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Hajime no ippo is the Spokkon formula done right, or I'd rather say done best.

There are many great sports anime that escaoe the shounen/spokkon formula like Ashita no Joe or many others that try to deconstruct it like Ping Pong the animation or Blue lock with great results. As well, there are other good ones following this structure without that many twists (Haikyuu, Kuroko no Basket...) but they usually tend to fall flat on certain aspects as the series go by, wasted supporting characters forgotten or reduced to gag characters, excessive focus on the main protagonists, and the infamous friendship boosts and plot armor.

However ... Hajime no Ippo, while following all of the genre's tropes, expands on each of the plot points with great care and gives this stereotypes a refreshing sense of depth and nuance. One of the many examples is Umezawa, who bullies Ippo throughout the first part of The FIghting, becoming Ippo's best friend as the series goes and arguably his greatest supportes, instead of dissapearing in frustration when realizing his strength, as many characters who share his archetype do. This comes with reflection on his mistakes and the development of his own dreams (becoming a mangaka).

This is just one example of how HNI expands on these archetypes (and the one which spoils the least of the plot) making them into original much more nuanced iterations of these stereotypes.

While not flawless (almost impossible due to it's length), I'd put Hajime No Ippo among the best shounen and spokkon anime without a doubt.

The ratings of this manga are proof of how easily edgy and pretentious writers can gaslight the audience into thinking they're actually good. In fact, this mediocre at best manga is not much better than the frown uppon generic romcom/harem manga and anime. The concept appears to have a glimpse of potential, and the first chapters, while not a masterpiece, are strong enough. We soon come to learn that this couldn't be further from the truth, with characters that serve as no more than molds for fatality, and who are either extremely one note and archetypical or plain non existent. The pacing is extremely ... fast and distasteful, creating the impression of being in front of the work of an edgelord who wants to write oyasumi punpun, while not understanding in the tiniest bit why it is good, and instead making it an endless shitpiling over this empty "characters". They either don't evolve in any way (Reiji or his mother), or drastically become a completely different (still one note) character.

Edgy as fuck, don't read