Hajime no Ippo

Ippo brought heart into otherwise seemingly brutal world of boxing. I have never though I could see boxing in such a light-hearted way that Ippo made me, I saw some comment and see people complaining about this and that, but in reality, I feel author is nicely doing the job of presenting hype of fights with light-hearted slice of life stuffs like training, match preparation, personal life, etc. The switch between Ippo the fighter and Ippo the second has been fascinating and while there is chance for him comeback, honestly I'm totally fine having Ippo a second for the rest of it.

spoilers

As someone who's been reading and enjoying this series for 10 years now I can say definitively that the recent arc within this series relating to Ippos character has been a genuine downturn and steady decline of a series I really loved. I stood by the Wolly fight, the point that I know a lot of fans started to feel the series go downhill, for me the fight was weak but I stayed with it, the subsequent arcs were fine and the buildup to Ippos Punch Drunk arc was brilliant, the back to back losses floored me. The chance to dive into Ippos character more while he stepped away from boxing felt like a legitimate chance for a great revival of the series. It felt like the promise of this character arc would be to give Ippo the motivation he needed to finally step to the world stage.

Unfortunately we are now currently nearing 200 chapters and 4 years in and to say this has now worn its welcome would be an understatement. The constant hints that Ippo is secretly still a monster and that he could easily still fight now are getting redundant. We know where this is going, Ippos going to return eventually, why does the author feel the need to extend this for so long. What started as a promising arc has now meandered and bloated into a an overly long arc that feels like its lost all meaning.
The side effect of this lengthy arc is that there has been a constant need to fill in this timeframe with side fights and mini arcs, normally this is great for a series like Ippo but unfortunately many of the fights within this arc have been completely subpar, quick side character fights and the ones with more build up are still lacking the true buildup that Ippo fights are known for. Every side character fight that feels rushed or incomplete reflect extra poorly on the series considering we're forced into this situation by the authors desire to completely sideline the main character.

I think what broke me with new Ippo was Takamura's latest Championship fight. These normally are some of the best fights in the series but the latest one was rushed, gimmicky, and incredibly disappointing. Takamura having a Luck based opponent whos development and strength revolve around the idea that they are simply very lucky, makes this the weakest champ fight by far. The characters backstory was treated like a complete joke and the fight itself was ruined thanks to his luck gimmick making it feel completely ridiculous. When Takamura finally united his 3 belts after this fight I just felt empty, such a monumental goal that had been hyped up by the series for so long to be accomplished in one of the worst fights in the series.

Thanks for reading my ramblings, for me I'll still keep up with it but the series is definitely not a complete package to me anymore. I guess it was inevitable for a series going on this long to start to falter but its still a shame to see.

I grew up with ippo, enjoyed his growth, the slapstick and surprises. This isn't really a spoiler, but a heads up: somewhere between chapter 1200 and 1350 was a very dull arc full of repeating tropes, irrelevant cliffhangers, & standstill story deprived of insight into character & plot motivations. At around chapter 1350, the content started to be more thoughtful, but I hope they move the character development along a as we're nearing almost 200 chapters at a standstill.

A great series about boxing, but lost the meaning and nostalgia later.
Some spoilers about the recents chapters:

Resume:
Ippo is now a ugly bald coach and the others look better than him.

I am really sad for writing this comment. However...

Why do this with a good MC?
Ippo was so cool before the fall, is like waiting the return of our hero and get the worst possible version of a bad end of him.

Another deception in the list.

when i started reading it, only 1000 chapters were released, and i thought i would never catch up to. Its now 1131 and ive read 1131 chapters so far. the fights are memorial and takamura is one of a kind. I do feel like Ippo is getting beaten up a little too much in some of his matches. I really wanna see just how far Ippo and Takamura will go.Recommended to everyone.

I learned 99% of what I know about boxing from this manga, so there's that. You wouldn't imagine a manga about boxing could run for 1000+ chapters and still be interesting after all this time. The author has uncanny skills. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop.

I've read up to 1035 and I think everyone should read this, that's how good I think this manga is. But it's not without its flaws, in my opinion. So I'm gonna focus on those since it's good points need not be repeated.

The fact that Ippo, despite being the MC, shows no true awe-inspiring strength in comparison to his opponent, 85% of the time, is kinda frustrating. Almost all his matches end with him winning (which is good and all) but the winner ends up in worse shape than the loser. It's hard to be Ippo's fan when that happens.

So many matches end in ways that make me wanna meh. For instance, the guy who dominates the match and beats his opponent senseless somehow loses because the plot demands the half-dead guy be the eventual winner, regardless of who was on the brink of victory and obviously the more skilled boxer.

Other than the MC's fights (which can be excused), Miyata's fight with Randy made me wanna punch the author. That one sucked. As if I needed one more reason to hate the Sasuke of this manga anymore. Ippo's homo crush on Miyata really irks me. It's always Miyata-san this, Miyata-san that. Won't you shaddap about that annoying guy already!?!

Itakagi's title fight was a surprise but satisfying cuz I wasn't gonna excuse the author for shoving that unlimited natural talent (over 9000!) BS down my throat for much longer. It had to be put a stop to at some point. Glad it happened when it did.

Takamura rulez. And you just gotta love Aoki. I've faced plenty of gags in plenty of manga, but Takamura's antics, which involve Aoki as the victim most of the time, nearly always make me lose control of myself. I end up LOLing, which is really rare for me.

but itagaki just reeeeeallly annoys me those last couple of chapters in which he starred kinda pissed me off.
I am now a full fledged un repentant otaku. I like all types of manga not just sports or even shounen but i admit without hesitation that hajime no ippo is the absolute best. I have read dozens of manga and i'm sure to name this one in the top five for sure!!!!
P.S. this manga is older than i am!!!!!

interesting boxing manga
ippo is the strongest infighter with explosive punch but he's still far away from being a world champion ( might take another 1000 chapters for him to become one)
he likes kumi but he is definitely loves miyata more (miyata being on the top of course)
takamura is the main character in this manga
and my biggest fear is the mangaka end first before the manga itself.