Hajime no Ippo

Disclaimer: I watched the anime first, then picked up the manga where it left off. They aren't very different at all though. I fully recommend the anime as well.
This manga is an amazing feel good story about a bullied boy named Makunouchi Ippo who joins a boxing gym after being saved from a brutal beating by a strong boxer named Takamura Mamuro. The story then mostly follows Ippo and Takamura through increasingly difficult tests in their pro boxing careers.
The cast is not limited to only these two, in fact there are many other important rivals, and three other gym mates that all have expansive and very realistic motivations for what they do. In fact there are at least two fights in the story where I actually rooted AGAINST Ippo because his opponent was either way cooler, or had much more at stake.
If you like action, read Ippo
If you like realistic love storys, read Ippo
If you like amazingly fleshed out characters, Ippo is for you.
Even if you think boxing is a boring sport, i can wholeheartedly recommend you this manga, as it has a certain spark that you don't see too often these days

What can i say except that i have re-read this manga about 8 times. Due to the amount of chapters it is a great read, a lot of story and a lot of character development, at times you want them to win you want them to get up and continue, and you feel like you're there watching it live.
At the beginning like all great manga the art was good but had some flaws however over the course of the manga the art has changed slightly but enough to make it a lot better to read. It isn't one of the manga where the main character is OP from the start which is why this anime is great it slowly builds up the main character making each fight better as you just want him to win.
It is filled with comedy and it also has its serious bits, and each fight you just get more excited for whats to come.
Overall i gave this a 10 out of 10, this is because every series has its flaws even if they are slight, but this manga from my perspective was great with minor flaws, this manga is enjoyable even if you don't like boxing however at first it slowly progresses as it would realistically based on the time between fights, however this is what makes the series better as it hypes up each of the main fights for the main character and other characters in the series.

Since the author realized that he's going to make this run as long as he lives (or as long as there's interest) it has become a formulaic, and repetitive story. It basically runs like this:

-Training
-Fights
-End fight filler
-Rinse and repeat... FOREVER!

Of course there are good fights with the occasional serious Takamura title match. However, there are too many filler fights (Ippo title defense and Kamogawa gym underling matches) to keep things interesting during volume 50+. With how things are going, this manga will stretch forever.

It is likable though since I have lasted up to v60 and still going but I have found myself scanning the post and pre-fight fillers as well as the filler matches in hopes to get to the more important matches. This basically sums up how HNI is going.

Unless the author keeps things interesting, I will simply skim through the repetitive and formulaic discussions/fights and go through the important matches.

So this Manga starts off absolutely Amazing and is thoroughly incredible throughout about 900 or so chapters. EVERYTHING AFTER THAT IS ABSOLUTE TRASH PLS DON'T READ IT I AM DOING YOU THE GREATEST FAVOR. This manga is as bad if not worse than the way Fairy Tail went out towards the end and i do not make that statement lightly. Essentially what i mean by this is the whole entire last arc is the worst thing to ever grace the medium that is manga. Ippo our MC goes on a large training montage and road to redemption which is all great and dandy but after that man......after that i can't even say without raging. Its bad guys, real bad. Like so bad i feel like my best friend of 18 years stabbed me in the back and stole my wife from me (if i knew what that was like i imagine it'd be the same feeling as this). Just dont read this after around Chapter 900 or you might break your laptop in anger and disappointment as so many other people have. Specifically chapters 1199-1202. Skip those or risk my voice in the back of your head saying "I told you so". Unfortunately this is just a Manga that went through the all too classic downfall of having gone on for too many chapters and eventually lost everything that made it so great from the start. After all 1200+ chapters is quite a lot and this was almost to be expected but just the way this manga falls apart is heartbreaking.

Hajime No Ippo Dispite it Having some weak points.Its still a great Manga never the less.

Story:9
The story started out simple Ippo whats to know what it mean to be strong.While that is a pretty simple goal its self later on.Ippo goes into a deeper meaning.That the "strength" he wanted wasn't phsyical strength but something much deeper than that.

Art:9
The early chapters of Hajime the Art isn't bad but not good either.But Its Progression becomes aperent.Morikawa-san has one of the best art progression ive seen in a manga.The Climax of each fight Morikawa puts so much build up and anticipation then when the final shot comes in.Morikawa puts so much detail into one big hit and in that one punch the illustration really shows the impact and the destruction of the punch.Now going from that part.The Art also conveys so much emotions through every punch


Characters:10
Personally I like to the of Hajime No Ippos Characters as the One Piece of Sports Manga.Such a Large cast with very strong motivations and dynamics to them that they get arcs dedecated to them.Not one character is there just to box they all have there personal reasons on why they do boxing.In Most cases you might find your self rooting against the MC himself.

