History Manga / SekaiDeIchibanTsuyokuNaritai

[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_sekai_de_1.jpg]]

''Wanna be the Strongest in the World!'' (''Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai!'') is a manga series by ESE and Kiyohito Natsuki. It was adapted into an anime series in [[Fall2013Anime October 2013]].

Sakura Hagiwara is a member of the incredibly popular idol group Sweet Diva, along with her [[HeterosexualLifePartners good friend/rival]], Elena Miyazawa. One day, they are asked to scout the female professional wrestling stable Berserk for promotional purposes. Unfortunately, Elena's mouth gets her into trouble when she makes slightly negative remarks about pro wrestling within earshot of Rio Kazama, a "heel" from that stable, who takes issue and challenges Elena to a match, mops the ring with her, and in turn insults the idol life. In order to defend the pride of idol life, Sakura challenges Rio to a match. The match ends up being a life changing experience for Sakura.
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!Tropes associated:

* AbsoluteCleavage: Sakura's wrestling outfit and also Elena's as the Blue Panther. Not to mention their respective mentors, Misaki and Juri.
* AchillesHeel: The Boston Crab is Sakura's ''biggest weakness'', so much so that it causes her to give up in her first 50 matches.
* AssKicksYou: Sakura hits Jackal Tojo's face with her butt during their match. Jackal does the same, but it hits Sakura in the stomach.
* BadassAdorable: Moe Fukuoka. She's a CuteBruiser who is a huge fan of Sakura.
* BigNO: Played with. While Sakura does say this a lot, this isn't because something awful has happened, but [[{{Determinator}} because she won't give up]].
* BoobsOfSteel: Tons. It's justified since many of the female characters are wrestlers.
* CharacterDevelopment: Sakura goes from simply wanting to defend her idol's pride into genuinely wanting to be the strongest and best pro wrestling in the world.
* ChildProdigy: Moe is a world champion karate practitioner, despite being in high school. She's also the granddaughter of a wrestler.
* CoolTeacher: Sakura is mentored by Berserk's biggest wrestler, Misaki Toyoda, herself a former idol, who was in turn mentored by Jackal, formerly of the Shangri-la stable.
* CurbStompBattle:
** An inexperienced idol against someone with four years' worth of wrestling experience? The results are predictable.
** Blue Panther does this in the matches that she sabotages.
** This is averted in the Sakura vs. Jackal match; the latter could've ended the match this way, but decided to give Sakura a fighting chance to test her mettle.
** Happens in the first round of the Dream Tag Team Match special. While Misaki may be the queen of the singles events, she and Sakura are tag team newbies going up against the champs, Digger Yamamoto and Hornet. Once Misaki tags in Sakura, they dominate Sakura with a chair shot to the head, a vicious top rope groin drag into the turnbuckle, and a series of double team headbutts that actually knocks Sakura out cold for an easy three count.
* CuteBruiser: Moe, who instantly takes down Rio with a single kick in her first appearance.
* DefeatByModesty: Rio's Shame Hold invokes this by putting the opponent in a compromising position before the audience and cameras, as Sakura finds out the hard way.
* DefeatEqualsFriendship: [[spoiler:When Sakura finally defeats Elena, and both Jackal and Juri opine that they balance both their idol and pro wrestling careers, the latter admits to them and everyone present that the only reason why she wanted to become a pro wrestler was to have Sakura come back to Sweet Diva by any means necessary. After realizing that she too enjoys being a pro wrestler, Elena makes amends with Sakura.]]
* {{Determinator}}: After losing 50 straight matches, Sakura never gives up, to the point of replying to every one of the referee's questions about giving up with "[[BigNo NO!!]]"
* {{Eagleland}}: Subverted with Jackal. While she uses an American ring name, has a very American "feel" to her, and has blonde hair, she originated in Japan, as she was one of Berserk's top wrestlers. At any rate, she's a Type I, as she serves as an AllAmericanFace and is a nice woman both in and out of the ring.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: After a very grueling match, [[spoiler:both Sakura and Elena get what they wanted without having to sacrifice any of their dreams.]] Months later, they are seen racing each other to the ring, fresh from performing a concert with the rest of Sweet Diva and stripping of their idol attire to reveal their wrestling costumes underneath (with Elena even wearing a new garb different form the one she wore as Blue Panther). It wasn't clear if the impending match would be a rematch of their last encounter in the ring or a tag-team battle against an opposing pair of wrestlers, but their manager reminds them that they have a another idol performance after that!
