![hajime no ippo manga 1203 hajime no ippo manga 1203](http://images.mangafreak.net/mangas/hajime_no_ippo/hajime_no_ippo_1111/hajime_no_ippo_1111_1.jpg)
There was a story behind how Aoki developed his look away and I thought that was funny and how it was presented in the manga and the cut-scenes from the PS2 games. Plus, in the manga, when Shimabukuro and Ippo meet at the ocean near Ippo’s home, Ippo’s mother actually seems romantically interested in Shimabukuro until he reveals he is actually 22, a year older than Ippo which brought some comedy to their relationship and adds more to how they connect as "men of the sea" with their backgrounds. Two other major issues I have was taking out how Aoki developed the look away and VERY IMPORTANT elements of Sawamura’s back story. For example, there is no build up to the Shimabukuro fight and it takes away why is he such a distinct opponent. Even though previous installments have skipped over parts from the manga (such as Aoki’s black face in season 1 omitting Hayami vs Kobashi before Ippo vs Sanada in Championship Road taking out Okita’s under card fight before Date vs Martinez in New Challenger, etc), but this takes it a whole lot more and so much important information I thought was necessary to the story and the character development were entirely taken out.
HAJIME NO IPPO MANGA 1203 SERIES
I mean, with New Challenger ending, the animators have nearly 60 volumes to catch up on as opposed to being 60 volumes ahead unlike a certain Studio Pierrot series which you can easily conclude is. For now, I would mostly like to focus my personal issues with this season as someone who actively reads the manga and is up to date with the current chapters. Naturally, a new anime installment of Hajime no Ippo did excite me. Taking place where New Challenger leaves off, the series starts from Ippo vs Shimabukuro Iwao to the conclusion of the story of Kamogawa in his youth in Post World War II Japan. No, if it could have done that, put the same care into your entire show, rather than repeated fart-jokes and fishing arcs. It actually feels like an arc from the very first Ippo series, however the show does not get points for showing that despite all the garbage they've had us sit through, it can still produce a quality arc. They are excellent, serious, story-driven episodes against a clearly powerful opponent, where it feels as if the characters are fightiing for something. One last thing of note, the final 4 episodes are entirely flashback, but they are the polar opposite of the series upto that point That is to say, not garbage. Ippo's fighting style continues to be absolutely pigeonholed into "Dempsey Roll or Die", and the fight with Miyata that we have been set up since the last series for. Doesn't even happen. On top of that, two crucial areas make no progress at all. Aoki and Kimura's fights before Takamura's fight are both entirely joke fights, from start to finish, and are more annoying than entertaining in any way. Aoki's entire arc can be cut out without a second thought. Takamura's big fight lasts a few episodes, but is hardly set up at all, and is even worse than his crap fight against Eagle in the last series.
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The bottom line is, the show is mostly unwilling to be serious anymore, and the only times it tries, it doesn't deliver a good fight. It's terrible, in more ways than I have words for.
![hajime no ippo manga 1203 hajime no ippo manga 1203](http://images.mangafreak.net/mangas/hajime_no_ippo/hajime_no_ippo_1189/hajime_no_ippo_1189_5.jpg)
They look like partially deflated, sweating balloons. Beyond the stupid jokes and unneeded distractions, two new minor characters are introduced, whose entire role seems to be to piss me off when I see their character design. A few episodes, devoted at least 50% to fishing, in your boxing show. Beyond that, the series seems to have completely lost it's ability to be serious at all, as even during fights, it cracks terrible jokes and puns, and between the fights each episode is a veritable mountain of bullshit before the next fight, such as the entire fishing arc. Because it jumps around so much, and establishes so little progress with each fight, none of them advance as fighters. The series jumps around between characters, focusing on ippo, takamura, and aoki of all people. The characters and story have taken another dive, with little to no progress being made for any character. The punch sounds have hardly any weight to them, and makes it seem like the fighters have strapped pillows to their hands, rather than gloves. It has become more obvious than the last series, and the actual sounds in the fights is terrible. The blasts of air are there, as are all the dramatic lighting and blasts of pressure by the punches. The visuals are sharp as ever with the Ippo series, and don't disappoint, unlike everything else. Whereas there were good parts to New Challenger, Rising seems rotten to the core, and I have a hard time finding anything to praise it for. This series didn't have as much to live up to as New Challenger did, but somehow manages to fall even flatter than that one.