George MorikawaCritiques

The conclusion of Makunouchi's match, and Miyata's starting...

And the Woli-Makunouchi fight continues. It's going pretty much like I suspected it would. Curious about how it will end...

Okay, so the Take-Makunouchi fight isn't quite going like it should...

A history lesson...

Honestly, I didn't really care for this volume....

Woli is by far the strangest opponent Makunouchi has had...

Itagaki has an interesting match against a man who previously beat him (and he got help from Mashiba during his training!)
And the whole 'Broccoman' thing is getting on Takamura's nerves... lol.

After the shocking end of the match at the start of the volume, it's more a 'wind-down' story.

Vorg Zangrieff is still fighting in America... And Ippo and Sendou are still watching it on the tv...

The conclusion to Aoki's fight... All things considered, it's a perefect ending to the match. A new goal (opponent) gets introduced for Makunouchi, and Vorg is about to reappear...
This series is brilliant with it's cliffhangers, I always look forward to how the story will continue.

Senpai against kouhai...
Somehow, not the best volume in the series, I fell asleep twice (might have been out of shere exhaustion, but still, I never fell asleep reading Hajime no Ippo before...)

The conclusion of the match between Makunouchi and Yamada, and another summer training camp...

The first part of this volume was painful. In a sad, touching way. And Kamogawa's fight was... wel, painful (I'm trying to find a better word, but just came up empty). I was hoping for the story to get a bit more cheerful, and the magaka must have had the same idea, because we then get to meet Itagaka's family... Too much, really.

Probably my least favourite volume. Get this fight over and done with, please.

How Aoki and Kimura became boxers....

So we finally get a bit of a breather in this volume, but not for long, Takamura is about to fight David Eagle fo a second belt...

Everything is back to normal, and Makunouchi is preparing for his next fight... Looks like it's going to be another good one.

Training in the mountains, bear encounters and backstory on the coach's fighting career...
Good build-up to the Sendou rematch.

Takamura will be fighting for the unified title of the WBA and WBC, but before that we get to watch Mashiba fight in the 'warm-up', then Sendou. Those two have formed an odd friendship, which we've seen before, but now they share a dressing room and take it to a whole new level...

Fighting in a world-class match is on a whole different level as he's used to, but will Makunouchi be able to prevail?

The run-up to Makunouchi's fight with Alfredo Gonzalez, testing the waters to see if he could go for the world title...
It also means he relinquished the Japanese title, so Itagaki and Imai will be fighting over it in the next tankobon.

Not quite the expected outcome, and Ippo has a lot to think about.
Iparticularly liked the last chapter, with Takamura proving to be insightful and helpful in his own strange, harsh way...

A very intense slug-fest, and a really close match. Very thrilling.

Makunouchi is so calm and collected during this fight, it's frightening. He really moved up a level, to world class... But the fight isn't over yet. Who will win and have the opportunity to challenge the title-holder?

Okay, I did not expect what happened in the Itagaki-Imai fight...!
Makunouchi and Gonzalez enter the ring, and I'm looking forward reading the commentaries from Takamura and Date, Mashiba, Sendou and Miyata (yes, they're all there, watching. Again.)

Takamura's title defense. And Sakaguchi gets what he deserves! Miyata laughs, which is probably the most unsettling panel in the whole series ;)
Itagaki has another fight, just before Mashiba. And the way Makunouchi acts around Kumi-chan is cute, but he should finally get it together.
Also, Makunouchi's next opponent is introduced.