Enjoyment:10
This Manga can really teach you so much about boxing.Morikawa even takes the time to show you the basics.Then walk you along with some more advanced techniques.And Often teach you about real life boxers manly from their style to their careers as a boxer.I enjoyed this manga So much that im a fan of Boxing now.

Overall:
Now this isn't the perfect manga out their but if anything it has very few flaws.Honestly one of the greatest Sports manga Ive had the plesure of reading.Now the length may be a huge turn off for yall and I can understand that.So if you wanna cut down on the number of chapters you wanna read the I advise you watch the anime(it covers 558 chapters).Either way your going to see some power and impactful moments.
PS:My Favorite Quote
Coach Kamagowa
"Constant effort is life's greatest shortcut"
Thank You for Reading :)

Ever thought of reading a good sports manga which combines quality and quantity? You need something to feel and dive into? Then Hajime no Ippo is the best manga for you.
It may be that you discovered the Ippo anime and are not sure whether to start reading the manga or not because of the huge amount of chapters (1000+). Well, it's definitely worth the time. But let's review this manga as if you had no knowledge of it.
Story:
The story begins rather simple, a boy named Makunouchi Ippo is getting bullied and to grow stronger, he starts with boxing under the very strict trainer Kamogawa Genji, an old but very experienced man.
There he meets his idol and competitor Miyata Ichiro who becomes Ippo's motivation to train harder and harder.
Sounds rather simple and you might think it'd get repetitive after over 1000 chapters, but it doesn't. The story shifts from character to character in the Kamogawa Gym and even from former challengers which become part of the ongoing story.
Where the story shines is that it combines multiple genres and subplots into one huge ongoing storyline. You have extremely hilarious comedy (most times about genitals, stupidity and later puns), dead-serious boxing matches with immense tension, drama, slice of life (combined with comedy or things to think about, so no boring stuff) and some love life, most characters are adults after all. Build-up and pacing are very well handled, you don't even notice little time skips.
Everything is connected to each other so you often see friends/former challengers appearing in the story even after their fight with the main cast either for plot or comedy purposes. So it's no "enemy appears-loses-next enemy suddenly appears" pattern, it's dealt with great story telling, build-up and characterization skills. The crazy thing is that you never know who wins which is an ongoing phrase in the story ("you never know what can happen in boxing"). It's not rare in this show to cheer for the "enemy", because they're do well written.
Art:
Now, you have to consider that this manga started it's serialization in '89, so don't expect too much in the first hundred chapters.
I have to admit, when I first encountered this show, I didn't like the art at all, but that was because I was used to the generic shonen art style which doesn't need time to adapt to.
This art is really great. You have wonderful double pages of either the park with the sky where Ippo & co. are always jogging or epic boxing matches with perfectly drawn shadows and motions; even the faces of the crowd have emotions drawn into them. You can tell from this description alone that this is drawn with a lot of passion and love. Character designs and overall world building are rather retro but it is really cool and fitting. I couldn't imagine Ippo with flat screens and smartphones.
What makes "Ippo" a relaxing read is also the pattern of the panels. It stays retro by having strict panel borders, not like most new manga where you have to find out what's actually drawn there with characters out of their already screwed up panels. So the art looks simple but is drawn with lots of love for detail. Even after 25 years of serialization it never disappoints to stay fresh.
Character:
"Ippo"'s characters are so unique in their respective way. No fight is random because we get introduction and characterization of new challengers to an extent that you sympathize with their determination to win which ends in very dramatic and breath-taking matches.
Spirit is a key point in every character in "Ippo", there are fights when someone even being unconscious keeps on fighting for his goal which speaks for the character's determination.
Some early beaten characters appear later on in the story where we get to see how their boxing career unfolds which often crosses with other former introduced characters. The characters' growth is immense as you could expect from this long running sports manga.
Enjoyment:
It really never gets boring. Between the serious fights you have light-hearted, inspirational or funny moments and even detours from boxing like cooking or baseball matches - always ending in a hilarious way or benefiting to further events. Even our beloved Ippo has a really funny and cute "love" which is often held back by a certain someone or other occurrences, but always really funny and cute. You will even cheer for Ippo to be as strong minded and confident with women as he is in the boxing ring, haha. When you're into a long exciting match you will have read 30 chapters before you even noticed. The pacing slows down remarkably during fights to thoroughly explore the way the competitors are fighting which really is necessary and a good point.
You get to learn a lot about real life boxing when some real boxing strategies or punches are being introduced which is also a huge plus. It never ceases to amaze me how well the mangaka George Morikawa combines boxing punches or strategies with each character's personality.

