The story is about Ippo a kid without any purpose in his life and fate decides to make a boxer out of him. This season focuses on his challenges to keep his special move sharp and fresh, the Dempsey roll. in the manga the reason for the focus on the Dempsey Roll is explained better but since madhouse tried to handpick parts of the story there had to be some changes so they could fill it all in their schedule which is still no biggie since Ippo is not the best part of the story for me anyway(cause most of the times we know he is gonna win so it takes the tension away for me at least). His coach Kamogawa and his hero Takamura are the best parts and both get to shine in this season. Takamura aimed to rule 6 classes and his fights are always exciting and we get to see his second conquest in this season with a classier opponent this time, Eagle. A man that is exactly the opposite of Hawk, not just in style but also in personality. This is specially for American so mangaka could show better to them that he is not against Americans!
Madhouse decided to put the best part at the end of the season of course and along with some changes they put the Kamogawa background story at the end of this season which is probably the best part of the whole story and it explains why Kamogawa and Nekota are in their current state(plus Dankichi). As for the other characters Aoki and Kimura are mostly for comical relief like most of the times (even Aoki’s serious fight was funny and unreal probably on purpose) and Manabu is yet to reach his best condition in the manga but he is not liked by many it seems so I guess it’s for the best. (I actually like his character specially his expressions during matches and his second fight with Imai but he seems to me just like an extra character just to extend the story and doesn't add anything meaningful. I get it that he is there to show the growth of next generation but if it is going to be the similar rivalry thing that happened in the previous generations then who cares?!...). as for female characters…sigh, Sport genre and good female characters usually don’t go hand to hand(there are some strong or useful ones in some stories still as characters they are not that interesting). also this season shows one of the key messages the manga has: the importance of rivals.
The animation doesn’t seem too much improved to be honest specially when you watch Kuroko no baske’s second season and see the improvement there in the short time it had from it’s previous season(although they didn't keep it up till the end) but it still feels a little cleaner and sharper than before. voice acting is strong just like previous seasons although Kamogawa’s voice actor passed away (rest in peace) so they had to replace him. Sadly they replaced him with Miguel’s voice actor but many probably don’t even remember Miguel so who cares and they might not even adopt Wally’s story so he might not be needed since if there is going to be a fourth season they might go for another epic fight or something (Volg’s fight would be good if they could somehow include it too since they had to show Volg this time too so it would be cooler narrative-wise but guess for that reason they should go for Randy J too.). also Coach’s voice in his earlier days didn't fit him(it is done by Mamoru Miyano mostly famous for Light Yagami) it was obvious they were just trying to use a famous Voice actor cause he is an important character but to be honest the fact that it doesn't fit is not a bad thing cause not all characters should have voices that matches their faces or style and as long as voice actors do their job fine they are fine. As for OP and ED I didn’t enjoy them although they made a smart use of a front page of one of the chapters in the ED which I liked.
2013 was filled with great sport anime like Yowamushi pedal, Kuroko no Baske Season 2 and Diamond No Ace and sport fans are hopefully pleased. Hajime no Ippo Rising doesn't lose to those anime of course and it is a worthy adaptation. also Hopefully George Morikawa will start another Takamura fight soon or something as epic so Madhouse gets more tempted for another season.
