However, after a week of tough training, involving nightly hours, Ippo manages the technique in the nick of time. Therefore, he challenges Ippo to catch 10 falling leaves from a tree simultaneously after a week of training, fully convinced that Ippo would fail, Takamura jogs away as he continues his roadwork. However, Takamura felt that he couldn't outright refuse Ippo, especially since his feat of punching the sandbag much harder than anybody else in the gym (except for Takamura). When he conveys this message to Mamoru Takamura, he gets verbally reprimanded: Takamura thought Ippo was taking professional boxing too lightly. After that incident, Ippo gave the situation a lot of thought and decided that he would like to begin a career as a professional boxer. It was then that they had their first glimpse into Ippo's talent for boxing. After Ippo awoke to the sounds of boxers training, the boxer who saved him, Mamoru Takamura, tried to cheer Ippo up by letting him vent his frustrations on a sandbag. One day, when these bullies gave him a rather serious beating, a middleweight professional boxer who was passing by stopped them and took the injured Ippo to the Kamogawa Gym ( 鴨川ボクシングジム, Kamogawa Bokushingu Jimu), owned by retired boxer Genji Kamogawa, to treat his wounds. Because he kept to himself, a group of bullies led by Umezawa got into the habit of picking on him. Ippo Makunouchi was an extremely shy high school student, unable to make friends due to always being busy helping his mother run their family fishing charter business. Main article: List of Hajime no Ippo characters In 1991, Hajime no Ippo won the 15th Kodansha Manga Award in the shōnen category. It was re-licensed by Discotek Media in 2020, including the television film and the OVA.Īs of November 2019, the manga had over 96 million copies in print, making it one of the best-selling manga series. In North America, the first series, including the television film, was licensed by Geneon in 2003, which released it under the name Fighting Spirit. A third series Hajime no Ippo: Rising aired from October 2013 to March 2014. A second series titled Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger aired from January to June 2009. A television film and an original video animation (OVA) were released in 2003. It follows the story of high school student Makunouchi Ippo, as he begins his career in boxing and over time obtains many titles and defeats various opponents.Ī 76-episode anime adaptation produced by Madhouse aired on Nippon TV from October 2000 to March 2002.

It has been serialized by Kodansha in Weekly Shōnen Magazine since October 1989 and collected into 132 tankōbon volumes as of September 2021. 'The First Step') is a Japanese boxing-themed manga series written and illustrated by George Morikawa.

Hajime no ippo manga trainer