* EasilyDistractedReferee: In episode 11, the referee just stands there gawking until Sakura reminds her that she's supposed to count the pinfall. Elena, on the other hand, did not even attempt to break free from Sakura's pin until the ref nearly counted 'three', hinting that she was more used to breaking out of pins this way from her training with Juri. Nevertheless, the commentator even says that if the ref started counting immediately, the match most likely would have been over.
* {{Ecchi}}: Due to the premise, this series has a lot of fanservice.
* {{Expy}}: Misaki Toyoda is fairly obviously based on Wrestling/ManamiToyota.
* {{Face}}: Most of the heroines.
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Elena, sort of. She becomes Blue Panther so Sakura would come back to Sweet Diva with her.]]
* FinishingMove:
** Sakura's Sakura Special, a backflip kick.
** Misaki's Misaki Special, a modified half-chicken wing, bridging German suplex.
* FlashStep: In a series largely devoid of supernatural elements, Moe oddly can pull this off. While it works great against Sakura initially, it eventually tires her out.
* GameBreakingInjury: Misaki was scheduled to have a match against Jackal for the latter's comeback, but she fell off a ring post to the ground and broke her ankle, Jackal has to find a replacement. She picks Sakura.
* GenerationXerox: A former idol who easily gave up when placed in a submission hold, but became a {{Determinator}} and came to love pro wrestling: both of these things apply to Misaki and Sakura. It is also implied that [[spoiler:Juri and Elena are the same way]].
* GratuitousEnglish: Jackal does this ''a lot'' in the Japanese version.
* GroinAttack: Sakura is on the receiving end of a double team version by Digger and Hornet. The two of them drag her crotch first along the top ropes, giving her a nasty friction burn between the legs before ramming her crotch into the turnbuckle. This attack leaves Sakura on the ground, holding her crotch.
* {{Heel}}: [[MalevolentMaskedMan Mostly if you wear a mask]] or have face paint on. Another way to spot one is if you use your assistant to disrupt matches in your favor, or use foreign objects to enhance your move. This is subverted for Rio, who wears a mask during her intro, but then tosses it away for the match and mostly uses face-style wrestling. However, she's very aggressive and prone to [[TrashTalk trash talking]].
* IdolSinger: Sakura, formerly. Elena continues in her stead.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: While Rio is extremely aggressive, she's capable of being a good sport as long as [[BerserkButton no one]] [[SeriousBusiness insults wrestling]].
* {{Jobber}}:
** Sakura loses her first 65 matches.
** Misaki was this earlier in her career.
* KickTheDog: Rio's "Shame Hold" on Sakura, done solely for the sake of humiliating her. In the manga, even reporter Kanae Fujishita said it was "a little too much."
* MadeOfIron: Every wrestler in Berserk. To enter the stable, each applicant must withstand 100 slams from their peers.
* MaleGaze: There are plenty of ass, boob, and crotch shots.
* MasterApprenticeChain: Jackal > Misaki > Sakura > Moe. [[spoiler:There is also Jackal > Juri > Elena.]]
* MsFanservice: Almost all the girls. This is especially true concerning Rio and Hornet.
* NaiveNewcomer:
** Sakura initially grasps the idea that it will take a lot of hard work to go pro, but the immense length of her consecutive losses to the Boston Crab demonstrates that she's still out of her depth in how much training is actually required.
** Moe is not only naive when she starts out but is also arrogant due to being the World Karate Champion. She finds out ''literally'' the hard way that wrestling is ''nothing'' like karate when Sakura and the girls show her the ropes during her training.
* ProWrestlingIsReal: There's no such thing as kayfabe here.
* RealityEnsues: Sakura thinks that after training for a month, she's got a chance against Rio, who's been a pro wrestler for years. Rio easily and humiliatingly beats her.
* RedHerring: Blue Panther's identity. After spending her time as TheVoiceless, Jackal pays a visit to the Miyabi stable, where TheAce there, Juri Sanada, openly reveals herself as Blue Panther and it looks like she's aiming for Sakura. So Juri is Blue Panther, right? [[spoiler:Not exactly. While Elena reveals to Sakura that she was Blue Panther all along, Juri admits that she was the one who sabotaged the matches, which was why everybody was convinced that she was Blue Panther.]]
* RetiredBadass: Kanae is implied to be this, as Jackal referred to herself, Kanae, and Misaki as "The Golden Age Girls".
* TheRival: Sakura for Elena. She and Sakura always competed for the center vocalist position in Sweet Diva, which Sakura always won. Although Sakura treated it as a friendly rivalry, Elena did not, although she was still good-natured about it. [[spoiler:It was the idea that Sakura would never return to being an idol that made Elena take up the persona of Blue Panther, in the hopes of bringing Sakura back to Sweet Diva by force.]]
