Fri 30 Apr 2010
Yawara! Project Resuming
Posted by Tofusensei under Releases
[51] Comments
It is with great sadness that we bring you this news.
On Thursday, April 29, 2010, Animeigo, the licensor of the Yawara! anime series, announced via twitter that they are unable to license episodes 41+ of the show.
As you may be aware, Live-eviL began the painstaking task of subtitling this 124 episode classic series back in 2003. We managed to get through 57 episodes before Animeigo announced they had licensed the show in 2006. We were delighted to see it licensed.
In 2008, they (using our fansub scripts as the basis of their translation) released the excellent DVD box set of episodes 1-40. We were very supportive of this release and delighted to be able to purchase a legal version of Yawara.
Then sadly, in late April 2010, they announced they will not be able to bring us episodes 41+ of the show. We appreciate Animeigo’s efforts and we encourage any R1 companies to try and do a license rescue. We would even be delighted to share our work with you.
Live-eviL has always been a group that respects and supports legal English releases of shows we subtitle. At times this has annoyed fans when we are unable to complete shows due to licensing (Condor Hero, Death Note, YUA!, NANA, countless others), but that’s not what fansubbing is all about.
Though we lost four years of subtitling time where we very likely would have completed the entire series, we harbor no ill feelings towards Animeigo. They tried the best they could and even managed to bring us a third of the series in the most reference-quality form one could ever ask for.
We said this back when we started and we’ll say it again. If you do not buy anime, there will be no anime to buy. Please support the industry.
In the meantime, stay tuned to Live-eviL and Frostii as we pick up the Yawara! fansubbing project where we left off. Keep in mind we work at our own pace and it may be a few years before it is completed. Those who stuck with us for 5.5 years for Creamy Mami can attest that we do finish our projects in due time 😉
Get the DVD set for 1-40 here ($89.98 USD). You may download the torrent for episodes 41-58 here. 58 has never before been released to the public.
I also just noticed we had a typo in the 2nd OP subtitles! Silly how no one ever noticed that (daiisukiki). We’ll make sure that gets fixed going forward.
Thanks for continuing this great series. I’m greatly saddened that Animeigo won’t be able to finish it.
fantastic news. I’ve always wondered why no one released the rest of this awesome series. It’s awesome to see you guys are willing to continue subbing it. Can’t wait for more releases. In the meantime I’ll get back to watching the first 58 episodes.
Thanks for continuing this series. I am sad, to hear that Animeigo didn’t license the rest of it, but I guess old series are hard to sell, but they tried.
Thanks at Animeigo for publishing the first 40 episodes.
Given the misfortune of AnimEigo being unable to continue, this is the best possible alternative. I’m glad to hear you’re committed to bringing Yawara to an English-speaking audience.
Hi ,
how can we donate? I am very happy because you are going to continue and I want to support the group.
I was pleased to hear AnimEigo announce their license and pre-ordered the set when they announced it. I was a bit worried about the lack of word of follow-on releases so I am glad to hear that the show will continue again as a fansub. Many, many thanks.
YEA!!!!! Fu*k’in YEA!!!!!!
What more can be said….
At the Mac store, using their frakin iPad 3G, and saw the news. Oo;;;;
Guess I’ll be editing yawara 🙂
Thank you for restarting your excellent subbing work!!!
Some time ago, I got eps 58-124, but it is a japanese-catalan version :/
Will you sub the Atlanta Special too?
Gambatte!
A sad news that animego won’t be able to release more Yawara (I bought the box the day it was release) but I’m more than delighted that to learn that you’ll take the collosal task of finishing subbing Yawara! Infinite thankx Live-Evil and Frostii to keep old scool anime alive!
Great news, thanks for the hard work guys. I watched this one raw to know how it continued but always hoped u guys would resume work on it.
Awesome! I’ve been dying to see past episode 57, it is regrettable that animeigo cannot continue their license of Yawara! but it is awesome that you guys are picking it up again!
THANK YOU GUYS!!!
Hay this is Lostami from, the user on AniDB.
After hearing from a user there that yawara WAS infact on DVD I quicky got myself a copy.
It was a masterfully done piece of work, and Animeigo unlike most other companies, are both fair and respectful in there prices! (Other companies being funimation)
But now you say that they will not be able to complete it.
You posted on my threat in AniDB and i have come to you’re site to offer my untold amount of thanks to you from all of us who have been voting on that thread!
Thank you and we hope to see your quality work bring this anime to thousands of people here in the US and all around the world!
hooooot
thx
About the 41-58 torrent; it seems eps 41, 44 and 45 are missing pieces? The calculated CRC value does not match the one in the filename and/or as listed on AniDB.
