DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME ComedyHajime no Ippo: New Challenger
MANGA ActionHajime no Ippo

REVIEWS

• 

  DoctorGlitch

  100/100
  DING DING DIIIIIIIIIIING

  Damn I did it, 126 episodes 1 movie and 1 ova it was long but it was good, at least it trained me for my future marathon Space Battleship Yamato

  This final season of Ippo so still animated by Madhouse and surprise for me co-produced by MAPPA, Yeah the studio now known for Dororo Dorohedoro and Jujutsu Kaisen in particular made its first steps on Ippo after as long as we have a solid animation I do not complain and it is once again the case with fights always as dynamic and impacting in the staging of the blows received and some idea of realization that are welcome as many "X- Ray" when a character tears his muscle or breaks his ribs and a slice of lice more sparing but which is used to accentuate the gag, for example when Takamura and Aoki tears the manga of Umezawa and that he runs away of shame, we move the layer of the characters as if they were simple NPC to accentuate the shame and the embarrassment of the situation, it's methods that uses a lot Kill la Kill for example and that always works for me.

  It's not the season that made me howl with laughter the 2nd one is still superior to it but the gag on the manga mentioned above or the passage with the characters who learn to fish are funny moments even more when like me we fish occasionally and we laugh at the mistakes of the characters that we made ourselves at the beginning

  Same thing scenaristically I find the season 2 always at the top in term of fight but it remains of very good invoice: I mention all the same the fight of beginning between Ippo and Shimabukuro because we forget it enough considering what there is after but it is a great fight of beginning of season.
  Because after we have my first surprise to know FINALLY we see fight of Aoki in whole, since Kimura had his hour of glory I waited that Aoki has his it was the only one of the trio not to have had it, his style of the Frog is very fun to see in more to be in front of an adversary mirror (the two are motivated by the love of their wife) and this blow of milking: this swivel of the head to make believe that something crazy is happening outside the ring and VLAN down, it reminded me the trick of Kiwi against Vegeta when he makes him believe that Freezer is behind before bombarding him with kikoha and in both cases it makes me laugh a lot.
  Second big fight of the season Ippo vs Sawamura who is the second real villain of the manga, well unlike Hawk we know his past with his father who beat him, him who killed him to save his mother and the latter who abandoned him so there is still this ambiguous side to the character where Hawk as I said it was the absolute evil but it is still that in his immediate action he manages to make you wish to be dismantled piece by piece by Ippo and we know he does not carry in his heart, And the fight that follows is what I would call "a happy mess" with Samawura who transforms the ring into an open air tent flouting all the rules of boxing and still managing to put Ippo in trouble (not helped by his overtraining) it offers a good tension in addition to the unusual side of this fight which makes the task more difficult.
  And the last major fight of course Takamura vs Eagle, Eagle is a cool opponent with a shonen motivation in the spirit (he wants to fight Takamura to see what kind of man can put Hawk in PTSD at the mere mention of his name) and it is precisely a Hawk reversed in terms of personality much more polite and friendly in order to propose an American character who is not an asshole (and we'll talk again about Americans) and not fall into the Manicheism that Ippo has always brilliantly avoided, and the fight that follows and just as mirror with Takamura vs Hawk, then it's a very long fight, even the longest of the anime, the characters make multiple openings until they have quite hot handicaps like blood in the eye (the worst thing to have in the middle of a match according to a close boxer friend) but it's much more professional where against Hawk it was an execution in public, It's so pro and shonen that when both seem to be at the end he orders to continue the match and even beaten he congratulates and encourages his opponent, no really it's an excellent mirror match.

  However it's not the end and I think the best is at the end, when comes the flashback arc about the youth of Kamogawa and Nekota and how they helped Yuki against a new American scum which is for me one of the best arc of the manga, it's beautiful, it's just beautiful as an arc in what it tells and Yuki is really a wonderful character for his only appearance, not to mention that seeing Kamogawa and Nekota's bonus is a pure pleasure for the fan in me in addition to dealing with the consequences of the second world war on the characters suffering from radiation, well you address an absolute fan of Godzilla obviously it is a theme that speaks to me in Japanese works so you had the trifecta to conclude this season in beauty.

