffers early on do seem to go on a bit long especially as they all end with her failing to get out of the same hold. Once she starts winning things get more interesting although we don't get to spend enough time with the characters out of the ring. Overall I'd say this was a lot better than expected but still not great; if you like sports amine and fan service you should certainly like this!

    These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.
  • rayannickerson17 April 2020
    10/10
    10/10
    Great anime if you're into wrestling with a lot of hot scenes.