Woaw, you guys are awesome, after hearing that dissapointing news from Animeigo I thought I would never be able to see the rest of the series with english subtitles.
One thoushand thank you and keep the good work. Yawara the anime is simply awesome, without a doubt one of my favourites, a protagonist with and outstanding charisma and and utterly well develop story.
This made my day, and as a huge fan of all of Urasawa Naoki’s works, I am really happy and excited that two of my favorite groups are taking up this project again. Thank you so much!
Yatta 😀
Good news for all the fans of your great work.While I am not `glad` that the company is no longer releasing the rest of the series,I am glad that you are planning to continue where you left off all those years ago
I look forward to your hard work and thank you once again(now where did i store all your old Yawara eps….)
Thank you for supporting classic anime!
It is sad that an official source can’t release the rest of the specific series. But I guess, this has to do with our times (worldwide economic crises and so). Resuming the fansubbing, proves your determination regarding classic anime. That inspires me to keep doing the same for my country / Language.
Thank you!
Wow! I never thought I would see the end to this series. This is awesome.
Thank you for picking up this series again. You are appreciated by this fan.
indeed very sad news… hopefully they’ll be able to license the rest of the series in the near future!!!
very well written “We said this back when we started and we’ll say it again. If you do not buy anime, there will be no anime to buy. Please support the industry.”
thanks for picking up this series again, very appreciated.
thank you!!
Episode 58 is a classic good news/bad news situation. The good news is there is a subbed 58 and it’s terrific – the bad news: we’re gonna have to wait for 59+. But the really good news is the rest of the series will be subbed by an extremely competent group. – Thank you – I’ll be happy to donate.
We do not accept donations, but thanks for the sentiment.
Instead of donating, please go buy some official R1 anime or get a crunchyroll membership. Support the industry – not the fansubbers.
Thank you so much for resuming this series. First time I ever went to an anime club, they were showing an episode of Yawara and I was instantly hooked and kept going back. This series is probably the one most responsible for getting me into anime period and holds a lot of meaning for me. I had been planning to buy the official release but not so easy when it isn’t available in Australia, so I am sad they have stopped.
I look forward to your wonderful quality releases and will go buy more anime soon 🙂
It’s sad that AnimEigo can’t continue the series at this time. I very quickly purchased a copy of the Anime subs once they mentioned they were releasing it.
At the time they wouldn’t release any information, when probed about the status of the project, due to legal reasons with their Licensor. Given the absolute silence on the topic, I had worried that they were unable to continue the project.
They offered 40 episodes for what others would’ve segmented into 8 discs and only after it was all available would they have released the individual season packs. I’m afraid this generosity might have been part of why they didn’t secure the second 40 episodes.
I too am saddened to hear that Animeigo is dropping Yawara. Thanks to Live-eviL for resuming the fansubbing of this great series! I find the same thing (incorrect CRC’s) as Macros74:
Expected CRCs:
Ep 41 [C3171A71]
Ep 44v2 [F8A697ED]
Ep 45 [924BF918]
Calculated CRCs:
Ep 41 [430B62C3]
Ep 44v2 [00893DDD]
Ep 45 [EF73F440]
I had never heard of Yawara until Animeigo got the license for the 1st 40 episodes,
I pre-ordered it when I read the comments in Anime Primer.
I was very delighted with what I saw and even wrote to AE asking them to get
the rest of the series out ASAP and got a humorous reply from Mr.Woodhead
Finding your work and Froth-Bite’s work on AnimeSuki delighted me
and the those 18 episodes were wonderful apart from a few quibbles
about judo terms and their translation,
Thank you very much!
Keep up the good work.
later
bliss
Thanks for kicking me in the butt and convincing me to purchase the 40 episode box set of Yawara! from AnimeEigo. I’m up to episode 36 and it’s been an enjoyable ride.
Yay!. I was introduced to Yawara when I picked up the Animego boxed set on a whim. I’ve been waiting years to see where the story goes, and was upset (read pissed) when Animego couldn’t continue. Thanks for picking it up! I look foward to more of your excellent work!
@LE
Why should i support or pay for crunchyroll if i’m not even able to watch most series from my region on their site ? I`m not even able to watch GE999 after LE stopped to sub it because of this region crap.
Thank you so much for doing this. I was really bummed that I had pre-ordered the first box directly from Animego and paid WAY more than I care to mention just to have them years later say they aren’t going to finish the series. Oh well…I am thrilled to see that L-E is going to complete this wonderful series!
I would have gladly paid the money for the rest of Yawara from AE
despite the fact it would be a financial hardship..
