For the uninitiated, Hajime no Ippo is a long running Sports Manga centered on the young lad pictured above. His name is Makunochi Ippo and he aims to be the very best like no one ever was. At least as a featherweight. The story starts from Ippo's first exposure all the way until the present day, where Ippo is competing on a world stage.
Now I expect this thread to not have the most attention since despite my saying Ippo is a great manga, most wouldn't read it. At time of writing it has 300+ more chapters than One Piece. It's been going on since the 80's. It's in it for the long haul and frankly if One Piece finished before it I would not be surprised.
Ippo is a very fun manga, with lots of funny humor, great action(I can still recall fights from over a thousand chapters ago for point of reference), and a lot of heart felt moments in there. Has it's flaws but for what it is worth I enjoy it more than any of the Big Three.
So if it looks interesting and the length doesn't put you off then Ippo is worth a look.
It's easily one of my favorites, I can't get enough of this show and the anime adaptions are sick! Like usually when I find a series, after reading a fight in the manga I'm hard pressed to want to see it in an anime form but with Hajime No Ippo that's never the case. It's actually something I read/watch not only for enjoyment but if I also want to get pumped up to workout or do some cardio.
This series is truly amazing, I'll always reccomend it. I remember my first introduction to it was buying the first PS2 game back in the day at an old used games store, I thought it looked sick and was always a sucker for Anime styled games, this evolved into a love to this day that still holds strong haha.
Btw, when I was interested in it, I felt the early stuff didn't look interesting enough, art-wise, plus it'd obviously be some time before it got to the big fights. So I read it.... backwards. I started at some time before the latest fight, read the fight and immediate fallout, then jumped backwards to the previous fight, and repeated ^^ So my first fight was Miyata vs Randy Boy, iirc, and I ate the whole series before that point that way, and read everything after the normal way.
Old art can be distracting, especially with teh coaches big ol' lips, but it never bothered me too much. But then again I liked Devilman, which is old as hell.
Reading backwards huh? I can't do that much. But the art was certainly better at Miyata vs Randy as opposed to earlier fights like Ippo vs Oda(which I don't remember at all).
So where do you think the plot will go after this? I think I've got a pretty decent hold on where it'll likely go.
Knew about this series through the anime. Amazed it has reach 1000+ chapters.
I was lied too that Takamura was defeated, in these 4 released chapters. However, Ippo overdue winning streak has finally stopped, which is good, because the formula of him winning nonstop was boring.
I was misinformed that Takamura lost his match. However, Ippo finally lost a match, which is good, because I was getting tired of him winning through the same methods.
So now the winner of this match, will face the world champion? Ippo lucked out IMO, he now has the change to learn from his lost and recover from his injuries.
It's something I got used to. There were some series I had that I wanted to re-read, but just the latter volumes, then after reading those I'd want more, and...
Anyway, I've built up ability to read stories in various orders.
Ippo's going to have to take a different tract to getting good enough world ranking to fight Ricardo.
Maybe a big training arc, he may need a new technique.
I'm mostly glad Ippo lost because this puts him and Itagaki in an interesting position. I have a feeling Itagaki might leave the gym if only because his career as a featherweight will always be second to Ippo's as long as he stays there.
My guess is he'll go with Eiji and sooner or later they'll have their fight. Though I'd also like to see Miyata vs Itagaki.
This also gives more time for the author to focus on Takamura's rise through 6 weight classes.
Not sure if Ippo will get to fight this guy again. Didn't get a match with Date after all. I'm hoping for Miyata to fight him personally. Then Miyata fights Ricardo or Ippo, loses, and then our hero takes on the champ. Sendo's in there somewhere I'm sure. He can beat up Woli. Would be hilarious.