Anime RE-Claimed: I Wanna Be The Strongest In The World

Ya know, the great thing about anime is that you can find an anime about almost anything; that's why when I was with my wife at quite possibly the only F.Y.E in existence and spotted an anime that featured hot anime chicks about professional wrestling I was (as the kids say) SOLD. "Wanna Be The Strongest In The World" is a 12 episode anime about pop idol Sakura Hagiwara who decides to become a professional wrestler after being insulted. I'll knock a few things outta the way, is there fan service in this anime, ummm, yeah...I mean look at the cover for crying out loud, but this anime does have a very good plot, some nice action, and a neat story. I would recommend this anime if you're looking for an anime about fighting, all in all it was a good experience and I had fun watching it. Now on to some spoilers.

So let's get a few things outta the way, I'm a wrestling fan, a huge one, and although I haven't watched the product in years I do keep abreast of certain goings-on (namely Bray Wyatt, Nakamura, Balor, and Styles...and a few others in the game, namely a one Mr. Chris Jericho), not to mention I've played wrestling games since grade school. When you're a kid, wrestling is as real and you want it to be, but when you get older you learn that wrestling is what they in "the business" call a "work". I'm about to discuss wrestling for a moment because this is important to the story; there are 2 kinds of things in wrestling; "Works" and "Shoots". A "Work" is what wrestling is, wrestlers, work a match, in your basic singles match (one vs. one) you have a heel (bad guy) vs a babyface (good guy), and more often than not the heel would be what they in the business call a "mechanic". A "mechanic" is a wrestler who works a match with other wrestlers to make the other wrestler look good, and refine them a bit. They do this by "calling spots". "Calling spots" is basically the mechanic informing the other wrestler about what moves they plan to do so that they can be prepared for them.

All this to say, while wrestlers are actually putting their bodies on the line, they're not getting hurt as much if the fight were real. Wrestlers learn how to "sell" (act like a move hurts more than anything they've ever experienced), "bump" (fall on the mat without getting injured), and put on a show for the fans without getting massively injured. That's professional wrestling, you have to be tough, you have to be in shape but the goal is NOT to hurt the other person but merely look like you are because at the end of the day it's all a "work". A "shoot" is a REAL fight, think UFC. All of this to say despite being marketed as about wrestling, these are actually shoot fights in this anime, as in they're fighting for real.

So the anime tells the story of Sakura Hagiwara, #1 pop idol for a group called Sweet Diva, Sakura is extremely popular and very well-liked amongst idols, her chief rival Elena even respects her as they vie for lead vocalist position of their group. A cross-promotional event sees Sakura and Elena doing a little wrestling but the actual professionals are none too keen on pop singers stepping on their turf, specifically one Rio Kazama. After Elena makes an off-handed remark about wrestling, Rio thrashes her but good, Sakura unwilling to allow divas and her fans to be insulted challenges Rio to a match (Rio deciding to make it a hair match...as in loser has to cut their hair). Right outta the gate, I liked Sakura, sure it was a dumb move to challenge a professional on their turf but I respect someone who's willing to put their money where their mouth is. Sakura trains and gets completely trashed by Rio, and like a big girl, Sakura sits calmly and gets her hair cut. But that doesn't stop Sakura from challenging Rio to a rematch after Rio again insults her.

Rio Kazama is a hottie.

That's the setup, but Sakura goes on a journey and discovers that she actually enjoys wrestling, but again, these are REAL fights and that's kind of the problem here. As I've said before I'm a wrestling fan and knowing that wrestling is a "work" and not a "shoot" there are certain things a promoter will do to protect not only their interest but a celebrity who is booked in a match. For starters, NO promoter worth their salt would promote a match with a celebrity against a professional WITHOUT teaming that celebrity up with a veteran and making it some kind of tag team match (like when Snooki was in Wrestlemania 27 with John Morrison and Trish Stratus for some unholy reason, or when Mr. T teamed up with Hulk Hogan in Wrestlemania 1) and this will ALWAYS result in the celebrity "going over" (winning). The reason why is because the cross-promotional money to be made would be better if fans of that celebrity tune in to watch their favorite celebrity take on a bad guy, hence why wrestling has good guys and bad guys. All of this to say in an actual wrestling promotion Sakura would've gone over (but not without help). 

