Hajime no Ippo did it his own way, and he didin't have many limitations, or did he have any?
A boy named Makunouchi Ippo, student, is always being bullied at school. His entire life, boys at his school used to bully him, mock him, and he never stood up againts them. He dreamed of being stonger, of being able to protect his self and his mother, but he never knew how to do it.That is, untill he met boxing, untill he met Takamura Mamoru. While boys were bullying him, Takamura, who happens to be a boxer saved Ippo, with his amazing movements and boxing techniques.
Ippo was amazed by Takamura's skill, so he asks him if he could start boxing, if he could do it.
This is a journey of Ippo, journey to become a great boxer. No, journey to become strong.
What makes this anime so incredible, interesting are characters and their development. Change in Ippo's heart, his world - status in school, boxing gym, that's the thing that is without a doubt, best represented on the screen.At the begging, he is a guy we would call a loser, failure, a weakling, but after taking boxing, he becomes something far greater, better than that. Constantly changing, becoming stronger, not losing his sight, that's Ippo's, and as well as anime's strenght. While watching him getting stronger, you wish to do it like him too, take a chance, opportunity.Try harder. Either it be at studying, school, confesing love or at training, you aspire to become greater version of yourself.You wake up that "Fighting Spirit" inside of you. I myself, each day, started trying harder, I've even found myself doing some straight forward jabs, making sounds like Ippo or Takamura - "Hu-huh" - finding yourself doing jabs is probably first sign of falling in love with this anime.
I find great pleasure in seeing a main character, especially if he is a good main character, that used to be a weakling at the begining, becoming stronger.
"Badass" would be the right word for Ippo, even thought he still is shy and kind boy as he was at the begging.
Beside Ippo, there are alot of other great characters in the show, great boxers. Takamura Mamoru, Aoki Masaru, Kimura Tatsuya, both friends of Ippo that are training at the same gym as he is - Kamogawa boxing gym(KBG).Kamogawa Genji, owner of the gym is a person that sees potential and determination in Ippo, person who start training him, pushing him beyond his limits, helping him achieve his "dream". Fantastic trio, which I've mentioned before, Takamura, Aoki, Kimura are show's source of laughter and comedy. Most of the times, that source is Takamura, his bad jokes and bad sense of humour will be hillarious for viewers.However, Takamura is not just a joke-maker, he is one of the best boxers in Japan, idol to many people, leading boxer of the Kamogawa gym. Everyone, including Ippo, find great inspiration in his boxing and they all aspire to some day be like him.
Aside from great humour, Hajime no Ippo portraits a lot of reallity too.
"Reallity kicks in" is strong here - showing that even when you work hard, even when you devote your life to something, you still might fail, not suceed. But as the quote from Kamogawa Genji goes(this is not listed as a spoiler, so you can read it if you want):"Not everyone who works hard is rewarded, however all those who succeed have worked hard"
Animation is good, always getting better, some may say that its a little to old, but it's enjoyable and fitting for boxing, shonen anime. And believe me, animation is the last thing that will make you fall in love with this anime. Character design is probably the weakest link in animation, but hey, this is boxing anime, there aren't many pretty faces and cuties in it. The only problem that I had with character design is probably their built. Ippo is Featherweight category in boxing, but he has really strong muscles and he looks more middleweight or even heavyweight than featherweight. If you are reading manga, you won't see that, let's call it "mistake".
Fights are great. In every aspect - animation, sound, maintaning or retaining the atmosphere, they are fantastic. Depending on situation, they will either make you cry from enjoyment or laughter, quivering of excitement, imitate moves of the boxers, throwing fist together with them, shouting:"That's the way! Kick him! Wuhaaa!" or they will just make you cry, because fight is over, and someone lost. But we all know that in boxing there is only one winner and one loser, and sometimes, even when Ippo is fighting, you may cheer for his opponet. Or both of them. And that just shows how terrifyingly great charasterisation in this anime is.
Sound is doing a great job, from voice acting to soundtrack, oppenings and endings. Soundtrackst always make the match much more interesting and they are always perfectly matched with situation. Soundtracks simply take epic fights on a whole new level of epic, epic level you never seen before.
Unforgettable story of growing up - becoming a man, becoming a boxer. It's not an easy task, but it's achievable, and Hajime no Ippo is doing it in a such great, inspirational and emotional way, that I'm not afraid to say that this anime can really change you. In a positive way of course, on every possible way - be that your view on the world, approach to problems, be it your new motivation for daily basis, achieving dreams - Hajime no Ippo is anime capable of doing great things, on screen and in viewer's heart.
