I’ve been reading Hajime no Ippo for over 12 years now. The manga itself is ongoing for 32 years, has over 1300 chapters and and has been animated into 3 anime seasons so far. It’s a beast of a manga, but it’s a great example of a successful long running series.
Hajime no Ippo follows the life of Makunouichi Ippo, a highschooler who lives with his hardworking single mother and helps her every way he can. He’s a pushover and gets bullied at school, until one day Takamura Mamoru inspires him to try out boxing. He joins the Kamogawa Gym, starts boxing, becomes a pro, becomes the Champion. Classic sports shounen stroy.
Ippo is quite a classic shounen protagonist. He has talent, but is a very very hard worker. He’s not a genius, but very honest and timid. He’s just… very likable. Despite the fact he’s a beast in the rink and makes a living by beating the crap out of other people, he’s a surprisingly average guy. The entire cast of the Kamogawa Gym is pretty likable, with Aoki and Kimura serving as comic relieve most of the time, but they have their shinig moments of awesome, too.
What I really like in Ippo compared to, say Bleach, even though the series is so log and we’ve met so many characters along the way, the story never forgets it’s main cast. You have the core cast, which is basically Ippo and the Kamorawa Gym and then you have the frequent (semi-)important supporting cast, like Ippos girlfriend. After those, there’s the important, but not often present, supporting characters, like Miyata and Sendo who we only get to see every here and there, but they are quite important friends/foes/rivals for Ippo and the story. The rest of the cast pretty much just comes and goes. The story never loses it’s focus from it’s main cast and it’s main character.
I like that Ippo struggles and it was such a bold move to have him quit his active boxing career, but they served a legit reason. A reason that was already questioned in canon by … I think it was Itagaki? Basically, it’s been impried Kumi pushed Ippo into it to have him stop boxing, because she doesn’t like to see him boxing and getting hurt whole doing so. And she was kind of right: he was stuck in a corner with his boxing style and he was receiving too many punches, he was punched too much. However, if he really was punch drunk, was quenstioned in canon.
Also, the story had Ippo searching for “true strenght” pretty much since the very beginning. He saw that in Takamura and wanted to find out himself, what it means to be truly strong. He might have become the undefeated japanese champion and was climbing the world ranks, but he never achieved his ultimate goal. A shounen manga that just stops before the main protagonist achieves his goal doesn’t exist. It’s also very unlikely he achieves his goal through his trainer position, because he already knows people he consideres truly strong, but wanted to experience it himself. He can’t so that as a trainer, so he will have to go back into the active sport to fullfill his goal.
And ever since Ippo quit his active career and started to focus on his new role as a trainer, the teasing about him going back as a active boxer started and it’s getting worse and it’s driving me crazy. In order to achieve his goal, he will have to go back into the rink. That much is clear. He will have to go back and he will have to cross that infamous line and bring out his full potential. There had always been this “line” that Ippo hasn’t been able to cross, because he’s afraid of what he will become if he does so. The line that the real beasts like Takamura and Sendo have crossed.
The way the story is progressing it’s very clear Ippo will make a comeback and I can’t wait for it, but it could take a while longer still. He may go back after Takamuras match, but he might wait until something with Miyata or Sendo happens, for example. The thing is, he’s so damn close. Every single boxer around him, including his former trainers, they all want him to make his comeback. The timeout and the trainer perspective and done him very very good. The day he makes his comeback he’ll be stronger than ever and he’ll be prepared to enter the realm of the beasts such a Takamura. He already crossed that line once, when he punched the student in rage under that bridge.
Just thinking who his opponent for his comeback match might be, is so exciting. They could do it either way: Bring in someone new, some cannonfodder he can absolutely destroy and be done with. Or they can bring someone we already know, a strong opponent from the past and a fight of epic proportions. I think they will probably go with the cannonfodder, build the hype up over a couple of irrelevant matches to raise in the ranks and then fight the real strong dudes. I’m very concinved he will fight Sendo a thrid time and I think it will be right before he fightes the World Champ.
Sendo is very damaged right now and will take some time to heal. Even though he already has the right to challenge Martinez, I think he would go for Ippo first, when he makes a comeback, before he challenges Martinez. I mean, that would work out timewise, if Ippo enters the carnival relatively soon and Sendo definately wants to fight Ippo. I would even go so far as to say, Sendo has more desire to fight (and beat) Ippo than he has to fight the World Champion. Ippo is the only man Sendo ever lost to and I personally think the Ippo vs Sendo matches were the best in the entire manga. Their next and final clash will be nothing short of epic.
That is, however, after Ippo makes his comeback and who knows when that will be. Hopefully soon! I can’t wait.
A Glass of Manga 