About the Mangaka

Morikawa Jyoji is another mangaka I couldn’t find anything out about. If you have any info please use the Contact Me page at the top and let me know.

About the Manga

Ippo is awesome, no that’s not doing it justice, Ippo is beyond awesome!!

Sadly it’s also one of those that will never be licensed, and for several reasons. The largest the size of the series, running at over 83 volumes and still on going, with no signs of it ending. The other problem it faces is the anime version flopped, big time. This according to the licensing company is due to fans not buying it, and fan subs (yeah, they just had to take a dig lol). However the fans have a different reasoning, many claim the series flopped because there was next to no advertising or marketing.

Though personally I think the size of the series is the main problem, long series require a lot of investment, and many companies aren’t that willing to make that investment, especially at the minute.

However, Morikawa creates an exceptional series, the art at times is a bit weird, but mostly its rather good, and he’s exceptional at showing emotions on the characters faces. His script is equally engrossing, he brings the characters to life in a truly exceptional way.

What I found astonishing was that I hate boxing, I’ve always found it uninteresting, yet I find myself loving Ippo more and more. This is due to the way he writes the story. I’ve passed it around to a few friends who don’t like boxing either, and so far none have said they didn’t like it.

Despite this being a manga about boxing, Morikawa doesn’t limit himself to that, he spreads it around equally between the life in the the ring, and the life out of it.

The series follows Makunouchi Ippo who is rescued by Takamura as he’s getting beaten up one day. Ippo is a quiet calm boy who helps run the family fishing business with his mother. We later in the series learn his father died saving friends in a shipping accident. However because of this he’s always being bullied and beaten up, he just bears it all.

One day Takamura comes along as he’s getting beaten up and rescues him, and introduces him to boxing. However, it has an unexpected effect, when Ippo returns saying he wants to become a pro-boxer. Thinking that Ippo is looking down on boxing Takamura sets him a very hard task, to catch ten leaves in his hands.

A week later Ippo figures it out and goes one better, catching all ten in one hand. Takamura takes him to the gym, but when the Coach sees Ippo he’s not impressed, and tells him to have a sparing mach with Miyata. The end of the spar leads to Ippo and Miyata becoming rivals, and Ippo beginning his road to becoming a boxing pro.

The first arc of the series follows Miyata and Ippo as they head towards a showdown at the Eastern Rookie King Final. I don’t like boxing, yet I enjoyed following the characters as they train and grow, especially Ippo. Latter when the love interest is introduced it gets even better.

I read a few other boxing manga, just to compare them, and none of them had the good blend that Hajime no Ippo does. While we may get a volume or two devoted to a single match, we get several volumes leading up to it dealing with the training which is awesome. Ippo doesn’t just become super powered, we get to see him training hard, learning all his moves, and follow along as he puts in all the effort needed.

While Ippo is the lead, it’s also inter-spaced with other characters matches, such as Takamura in first his national, then his world title matches. Aoki and Kimura also get a share in the series, though not as much. They’re used more as hooks for the Ippo progression. Itagaki arrives later on and becomes the final part of the gyms main characters.

The love interest for Ippo is Kumi, however things don’t go smoothly due to her brother being one of the fighters Ippo has to fight, and due to his personality.

In the ring Ippo is a demon, he goes through his opponents like a hot knife through butter. However even the matches are full of character development, it isn’t just Ippo hitting away. He struggles, learns, and grows and finally overcomes to win. His saying is that whenever he steps into the ring, he’s the challenger, even after winning the title he sees himself as the challenger.

Yet outside of the ring he’s same old quiet, caring young boy he always was. Helping out at home as much as possible. This personality is another wall he and Kumi need to overcome to move forward in their relationship. He’s terrified of losing her friendship, so doesn’t press the matter, despite her waiting for him.

Though I have to admit the lack of development in their relationship is rather annoying, as a fan, because no matter how slow you are, given the time that’s gone by in the series, they should have moved on a little.

It’s rather funny in a way, since as time goes by we end up with a small harem of girls after Ippo.

The frustrating thing in a way is that I can see this running for another eighty volumes easily. Part of me would love this, but a part of me thinks it needs to be slowly brought to a close now. Ippo is progressing rather rapidly through the ranks and is close to being able to go for a world title match. Long series aren’t necessarily bad, but if they go on for to long then they tend to loose pace and become bogged down. While this hasn’t happened to Ippo yet, I can see it happening.

This series easily goes into my Essential Read List, without question!!.