* SeriousBusiness: Rio takes pro wrestling seriously. Insulting her sport is a one-way ticket to a world of hurt, as Elena learns the hard way.
* SheFu: The Sakura Special is basically a flip kick with the feet hitting the opponent's jaw one shortly after the other. It's a modified version of the "Ice Cream Somersault" that Sakura did with Elena when she was still an idol.
* ShoutOut:
** Sakura's long run of losses before notching her first win is reminiscent of Japanese wrestling legend Wrestling/KentaKobashi's.
** Rio's Shame Hold looks very similar to [[VideoGame/RumbleRoses Candy Cane's Humiliation Move]].
** Sakura's idol group is called "Sweet Diva". It's probably not a coincidence that Wrestling/{{WWE}} referred to their female wrestlers and valets as "divas".
** The "Hell of 100 Throws" Sakura had to get through before she was judged ready to debut was part of Wrestling/AllJapanWomensProWrestling's training regimen, except that the AJW trainees had to do it ''every day''.
* SinkOrSwimMentor: Misaki is this for Sakura as she teaches her how to endure the pain once she is put into a submission hold. In turn, Jackal served this role for Misaki, as the latter had to learn the same lesson Sakura did when she started wrestling.
* StageName: Mostly averted except for Jackal, Digger, Hornet, and Blue Panther.
* {{Stripperiffic}}: Several of the wrestlers wear skimpy wrestling outfits.
* TakeAThirdOption: [[spoiler: After defeating Blue Panther, who's revealed to be Elena, in a retirement match, a tearful and begging Elena still desperately tries to get Sakura to come back to Sweet Diva. Then the rest of the group and a horde of Sweet Diva fans call out to Sakura to rejoin the group. Sakura is torn as she truly wants to become the strongest in the world, but she still loves the idol life and can't abandon her old friends and fans; not when she saw and experienced first-hand the lengths of what one of them was willing to go just to have Sakura back. Jackal breaks the impasse by offering both Sakura and Elena a place in Shangri-La so they can be idols and wrestlers.]]
* ThisIsUnforgivable: Sakura calls out Blue Panther for the latter's brutal CurbStompBattle. This apparently impressed Jackal enough that she picks Sakura as Misaki's substitute for her match.
* TookALevelInBadass:
** Sakura, as part of her CharacterDevelopment.
** [[spoiler: Elena. In the first episode, she gets her ass handed to her thoroughly by Rio. When she faces Sakura in the final episodes, however, she is shown to be a very capable wrestler.]] Such that she impressed even Rio herself.
* TrainingFromHell: Comes with the territory in pro wrestling. Sakura and later Moe are put through this when they join Berserk. [[spoiler: Also, given that Elena was able to match, and in some cases even ''surpass'' Sakura, it's almost certain that she was put through some hellish training of her own by Juri at Mayabi]].
* TraumaticHaircut: Sakura used to have really long hair, but a misplaced bet against Rio cost her a good length of her hair. This didn't slow her down, and as time passed she regrew her hair.
* UnderdogsNeverLose: Averted. Sakura is a NaiveNewcomer to the pro wrestling world and being inexperienced, she lost 50 matches straight due to her lack of ability to endure pain, and 15 more later despite being able to endure pain because of the lack of a FinishingMove before she gets her first win.
* UntouchableUntilTagged: Moe easily dodges all of Sakura's jabs and is dominating the match with a series of karate kicks and punches. And then Moe runs out of steam and freezes up. The moment Sakura hits her once, it all falls apart from there.
* VictoryIsBoring: How Elena feels about being Sweet Diva's center vocalist. She feels she did not really succeed as Sakura left their group to become a pro wrestler.
* TheVoiceless: The mysterious Blue Panther doesn't speak until she challenges Sakura to a match.
* WhiteHairBlackHeart: Averted with Rio. While she's not blackhearted, she's seriously aggressive in wrestling.
* TheWorfEffect: This happens to Rio a couple of times. First, Moe knocks her out with one kick to show her karate strength, and then before her tiebreaker match with Sakura, Blue Panther interrupts, ambushes, and knocks her out with a sleeper hold.
* WorldOfActionGirls: As a women's wrestling promotion, Berserk is naturally this.
* WorldOfBuxom: Due to the premise, this series has a lot of fanservice.
* XPacHeat: [[invoked]] During Sakura's 50 match losing streak, fans have grown ''sick'' of her always giving up once she is put in the Boston Crab. She eventually manages to get rid of it once she becomes a {{Determinator}}.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Sakura has always won the position of center vocalist in Sweet Diva, with Elena always finishing a close second. Now that Sakura has become a pro wrestler, Elena now became Sweet Diva's center vocalist.

