Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger

Despite not reaching the peaks of greatness of the first season, this second season of Hajime no Ippo still remains excellent in many ways. Something was missing to make it truly special but, unlike many other second seasons of other anime, it remains at great levels throughout its duration and leaves you with a great desire to dive straight into the third season.

The story, despite the usual clichés, remains at excellent levels with a more direct and rapid narrative that flows very well.

The characters remain the strong point of the anime: those introduced in this second season leave their mark and the arcs of the ... characters present from the beginning evolve greatly. Bryan Hawk was an excellent villain and Yamada's return was fantastic. Only note: Kimura's "waste". After the excellent performance in the OVA where he faced Mashiba, in this season he returns to being a marginal character and does nothing interesting.

The soundtrack, in my opinion, has even improved compared to the first season. Especially during the fight scenes, very high levels are reached.

The mix between drama and comedy also continues to work very well, with heartbreaking stories and episodes interspersed very well with other lighter and funnier episodes.

I found the animation good but slightly inferior to that of the first due to less fluidity. Nothing too serious, though.

A great follow-up to the first season which is very enjoyable but does not reach the heights of the memorable first season.

Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger continues where it left off in the first season. Ippo is now the Japan Featherweight champion. But in the second season, Ippo is not in the major role and the anime focuses more on other characters, especially on Takamura. Which is something great because in my first season review, I mentioned that the characters of this anime are its greatest weapon so focusing more on Miyata, Eiji and Takamura was great to watch. I think each of them took themselves a step further and became even better characters than before. But I can't say the same for Ippo.

Ippo wasn't ... an original main character in season one, which is not something bad as I also mentioned in my review for the first season. After all, this is still an adaptation of a shounen manga that is older than 30 years. But despite that, Ippo was an enjoyable character to watch. He was determined, hard-working and a character whose progress was again, enjoyable to witness. But in season two, Ippo felt like he was going backwards instead of improving. I know being arrogant isn't in his character, but for a Japan Featherweight champion, he still remains so passive about certain things. I would never want Ippo to be arrogant or cocky but I would really appreciate seeing him gaining some self-confidence since it is very different from being arrogant.

If I to talk about the matches, they were more legendary but as might be expected, they were far more exaggerated than season one. Do I mind that? Honestly, no. Because this season, no matter how exaggerated it was, had the best fight of Hajime no Ippo so far without a doubt.

Visually, the image quality has increased much more, naturally. Opening and ending wise, second season is still as good as the first season but I have to say, It was sad that I could not hear some of the soundtracks that fit the atmosphere in this season.

As conclusion, New Challenger, despite some minor problems, is a pretty good season as a continuation of the first season. Those minor problems are the reason why I'm not giving it a 10 again.

This is the second season continues right where the previous one left off. We already see a Japanese champion ippo and a Takamura aspiring to a world title. I love that throughout the series the characters do not stop evolving, always showing their human side. Of how they got to that moment of the fight, of the life that they do what they want to do. The animation is outstanding, the soundtrack is incredible and it is a masterpiece please if you did not see it, run to see it do you that favor. You will thank me.

En español:
Esta es la segunda temporada continua justo ... donde se quedo la anterior. Vemos ya a un ippo campeón de Japón y a un Takamura aspirando a un titulo mundial. Me encanta que en toda la serie los personajes no paran de evolucionar siempre mostrando su lado humano. De como llegaron a esa momento de la pelea, de la vida de que hacen lo que quieren hacer. La animación es sobresaliente, la banda sonora increíble y es una obra maestra por favor sino la viste anda corriendo a verla hacerte ese favor. Me lo vas a agradecer.