Hajime no Ippo (はじめの一歩 THE FIGHTING!?) is a Japanese boxing manga series written and illustrated by George Morikawa. It has been serialized by Kodansha in Weekly Shōnen Magazine since 1989, and collected in over 105 tankōbon to date. The plot follows the story of high school student Makunouchi Ippo, as he begins his career in boxing and over time obtains many titles and defeats various opponents.

A 76-episode anime adaption titled Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! was produced by Madhouse, Nippon Television and VAP, directed by Satoshi Nishimura and ran on the Nippon Television Network from October 2000 to March 2002. A TV film and an OVA were also produced. On September 15, 2008 it was announced in Weekly Shōnen Magazine that a second season of Hajime no Ippo would begin airing on January 6, 2009. The second season is called Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger and concluded on June 30, 2009. At the end of 2003, the first season of anime was licensed in North America by Geneon,[1] who released it under the name Fighting Spirit.

 

Story

Ippo Makunouchi was an extremely shy high school student who never had the time to make friends because he was always busy helping his mother run their family fishing charter business. Because he kept to himself, a group of bullies led by Umezawa got into the habit of picking on him. On one particular day, these bullies decided to give him a rather serious beating, but a middle-weight professional boxer who was passing by stopped the bullies and took the injured Ippo to the Kamogawa Gym (鴨川ボクシングジム Kamogawa Bokushingu Jimu?), owned by retired boxer Genji Kamogawa, to treat his wounds. After Ippo awoke to the sounds of boxers training, the boxer who saved him, Mamoru Takamura, tried to cheer Ippo up by letting him vent his frustrations on a sandbag. It was then that they had their first glimpse into Ippo's talent for boxing. After that incident, Ippo gave the situation a lot of thought and decided that he would like to begin a career as a professional boxer, and when he conveys this message to Mamoru Takamura, he gets verbally reprimanded due to the fact that Takamura thought Ippo was taking professional boxing too lightly. However, Takamura felt that he couldn't outright refuse Ippo, especially since his feat of punching the sandbag much harder than anybody else in the gym (except for Takamura). Therefore, he challenges Ippo to catch 10 falling leaves from a tree simultaneously after a week of training, fully convinced that Ippo would fail, Takamura jogs away as he continues his roadwork.

However, after a week of tough training, involving nightly hours, Ippo manages the technique in the nick of time. He waits for the jogging Takamura to come by his usual path, and manages to surprise Takamura by not just catching all 10 of the falling leaves, but only doing it with his left hand. This impresses Takamura greatly, and he informs that the action required to catch all 10 leaves was called a boxing jab, and Takamura invites Ippo back to the boxing gym for introductions.

When they got back to the gym, the coach, Genji Kamogawa, was not at all impressed by Makunouchi's lack of fighting spirit, and therefore, was challenged by Takamura to have a practice spar against a member of the gym. However, Kamogawa decides to give Ippo a severe challenge and tells him to spar with Miyata, a man that's also 16, the same age as Ippo. However, Miyata is known as a boxing prodigy and is one of Kamogawa gym's future hopes. Takamura gets extremely worried with this prospect, as Miyata skill is way above the 4-rounder pro boxer. As expected, Ippo loses by KO, but not until Miyata struggles dodging his punches and finally ends the match with his trump card: "The Counter" The coach Kamogawa decides that he has great fighting sense and spirit and decides to train him to eventually become the Japanese Champion with a world ranking while Miyata became the OPBF (Oriental Pacific Boxing Federation) Champion. Both are expected to hit high in the world rankings and eventually, fight each other for the World Champion's belt.

The story focuses heavily on character development, even during the matches something is learned about the fighters. Ippo and his friendly rivalry with Miyata is the main draw in the early part of the series. That later changes to Ippo's path towards the Japanese Featherweight Championship and eventually the world championship. Along the way we are given glimpses into the other side character's pasts, motivations, relationships to others and current boxing trials. A colorful cast of support characters and opponents as well as side stories concerning their path in the boxing world rounds out the series.

 

Anime

First Season

An anime television series based on the manga, called Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting!, aired on Nippon Television between October 3, 2000, and March 26 2002.

 

Second Season

The continuation of the series - called Hajime No Ippo: New Challenger (はじめの一歩 New Challenger) - started on January 6, 2009, on Nippon Television[2] and ended on June 30, 2009.

 

Third Season

Rikiya Koyama, the voice actor of the Mamoru Takamura character in the Hajime no Ippo boxing anime franchise, revealed in his blog in 2009 that a sequel to the Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger television series is being planned. Koyama was posting about the end of dialogue recording for the series, since the cast just finished work on the 26th and final episode. (The final episode, "New Challenger," aired in Japan on June 30.) At the end of his Friday blog entry, he wrote, "Of course, a sequel is also being planned!!"

On July 19, 2013, it was reported in the 34th issue of Kondasha's Weekly Shounen Magazine magazine that a third season of Hajime no Ippo will air in the Fall 2013 season.

The Third Season, titled Hajime no Ippo: Rising, premiered October 6th, 2013. It will feature 25 new episodes.

 

Music

The music for the first anime series was composed by Tsuneo Imahori, who also did the third opening theme song. Various tracks of guitars, drums, piano, horns, and combinations of the instruments were used to help accentuate the mood and action of the scenes. The soundtrack was released in Japan on two CDs, "First KO" & "Final Round". The music for the second series was composed by Yoshihisa Hirano. In the third series, both Yoshihisa Hirano and Tsuneo Imahori are credited for the music.

 

Anime Theme Songs

 

Opening Theme Songs "Under Star" by Shocking Lemon (Episodes 1 - 25) "Inner Light" by Shocking Lemon (Episodes 26 - 52) "Tumbling Dice" by Tsuneo Imahori (Episodes 53 - 76) "Hekireki" by Last Alliance (Second Series, Episode 1 - 26)[4] "Yakan Hikou" by Wasureranneyo (Third Series, Episode 1 - )

 

Closing Theme Songs

1. "Yuuzora no Kamihikouki" by Mori Naoya (Episodes 1 - 25)

2. "360°" by Mori Naoya (Episodes 26 - 52, 75)

3. "Eternal Loop" by Saber Tiger (Episodes 53 - 74,76)

4. "8 AM" by Coldrain (Second Series, Episode 1 - 26)[4]

5. "Buchikome!!" by Shikuramen (Third Series, Episode 1 - )