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Story: 9/10
As usual, Hajime no Ippo steps up with the excellent story telling. There is not much of Ippo actually fighting in here, which came as somewhat of a disappointment to me, but we get more in depth stories and back stories to supporting characters. And, there are some cameos from characters that we barely got to see, so that is nice. I felt like there was a little bit more focus on the matches/side characters this series around rather than the outside life, or the training, which the first season had a lot of montages of. While the lessons and values of Hajime no ... Ippo are kind of repetitive, they do have a lot of meaning and are good things to be learned by anyone.

These aren't all the fights, but they are the major ones.--->

> Miyata Ichiro vs Arnie "Crocodile" Gregory for the OPBF Championship
We get to see a worthwhile fight from Miyata spirit wise. They introduced this shady coach who I hate the guts of, and from the sounds of it, it seems like he'll be a semi-recurring character. Not hopeful.

> Date Eiji vs Ricardo Martinez for the WBA Feather Weight Championship
Finally, Date gets a world championship revenge match against the man who defeated him seven years ago. We also get to learn a bit more in depth about him, his past, and his reason for boxing. It was pretty good.

> Ippo Makunouchi vs Hammer Nao for the Japan Feather Weight Championship
We finally get a reappearance from someone who used to appear a lot. I won't say who it is, because then I'll spoil it. This match was a sweet one. By sweet, I mean both "touching" (in a heartfelt way) and "aww shit yeah." If you watch it, you'll get what I mean.

> Takamura Mamoru vs Brian Hawk for the WBC Junior Middleweight Championship
This match was BEAST. A definitely must watch for any Ippo fans. Brian Hawk was a bastard but he puts up a good fight. We finally get to see the mysterious Takamura's full potential, and find a bit about his past and family situation. The only problem I had with it was "that joke". Takamura, you shame of Japan! I felt like they went a little too far with that one. It made him hit a little too close to Brian's level of humanity.

Art: 8/10
In the beginning I wasn't really used to it, but as it went on it got better. The matches flowed more smoothly with more dynamic scenes, and were paced much better than in the beginning, which is a shame because they started off with some really big, interesting matches. I felt like it got better around Hammer Nao though.

Sound: 8/10
As I imagine Hajime no Ippo to capture "manliness" you can imagine my disappointment when I heard the BGM and there were a lot of classic styled music. Little to none rock/guitar/synth music like the first season, whose sound track I loved. However, as the story progressed, I could see that it focused more on the Championships. The "Kings" you could say. Taking that in mind, the music does fit better, as it's more noble, dignified and refined than the first seasons, which was more rough, and high-strung. The BGM does get better as time goes on though.

Although most of the original cast reappears, Kumi's voice does change, which was kind of off putting. Other than that, its the same cast, so no complaints.

The OP song is one of my favorites though, which is good since the vids took forever to load so 90% of the time I had to watch through the OP.

Character: 9/10
Everyone in the anime gets some development, and that really makes me happy. Ippo grows stronger as he begins to realize more and more what it means to be a champion and how he can fulfill that role, Takamura's mysterious past is unraveled, and we get to see him in a better light, Coach... Well, he realizes that there is still much for him to learn and do to become a better coach. Aoki and Kimura's are kind of non-existent, but if you want to see them develop then you should watch the Kimura vs Mashiba OVA. The others you'll just have to watch to find out.

Even though there's a huge cast, they all have depth, even if it's just to a certain point. It's pretty impressive, and they're all well done as well. While I do wish that more forgotten characters would reappear and get some spotlight (like Vorg or Hayami or Jason etc) I do understand that there probably isn't any time for that.

Enjoyment: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
Although I was a bit iffy at first, Hajime no Ippo New Challenger is a great second series. It started off shaky but ended on a good note. If you feel like me when I first started it, just tell yourself to be like Ippo and them and tough it out! You'll see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Story:

A predictable storyline with lots of mini-stories in between. Even though I say that, I quite enjoyed myself in this one. It was funny in some parts, action-y in others and it left me with a good feeling inside after I completes it. The way the story goes may be a bit strange, but remember this was based off of a rpg game.

Art:

I really liked the art. I gave off the whole rpg game character feeling and the characters looked nice. The beast men could have been worked on a little more creatively though. They were all pretty humanoid and their style were pretty simple. ... It would have been better if some were more beastly or something. It just seemed like the beast men weren't really taken seriously when trying to draw up the characters.

Character:

The characters are kind of under developed but I came to like them pretty much. Morte is funny in a violent way, Kyrie is funny in a pathetic way, while Toppi is funny in a cute, heroic but tiny way. They turn out to be a pretty nice trio, although Morte is a little cold to them. It would be nice if they had more about Toppi, Kyrie, Lia and Naja's pasts because they mainly focused on Morte. We don't ever really get to find out more about them, which is disappointing.

Sound:

I liked the voices of everyone and the music. The voices fitted pretty well with everyone's personality, although I guess the -kuma part at the end of every sentece Toppi says was kind of annoying (but kind of funny and cute at the same time). Uh... I guess that's all. I was kind of surprised to find out that Kyrie was Miyano Mamoru in the process of watching. I was having a OHSHC fad just a while ago. I think that's also one of the factors that made me like this anime more.

Overall, I give this a 8/10. This is a good watch for anyone into RPG games, adventure, fantasy, and short animes. There are a lot of filler episodes (episodes that have nothing to do with the plot) so I don't reccomend it to someone who wants something with a fight in every episode or not fast-paced animes. ^^ Anyways, sorry if this is a really bad review but I'm a noob at this so go easy on me. Thanks for reading.

Story:

It moved way too fast for anything to really get developed, like the romance or characters etc etc. It was also just a bunch of cliche things rolled into a book. I mean, there's a typical high school girl who is super dense and has no common sense when falling in love, the super bad play boy who is a delinquent and is interested in the girl, the long-time-no-see childhood buddy that has feelings for the main character who is also a delinquent etc etc. There's also some sexually themed chapters in this series, although they haven't really shown anything in the seven chapters ... that I read, which is why I would not even recommend starting to read this series in the first place.

Art:

The art is okay. Like any typical shoujo manga, it casts two hot boys and one pretty girl I guess.

Character:

There is a serious need of character development in here. As I said, all these characters are typical typical in a shoujo manga, and it's even worse that the whole story is predictable. It takes away from the readers thrill. The characters are really hard to connect to. They have no pasts, the have no distinct uniqueness to them and they were (to me) unloveable. The only thing that I felt while reading this manga is that Kanata is one poor kid.

Enjoyment:

I think you can tell by reading the rest of this how I fell about this manga.

Overall:

This manga was not worth my time. It left me with a bad taste in my mouth after reading it and it left me with a bad mood. I do warn people away with this review, but I don't discourage you to see if I know what I'm talking about. I do think that the author was trying to make this manga exciting and dramatic but she went overboard and made something that I would like to not look at again. I am sorry to the fans if I sound critical about this manga, but keep in mind that this is just one amateur reviewer out of a billion amateurs' opinion.