Not so Secret Santa: Hajime no Ippo

Sixth in line for the Not so Secret Santa Project is the delightful Hajime no Ippo! I took up DonKangolJones's challenge to watch this anime to prove just how manly I am. I watched the 2 movies that were made too. I'm pretty manly!

Hajime no Ippo AKA Fighting Spirit's plot is simple. A boy named Ippo is the target of bulling. He hates that they pick on him but he doesn't know how to change his fate. One day the usual happened but this time he gets saved by someone. This someone just happens to be an up and coming boxer named Takamura. And thus a great friendship was born between the 2 boys and an interest in boxing emerged. Together they work hard to be the best boxers that they can be.

Ippo is a fantastic motivational anime. It takes a lot of work to do anything and this show shows you just how hard those things can be. This particular goal happens to be boxing. I think boxers are some of the most talented and dedicated athletes out there. It's fucking hard to take blows to the head over and over again while throwing a bunch of your own. Then you have to add in watching their weight so that means a very VERY strict diet. There's all kinds of different weight classes: Featherweight, Lightweight, Middleweight, Heavyweight, these are the few I can name off the top of my head not being a super fan of the sport. Ippo was in the Featherweight class where his buddy Takamura is in the Middleweight.

Gotta workout hard to...

...achieve goals!

The animation and music aren't really anything special but they do fit the theme/tone of the show. There's interesting lighting they use when the boxers are fighting each other in the ring that I noticed was used in One Pound Gospel too. It's very angelic like which to me means that they are really trying to glorify the brutal sport. I have no personal interest in boxing but I don't hate it or anything. I'm more of an MMA kind of girl. An even more brutal sport!

The most important person to a boxer is their coach

With the plot being only about making it big in boxing they really had to pull through with having amazing characters. And pull through they certainly did! Every character you wanted to root for. Every character was likable as long as you took the time to get to know them. And know them we certainly got to do. Most anime tell us a pretty alright story when it comes to character background but Ippo just did it so well! I didn't end up having a favourite character because I love them all so much. If I really had to choose one it would probably be Ichiro. I can't explain why I see him a tiny bit above the rest but I just do.

^__^

Overall, manly show is manly men fighting to be the best. I didn't get around to watching Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger to include in this review but be assured it'll appear eventually on here.

These following pictures are just some fun stats that show Ippo's progression during the show. Click to enlarge at your own risk!

* Story 8/10
* Animation 7/10
* Sound 7/10
* Characters 9/10
* Overall 8/10

Getting ready for the Winter Olympics made me dig out this treasure

Ginban Kaleidoscope is about a girl who is a figure skater. She and many other girls compete around the world to be the best. No tournament is as precious to these girls as being chosen to represent their country for the Olympics. Sounds like a simple sports moral booster anime right? Enter Pete Pumps. A Canadian boy who loves to fly planes. Like figure skating is dancing on ice to the girls, he dances in the sky with his plane by doing tricks. Sadly an accident occurred, he crashed and died; just as Sakurano Tazusa was preforming on ice at the Women's Figure skating Olympic series second stage held in Montreal, Canada, she falls down and is knocked into unconsciousness. When she awakens she comes to the startling discovery that she is not alone in her mind. Thus the story begins.

Sakurano Tazusa and her Canadian ghost Pete Pumps.

It's amazing how if you add a supernatural theme to what would have been a boring anime without that, that the show not only becomes watchable but also good as well. Sure there's people out there that probably would have liked seeing a girl try to become the best figure skater in the world without a ghost there to help her along the way, but for me that ghost part is what made this watchable. The hilarious exchange between the two lead characters had me laughing a lot for the most part. Especially when she found out he hated tomatoes! Who keeps than many around them at all times??? Rich or not that was just silly.

So many tomatoes!

For the most part everything about this anime was average. Animation, art and sound were all just "there". Nothing ever stood out. Even during the glitz and glamor of the skating performances it was just had a hazy art style to make it "feel special". Although for the most part when Pete was on screen there was a glow around him which I thought fitted quite nicely because he is a ghost that only she can see. For an anime that was about skating there wasn't as much skating as I would have liked... It seemed that all Sakurano did was lay around in her bed and chat to Pete about her annoyances. He being the main one and reporters being another. They were always hounding her, but then again her tsundere attitude towards everything probably didn't help. Which was a main theme of the show that the committee didn't really like.

She spent a lot of time in bed "talking" to herself

After Sakurano got over her fit of having a ghost in her mind the show got better and Pete was like her personal motivator. She was always confident but always had doubt as well. She wanted to make her dream come true no matter how many haters she had. I can see why she was generally a total bitch to the media. I don't know how people can put up with the constant struggle for a good image among these people that just want to cause drama and make a big deal out of nothing. Most even started spreading their own rumors about her. Mainly love interests which I actually expected. She lives with her coach. I wondered why right from the start but we later found out that her parents were divorced and well that situation is hard on kids.

Reporters are pesky

I think this anime took a lot of features that happens in real life and actually put them into a well written story with a supernatural twist that was believably. From the catty other skaters, to the pain in the ass reporters, Sakurano not only had all that to deal with but a ghost in her head for 100 days. This simple little story gives the viewer hope that if you try hard enough you might be able to achieve your goals and if not at least you tried as hard as you could. I thought the goodbye scene to Pete was very well done as well. We knew from the start of the anime that this day was coming but it didn't hit till that scene. Very well done.

Competitors

This anime for some reason has added to my already excited self for the 2010 Winter Olympics even more. The OP ceremony did enough for that but this was a great pre watch for it! Best wishes to ALL the athletes! Especially the Canadian ones! <3

Gorgeous shot

* Story 7/10
* Animation 7/10
* Sound 7/10
* Characters 8/10
* Overall 7/10