"Hajime No Ippo" by George Morikawa by Smarty& Bubble #Manga Probably the Work I Most Appreciated of This Kind Is Being Tackled

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"Hajime No Ippo" by George Morikawa by smArty& Bubble #Manga Probably the work I most appreciated of this kind is being tackled. I'm not going to lie to you, after it was read, I had a furious desire to box! In this boxing manga, we find the archetype of shōnen, a hero who knows nothing about the sport but discovers a passion for it. Blessed with essential skills for boxing, without being a genius, this manga highlights work and perseverance to achieve personal goals, a certain life lesson in itself. Ippo, a schoolboy who was abused at school, meets Takamura Mamoru, a boxer at the Kamogawa club, who comes to save him from his massacre by thugs on the banks of a river. Ippo passed out during his intervention and Takamura took him to the club, where he discovered boxing, while teaching him to hit in a punching bag. This is where our hero will begin his ascent to the highest levels of the boxing world with a question in mind that will push him to push his limits and always get up, "What does it mean to be strong? ». Ippo is based as much on the fights in the ring as on the crazy adventures of the members of the boxing club. Unlike an Ashita no Joe by Asao Takamori and Tetsuya Chiba or a Riku-Do by Toshimitsu Matsubara, much darker in their intrigues and universes with characters with unenviable backgrounds, we have here a manga with an explosive mix of humour and bloody fights where we learn with our hero the basics of boxing, from live to uppercut via jab and hook. An atypical but seductive graphic style. A series still in progress, available from Kurokawa Publishing, which now has 109 translated volumes (compared to 123 in Japan). George Morikawa is the mangaka behind this work first published in 1990 in Shōnen Jump. Throughout these 29 years of publications, the graphic progression is very marked. It is difficult to recognize the pencil stroke of the first chapters in the current drawings. Originally, rather sketchy and almost caricatural in the faces and their expressions, one could have thought of a work of humour. Over time, the whole work has become more fluid, the fights, the rhythm, the suspense and the design of the characters have evolved, giving way to a more precise and mature drawing, more serious, which better suits the direction taken by the work. The somewhat zany and approximate side of the first chapters was abandoned during the fighting scenes and is only used outside the ring, except for some caricatured fights that serve as a transition between major fights. You could almost feel the author's need to take some crazy breaks to relieve the pressure! The serious/comedy mix convinced me personally, and George Morikawa is responsible for the unique and highly recognizable facial expressions. From an anime point of view, 3 seasons and several films are available to date. 3 seasons that I strongly recommend, because we find the heavy atmosphere of the fights with uncertain results of this manga with an exceptional graphic quality, there is clearly a match with Kuroko's Basket for my part. "Not everyone who works hard is rewarded. However! All those who succeeded worked hard!" A little grain of sand in the gear. Despite all these qualities, it is a manga that pays for its length and age. Little by little, we lose the original essence of the work. Of course, the battle/humour mix still works and Morikawa still has some good ideas, but for about fifty chapters now, we don't really know where the author is going with this, what he wants to show, does he know it? What is certain is that many fans were disappointed with the turn taken by the show and after a long crossing of the desert, the ray of hope that will restart the show as at its peak seems to be on the horizon! In the meantime, you already have 109 volumes of pure happiness! By Matthieu Morisset Hajime No Ippo by George Morikawa 109 volumes (from 12 years old)

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