* DefeatEqualsFriendship: [[spoiler:When Sakura finally defeats Elena - and both Jackal and Juri opine that they balance both their idol and pro-wrestling careera - the latter admits to them and everyne present that the only reason why she wanted to become a pro wrestler was to have Sakura come back to Sweet Diva by any means necessary. After realizing that she too enjoys being a pro wrestler, Elena makes amends with Sakura.]]

* DefeatEqualsFriendship: [[spoiler:When Sakura finally defeats Elena - and both Jackal and Juri opine that they balance both their idol and pro-wrestling carrer - the latter admits to them and everyne present that the only reason why she wanted to become a pro wrestler was to have Sakura come back to Sweet Diva by any means necessary. After realizing that she too enjoys being a pro wrestler, Elena makes amends with Sakura.]]

* DefeatEqualsFriendship: [[spoiler:When Sakura finally defeats Elena - and both Jackal opines that they balance both their idol and pro-wrestling carrer - the latter admits to them and everyne present that the only reason why she wanted to become a pro wrestler was to have Sakura come back to Sweet Diva by any means necessary. After realizing that she too enjoys being a pro wrestler, Elena makes amends with Sakura.]]

* AbsoluteCleavage: Sakura's wrestling outfit.

* DefeatEqualsFriendship: [[spoiler:When Sakura finally defeats Elena, the latter admits that the only reason why she wanted to become a pro wrestler was to have Sakura come back to Sweet Diva by any means necessary. After realizing that she too enjoys being a pro wrestler, Elena makes amends with Sakura.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: After a very grueling match, [[spoiler:both Sakura and Elena get what they wanted without having to sacrifice any of their dreams.]]
* EasilyDistractedReferee: In episode 11, the referee just stands there gawking until Sakura reminds her that she's supposed to count the pinfall. The commentator even says that if the ref started counting immediately, the match most likely would have been over.

* TakeAThirdOption: [[spoiler: After defeating Blue Panther, who's revealed to be Elena, in a retirement match, Elena still tries to get Sakura to come back to Sweet Diva. Then the rest of the group and a horde of Sweet Diva fans call out to Sakura to rejoin the group. Sakura is torn as she truly wants to become the strongest in the world, but she still loves the idol life and can't abandon her old friends and fans. Jackal breaks the impasse by offering both Sakura and Elena a place in Shangri-La so they can be idols and wrestlers.]]

** [[spoiler: Elena. In the first episode, she gets her ass handed to her by Rio. When she faces Sakura in the final episodes, however, she is shown to be a very capable wrestler.]]

** Moe is not only is she naive when she starts out but also arrogant due to being the World Karate Champion. She finds out ''literally'' the hard way that wrestling is ''nothing'' like karate when Sakura and the girls show her the ropes during her training.

* BigNO: Subverted. While Sakura does say this a lot, this isn't because something awful has happened, but [[{{Determinator}} because she won't give up]].

* AchillesHeel: The Boston Crab is Sakura's ''biggest weakness''. So much so that it causes her to give up in her first 50 matches.

* RealityEnsues: Sakura thinks that after training for a month, she's got a chance against Kazama, who's been a pro wrestler for years. Kazama easily and humiliatingly beats her.

