Ippo Full Movie

[Gaby Zenz]

Howeverafter 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 surprises him by catching all 10 of the falling leaves and only doing so with his left hand. This impresses Takamura greatly, and he informs Ippo that the action required to catch all 10 leaves is called a boxing jab. 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, who is 16, the same age as Ippo. 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 four-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". 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 rankings and, eventually, fight each other for the world champion's belt.

Written and illustrated by George Morikawa, Hajime no Ippo has been published in Kodansha's shōnen manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Magazine since October 11, 1989.[2] It has run in the magazine for over 30 years,[3] and reached its 1000th chapter in December 2012.[4] It became one of the longest running manga series with over 1,400 chapters released in Japan by 2022. Kodansha has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was published on February 17, 1990.[5] As of July 17, 2024, 141 volumes have been published.[6] In June 2021, it was announced that the series would get a digital release, for the first time in 33 years of publication, starting on July 1 of the same year.[7]

Kodansha started publishing the series digitally in English on their K Manga service, with the first ten volumes (first 87 chapters) released in September 2023, with new chapters released every week.[8][9]

Hajime no Ippo has been adapted into an anime series franchise. The first 75-episode anime television series, produced by Madhouse, Nippon Television and VAP and directed by Satoshi Nishimura, aired on Nippon TV between October 4, 2000, and March 27, 2002.[10] The episodes were collected into twenty-five DVDs released by VAP from March 16, 2001 to March 21, 2003.[11][12] The last DVD includes a special episode which did not air in Japan, numbered 76.[12] A television film titled Hajime no Ippo: Champion Road aired on April 18, 2003.[13] An original video animation (OVA) titled Hajime no Ippo Mashiba vs. Kimura was released on September 5, 2003.[14]

In 2009, Rikiya Koyama, the voice actor of Mamoru Takamura, revealed on his blog that a sequel to the Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger television series was being planned. At the end of his blog entry, he wrote, "Of course, a sequel is also being planned!!".[16] In July 2013, it was reported in that year's 34th issue of Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine that a third season of Hajime no Ippo would air in 2013.[17][18] The third season, titled Hajime no Ippo: Rising, ran for 25 episodes from October 5, 2013 to March 29, 2014.[19][20] Hajime no Ippo: Rising was streamed on Crunchyroll.[21]

The music for the first anime series was composed by Tsuneo Imahori, who also did the third opening theme song. 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 and Final Round. The music for the second series was composed by Yoshihisa Hirano. In the third series, Yoshihisa Hirano and Tsuneo Imahori are credited for the music.

A total of nine video games based on the series have been released, included on the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, Wii, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation 3. Three of the games have been released in North America and in PAL territories.

Hajime no Ippo won the 15th Kodansha Manga Award in the shōnen category in 1991.[47] The series also received a Special Award at the 43rd Kodansha Manga Award, commemorating 110 years since Kodansha's founding in 2019.[48] On TV Asahi's Manga Sōsenkyo 2021 poll, in which 150,000 people voted for their top 100 manga series, Hajime no Ippo ranked 47th.[49]

By September 2008, the Hajime no Ippo manga had over 73 million copies in circulation.[50] By November 2019, it had over 96 million copies in circulation.[51] By July 2023, it had over 100 million copies in circulation.[52]

Anime Academy gave the first anime series a glowing response; all five reviewers rated it above 90%, with one referring to the series as "the cream of the crop" of the sports genre in anime, and another stating that "fighting and character development have never tangoed so well together".[53] Gia Manry of Fanboy.com listed the series as one of their "Top Ten Underrated Manga".[54] IGN listed Hajime no Ippo: Rising among the best anime series of the 2010s.[55]

At first, he started boxing to try and answer one simple question: "What does it mean to be strong?". Since that moment onwards, he has formed a rivalry with other boxers, such as Ichirō Miyata, Takeshi Sendō, Ryō Mashiba, a brotherly bond with his peers Mamoru Takamura, Masaru Aoki, Tatsuya Kimura, and a deep trust for his coach, Genji Kamogawa, whom he aims to become a renowned champion to honour the coach's teachings. After retiring from boxing, he has become a trainer, being a second for his gym mates while training Taihei Aoki and Kintarō Kaneda.

Ippo was raised by his mother, Hiroko, for the majority of his childhood because Ippo's father, Kazuo Makunouchi died early in his childhood when his boat crashed in a storm. During the time when his father was missing out in the sea, Ippo went everyday to the shore to wait for his return. He believed his father's words that upon his return he will never leave Ippo and Hiroko again. Although his father never returned, Ippo was able to satisfy himself that his father fulfilled his promise by finding the cap his father wore. After his father died, Ippo grew up assisting his mother with the family fishing boat business. During his school days, when ever something happened at school, he would come home, hiding his feelings by saying that he was okay.

After being bullied by his classmates Masahiko Umezawa, Takemura and Matsuda, Ippo was saved by novice boxer, Mamoru Takamura, who drives the trio away. An unconscious Ippo is then taken to the Kamogawa gym,, where he is nursed back to health by Takamura. Before letting Ippo go, Takamura gave him the opportunity to punch a heavyweight bag with a drawing of Umezawa's face on it. After following Takamura's instructions, Ippo successfully performed a straight on the sandbag. Ippo's power was such, that the skin on his hand is peeled after hitting the sandbag. While bandaging Ippo's hand, Takamura noticed his well-built body and encourages him to defend himself from the gang. Before leaving, Takamura gave him a video compilation of Mike Tyson's knockouts.

Inspired by the videos, Ippo decided to become a professional boxer and requested Takamura's help in doing so. Thinking it was impossible for someone like Ippo to become a professional, Takamura told him that he would only agree to train him if he caught ten leaves falling from a tree midair with his jabs within a week. With much struggle, Ippo successfully caught ten leaves on the promised day with one hand, surprising Takamura and earning his acceptance.

Believing Ippo to not be boxing material, the coach, Genji Kamogawa had him spar against prodigy out-boxer Ichirō Miyata, in order to see whether he could be accepted or not. Terrified at the idea of an actual fight, Ippo followed the advice of Takamura, who served as his second in the match. Utilising everything he had learned from Takamura, Ippo managed to get to the third round, surprising all witnesses. However, he fell into a trap and was caught by Miyata's counter. Despite losing the spar by knockout, Ippo's great determination earned him Kamogawa's respect and acceptance.

Realising Ippo's potential, Kamogawa decided to have him fight Miyata again, to see how much they can improve in three months. In order to face the counter that defeated him, Ippo learned how to perform an uppercut, and worked on a strategy to lure Miyata in. However, after a conversation with Miyata about what motivated him to fight, Ippo decided that he does not want to run away from the counter. After convincing Kamogawa, he went through intensive training in order to face the counter head-on.

Ippo faced Miyata, who, unlike before, became desperate after realising just how much Ippo had evolved in three months. With both fighters scoring multiple downs, and Ippo's strategy against the counter working as planned, they got to the fourth round. In this final round, Ippo threw his newly acquired uppercut in an attempt to end the fight, but seemingly missed. It was this uppercut that caused Miyata to go down and unable to get up, making Ippo the winner. Minoru Fujii revealed, that Ippo's uppercut, indeed landed by barely a centimetre, making Miyata lose control of his legs, despite still being conscious.

The result of the second spar, caused Miyata to leave the gym in order to be able to face Ippo as a professional in the future. Before parting ways, they each promised to make it to the East Japan Rookie King Tournament and settle the score.

3a8082e126