The action is so absorbing that when a rib cracks, viewers are likely to feel it.SoundAn instant way to deflate the tension during a fight or cheapen the character developments is to watch the American dub. And on that front Hajime no Ippo delivers! All fights come complete with spectacular effects - rings of smoke, torrents of wind, claustrophobic closeups - to grab the senses by the scruff and haul them through a powerfully kinetic experience. Luckily, the boxing subject matter means what counts are not the looks, but the moves. In fact, with a pug-nosed, grotesquely muscular protagonist who looks like a bulldog at best, anyone can be forgiven for thinking the show is a lost cause in the style department. In the same way, those hoping to find svelte character designs in Hajime no Ippo should book an eye test as soon as possible - the bishounen checked out long ago. By the end, food and sleep had become peripheral concerns - to sustain myself all I needed was to tap into the show's incredible energy.AnimationAnyone visiting a boxing gym in the hopes of meeting attractive, charming young gentlemen is laughably deluded.

Between the hilariously inane penis jokes and the heart-rending personal struggles, the show brings an endearing warmth to what is usually seen as the sport of humourless brutes.įew anime could rival this series in the shounen ring - the Kyoto arc of Rurouni Kenshin, probably the first half of Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, maybe but certainly none of the other sports anime on the market to date. Whenever I thought the show had exhausted its store of excitement in one episode, it delivered new unscaled heights of the stuff in the next.Īside from that, Hajime no Ippo shows that even neanderthals know how to laugh and cry through healthy doses of comedy and character development. That Ippo has to win his battles despite his great weaknesses is no spoiler nonetheless the developments during the fights - their sheer visceral power - obliterate all expectations. Simply put, it boasts a bottomless supply of twists to make every fight feel as though it were the first. However, the show outshines all lesser versions thanks to its exceptional script. Ippo discovers boxing on a school day like any other then spends numerous staged fights and training montages thereafter rising through the ranks. Bringing blow after blow of jaw-dropping twists in a narrative that feels as furious as a dog fight, it is the sports anime that challenges all others of its kind to do better.Įssentially the coming-of-age tale of a weakling maturing into the strongest rookie boxer in Japan, Hajime no Ippo doesn't deviate from the sports anime formula in any notable manner. StoryI'm lucky to be female because Hajime no Ippo exists to thrill a viewer's nuts off.

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