I just found out today haven't been keeping up

Translated from Japanese from Morikawa's account on Twitter @WANPOWANWAN

By the time I was 22, my serialization had already been canceled three times.

My editor encouraged me, saying, “This is your last chance,” and with that resolve, I kept drawing up storyboards and submitting them to serialization meetings for about a year.

That day, while waiting for the meeting's results on the other side of the frosted glass facing the hallway, I heard the editors shuffling out as the meeting ended.

“Just seeing the name George Morikawa makes me lose the will to read it,” came a voice, clear as day.

Without exchanging a word with my editor, who handed back the storyboard with a look of regret, I headed straight to the Kodansha annex and rewrote all 60 pages from scratch.

That voice wouldn’t leave my ears.

I thought, if I’ve failed three times, that kind of evaluation is only natural.

Though I’d rallied myself with the idea of a last chance, I keenly felt that it had already run out.

The sadness outweighed the frustration.

What hurt was being forced to choose between leaving the magazine where that person I admired worked.

I wanted to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him, but I simply didn’t have the strength.

My memory’s fuzzy now, but I think I was crying then.

No matter how much I drew, it wasn’t accepted, and eventually, even in meetings, my storyboards were ignored.

I wanted to keep serializing.

I wanted to get better at manga.

But I just didn’t have the strength.

I didn’t know what to do.

In my head, I kept asking that person over and over.

“What does it feel like to be good at manga?”

“What does it feel like to be… good at manga?”

No one would answer, but I kept asking.

By then, I wasn’t thinking about the storyboard anymore—just that.

I couldn’t think of anything else, so I wrote it just as it was.

“What does it feel like to be strong?”

Nothing else came to me.

If this didn’t work, I’d quit being a mangaka.

With that resolve, I resubmitted the storyboard.

And the serialization was approved.

*Hajime no Ippo* began as a question to that person, and even now, I continue it while still asking.

I always wanted to ask him in person someday, but we got a little close, and it felt too embarrassing to say it out loud.

There were plenty of chances.

*Hajime no Ippo* was my first step as a mangaka, and the start of an eternal conversation with him.

No one will answer anymore, but from here on, I’ll keep asking.

“Chiba-san, what does it feel like to be good at manga?”

Thank you very much.

I know this post isn’t related to Ippo but still thought it’s worth posting.

The legend of sports manga and its rise. I’m sure he inspired many many people out there, Morikawa included.

May he be at peace.

I want this Mashiba when we see him again

I was kind of surprised how the place is located at such an ordinary neighborhood. Got some great memories and souvenirs!

Tomorrow is the official Hajime no ippo event at Korakuen hall in tokyo!

Ill be going, wondering if many else from here will be there - i can speak a little bit of japanese but mostly english ofcourse

Will be taking many pics / vids to post here for everyone who cant make it!

First of all, I don’t want her to die. But I was rereading the manga while I wait for a new chapter and…

In chapters 1250 and 1251, when Miyata visits Ippo by the river, he asks him about his retirement and comes to understand that Ippo stepped away from boxing because of his mom. She is the most precious person in his life, and protecting her seems to mean more to him than continuing his boxing career.

This idea is also reinforced by Itagaki when he explains the situation to the monks.

What do you think about this?

I need to be able to watch the live stream of the Hajime no Ippo event. It's on the Boxingraise website, and they basically only accept credit cards, not debit cards. Would anyone be kind enough to pay for a subscription to that site and stream it to other fans who are interested? Thanks!

i think people didn’t appreciate this enough, aura

Jokes aside the colours are amazing!

Part 1: Tatsuya Kimura's Liberation and Sacrifice

• The Weight Class Move: Realizing that weight control is destroying him just to avoid fighting his best friend, Kimura makes a heartbreaking choice. He leaves Coach Shinohara, moves to another gym, and goes up to his natural Lightweight class. His goal? A final, all-out bout against Masaru Aoki.
• The Weigh-In Quote: Before the fight, Kimura looks Aoki dead in the eye and drops a line that changes everything:

"I will win this. Because after you lose, you still have a loved one who treasures you. But I have nothing else. I will put my entire soul into this single blow."

