Hajime no Ippo Chapter 1500 Discussion

Nah, this makes it official, Ricardo has reached "Madara" status. The mangaka made him so overpowered that it wouldn't feel right if one of the main characters beat him. It would take an asspull to bring him down, and even that would feel unsatisfying for the fans.

Morikawa has written himself into a corner. If Ippo beats Ricardo, it wouldn’t feel earned or appropriate, Ippo’s just nowhere near his level right now. And let’s be real, “Monster Ippo” is never happening, no matter how much we hope for it.

But at the same time, if Ricardo isn’t taken down, the story has no path forward. What’s even the endgame for this long-ass manga if Ippo doesn’t return and become world champion?

Honestly, the only solution I can see is this: Sendo gets up one last time and throws the most powerful SMASH of his life, shattering Ricardo’s arm bones, but then collapses. He loses, but Ricardo is forced to retire. Let him go out as a legend who was never beaten in the ring. That would preserve Ricardo’s mythical status while opening a door for Ippo’s endgame.

To be frank, at this point I don’t even care if he becomes world champ. I just want to see Ippo return for one final match where he unleashes everything he’s learned while retired, and then the manga could end and I wouldn't mind. Let Takamura’s conquest of the remaining world titles remain unfinished; I was already getting kinda tired of that plot anyway.

@Jabpi

I disagree, it's not like Ricardo has been hyped as a super human with an overwhelming advantage over everyone else, all of his strengths feel grounded and can be beaten in theory, sure he's been undefeated so far, but so were almost all of Ippo's opponents before fighting him, to say that it won't be earned when Ippo takes on Ricardo after all of the powerful growth he went through during his retirement is not right to me, it's like you're throwing hundreds of chapters of build up out the window over a single chapter of seeing Ricardo's strength.

Besides, it's not like the fight is over yet, Sendo did knock Ricardo down before and it was emphasized in this chapter that he's distracted by his granny's condition, he'll probably snap out of it next chapter and put up a better fight.

@Jabpi

I disagree, it's not like Ricardo has been hyped as a super human with an overwhelming advantage over everyone else, all of his strengths feel grounded and can be beaten in theory, sure he's been undefeated so far, but so were almost all of Ippo's opponents before fighting him, to say that it won't be earned when Ippo takes on Ricardo after all of the powerful growth he went through during his retirement is not right to me, it's like you're throwing hundreds of chapters of build up out the window over a single chapter of seeing Ricardo's strength.

Besides, it's not like the fight is over yet, Sendo did knock Ricardo down before and it was emphasized in this chapter that he's distracted by his granny's condition, he'll probably snap out of it next chapter and put up a better fight.

hardly disagreed. To say that Ricardo has reached Madara level is a huge exageration, but Morikawa has made him feel outwordly and untouchable so far. There is a reason why you have fans disagreeing with the author's statement that Takamura is pound for pound best fighter of the manga and that's because of how he portrayed Ricardo so far.

Ricardo is the end goal, the omega, it makes sense for to feel and look so much above the rest of the boxers "the strongest champion in history. never once defeated, never once knocked down". Wally and Sendo's fight serves as a mean to take this "veil of invicibility" from Ricardo, to make him human, so that Ippo having a chance of beating him not feel like an asspull.

About the fight, I initially thought that Sendo would be unable to land a clean hit but his power would accumulate damage through the guard leading to him finally down Ricardo in the match. Ricardo is already feeling the effect on his right hand so less than 4 chapters for that to happen if we are not hit with constant 5-7 pages chapters.

Did it take a two-week break?

@H_Erifu Yup. Next chapter should be released next week (hopefully not another extended break)