The series begins backstage at a big wrestling event with Dump Matsumoto (Yuriyan Retriever) adding the finishing touches to her ensemble. After reflecting on dreams of wrestling before cheering fans, she promises to tell viewers the story of her battle.
That battle apparently began in 1974 in a small Oriental village with her and her younger sister collecting glass bottles to trade for candy and soda. Everything appears like an idyllic childhood until later that evening Goro Matsumoto pulls up in a Matsumoto Incorporated truck. He’ll claim to be in need of money and proceeds to verbally and physically harass Satoko (Nobuko Sendo) and her girls until he makes off with their lunch money.
Things are even worse the following day when Satoko and Kaoru (Dump) take a bus across town in an attempt to get the money back. They don’t just find Goro unwilling to return the money, but he apparently has an entirely different family with a newborn baby named Kaoru. After a brief physical confrontation, Kaoru will take off running into the pouring rain where she ends up at a woman’s wrestling practice and falls in love.
Five years later, in 1979, she’ll be another face in the crowd of thousands, cheering on her favorite wrestler, Jackie Soto, in a tag match. Although the Beauty Pair walks away with the win, Maki Ueda is not happy with Jackie’s performance and accuses her of breaking one of the coveted ‘three taboo rules.’ This will lead to a huge blowup that ends with Maki walking away from the team.
Kaoru returns home one day after delivering newspapers to learn that her mother has secured her a full-time position at a local bakery. Although Satoko and Hiromi are elated with the prospect that Kaoru won’t have to continue working small ‘side hustles,’ it becomes clear that Kaoru had her heart set on auditioning for the All Nippon Women’s Pro-Wrestling Circuit.
As time passes, the wrestling promoters look to take advantage of the Beauty Pair’s split by pitting them against each other in a ‘retirement match,’ where the loser is forced to retire. At the time of the match, Kaoru hasn’t yet begun her tenure at the bakery and briefly discusses it with a food vendor at the market who is advertising the wrestling audition. He’ll notice Kaoru eyeing the application and encourages her to go for her goals.
Kaoru will attend the retirement match which is a grueling will of testament that goes back and forth for nearly 49 minutes. Jackie will ultimately win with a Boston Crab, but it’s a bittersweet victory for everyone. While Kaoru begins her position at the bakery, an act of faith seemingly brings together several girls attending the same audition that Kaoru was interested in. Meanwhile, during her shift at the bakery, Kaoru will experience an act of faith herself when she encounters Goro’s other family. Kaoru will only learn that the lady has given Goro the boot, but she inspires her to live the life she wants.
Kaoru takes the advice and goes to audition, only to arrive just as the introduction phase has ended. She’ll become a bit overwhelmed upon noticing that both the promotion’s president and Jackie are in attendance. The audition soon moves into the physical portion and compared to the other girls, Kaoru is far from impressive. Despite that, she’ll announce to her family over dinner that evening that she’s made it past auditions. Along with the other girls, she’ll learn the following day that auditions are only the beginning. Apparently, there will be a hard, straight month of training followed by a pro test. They are also collectively told that they’ll need to break up with their boyfriends.
Tomoko Kitamura and Yukari Ohmori are the first and only two girls to pass the pro test, resulting in their relocation to a new dorm where they will soon debut professionally. Although failing the test doesn’t result in dismissal, nearly half the roster quits after. More testing ensues, only to be followed by failure. Seemingly looking to get in some extra training, Kaoru will sneak into the gym one night to discover that Chigusa Nagayo (Erika Karata) has been living at the gym and eating very little.
The duo will end up spending more and more time together as Kaoru teaches her the art of glass bottle trading. They’ll share stories of attending wrestling events and Kaoru will also learn that Chigusa’s parents practically abandoned her in the middle of the night while she was in grade school. She’s apparently been floating between various relatives since.
Kaoru and Chigusa will meet and train with Devil Masami one afternoon after returning to the gym from cashing in bottles. Later that evening, Kaoru returns home to find that Goro is not only moving back in but he’s taken it upon himself to see that Kaoru stops ‘playing around’ with professional wrestling and gets a job. After several minutes of verbally berating Kaoru, both Satoko and Hiromi will come to Kaoru’s defense while she weeps. Things will quickly go from verbal to physical and Kaoru will end up spending the night at the gym after attacking Goro.
During an afternoon training session, Kaoru will suffer an embarrassingly horrible loss to Honjo. The defeat is so bad and absolute that Honjo is immediately given another opponent. Despite the defeat, Kaoru will advocate for another opportunity. If not for Toshibo, she likely would have been forced out of the ring. This time, Kaoru is matched against Chigusa and when she accidentally draws blood, the two literally beat the crap out of each other.
The episode ends with all those in attendance completely stunned as the two continue to go back and forth.
The Queen Of The Villains Review
Being that this was the first episode and knowing little about Kaoru’s career, I don’t want to rush to judgment. That said, her story of hardship doesn’t sound any more difficult than the average person. Her father was obviously a vicious dunk and the kind of verbal and physical abuse he dished out was obviously senseless.
I don’t know if it was just the premier but the episode was entirely too long and even before getting halfway through, I was starting to lose interest. I will say the girl who portrays Kaoru does a great job. The double life bit was interesting but it’s hard to see how things build from here. I wasn’t altogether disappointed and would give the episode a 5.4 out of 10.
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