Overall this manga is recommendable for everyone open to read a longer project and not searching for one-shots to add to their finished manga list. You don't even need to like boxing or sports, this manga is so thrilling, inspirational and funny. Most people I know who saw the anime (yes, they're too lazy to read the manga, but I'm working on that) got the extreme urge to work out or start jogging because this manga portrays how hard work pays off over and over again.
Don't feel scared because of the huge number of chapters, see it as a blessing that you don't have to wait weekly for one chapter but instead read as much as you want for the first weeks or months until you caught up. :-)

When first looking at this series the sheer length might be ta turn off, which I can understand, but if you choose to give this a shot I guarantee that you will enjoy this adrenaline packed ride. This was the series that first got me into reading sports manga. I judge the quality of a sports manga on if it can make me interested in a sport that I previously did not care about before. Hajime no Ippo does this extremely well.

The story arcs are formulaic, but it works. I equate it to watching a good Rocky movie, over and over again without it getting boring. This series has a lot of comedy and a bunch of hilarious moments as well.

The art in the beginning is a little off, but later on it becomes more polished and detailed.

If you like sports manga this is a must read, the time investment is great, but it will be well worth it.

For the part of the manga up until the anime covers, I would give a rating of nine-point something.Let's call this the good part, for the rest of the review.This series HAD some of the best character development and thrilling action with the right amount of good comedy mixed in. It was almost a masterpiece. Then the train keeps on going off track many number of times and gets really frustrating. All the logic and realism behind fights is lost and we lose on the action prospect of the manga. There is no sense of progression in the MC's skills at this point as really small things disrupt his ability to perform well. I don't understand the intentions of the author as he seemed to develop the character to be more skillful.But looking at these fights we see that the skill is all lost and it all comes to GUTS.This is the same bull that many other shounen manga and anime has put out. I understand the part bravery and not giving up plays in winning. But that alone would never guarantee a win. A really good main character who was skillfully developed to be a great boxer was deprived of his skill in the later episodes and it all came down to the so-called GUTS.This might not seem like a very big issue but this decision completely destroyed the thrill which I got from the fights in the good part. Fights in the bad part always turn out to be a slug fest as our protaganist withstands with GUTS and destroys his opponents with his magical punch.The action part of the manga is really bad in the bad part of the manga. Next let's talk about characters. As i had mentioned earlier this show had some excellent character development in the good part. Very few anime/manga come close to the level of the character development shown in this manga. The characters don't just have a backstory, they have very good and interesting backstories (sometimes). Even the MC had a really good character development as an underdog rising to the top. But as usual the in other part of the manga this falls apart. The newly introduced characters do come with short backstories but the already developed characters kind of fall short even though they were interesting in the beginning.Takamura becomes a jerk.Ippo becomes a loser who always thinks others are better than him and he will get up as long as he can.His confidence is removed from his character(He sees the characters he has already defeated as people he can't defeat).Miyata becomes ignorant.Aoki and Kimura become ______.Well they are just there.I was really disappointed with how Ippo's character developed. The thing that made the Ippo-Miyata interactions so damn interesting in the good part was that they both saw each other's as rivals.This changed in the bad part.Ippos now sees Miayata as an Idol, someone he thinks can't defeat, he is just satisfied to fight with him.This is another bull the author has pulled on us.There goes character development.Now let's come to the weakest part of the manga.I will not separate this into the good part and the bad part as I believe a story should be seen as a whole. An ingenious beginning doesn't mean that a bad ending can be forgiven.Don't read any furthur if you don't want spoilers but I think you should read ahead even if they are spoilers because you would feel pretty disappointed,disheartened,betrayed if you found out this part from the manga. Well here it goes if you decided to read along.After 1200 chapters, Ippo breaks with no chance of a comeback. If there is a comeback at all, then it would be a shitty one. Because it's not the spirit that is broken, it's not the skill that is broken, It's his body.It can't be reversed.Even Ippo knew it.Before he broke completely Ippo wanted to show the completed Dempsey Roll to everyone.But he breaks before he can.This is absolutely a very bad path to follow and end things, especially so for a manga this long.It's over there is no come back.This manga can't have a decent ending.One thing the manga does good is with the comedy.It never gets old and keeps up until the end.

