Running time: 24 minutes
Number of episodes: 76
Vintage: 2000-10-03 to 2002-03-27
Age rating: Teenagers (May contain bloody violence, bad language, nudity)
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Shounen, Sports
Animation: Madhouse Studios
Broadcaster: NTV
Production: VAP
Source: Anime News Network
The Good: Many exciting fights early on.
The Bad: The same formula with little variation gets old very fast.
Status: Dropped
My impressions and review:
Hajime no Ippo is a good formula that mixes a lot of what makes shounen anime great but at the end of the day it is still a lesser anime amidst the rest. It has light comedy that can be effective in the few occasions it is used, light drama that doesn’t get in the way too much, and focuses mostly on its core element which is the sport of boxing.
The story is very simple which is actually one of its strong points. It starts when one day Makunouchi Ippo is being bullied by some guys from his school. Unfortunately for Ippo he’s a wimp and doesn’t budge a finger although he’s very strong. He built up his strength by helping his mother at work by lifting heavy fishing supplies onto boats. Out of the blue comes Takamura Mamoru, the heavy-weight ace of the Kamogawa Boxing Gym and saves Ippo from further ass whipping. Ippo is amazed by his strength and finesse at fighting and starts following him around. Takamura eventually challenges Ippo to a test and whether or not he passes it he would personally train him to be a boxer just like him. As you would expect, Ippo works hard and in one week he shows what he’s got and becomes part of the Kamogawa Boxing Gym. Things get heated when Ippo confronts a rival in his weight class and he soon finds himself immersed in the world of professional boxing. Through hardships and despair, Ippo and his friends battle in the ring for supremacy in Japan.
Unfortunately, boxing isn’t all that complex and even after the anime treatment, it still becomes a mental battle rather than a physical one. By the first thirty episodes you will have seen just about everything there is to see and the rest becomes out-of-the-ring drama. This means most if not all fights are predictable and the small additions of powerful moves do little to change the variety of the show. They’re humanly impossible and may look cool at times, but they’re never the reason why X or Y character wins. Thankfully, the filler content that complements the boxing isn’t entirely non-related or inessential so it won’t put you to sleep. You will likely will not care about the issues that the characters have when they’re not boxing, but it’s there for good reason whether it’s further character development or just a few laughs.
I skipped over a lot of the episodes and watched the last three, and to my surprise I nailed it and got to a very nice end fight. I won’t spoil the end, but it made sense when I saw it even though I skipped roughly 30 episodes. The bits and pieces I missed were retold in flashbacks and “spotlights of determination” so I actually got a good chunk of story to digest too. The end of the anime isn’t epic in any way, and although I wasn’t expecting it to be, it’s always a let down. I prefer a good first impression to be accompanied with a long lasting scene at the end of any good anime, regardless of its genre or intent.
Putting my complaints aside, Hajime no Ippo still remains a very good boxing anime. Very few shounen sports anime can keep up the pace and deliver something enjoyable with this amount of episodes. The formula can get old quick, but if you like it there’s plenty of it. However, it doesn’t have the wings to transcend into territory that would make it a meaningful anime down the road. If you’re into boxing and anime, this could be a very good mix of the two you might get a kick out of. For the rest of us its fighting appeal will wear out thin quickly and leave us stranded in boredom till the very lackluster end.
I have to disagree with your take on this show. I don’t remember it being the painfully formulaic shounen series that you describe. Yes, it does have the basic elements of its genre, which makes it rather predictable to see the outcome of plot lines. And maybe the animated action suffers from the limitations of being boxing in a ring. But Hajime no Ippo makes up for all of this by being really authentic about its source material. The relationships between the fighters in the gym are executed very realistically, so that it doesn’t seem forced when they add humor to the show. And the mental battle between Makunouchi and his opponents is intensely engaging, because the sense is of two real fighters, filled with determination and the spirit to topple the other, not of pointless level-gaining or some other contrived plot device. It’s hard to say what gives a series a meaningful or epic quality. But in my book, this is one of the few examples of a shounen series exceeding its mould to give us a heartfelt example of the winding journey of human ambition.
are you crazy? I love this anime, this is my favorite anime ever.
the characters are amazing (Takamura is one of the best i’ve ever seen in an anime), the storylines is good, the fighting scenes are great….boring is the last thing that this anime is
this beats eva for me & everthing else i’ve seen
Claudio, maybe you’re crazy for having such a weak argument?
Like I said many times, Hajime no Ippo is good enough to watch and swallow the bits that are exciting, but it’s too long and repetitive to consider it the greatest anime of all time.
Ridiculous. To give such poor treatment to one of the greatest animes I’ve ever watched. You sir, are a fool. You should know that what really makes this show tick is the magic of its characters, not its formula. Clearly you jumped into this series with a bias against boxing or true enough, any shounen anime you deem formulaic. Why don’t you actually spend the time to watch the show instead of trying to rush through it (30 episodes only? Says enough about you really) without the bias running at the back of your mind?
