Hajime no Ippo

Ippo vs Karasawa: it's nice to see the usual dynamic flipped and have Ippo's opponent be the underdog.

Partly because, after 6 title defenses, an easy win (comparatively) is necessary to showcase how far he's gotten, but also because it's fun seeing how scary the guy can he.

But who cares about that, because ITAGAKI WON, DAMN IT! I'm so hype over this one, after both Kimura's and Aoki's unfortunate defeats, it's nice to see a member of the cheerleading squad get a W.

And at Aoki nover getting any respect even in flashbacks.

But who cares about that, because this arc saw the long-awaited conclusion of the conflict between Takamura and Broccoman, with the former pulling a political maneuver worthy of a House of Cards episode!

A 5D chess match the likes of which this world has never seen before!

I really love the moment where Itagaki thinks about him being an "elite" and he comes home to his shack of a house with his poor, goofy family. It's a really nice moment that reverses the narrative that's been set up by that point, reminding us that Itagaki has talent, but he definitely doesn't come from means.

Oh, right, about that: one minute of silence to the poor scanlators who had to translate the Itagakis pun-ridden dialogue.

Puns are the worst thing to translate and the best thing to see get translated, because there are so many different possible approaches. Especially if they have visual aids, then the translators are just screwed.

So Ippo's next opponent is another """""old man"""""

Whenever one of those shows up, I just mentally add 10 years to their official age, anyone else does that too?

Well it's old by boxing standards.

It's way less ridiculous in Take's case because it's clear by his record that his career never really took off, but I still remember how the story treated 29-years-old Date as a fossil, even though a) successful boxers retire somewhere around mid- to late-30s^note On average, from what I've looked up. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong., meaning he should have somewhere between half to a full decade in him, and b) he spent a significant amount of that time chilling out in an office job, and I don't remember the story stating he suffered any significant, long-term injuries from his last fight against Ricardo.

Not physical ones, anyway.

It's true that boxing is a career with a short shelf-life, but it still feels like a lot of it is simply Morikawa playing the usual "anyone over 25 might as well be at retirement age" trope that manga aimed at younger audiences like so much.

Edited by OrangeBun on Feb 13th 2022 at 12:06:10 PM

Only Takamura made fun of Date for being Old. To which Date rightfully pointed out he was only 29. Takamura is currently the same age Date was.

Also Date nearly died from his final fight against Ricardo cause of his refusal to go down. While he may have been able to fight again after a long recovery period, he knew he would never be able to fight Ricardo again so that's why he retired.

Edited by Envyus on Feb 13th 2022 at 10:11:16 AM

Spoilers for later in the manga I think Morikawa is setting Ippo up to follow in Date's footsteps. Date retired in 1988 in a fight with Ricardo at the age of 24, then returned to boxing in 1991 at the age of 27 and rematched Ricardo in June 1994, a week before his 30th birthday in July. Ippo retired in 1999 in a fight with Alfredo at the age of 25, it's currently early 2000 and Ippo will turn 27 in November of this year, the same age Date was when he returned to boxing. I think Morikawa is setting up Ippo to return at the same age Date did, after two years retired.

I don't get the scanlator saying the Take fight "sucks", it's not Ippo's best fight, but I thought it was really fun!

And the conclusion with his son saying he wants to become a boxer was quite touching.

I swear this is the third time a Korean boxer has been treated as cannon fodder, it's becoming a bit of a pattern.

The pages with Miyata freaking out and wailing on the guy were pretty cool, though, I think I kept rereading that part for like 15 minutes straight.

And next up is Mashiba vs Sawamura! Now Gaon got me really hyped up for this one, let's see if it lives up.

It's a good fight. I think if the anime were to come back, it would work really well as the season finale to season 4.

Aw yisss. Mahiba vs Sawamura is my favorite fight of the whole manga.

Well...that was dark. And the ending was...unsettling, to say the least.