  Oh and before I forget, best opening: Yakan Hikou is the song that I enjoyed listening to the most so I have no musical culture so it's not me who would do musical analysis but I love this song and visually it's beautiful so the 3D of the sets will not be to everyone's taste, but the transition between the different shots, the little idea like the moment between the characters in the sweat drops or just the animation of the exchange of shots absolutely crazy, in addition punaise they made Tumbling Dice come back during some scenes; ah it surprised me seeing how season 2 got rid of the compositions of season 1 but I really liked this return.

  But here comes the unbearable collective expectation of a season 4, at least it will give me some reading in the meantime, I'll check it out but since there are 3 seasons, it must cover a big part....72 volume to catch up on at the time I'm writing? ah yeah, there's enough to make 5 seasons there.

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• 

  Zedlin

  90/100
  This season of HnI was simply stellar in all facets where do I even begin?

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  - Hajime no Ippo: Rising Analysis -

  This analysis contains spoilers

  

  ---

  This season of HnI was simply stellar in all facets where do I even begin? It started off pretty slow with another Aoki championship match which was a cool mirror match not in terms of boxing style but career paths. Aoki is a non-orthodox fighter with crazy special moves like the frog punch and the double punch to name a few. Though Aoki has this wild style he takes boxing incredibly seriously and loves every aspect of it. Aoki trains hard. Imae Katsutaka, the champion Aoki is faced to take down, is different yet similar Aoki. He's what you'd call a stick in the mud, he dumped his girlfriend to devote all his time into boxing, to become stronger and become a champion. Imae looks at Aoki as a half-assed boxer who is making a mocking of the sport with his flashy moves and seemingly non-full commitment to boxing. In the fight over time Imae grows to understand Aoki more and realizes he's just as committed to the sport as himself! They're both boxers who aren't very talented, who won't go onto the world stage but have struggled tooth and nail to be where they stand proud now. Each loss Aoki learned and grew, for example the frog punch is one move that he developed strictly from a loss and as such became more powerful. In this matchup between Imae, Aoki uses a new special move cooked up specifically for this championship which was literally just him looking away from the opponent causing any foe to also look the other way meaning in theory you could get a free punch, stupid but fits the personality of Aoki to a tee. The fight becomes a slog, neither fighter willing to give up and results in a tie. Aoki showed him what a fighter with a girlfriend could do, and after the fight Imae hooks back up with the girl he pushed away. Overall a fitting conclusion to a Aoki fight, it'll be fun reading where his story continues in the manga.

  ---

  Ippo had a massive fight this season, arguably his toughest fight yet! Coming up to this bout doubt was starting to fill Ippo as challengers sprouted everywhere, people thought of Ippo as a weak champion. Although Ippo wasn't weak in terms of skill, that much is apparent, he had one glaring weakness! The Dempsey Roll is easily countered by a good counter puncher because the Dempsey Roll is dependent on repetitive weaving back and forth to gain momentum. The Dempsey Roll creates blind spots which make it challenging to commit a counter punch, if you fail the timing or hesitate even slightly Ippo will destroy you! This was all discovered when Volg made a sudden reappearance in Japan saying he wanted to make a comeback in boxing which was a really heartwarming mini arc, loved it.

  The Dempsey Roll is weak to counters but who can actually commit to snuffing it out? Well here comes challenger Ryuhei Sawamura, who's boxing style could only be described as pure unadulterated violence. Sawamura craves the feeling of bones breaking, tendons and meat ripping, blood gushing. He's more of a psychopath than a true boxer. This came from a trauma filled childhood when his stepfather abused him regularly and after his mother abandoned him. Sawamura stabbed his stepfather and ever since then has become addicted to violence, he's constantly itching to find a piece of meat to brutalize, the stronger the piece of meat, the more Sawamura can tenderize it with his cold merciless fists. The more pain he can induce towards his victims the more Sawamura can feast on. His inhumane fighting style causes him to get disqualified often but that doesn't change the fact Sawamura is supremely talented as a fighter. His cool merciless mentality gives Sawamura a big advantage against Ippo since he will not hesitate in the slightest to counter the Dempsey Roll. Miyata himself said Sawamura is even better at counter punching than himself, his punches are described as bullets always aiming to cause misery.

