For now, I would mostly like to focus my personal issues with this season as someone who actively reads the manga and is up to date with the current chapters. Even though previous installments have skipped over parts from the manga (such as Aoki’s black face in season 1; omitting Hayami vs Kobashi before Ippo vs Sanada in Championship Road; taking out Okita’s under card fight before Date vs Martinez in New Challenger, etc), but this takes it a whole lot more and so much important information I thought was necessary to the story and the character development were entirely taken out. For example, there is no build up to the Shimabukuro fight and it takes away why is he such a distinct opponent. Plus, in the manga, when Shimabukuro and Ippo meet at the ocean near Ippo’s home, Ippo’s mother actually seems romantically interested in Shimabukuro until he reveals he is actually 22, a year older than Ippo which brought some comedy to their relationship and adds more to how they connect as "men of the sea" with their backgrounds.
Two other major issues I have was taking out how Aoki developed the look away and VERY IMPORTANT elements of Sawamura’s back story. There was a story behind how Aoki developed his look away and I thought that was funny and how it was presented in the manga and the cut-scenes from the PS2 games. As for Sawamura, I felt the anime left out two of the more important aspects of his story; how he meets Sendo for the first time along with how deep the relationship between Sawamura and Kawabe goes. When Sendo meets Sawamura in the hospital in the manga, he actually reveals to Sawamura why Kawabe cares about him so much. I was upset that part was taken out because it was the very reason why Kawabe cares so much about Sawamura. For an anime so far behind in the manga, I just find it inexcusable to take all this important material out and rush it.
But I am satisfied the series got around to animating the young Kamogawa and Nekota story arc, but I felt the placement made no sense to me not because it takes place much sooner in the manga, but that Anderson is not an appropriate character to compare with to Eagle as opposed to Hawk. Nishimura came back to direct the last four episodes and he did that those episode justice. Nothing was taken out and it really captured the emotion.
But I feel this series deserves to be much longer as well. There are other great fights coming up and some shitty ones lol.
Well, the quality and resolution is more in tune with New Challenger under Shishido Jun's direction and the fights are still awesome. What impressed me most was Takamura vs Eagle. I didn’t think the fight was that special in the manga but animated, it got me really interested and immersed and changed my mind about it. I felt Eagle’s fear and respect for Takamura and Takamura’s tenacity at the same time while watching it. I think Eagle’s white trunks from the games worked enough for me but the golden color does add the naturally appropriate compliments to his nickname, "Golden." I also loved how they colored his suit in the press conferences making him look like an American GTO in a way.
If there is any reason to watch this season, it is most certainly for Ippo vs Sawamura, one of my top 3 favorite fights from the manga. Sawamura’s bullet was handled more realistically than I anticipated to how it is pulled off in the PS2 games despite the red effect. It is well paced and positioned as opposed to awkwardly angled in the games. This is just one of the few fights that I felt that scared me because of Sawamura’s mix of brain and brawn and this is one of the few times that Ippo came close to wanting to kill someone. Hawk may have been a maniac, but Sawamura is a whole different class of beast that crosses a line that Hawk didn’t.
The only fight cut significant short is just the Shimabukuro one and I felt an important aspect in respect to the fight that pays some homage to the second Ippo/Miyata spar was taken out. I felt that quality was what would have made the Kazuo story arc, which wasn’t in the manga until after the Sawamura fight, would have been an effective first episode in context to the Shimabukuro fight. Also, the build up and the training was a very good story arc and Ippo builds up his muscles and cardio. I can understand cutting out the weigh-in (which was funny) but the training I thought could have been touched upon as well.
Miyata’s fight with Medgoen Dachboy was excellently paced and is faithful to the manga. The fights are just simply still the same quality with the exception of Ippo vs Shimabukuro.
And the animation of the Kamogawa arc is just amazing and brings back a certain distinction that Nishimura gave that you can only see in the first season. He brings a distinct sense of crisp and detail to his design and movement and I am glad he was selected to do this and it just brought me back to season 1 in a lot of ways.
Well, I would like to open this review by saying that I do miss the performance of Utsumi Kenji as Kamogawa. God or whoever he may be with rest his soul. He was a great voice actor for Kamogawa along with his other iconic roles, most especially as Raoh from Hokuto no Ken. As Kamogawa, he had this great presence and authority in his voice. His new seiyuu, Iizuka Shozo, previously the voice of Miguel in New Challenger and most famous as Ryu Jose in the first Gundam series really captures his gruffness but has a different kind of tone, but works in terms of the character, but Utsumi will always be Kamogawa to me regardless. It is also sad that another seiyuu legend, Nagai Ichiro, who plays Nekota also has passed on but managed to record some lines prior to his passing and I always love how he ends his sentences in “da ni.” And he was also most famous as the voice of Happousai from Ranma 1/2.
But my favorite performance this season was that of Miki Shinichiro as Sawamura, who you may know as the voice of Takumi from Initial D. I am used to Miki Shinichiro as a good guy, but as a bad guy he is excellent. Prior to this series, Hiyama Nobuyuki, the voice of Hiei from Yuu Yuu Hakusho was always my personal choice for Sawamura but Miki’s performance truly captures the character. What really made the character with his performance was this dry throat kind of tone he brings. It really represents more a “thirst” for his meat obsession as opposed to a “hunger,” and I think the “thirst” tone as opposed to a “hunger” tone really represents the sadistic tendencies of Sawamura. Because when he wants meat, he really wants blood and the portrayal really made me love the character more.
Miyano Mamoru who is more famous for quieter characters such as Light from Death Note and Setsuna from Gundam 00 surprised me as Kamogawa who tends to be more of an intense character. He managed to capture both Light’s softness but also brings that gruffness as the old Kamogawa as well. The young Nekota also captures the characteristics and I can’t complain.
Kosugi Jurota as Anderson was also awesome. He voiced Kujo Jotaro from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure so you could never ask for a better seiyuu. And I thought Kiuchi Hidenobu, the voice of Tenma from Monster, was an interesting choice as Eagle. He brings out his "cheerfulness" and a silly accent at the same time that works for the character. I really had no expectation of who could play Eagle but he does the job. You gotta love how he says "Jesus." I just wish New Challenger kept more of Hawk's Engrish as well.
The music is a great improvement and excellently uses tracks from the first season, second season, and has a great original one for this as well. I felt the tracks from season 2 were more properly used in this season. The songs for Sawamura are just perfect with his dark and sadistic character. The songs in the Takamura and Eagle fight were also great.
Well, again, as a manga reader, my issues is that this series is too damn short and this series cut out some very important details that helps the story and development. I just felt this series is very incomplete. But the animation and the soundtrack and voice acting brings a different kind of completeness and satisfaction. I just hope they don't do this again for future anime installments.