The review is over.Thank You for reading through if you did.A small footnote before I leave.I heard the author of this manga is very sick.I pray for his fast recovery.This is just a speculation but Ippo might be a personification of the author himself.He may be suggesting that no matter how much enthusiastic he is, he can't keep up with his old self with a broken body.Well that is just a speculation though.

Para comenzar, Hajime no ippo es de esos spokones que te hacen querer conocer mas haya del mundo en el que te esta envolviendo, en mi caso nunca me llamo la atención el boxeo, pero con este manga hiso que mi interés aumente demasiado

El mundo de hajime no ippo esta tan bien construido no solo por el echo de basarse de una manera tan realista al mundo de el boxeo, si no que te construye el mundo a través de los personajes, el elenco de personajes de hajime no ippo es tan extenso y tan bueno que solo ellos podrían mover la obra par si mismos, digo esto porque el mangaka declaro una vez que cada personaje de su obra era un protagonista, y puedo aclarar que esto es literal, cada personaje tiene su propia vida, motivaciones, obstáculos y a otros les cuenta sus pasados que los motiva en el presente, personajes que nunca son olvidados amenos que la trama lo exija, personajes que incluso podrían ser de los mas secundarios también tienen su turno, haciéndote encariñar con cada uno de ellos, cada uno vive su mundo para luego conectar con la trama general de la obra, y ni hablar de los personajes principales de la obra, los cuales desbordan personalidad casi al punto de parecer personajes reales, a ese punto llega, creo que esta a es la principal causa de por que el manga sigue en emisión con mas de 1300 capítulos, porque tiene que contarte demasiadas cosas.

En los momentos que el mangaka se pone serio con su obra es donde mas emociones transmite, haciéndote pensar que si el protagonista merecería ganar el combate o su oponente (con el cual te hace encariñarte). El esfuerzo y la perseverancia es lo que envuelve al protagonista.

1300 capítulos pueden parecerte una locura de leer, pero créeme, vale demasiado la pena como puedes llegar a disfrutar tano con esta obra, desde el momento en que comencé este manga hasta el punto de hoy, no sentí en ningún momento que la obra bajase un nivel que podría considerarse mala.

No es como otros spokones que no te cuentan el día a día de los protagonistas, de como se preparan a la hora de un encuentro, Hajime no ippo es la excepción, es entretenida dentro y fuera del ring, contándote el día a día del protagonista, de como se relaciona con su madre y su compañeros de gimnasio.

A la hora de los combates, los paleas son muy fluidas y no te pierdes de la coreografía, haciéndote comprender cada golpe que lanza, y no solo es comprensible de esa manera, si no que también a través de los mismos personajes y el narrador que dejan claro lo que esta pasando en el combate, nunca dejando perdido al espectador o atrasado en el combate. Espero que lean esta maravilla visual, y puedan disfrutarlo.

What can I say about Hajime No Ippo other then it's a great story that gives otaku everywhere some self confidence to be strong.

The story consists of one Makanouchi Ippo, a social outcast who is picked on because he is passive, poor and smells bad because of his family fishing shop. One day Ippo is being bullied out in the open and a man jogging by scares off the kids. Ippo asks the man to teach him how to be strong and thus begins Ippo's run of determination.

The theme of this manga is "What is it like to be strong?" and pure determination and hard work. It has very good character development showing every last spec of emotion that all the characters feel at every moment, as well as epic fights (although I do admit the fights wouldn't be like that if they were real)

There is a good bulk of training in this series and it takes up a good chunk of the series but is more then made up for when the fights roll around. And you know what? I don't mind all mind that much because that's what boxers do. Train, fight, train, fight. Very good insight on what a boxers day to day life is like.

The comedy in this manga is great. Usually in manga when there is filler people dread, but Hajime no Ippo delivers the most hilarious filler I have ever seen in my days.

All in all Hajime no Ippo is a great long running story with a mangaka that has as much stamina as his protagonist when it comes to writing. (And I'm not sure about all of you but Hajime no Ippo has motivated me to start working out more and become more active)

Overall Rating
10/10