Honestly, this is one poor review and I doubt anyone agrees with it. You’d honestly have to have a heart of ice not to love Ippo and the rest of the cast. What you have here is a rare masterpiece of anime that shows you don’t need an outrageous or mind-blowing plot to succeed. I see you’ve taken a liking to Bleach. I felt I wasted my time after more than 100+ episodes of it when I realised nothing in the series was consistent. Naruto’s no A rank material either. It’s an anime I regularly watch but the manga’s where it’s at.
Anyways that’s all I have to say. Whether you take it to heart’s another thing.
PS. I should add it’s because of people with attitudes like yours that this gem isn’t taken seriously.
Hajime no Ippo…is one of the best manga/anime I have watched/read
The Characters are deep and engaging…Ippo is one of my favorite leads ever…period…the side characters are well rounded off too…
most of all it is an inspirational anime..the music…story and characters come together to make something truly special…..
This Anime is the one of the best i have ever watched the characters and storyline are fantastic. In my opinion they could have made so many more episodes and it would still be great.
p.s BOXIN RULEZ it’s the greatest sport ever invented
I definitely agree with what Ken said–your apathetic intellectual framework of critiquing this anime is altogether subjective…albeit, a presupposed, judgmental, “I-like-to-sound-like-a-smart-anime-reviewer,” take on Hajime no Ippo.
Before even engaging in the fine art of critiquing, you have to be as objective as possible:
- Know the background of the artist – don’t just ritualistically post the usual “number of eps, running time,” etc. How utterly rude and unprofessional can you get? It is injustice enough to give a subjective account of the anime, but TO FORGET TO MENTION THE ARTIST? Who in their right mind would critique ANYTHING without adding the artist into the mix of things? I mean, seriously… Reading the review from start to end, I found it to be so lackluster and monotonously negative. For your information–Jyoji Morikawa.
- Regardless of what you think, understand what truly makes that anime tick (not what YOU want to see from it… what you did was hardly constructive criticism; for a manga to be adapted into an animation, it only meant one thing: it has already developed good number of loyal audience)
- Analyze the character development and plot progression FULLY, regardless of your preconceived notions and aesthetic preferences (you, being an impatient and highly subjective individual, SKIPPED HALF of the anime… If you were a professional critic, you would have been fired by the Donald Trump of critics by now). The gauntlet was already thrown down the moment you mentioned that you consciously reviewed the anime negatively without watching the whole anime. That alone is already reason enough to consider your review arbitrary and pointless.
- Take into consideration the artwork: wow, a review without any information with regards to the artwork and animation. Hello, anime isn’t called Japanese animation just for its plot, twists and characters. Seeing how you just spent four paragraphs rambling on the same negative comment which could have been summed up into one or two sentences goes to show how you are basically monologuing about your distaste for anime you consider too simple for your taste… talk about the notion of elitism even in the anime world.
- Never make vague statements or statements that make you sound like the epitome of an non-credible reviewer:
Paragraph 3, sentence 1 – “Unfortunately, boxing isn’t all that complex and even after the anime treatment, it still becomes a mental battle rather than a physical one.” – Elaborate and explain further; sweeping statements as this really makes you sound like a junior high student more than anything else.
Paragraph 4, sentence 1 – “I skipped over a lot of the episodes and watched the last three…” – Like any scholar in the academe would say, how can you objectively and rightfully review something without looking at the whole picture or context? Regardless if your assumption that the formula of the anime is repetitive is right or wrong, why would you skip half of the anime? No matter what reason or excuse you have, you took the liberty to review the anime. Take the liberty to do it justice by watching it fully. Anything else outside that action is just what a plebeian would do.
Paragraph 5, sentence 2 – “Very few shounen sports anime can keep up the pace and deliver something enjoyable with this amount of episodes.” – Really now? Then why did you not enumerate any other anime of the same genre to further your argument. You have no basis of comparison.
Paragraph 5, sentence 5 – “For the rest of us its fighting appeal will wear out thin quickly and leave us stranded in boredom till the very lackluster end.” – A reviewer never speaks for another. Your whole paper has been about your personal preferences and then in your concluding sentence you speak for “other” people? What a weak rhetorical formula, brother. You should have also given weight to telling us who these “rest of us” are. Simply put, you are implying and putting a label onto the people who like Hajime no Ippo that they are simple-minded and belong to a minority culture in the anime world.
You may know your english language, Sir, but the substance of your review is a highly subjective one and is not at all constructive in giving a decent and credible review for Hajime no Ippo. With all the holes in your review that show your distasteful emotions towards the anime at hand and give less and less credibility into what you wrote, people who stumble onto your review in the internet (as I did) would be shell-shocked to see just how poorly you have a reviewed this anime.
Now that I’ve seen how gutsy you are in posing and acting as a critic, you’ve piqued my interest in your writings and I will indulge myself in reading your other reviews just to see how brilliant you see yourself (it is apparent in your writing, and it exudes in every sentence that you write), yet how ignorant you actually are of how things should actually be done and how shallow your review actually is.
too bad hajime no ippo just got renewed and we’ll be getting a new season in 2009, right? LMAO!