So after the defeat, she suffers at the hands of Rio Sakura trains and is finally accepted a professional wrestler after enduring 100 throws from her fellow gym mates (Berserk is the name of the gym and team in which Sakura wrestles for). Sakura gets her debut match and falls prey to The Boston Crab and here begins my issue with this series, Sakura taps out again and again and again to The Boston Crab SO MUCH SO that she manages to gather a stunning 64 losses (all by submission). Again, in REAL wrestling all pin-falls and submissions are planned, wrestlers know whether they're winning or losing before they get in the building (unless they work for Vince MacMahon...then who the f*ck knows what's going on), and again Sakura is a celebrity and she'd NEVER be booked to generate this many loses in a real wrestling promotion, at most she'd be booked to have a fluke win or two, nothing to make her appear to be a viable contender and yet nothing to diminish her opponent.

Anyway, these 64 losses cause Sakura to generate some serious "heat" (the crowd doesn't like you) and they turn on Sakura in a BAD way and it's not hard to see why all of her matches end the exact same way, and here's the key, the difference between wrestling and UFC is that UFC you're trying to knock the other person out in wrestling you're trying to entertain the crowd; in wrestling, there is a thing called "rest holds", these are essentially a hold an opponent is put into in order to catch their breath, heels use rest holds most commonly because they're working to carry a green wrestler through a match. In here, however, Sakura is actually in pain and therefore can't catch her breath because she's in a real fight. This is when a new character Misaki Toyoda, a very decorated wrestler (and former pop idol as well, an aspect which isn't explored as much as it could have been) takes Sakura under her wing and toughens her up a bit, and tells Sakura she needs to come up with a signature move in order to win a match.

So essentially Misaki works as a mechanic. Sakura has her re-match against Rio and for the first time ever she tastes victory and decides to continue as a wrestler, much to the confusion of her idol rival Elena who was under the impression that once Sakura defeated Rio she'd return to Sweet Diva and re-claim her spot as lead vocalist (a post that Elena now has due to Sakura becoming a wrestler). From here Sakura manages to regain crowd support and she catches the eye of  The world champion Jackal Tojo, former trainer of Misaki. Jackal challenges Sakura to a match and this match is the closest we get to professional wrestling. Of course, Jackal being the world champion and a much more decorated wrestler makes quick work of Sakura BUT, Jackal breaks pin counts, loosens her grip, and actually gives Sakura time to shine before putting her away, thus making the match seems more competitive than it actually was, which is what a mechanic is supposed to do. This was a fun episode because it showed the basic idea of wrestling (ie, entertaining the crowd). But again, they're actually fighting.

Furthermore, in an episode with Misaki she's fighting against a group called The League Of Evil, now bear in mind that this is a REAL sanctioned fight, and in this match, 2 other people who are not in the match are using ropes to hold Misaki in place while the other beats her up, a kendo stick is used and there's just blatant cheating all around, something you'd see in professional wrestling but NOT in the UFC. All this to say if you wouldn't allow people to use ropes and chairs or have extra people fighting with you in the UFC, it shouldn't be in wrestling if they're supposed to be shoot fights! These girls are actually getting hurt. Wrestlers are trained to take bumps but when a wrestler gets hurt THAT'S A PROBLEM (look no further than D'lo Brown and Darren Drozdov). I'm no expert in Japanese culture but I doubt very much that their wrestling differs all that much from our own, and therefore I doubt Japanese wrestlers are actually getting hurt.

Despite these problems I had with the series it was still an enjoyable watch, the story was mostly solid and could have benefited from fleshing a few things out, namely Misake's history as an idol turned wrestler, and I really wish they would have made it more wrestling, flashy costumes, grandiose entrances, stunning moves, great acrobatics, excellent promos and much more. However, I will say this and something I was very impressed with is that they actually correctly named a lot of the moves (Boston Crab and a couple of others). Wrestling is such a strange business and thus far nothing outside of "The Wrestler" has managed to do it justice in explaining just what wrestling is and how it works, and even then that failed (in my opinion) to really capture the fun nature of it all. Overall, Sakura is a great character, she's tenacious, hardworking, easy to like, and is determined as all hell. She's the driving force behind the series and it's easy to get behind her as a protagonist. All the characters are great, I really like Rio and while Jackal is aesthetically lacking, she's still a pretty neat character too. As a wrestling fan, I can't say this really did it for me as THE anime to watch in regards to professional wrestling, but it's still fun and tells a goodish story. Anyway, that'll do it for you guys! Catch ya next time.