Hajime No Ippo is a Japanese manga series and anime considered by many as one of the greatest of all time. It’s a boxing-themed show written and illustrated by George Morikawa. It has been serialized since 1989, and its anime adaptation ran from 2003 to 2014. It suddenly stopped, but recent rumors say that it’s coming back for a fourth season.
Plot
Ippo Makunouchi was a quiet high schooler who couldn’t make friends since he was usually helping his mom manage their family fishing charter business. Because of this, he is often a target for bullies.
When he was being beaten up by goons, a passing middleweight professional boxer intervened and took the wounded Ippo to the Kamogawa Gym for treatment. They attempted to cheer him up by allowing him to express his anger on a sandbag.
That’s how they saw the young man’s potential in boxing. Following that incident, Ippo gave the predicament a lot of thought and decided that he wanted to pursue a professional boxing career.
Manga
Since October 11, 1989, the manga has been serialized in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine. It has been printed in the publication for almost 30 years, with the 1000th chapter published in December 2012.
In 2021, it was the eighth longest-running manga series in Japan, with over 1300 chapters produced. Kodansha has divided the chapters into separate tankobon volumes.
For the first time in its 33 years of activity, it was officially confirmed in 2021 that the series would be released digitally, beginning July 1 of that year. This is also what sparked the speculations for the anime’s season four.
Anime
Hajime no Ippo is a 75-episode anime TV series directed by Satoshi Nishimura and presented by Madhouse, Nippon Television, and VAP. It aired on Nippon TV on October 4, 2000.
Kohei Kiyasu voiced the protagonist of the show. Koyama Rikiya, Fujiwara Keiji, Utsumi Kenji, Takagi Wataru, and Tamara Yukari are also part of the main cast.In North America, Geneon Entertainment licensed the first series in 2003 and issued it under the title Fighting Spirit.
The first season aired from October 3, 2000, to March 27, 2002. It came back with a season two on January 6, 2009, until June 30 of the same year. Season 3 was from October 5, 2013, up to March 29, 2014. Now, season four of the series is the main topic. Is it real?
Season 4 Update
Fans have a great chance of seeing the comeback of the show on various streaming services very soon. That’s because its season four is officially confirmed. However, no official additional statement has been released to the public.
There’s no information as to who will be in it and when it will air. There are also no posters or trailers yet. It may take months or years for it to premiere.
An anime with a status like this needs to take its time to bounce back. Still, many experts believe that Hajime no Ippo season 4 will be out by the end of 2023.