That the owner of the IP refused to license the rest is either an
insult to Gaijin anime and manga lovers or simply the usual bad
business sense of many Japanese companies.
Finally I have some time to express thanks to Live-Evil for resuming their subs. I was waiting like forever for Animeigo to release the remaining episodes since I have a few of the original episodes on VHS tapes from like way way WAY back, the Live-Evil subs and Animeigo’s DVD’s. Was really dissappointed that they dropped it. But thanks again Live-Evil. Looking forward to your Yawara Subs.
I guess I should of taken more japanese classes while I was waiting :/ Prolly wouldn’t need subs by now…
been waiting for years for this! this was one of the few series i searched high and low back in the day of trading tapes.. before the internet made the whole thing much easier. Yes I’m old..but maybe I might be able to finish this series!
and yes I like animego- I was one of the pre orders for Orange road on laser disk.. lol.
You said you will resume this translation but I haven’t seen anything after the episode 58…………. -_-
When? When will you begin to translate? We tired of weiting. (((
Please continue subbing this!
I just don’t think anybody is going to see the episode 59 in english. It’s been more than half a year and nothing. How come this tardance if you already have the subtitle scrits ?
Give the subtitles to me and I will do it myself, I have got all the raw episodes (haven’t seen them).
Pleased to hear you are continuing Yawara!. I think it’s worth the wait to see the rest of this fine series no matter how long the wait. Patience will win out every time (Pls note this OMG)
I want to thank you so much!
This anime is amazing, especially since I have been doing Judo since I was 4, and my entire family (and I mean ENTIRE) does judo. My uncle and mom went to the Olympics for it a couple times too.
Anyway, I bought the box set from Animeigo and watched them all (way too fast, mind you 😛 ) and thought that I would have to learn Japanese to watch the rest (which I am quite prepared to do if the need arises)
I found this site the other day, with 18 more subbed episodes on it and it made my day, for like a week. You have done a fantastic job on this series, and I really really hope that you continue subbing for it! My family and I love watching these together, and we have told almost everyone in our judo club about it and they have watched them all as well (and ordered some box sets :P)
I just want you to know that you have brought an anime into my families life that speaks to us very deeply, as well as inspired quite a few young girls at our club to try and be just like Yawara.
So thanks (again), and my family and I will be anxiously watching this site for new subbed episodes!!!
-Kellkolo
Hey Marquis, really 🙂
Will the show be finished?
I await Episode 59 with eager anticipation.
With Project Kitteh finishing Ashita no Nadja, and Licca taking on A Little Princess Sara, after finishing Super Doll Licca-chan, I have seen an influx of older anime finally being subbed into English. I have enjoyed watching all 58 episodes that Live Evil has already subbed. You have totally gotten me hooked on the show, and I really, REALLY want to see how it all turns out! 66 episodes. That is 5.5 years at 1 episode a month. (sigh) That’s even longer than Creamy Mami!
Live Evil, GAMBARE!
I’m glad to see that you will be resuming subs on Yawara!
Animeigo’s box set was very nicely done, and I do hope that they can get the rest of it released.
I have waited 10 years to see the rest of Yawara! since I first saw it in the poorly done fansub VHS days, and I was one of the first people to buy the Animeigo boxed set!
In other words, I will always be here to support Yawara! and I will be here to support the Live-eviL efforts as well.
The fan-subbed episodes look great!
Please continue the wonderful work!
Thanks a lot Live-eviL team!
I stumbled upon this series out of curiosity about a week or so, and i began watching via some anime site on the web, and i got hooked instantly.
I’m really glad that you’re willing to continue fansubbing, but how is the project going?
I’ve completed all of the 124 episodes on torrent and i’m dying to see the rest from 58 and up 😀
Great work up till now, i’ll purchase the boxed set asap.
You just got a new “die hard” fan 😉
Hmm… i’ll check out google translate (^v^)
Wow, it’s kinda quiet in here.
Hey, as it seems, Shogakkan own the rights to Yawara at this moment, but they don’t seem to be in licensing mood.
How about you Yawara! fans try hand out some few episodes in the local area, just to trigger the curiosity among the people?
It’s just an idea, but since almost no one seems to have it anymore, there would probably be more request of it as time passing by and people get to know its content.
It would’ve been nice to see this one as a movie too, but i guess it’s more than i can hope for now…
How about some words about this, anyone?
Episodes 59, 60, 61 and 62 ara available with English subtitles on youtube !!
GREAT !!!!!!!!!
Zitabata :
Someone has posted the 59 episode with english subtitles on Youtube.
I hope whoever is doing it, will continue subbing the whole series.
AnimEigo is blowing out the Yawara box set for $19.95 until the end of August.