Inspirational...

Written by stevodevo on October 3, 2011 at 12:01 PM

I remember watching 'Rocky' as a kid and when it was over both me and my brother immediately grabbed our boxing gloves, ran outside, and started pounding the crap out of each other!

Well, I'm not a kid any more but this anime has the same effect! This is one of the few anime series that I've found myself up off the couch cheering as I'm watching - don't laugh! Watch the first 16 episodes and you'll have a hard time not doing the same thing.

This was one of the first 'long' series my wife and I watched together many moons ago and we are currently in the process of rewatching it. It still holds up as one of the most exciting, heart-pounding anime we've watched together.

Technically the animation, although dated, is very well done. The artwork itself is fairly bold and simplistic but the animated fight sequences (matches) are amazingly fluid and do an outstanding job of portraying the physicality and emotion of fighting.

Since this is a longer series there are several OP and ED pieces, which, while I'm not particular about all of them, several are great and definite stand-outs. The background music is excellent and I love the 'Rocky-esque' trumpet fanfare whenever Ippo wins a match!

There is tons of humour in this series as well as many emotional moments so you'll be swinging the pendulum of emotions. I thought this was particularly well portrayed from an athlete's perspective as the characters remind me of several of my cousins who wrestled in the NCAA level - tough guys, but so emotional! They cry just as quickly as they laugh!

I've noticed that there's an English dub version available and I've since seen episodes in both English and the original Japanese w/subs. Let me say, I enjoy a good English dub but this series should be watched in the original Japanese. No offense to the English dubbers, but on this one they just couldn't capture the flare and emotions of these characters (Takamura!)...

Overall, whether you enjoy 'sports' anime or not, this series is not to be missed!