* DefeatEqualsFriendship: [[spoiler: When Sakura finally defeats Elena, the latter admits that the only reason why she wanted to become a pro wrestler was to have Sakura come back to Sweet Diva by any means necessary. After realizing that she too enjoys being a pro wrestler, Elena makes amends with Sakura.]]

* MsFanservice: Almost all the girls. Especially Rio and Hornet.

* {{Stripperiffic}}: It's a female pro wrestling anime.

* RedHerring: Blue Panther's identity. After spending her time as TheVoiceless, Jackal pays a visit to the Miyabi stable, where TheAce there, Juri Sanada, openly reveals herself as Blue Panther and it looks like she's aiming for Sakura. So Juri is Blue Panther, right? [[spoiler:Not exactly. While Elena reveals to Sakura that she was Blue Panther all along, Juri admits that she the one who sabotaged the matches, which was why everybody was convinced that she was Blue Panther.]]

* RedHerring: Blue Panther's identity. After spending her time as TheVoiceless, Jackal pays a visit to the Miyabi stable, where TheAce there, Juri Sanada, openly reveals herself as Blue Panther and it looks like she's aiming for Sakura. So Juri is Blue Panther, right? [[spoiler:Not really. While Elena reveals to Sakura that she was Blue Panther all along, Juri admits that she the one who sabotaged the matches, which was why everybody was convinced that she was Blue Panther.]]

** The "Hell of 100 Throws" Sakura had to get through before she was judged ready to debut was part of Wrestling/AllJapanWomensProWrestling's training regiment, except that the AJW trainees had to do it ''every day''.

* {{Heel}}: [[MalevolentMaskedMan Mostly if you wear a mask]] or have face paint on. Another way to spot one is if you use your assistant to disrupt matches in your favor, or use tools to enhance your move. This is subverted for Rio, who wears a mask during her intro, but then tosses it away for the match and mostly uses face-style wrestling. However, she's very aggressive and prone to [[TrashTalk trash talking]].

* RedHerring: Blue Panther's identity. After spending her time as TheVoiceless, Jackal pays a visit to the Miyabi stable, where TheAce there, Juri Sanada, openly reveals herself as the Blue Panther and it looks like she's aiming for Sakura. So Juri is Blue Panther, right? [[spoiler:Not really. While Elena reveals to Sakura that she was Blue Panther all along, Juri admits that she the one who sabotaged the matches, which was why everybody was convinced that she was Blue Panther.]]

** The "Hell of 100 Throws" Sakura had to get through before she was judged ready to debut was part of AllJapanWomensProWrestling's training regimen... except that the AJW trainees had to do it ''every day''.

''Wanna be the Strongest in the World!'' (''Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai!'') is a Japanese manga series by ESE and Kiyohito Natsuki. It was adapted into an anime series in [[Fall2013Anime October 2013]].

* KickTheDog: Rio's "Shame Hold" on Sakura, done solely for the sake of humiliating her. In the manga, even her manager said it was "a bit too much."

* RetiredBadass: Reporter Kanae Fujishita is implied to be this, as Jackal referred to herself, Kanae, and Misaki as "The Golden Age Girls".

* RetiredBadass: Wrestling journalist Kanae Fujishita is implied to be this, as Jackal referred to herself, Kanae, and Misaki as "The Golden Age Girls".

* GratuitousEnglish: Jackal does this ''a lot''.

* TakeAThirdOption: [[spoiler: After defeating Blue Panther, who's revealed to be Elena, in a retirement match, Elena still tries to get Sakura to come back to Sweet Diva. Then the rest of the group and a horde of Diva fans call out to Sakura to rejoin the group. Sakura is torn as she truly wants to become the strongest in the world, but she still loves the idol life and can't abandon her old friends and fans. Jackal breaks the impasse by offering both Sakura and Elena a place in Shangri-La so they can be idols and wrestlers.]]

* SheFu: Sakura Special is basically a flip kick with the feet hitting the opponents jaws one shortly after the other. It's a modified version of the "Ice Cream Somersault" that Sakura did with Elena when she was still an idol.

* TheVoiceless: The mysterious Blue Panther doesn't speak. Until TheReveal of her true identity.

* UnderdogsNeverLose: Adverted. Sakura is a NaiveNewcomer to the pro wrestling world and being inexperienced, she lost 50 matches straight due to her lack of ability to endure pain, and 15 more later despite being able to endure pain because of the lack of a FinishingMove before she gets her first win.