Hajime no Ippo: Champion Road

Title:Hajime no Ippo: Champion Road
Fighting Spirit - Champion Road
はじめの一歩 : チャンピオンロード (Japanese)
Overall:Buy
Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Madhouse
R1 License - Geneon (Defunct)
Ippo Makunouchi is the new Featherweight champion of Japan and is now ready for his first title defense. His opponent, the former Jr. Featherweight champion and a medical student, Kazuki Sanada. In addition to this feud, Sanada is being coached by Kamogawa's former rival, Dankichi Hama. What makes things worse is that Sanada works at the same hospital where Kumi is a nurse at and everybody at the hospital wants Sanada to win. Not only does Ippo have to defend his title, he has to reclaim his love.

90 minute TV special
[edit] The ↗Hajime no Ippo franchise:
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Buy 9 9 8 7 8 Ggultra2764 [series:1691#1552]
Continuing off from the TV series, this movie has a look at Ippo's preparations and match for his first title defense. All the elements from the TV show are retained in this movie as we get a look at preparations for the match with Ippo, the inner thoughts of those involved and supporting Ippo in his match, and the brutal nature of being involved in the world of boxing with all its injuries. We do get a decent look into the backgrounds of both Sanada and Hama, Ippo's opponent and the trainer for the match. But compared to other boxers I seen in the TV series, nothing really interested me with the two.

The series also retains some of it's comedy as much of it is focused on Takamura and the guys forcing Ippo to confront his feelings for Kumi. While said scenes were funny, the Ippo-Kumi relationship is still left unresolved, even by the end of the movie.

Much like the Takamura OAV, Champion Road retains the improved artwork and animation quality as the scenery and character designs had better lining and polished colors. Character movements looked more natural and boxing matches were much more thrilling to marvel in this movie thanks to the more fluid animation. Musical pieces were reused from the TV series so don't expect any new music out of this movie

While not exactly perfect in some aspects of the plot, Hajime no Ippo: Champion Road retains the rigorous challenges and pressures of being a pro boxer as the movie continued to delve into Ippo's journey up the ranks of professional boxing.

Last updated Monday, October 13 2008. Created Monday, October 13 2008.
Buy 7 7 6 8 KBanger1 [series:1691#1694]
This TV special takes a look at Ippo's first title defense after defeating Sendo in the first series, Hajime No Ippo. This still holds a lot of the comedy that I had first encountered but not as much since it was a tad more serious. It's more of a look into how Ippo has changed from being a nobody into the Japan's Featherweight boxing champion. There was a few flashbacks with how Ippo began but not to the point where it took up all of the time. This particular sequel is dragged out pretty far since it was one continuous episode (90 minutes long). I certainly believe that this series could span out to another sequel with Ippo gunning for the World title. This little sequel proves that. Unfortunately, it still holds on to the mongoloid looking characters which make me kind of sick to see. However, I'll still let that pass since I like the story a lot.

Last updated Sunday, October 07 2007. Created Saturday, October 06 2007.

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