Nov 25, 2014
Ever thought of reading a good sports manga which combines quality and quantity? You need something to feel and dive into? Then Hajime no Ippo is the best manga for you.
It may be that you discovered the Ippo anime and are not sure whether to start reading the manga or not because of the huge amount of chapters (1000+). Well, it's definitely worth the time. But let's review this manga as if you had no knowledge of it.
Story:
The story begins rather simple, a boy named Makunouchi Ippo is getting bullied and to grow stronger, he starts with boxing under the very strict trainer
...
Kamogawa Genji, an old but very experienced man.
There he meets his idol and competitor Miyata Ichiro who becomes Ippo's motivation to train harder and harder.
Sounds rather simple and you might think it'd get repetitive after over 1000 chapters, but it doesn't. The story shifts from character to character in the Kamogawa Gym and even from former challengers which become part of the ongoing story.
Where the story shines is that it combines multiple genres and subplots into one huge ongoing storyline. You have extremely hilarious comedy (most times about genitals, stupidity and later puns), dead-serious boxing matches with immense tension, drama, slice of life (combined with comedy or things to think about, so no boring stuff) and some love life, most characters are adults after all. Build-up and pacing are very well handled, you don't even notice little time skips.
Everything is connected to each other so you often see friends/former challengers appearing in the story even after their fight with the main cast either for plot or comedy purposes. So it's no "enemy appears-loses-next enemy suddenly appears" pattern, it's dealt with great story telling, build-up and characterization skills. The crazy thing is that you never know who wins which is an ongoing phrase in the story ("you never know what can happen in boxing"). It's not rare in this show to cheer for the "enemy", because they're do well written.
Art:
Now, you have to consider that this manga started it's serialization in '89, so don't expect too much in the first hundred chapters.
I have to admit, when I first encountered this show, I didn't like the art at all, but that was because I was used to the generic shonen art style which doesn't need time to adapt to.
This art is really great. You have wonderful double pages of either the park with the sky where Ippo & co. are always jogging or epic boxing matches with perfectly drawn shadows and motions; even the faces of the crowd have emotions drawn into them. You can tell from this description alone that this is drawn with a lot of passion and love. Character designs and overall world building are rather retro but it is really cool and fitting. I couldn't imagine Ippo with flat screens and smartphones.
What makes "Ippo" a relaxing read is also the pattern of the panels. It stays retro by having strict panel borders, not like most new manga where you have to find out what's actually drawn there with characters out of their already screwed up panels. So the art looks simple but is drawn with lots of love for detail. Even after 25 years of serialization it never disappoints to stay fresh.
Character:
"Ippo"'s characters are so unique in their respective way. No fight is random because we get introduction and characterization of new challengers to an extent that you sympathize with their determination to win which ends in very dramatic and breath-taking matches.
Spirit is a key point in every character in "Ippo", there are fights when someone even being unconscious keeps on fighting for his goal which speaks for the character's determination.
Some early beaten characters appear later on in the story where we get to see how their boxing career unfolds which often crosses with other former introduced characters. The characters' growth is immense as you could expect from this long running sports manga.
Enjoyment:
It really never gets boring. Between the serious fights you have light-hearted, inspirational or funny moments and even detours from boxing like cooking or baseball matches - always ending in a hilarious way or benefiting to further events. Even our beloved Ippo has a really funny and cute "love" which is often held back by a certain someone or other occurrences, but always really funny and cute. You will even cheer for Ippo to be as strong minded and confident with women as he is in the boxing ring, haha. When you're into a long exciting match you will have read 30 chapters before you even noticed. The pacing slows down remarkably during fights to thoroughly explore the way the competitors are fighting which really is necessary and a good point.
You get to learn a lot about real life boxing when some real boxing strategies or punches are being introduced which is also a huge plus. It never ceases to amaze me how well the mangaka George Morikawa combines boxing punches or strategies with each character's personality.
Overall this manga is recommendable for everyone open to read a longer project and not searching for one-shots to add to their finished manga list. You don't even need to like boxing or sports, this manga is so thrilling, inspirational and funny. Most people I know who saw the anime (yes, they're too lazy to read the manga, but I'm working on that) got the extreme urge to work out or start jogging because this manga portrays how hard work pays off over and over again.
Don't feel scared because of the huge number of chapters, see it as a blessing that you don't have to wait weekly for one chapter but instead read as much as you want for the first weeks or months until you caught up. :-)
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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