Recommendation: Hajime no Ippo
The perfect Shounen Experience
With a rating of 8.7 on myanimelist.net and a sizable fanbase consisting of shounen fans from all the different corners of the world, Hajime no Ippo is a pretty successful sports anime. This anime takes the brutal and unforgiving sport of boxing and combines it together with many shounen elements to create something unforgettable and inspirational.
The sports genre might be amazing, but it is still something that is a little hard to get into. Hajime no Ippo is different from most other sports anime because you don’t have to be a fan of boxing in order to enjoy the series. Today, we’ll be talking about everything that makes Hajime no Ippo awesome and the perfect shounen experience for all types of anime fans.
Plot
Ippo Makunouchi is seen as a loser by everyone around him. The boy constantly gets bullied by his classmates but can’t seem to do anything about it. Ippo does have a desire to change himself, but he lacks the passion for acting upon it. One day, while getting bullied in a brutal way, Ippo gets saved by a boxer named Takamura Mamoru. Takamura brings the unconscious boy back to his gym to recover. After Ippo regains consciousness, he is amazed by all the professional training equipment in the gym and asks Takamura to train him. At first, Takamura doesn’t really take him seriously and thinks that he doesn’t have what it takes to become a professional boxer. However, Ippo quickly proves him wrong and begins his journey towards becoming the greatest boxer of all time.
Story Progression
Yes, the plot is simple. However, it's not the concept of the show that makes it a masterpiece, but the journey itself. The show will have you sitting at the edge of your seat in every single episode as you feel like bingeing through the entire thing in a single go. Being a shounen series, Hajime no Ippo might be a little predictable at times, but there are still tons of twists in the story that will leave you in awe.
Characters
The characters are what I truly love Hajime no Ippo for. Despite being a shounen anime with a shounen plot, all the characters in this series seem like real people. The development of Ippo doesn’t just happen over the course of a single day, but we actually see just how much he had to struggle in order to become special. The show pays proper attention to all the side characters as well and gives all of them amazing backstories that make us sympathize with them and understand what they are going through. Heck, the show can even make you fall in love with the type of characters that only appear for a few episodes.
Animation
Madhouse is one of the best, if not the best animation studio in all of Japan. Also, being responsible for another masterpiece named Death Note that looks way too good for its time, we can’t really question the animation quality of Madhouse studio. Hajime no Ippo might’ve released all the way back in 2000, but it still looks amazing, and the animation is fluid and beautiful. Of course, the anime of today look much better in comparison, but considering the age of the show, we can’t help but appreciate just how good Hajime no Ippo looks.
Conclusion
The anime is exciting, all the jokes are perfectly timed and delivered, the story keeps you fully invested, and at the end of the day, you won’t even remember that this is just supposed to be an anime about boxing. If you are ready for an unforgettable shounen experience, then I would definitely recommend that you should leave everything you are doing and start watching Hajime no Ippo.
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