I was introduced to anime during COVID-19 by one of my old friends. He though suggested anime like Death Note, Tokyo Ghoul, and Tokyo Revengers but by the first episode, it was too overwhelming for me. I wanted to see a slow-paced anime. Something more relatable.
After COVID-19, I had a series of exams. And due to my lax-rex approach, I constantly failed in each of them. That was a bad phase in my career. Nothing good was happening yet the leftover things were getting derailed.
At that time I wanted to see something that should last for weeks or months and not just 2-3 hours show. I wanted to live something. And that's where I went to Reddit for suggestions and one of them suggested Hajime No Ippo!
Image source - ComicBook
Ippo was a student of higher school. He lost his father however, her mother was generous and the beacon of light for Ippo's life. He was getting bullied after his school. Though he was strong due to his work life he lacked the courage to fight the bullies back.
On one fine day when he was returning from his school, his senior ganged on him and thrashed him. Takamura, who was one of the ring-boxer saw Ippo and rushed to help him. Takamura saved him and suggested he get powerful if he wanted to avoid such events.
Takamura's saving sparked the intensity in Ippo. He wanted to be as strong as Takamura. Ippo went to meet him in his gym - KGB Boxing Gym. Where the coach Kamogawa was training a few boxing aspirers.
Looking at the gym, Ippo immediately decided to join the gym, however, Takamura stopped him and made him complete a little challenge. The challenge was to catch the falling leaves of the tree and that too 20 leaves in a go! After completing this test, he finally got the opportunity to get in ring. Ippo's first bout was with the newcomer Miyata.
Image source - Netflix
From this point onwards, Ippo continues its practice. He was guided by Takamura and at a later stagecoach Kamogawa gave personal training to Ippo. He fought multiple battles with Miyata and boxers from different continents. The best part of anime is it introduces famous techniques of different boxers and explains the technique. Notable and my favorite of such technique was the damcy roll!
Hajime No Ippo had many animated series and console games. However, it has been a decade since any anime adaptation of this manga came. It took me a few weeks to complete the first season of this series and it helped me a lot as well in terms of morale and courage to keep grinding and trust the process.
Image source - PostImg
There's a lot more to speak about this anime and manga. Some points and characters are still left to speak about and dedicating them to a separate blog will do justice to them.
Kudos to George Morikawa for bringing us such an inspiring and long-running manga. Morikawa is still producing this manga and new content drops twice or thrice a month depending on his health.