But in a way, this is the only way a fight between two of the worst people in the story could end: Mashiba gets karmic blowback for trying to go back to his old ways, and Sawamura pretty much tries to commit suicide over getting the belt but losing the fight. (That's how interpreted that, at least)

Bit of a whiplash going from that straight to a baseball game arc, gotta say.

Which is why I think Mashiba vs Sawamura would work really well as a season finale, with the baseball game as the start of a new season. That way, the insane whiplash isn't nearly as bad.

Okay, I know what they're trying to do with Shinoda here, but...is Shinoda wrong?

I keep seeing people arguing the seconds in HNI are actually pretty useless, and it seem to be the consensus that Shinoda is a horrible trainer on top of that.

So, really, would it be that much of a loss for the Kamogawa Gym if he left?

I think the level of the gym is just super high, and coach Kamogawa a top-tier trainer and second in the entire world. So it feels like Shinoda is a failure (and the man himself fears being one), while he's probably a very high-tier trainer. Kinda like Aoki and Kimura themselves, when compared to Ippo and Takamura.

Chapter 1371: Garcia continues countering Mashiba's Flicker Jabs, and Miyata's taking notes. Mashiba's internally begging for an answer, then Ippo just yells that he can do it, and Mashiba internally curses him out for being infuriating and unhelpful. At the end, Mashiba remembers some advice and slips a punch underneath Garcia's guard for a body blow, which was set up earlier in the chapter when Garcia noted that they're too far apart for body blows to connect.

The current running theory is that Mashiba is remembering Ippo's advice from back in chapter 1352, where Ippo mentioned that Garcia's one weakness might be holding his guard too high up and getting pummeled by body blows.

Something Mashona can actually take advantage of thanks to his superior reach.

Hey, remember when I said this:

Turns out I was wrong! Since the series recently got a full digital release in Japanese, it's a lot easier to access it, and the current translator is going back to redo the whole series! They're only at volume 2 right now, so it'll probably take a WHILE, but it's worth it for a clean translation of everything.

Great, whenever I get around to re-reading it.

How far are you right now? While I was reading the series, I decided to divide up the sections into potential future seasons of the anime, and here's the breakdown for Season 4:

Season 4: Covers 141 chapters in 36 episodes, ending at chapter 700. Starts with Itagaki vs Makino (which has Itagaki sparring with Mashiba), Ippo vs Karasawa, Itagaki vs Imai, Ippo vs Take Keichi, Miyata vs Che Jounbong, Aoki and Kimura vs Eleki and Papaya (rematch), and ends with Mashiba vs Sawamura.

I took a pause after the baseball arc.

30 volumes is about the limit of how much I can read one series straight before I need a break.

That's totally fair. I think I binged the series slower than that.

Recent manga talk: I just had a thought. Ricardo Martinez was recently lamenting that none of his opponent's fists can give him life. Something people have said multiple times about Ippo is that his fists give you life, they drive you to spring back and improve. Ricardo has since taken an interest in Ippo because he keeps hearing about him in the context of "this super-strong guy lost to him one time". Volg is opening for Ricardo, maybe Martinez will hear that Volg also lost to Ippo, and he'll wonder if Ippo's fists will be the ones to give him life.

Thus, that will be one of the big final battles of the series: Ricardo is about to fight Ippo, and he's considering retirement if he wins and it's boring yet again. Instead, Ippo gives him the fight of his life, and whether Ricardo wins or loses, Ippo's fists revitalize his love for boxing and he chooses not to retire.

Chapter 1372: Yep, it was Ippo's advice from earlier about body blows. Mashiba pummels his body, and when Garcia blocks and back-dashes, Mashiba stretches a flicker all the way into his face. Mashiba hits Garcia from center-ring with a barrage of Flickers and Garcia panics, looking for a safe place in the ring to recuperate. He dashes into Mashiba's side, only to get slammed with the invisible uppercut again. Mashiba sets up his old classic Sunday Punch, the chopping right... AND GARCIA COUNTERS IT. Mashiba's head snaps back and his mouthguard shoots up out of his mouth.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Feb 22nd 2022 at 7:03:48 AM