Hajime no Ippo
Hajime no Ippo: Fighting Spirit!

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This is a manga about boxing. And I meant that to a fault. It's not going to hit you with some drama, crazy twists and turns, or philosophical questions. It's strictly about boxing. And I'm not just talking about the MC, although a lot of the plot naturally involves him, but every boxer character gets their own spotlight and even a whole arc dedicated to their match. Even the supporting aspects of boxing such as the gym, trainer, corner, and media were explored.

That being said, after 1000+ chapters and ongoing, it does get very repetitive. Just like a real sport would, it doesn't get any ... farther than the cycle of training, match, win/defeat, and repeat. The most definition you could get is when a character gets an injury and has to fight through recovery, but that's it. So the key to making a sports series like this is how making each cycle entertaining. Of course with how many fights have been written in this series, not all of them will be good. That's just statistics at this point. But when it gets good, or when it takes turn to cover a character that you love, then it will be a treat.

Through its long run, however, the series still maintains its core thesis: the power of hard work and perseverance. And if that is not the quintessential core of a sports series, I don't know what would be.

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.

Hajime no Ippo was great until the series decided to repeat everything, no changes, barely any plot, and became worse over time.
Story: 6/10
the story is fine, the typical shonen manga with the protagonist wanting to be "the strongest"
Plot: 3/10
I know this series is supposed to be a sports manga, but for fuck's sake, make some changes, literally almost nothing that happens, matters.
The typical formula in the manga is like this: Ippo trains > we get to see the new opponent > Ippo nearly loses but wins in the last second > the cast doing "side quests" > rinse and repeat.
It was like that for ... the first 40 volumes, and it was good for a 40 volumes manga, just not a series that has been running for over 30 years now.
Characters: 10/10
possibly the best part of the manga, the dynamics are great, I don't really have any negative points here.
Art: 10/10
The art is fantastic, Detailed, and polished, Again no negative points here.
Overall: HNI should've been gone sooner, and ran way Longer than it should have. The "story" kept repeating itself and got old too quickly.