Wanna Be The Strongest ep2: a sweet pickle!

Aniblogging gods, please forgive me! It seems that I must make a decision. And that decision is to episodically blog Wanna Be The Strongest. It was not a decision I came to lightly, but apparently what this show provides, the internet somehow needs more of. And that thing is – boobies. Boobies, butts and crotch shots. I do this not for myself, but for all who come after me… and for my page views.

The first matter of business is that the story’s main heroine, Sakura has basically just resigned from her lead vocalist job as part of a famous idol group.  She’s just left a huge gap in the group, and she didn’t talk to anyone about this before hand.  Thankfully this is an anime without much in the way of consequences, and her manager just gives her the OK without much thought.  As for the slack that ‘s been left behind, her rival in the group, Elena is more than willing to take up the slack.

With the residual side effects of Sakura’s rash decision taken care of, she’s sent to the Berserk gym, the place where this all started.  There she meets the gym manager who hands her off to Ryo for her basic training.  And Ryo does not start off slow.  The regime is intense, fast and hard, and she gets little in the way of breaks between exercises.  The other junior wrestlers at the gym are amazed at Sakura’s ability to keep up, but simultaneously appalled at the insane intensity that Ryo insists on keeping for her very first workout.  I don’t mind any of it, because for some reason Sakura is only working out in a skimpy wrestling outfit, while everyone else seems to at least have some form of sweatshirt and/or pants on at the same time.  There’s no shortage of stretching and flexing shots showing off the vaginas being pointed at the sky or shoved towards the camera.

*ahem*

Moving on, Ryo decides to move straight from exercise to actual in ring work.  She’s truly determined to either make the young idol quit, or maybe actually test the young woman’s limits.  Though it seems that all she’s doing is torturing her, putting her in brutally painful hold after another.  Of course there’s no shortage of shrieks and groans as our heroine is put through all of this. *facepalm*  Geez.  The pervy fanservice is so transparent I can hardly watch… but I soldier on!

It seems that in the end though, Sakura can not be broken.  And Ryo could not be happier with this outcome, as she can not stop thinking of all the potential this woman could have.  Ryo turns out to be the first of Sakura’s wrestling fans.  Though even while Sakura trains hard, she isn’t universally praised, as another of the gym’s pro wrestlers, Misaki isn’t sold on her yet.  She explains to the gym’s manager that Sakura’s tenacity may just be stubborness, and she still may very well not be true wrestling material.  There’s apparently still a final test she much pass before she’ll be allowed her pro debut.

And while Sakura does all this training, time still marches on, as she sees when she returns from some of her training to see her idol group carrying on on national television without her.  Though it doesn’t appear her focus has wavered at all, she’s still determined to be a pro wrestler.  Which is why that very day is a fortunate one for her.  It’s been 3 months she’s she started training at the gym, and her final test is at hand, as she is summoned into a room with a ring and almost every pro wrestler in the gym inside waiting for her, even her arch rival, Rio.  It appears it’s time for Sakura’s final test before her pro debut.  The Hell of a Hundred Throws!

*turns down volume so anyone passing by doesn’t notice all the sexual moans that are about to come streaming from the speakers*

The tradition and rules for this event are that each designated wrestler of ten in total will have the chance to throw Sakura ten times each, of course totaling a hundred throws by the end.  She can quit at any time, though that means she’s failed and won’t be allowed to make her pro-debut  until she tries again later and passes.

Each throw is painful on its own, and Sakura is thrown into a virtual hell, as each throw builds upon the pain and damage of the last.  Despite her training to take these falls, she’s still hurting bad.  When she hits ninety, it appears she’s hit her wall and everyone is ready to tell her that she had a great first try – but Sakura’s not done yet.  Too bad for her, the last ten throws will be left up to her arch rival, Rio.  And she doesn’t hold back at all!  though despite her best efforts, efforts that even include a b*tchin’ choke slam, Sakura still gets up after 99 consecutive throws!  Even Rio is amazed, though the entire time Ryo (this could get confusing with these similar names) hasn’t changed her expression at all.  It seems she’s the one who has seen this coming all along.  Though Rio won’t let this uppity b*tch just stand up to her and gives Sakura one hell of a final throw, seemingly knocking her out cold!  But in the end, through the cheers of her fellow wrestlers, she does eventually come to conciousness and stand up.  Thank goodness!  It would have really sucked to get your butt kicked like that and have it all not count in the end.  Sakura is now a pro wrestler awaiting debut!  As Sakura collapses back to the ground, and Rio leaves the room, Ryo asks her why she held back on the final throw.  Rio simply replies that she needs Sakura to debut so she can properly kick her ass.  Though Ryo and the manager know that she probably has some fondness and respect for Sakura’s progress, dedication and tenacity.

With that beating complete, Sakura is soon thrust into her debut match.  She’s pitted against Chinatsu Suzumoto, a promising second year wrestler, and despite her best efforts, she’s forced to tap out in a basic Boston Crab hold.  It looks like she’s progressing quite well, but when a reporter asks the legendary idol turned wrestler Nanami Kanno, her assessment isn’t very obtimist.  She says it will be quite awhile before Sakura wins her first match.

End of episode.

Well, that wasn’t so bad.  I mean the animation is still crap.  The colors are still muted.  And every scene is still milked for a boner as hard as possible, but at least it feels like the show is trying a little harder to legitimately pull the sports angle.  You get the standard training montage, the usual stuff about a raw talent having huge untapped potential, and the set up of the eventual rivals and big wigs to contend with.  And I guess the show is showing pro wrestling a little respect by not letting Sakura steam roll her first opponent.

Now since this is set in Japan, and I don’t know much about their pro wrestling scene, I’m not gonna spend a ton of time worrying about how accurate these matches are.  I don’t imagine Japanese pro-style wrestling is anymore similar to America’s style, than Mexican/Latin American-style wrestling is to ours.  Though it does seem they’re playing this set up really straight, with no talk of selling or “putting on” a good, entertaining match for the crowd.  Instead what we get is a bit of a brawl with a bunch of submission holds.  And the submission holds are the bread and butter of this show for more reasons than one.  Sure matches can end in pinfall, but if a submission hold can be applied, then it will.  This is especially true if they can get them in a good hold that will squeeze their opponents crotch and make them wriggle around real good.  Shessh!  Even describing this makes me feel skeevy.

There’s not much else to go over here.  Elena seems to be taking the opportunity to head up the Sweet Diva group to heart with her rival out of the way.  And Sakura doesn’t seem to miss the life so far, being way too focused on her pro wrestling career at the moment to give it much more than a passing thought.  And with all the preliminary training and her debut match out of the way, it looks like it’s just a matter of her honing her skills in the ring.  The rest of the drama will just follow suit.

Further Reading:

• Episode 1