  The build up to the matchup between the two is beyond hype, I couldn't stop myself from binging the entire section as it was so gripping! Ippo didn't come into this fight empty handed though, he trained to evolve the Dempsey Roll past the human limit. The evolution was quite simple really but heavily taxing on the body. By suddenly stopping midway though the roll, and starting again one can change the predictable rhythm, and counter the counter. This is easily said but in practice is near suicidal for the longevity of Ippos career! The stopping of the roll sounds like a car crash, the high pitch screeching of pain as the muscles in Ippos lower body tear apart from the sudden loss of momentum, he can only do it a few times a match otherwise he could cause permanent damage. As such, the stakes of this fight are insane, Ippo said he'll stop at nothing to bring Sawamura down, no matter how many midway stop Dempsey Rolls it takes! Putting everything on the line, Ippo is in a way almost fueled by the same innate drive as Sawamura, hatred. Though Ippos is fundamentally different as he's mad at the was Sawamura fights, it goes against what Ippo stands for. They're lives are fundamentally different too. Ippo is a pure bred boxer through and through, Sawamura was built with negativity. By sitting around all you get is betrayal, he can only put faith in himself, in those blood covered fists. Ippo is the definition of tenacity putting faith in everything his coach has installed in him. Sawamura isn't motivated by something that simple, it's absolute hatred. And a man driven to those abominable lows will stop at nothing. Sawamura wants to turn Ippo into a tender piece of meat and will not hesitate.

  It was an outstanding fight stock full of passion between boxers with complete opposite career paths. In the beginning it looked fine for Ippo he was able to throw anything at him. But it was like Sawamura was luring his prey into his trap, letting the tough hard meat weaken slowly until is was perfect for slaughter. And as soon as Ippo used the Dempsey Roll Sawamura made Ippo pay with a counter like no other. Sawamura stepped back with no fear to get Ippo fully into view and sliced a counter mid roll, Ippo blacked out instantly. Coming back to it, Ippo soon realized his worst nightmare, he'd have to use the midway stop roll. The fight felt simply violent as Sawamura executed his style to feel Ippos pain via his fists, Ippo took a beating and a half. But Ippo persevered using the midway stop three times. I loved the character of Sawamura, his violence made me smile. After the fight no more challenges came in to fight Ippo, nobody thought of him as a weak champion again. I'm looking forward to seeing Ippo step into the world stage as nobody in Japan, other than Miyata, is left to be fought. The progression of Ippos fighting is world class no pun intended!

  ---

  The final big bout this season was between Takamura and David Eagle! Having conquered the Jr Middleweight division, Takamura made the bold claim of winning a multitude of other weight classes. Which with someone as talented as Takamura, who became world champion with no losses, just maybe he could! He gave up the Jr Middlewight belt and challenged David Eagle, a super-champion of the Middleweight class. David is a champion's champ, who despite being undefeated himself remains modest and unpretentious about his insane power. He takes each match very seriously, training at each moment and strategizing too. Unlike Takamura who's a media nightmare, David is hard to root against, a true good guy. Compared to Takamura's last opponent Brian Hawk, David is the total opposite! The build up and overall stakes of this fight aren't as massive feeling like with Hawk v Takamura, but still large. Takamura's fights always feel larger than life, maybe because it's on the world stage but Takamura is this monster that we're just glad to be following around! There was one scare that perhaps Takamura's right eye was screwed up as claimed by Miyata, but as the fight went on Takamura showed off something special.

  David is a orthodox fighter who uses tactics and fundamentals to win fights, Takamura's least favorite type of fighting. The bout is the hardest either have either had in their careers, David even claimed he has never been able to show his true potential in any fight until his match against Takamura. Both fighters had their left eyes cut, which gives scares that potentially the fight could end by medical leave. Eventually Takamura's right eye becomes swollen shut and with the left eye filling with blood he fights blind! Not only that but he hits everything perfectly aiming directly in David's vital spots. With absolute resolution Takamura finds the resolve to not fold and wins his second weight class! Overall I found Hawk v Takamura to be a more compelling bout, however Eagle v Takamura was very entertaining as well!

  ---

  It's a bit of a shame that this is the end of the adaptation when there's still so much left, the manga is longer than One Piece after all! Seems you'll have to seek onwards into the manga if you want your HnI fix! That's where I'll continue my journey and hopefully I'll get to see Ippo's step into the world stage and much more!

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