Hajime no Ippo

Cover of Fighting Spirit volume 1 as published by  Kodansha.


Fighting Spirit, known in Japan as The First Step (はじめの一歩, Hajime no Ippo), is a boxing manga and anime series created by Jōji "George" Morikawa which is serialized by Kodansha in Weekly Shōnen Magazine.
The manga has been running since 1989, spans 90 tankōbon. A 76-episode anime adaption, titled Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! was produced by Madhouse, the Nippon TV Network and VAP, directed by Satoshi Nishimura and ran on the Nippon TV Network from October 2000 to March 2002. One OVA and a movie were also produced. At the end of 2003 the anime was licensed in North America by Geneon. Geneon released it as Fighting Spirit. It was called Knock Out! in the Philippines.
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.

Story

Ippo Makunochi was a very 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 started his regular training and began his path in Japan's professional boxing, beginning with two spars against the talented Ichiro Miyata who is the same age as Ippo.
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.

Media

DVD

Geneon distributed the Fighting Spirit series in North America on 15 DVDs with 5 episodes per disc. The first DVD was released on July 6, 2004 and the fifteenth released on December 19, 2006. The DVDs included English and Spanish language tracks, as well as the original Japanese. The movie, Champion Road, has also been released in North America on DVD by Geneon. Unfortunately, plans for the second OVA, Kimura vs Mashiba, are not in the works. Disc sales of the series did not break even. The first DVD was the best selling at ~5,000 units with each DVD afterwards selling ~1,000 units. Many fans blame the lack of marketing and the negative appeal that a sports anime has on the mainstream audience. As Geneon USA closed its doors at the end of 2007, the US rights of the series are in question.

Video games

There have also been some video games based on the series, first released on the PlayStation, then later the PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance, and recently to Wii, as well. Two of the games have been released in North America and in PAL territories. There was some confusion regarding the Western title Victorious Boxers 2: Fighting Spirit prior to its Western release, as this is generally assumed to be the same game as Hajime no Ippo 2: Victorious Road, when actually it is the next title in the series, Hajime no Ippo - The Fighting! All Stars. The Japanese released Victorious Road is unique amongst the titles as it includes the option to create your own boxer and control his training, diet, weight etc. The second Western title, Fighting Spirit, gives the player a choice of over 70 fighters for VS play. Each title has its own story mode which closely follows that of the manga, though obviously the storytelling is not of the same quality.