• The War of Brotherhood: Aoki doesn't take offense. Hearing this, he respects Kimura too much to hold back. He fights with everything he has, unleashing the Frog Punch.
• The Outcome: In a brutal double-down exchange, both crash to the canvas. Aoki spots Tomiko in the crowd and realizes she is waiting for him to come home safe and whole. He smiles—his boxing journey is over, he won in life.But Kimura, driven by pure warrior spirit, stands up. He looks forward, seeing the championship belt not as a prize, but as his transformation into the absolute version of himself. (Later, Aoki visits him and drags him out on a double date—their bond remains unbreakable).

Part 2: The New Ippo – The Grim Reaper of Careers

• The Mental Awakening: After the tragic passing of Coach Kamogawa, Ippo finally realizes his flaw. His old blind loyalty ("I just want to show that the Coach's boxing works") was a form of subconscious selfishness and running from responsibility. Ippo stops overtraining his body and spends his time analyzing the tapes of the greatest boxing legends.
• The Killer Stare: With his physical foundation already perfect, Ippo achieves peak boxing IQ and mental dominance. A cold, terrifying awareness fills his eyes. Opponents watching him become paralyzed with fear just by looking at him. His gaze silently screams:

"Right now, you are looking at the death of your career."

• The Unbreakable Spirit: In his comeback matches, Ippo no longer tanks punches with his face. He dominates strategically. The moment his first "iron" punch lands, opponents fall into immediate despair. Their spirit shatters against his impenetrable will. Ippo wins purely on class, holding back his true form.

Part 3: The Wind God vs. The Boxing God

• The Clash of Deities: Ippo faces the invincible Ricardo Martinez. In this match, Ippo unleashes his ultimate form: The God of Wind. His Dempsey Roll evolves into a surgically precise, inevitable typhoon.
• Ricardo's True Metamorphosis: Faced with Ippo's career-killing stare and iron pressure, Ricardo completely loses his cold composure. He drops his civilized champion persona and returns to his primitive, violent roots—he stops just boxing and goes out to kill.
• The Spiritual Draw: The final bell rings. Both physical bodies collapse to the canvas from sheer exhaustion. But a divine silence hits the arena: everyone sees the massive, unstoppable spirits of both fighters still standing in the center of the ring. Ricardo is locked in his terrifying stance, and Ippo stands opposite him, with the giant shadow of Coach Kamogawa resting his hands on Ippo's shoulders. Neither spirit broke. A perfect, legendary draw.

Part 4: The Final Page

• The Next Weight Class: After this epic battle, Ippo moves up a weight class where his body thrives without weight cuts. He captures the world title there (respecting Takamura's heavy divisions) and cements his legacy.
• The Empty Gym: As an absolute champion, Ippo returns to the quiet Kamogawa Gym. He leaves both world title belts on the Coach's desk. As he walks out, he glances back into the dimly lit hallway.
• The Coach's Echo: Near the very first punching bag from chapter 1, Ippo catches a brief glimpse of Coach Kamogawa. The Coach is smiling, proud, and barks in his classic fatherly tone:

"What are you slacking off for? Get over here and show me your punch!"

• The Last Page of the Manga: A double-page spread. The back door of the hallway is wide open, flooded with bright sunlight. Ippo stands on the threshold with his back to the reader, holding Coach Kamogawa's old boxing glove.But on the foreground, lying on the floor, is that same legendary punching bag—completely ripped off its chains by Ippo's final, greatest punch. A perfect visual metaphor that Ippo has finally grown up, found his answer, and completely outgrown those walls.

How do you guys like this quote for Kimura as the defining theme of this entire journey?

"Even standing at the very edge of my career, I will never lower my hands. To make me give up, you will have to kill me and shatter my spirit."

(Note: Apologies if a similar quote already exists in another anime/manga, but to me, this is the ultimate reflection of Kimura's soul.)

Is it intentional, Wally, that Wally has his own peak yet Sendo most takes it from Martinez? Wally, without needing to have fought Martinez beforehand, was already considered to be at his own peak.

Sendo had climbed Martinez’s peak, after pushing his limits having endured the climb, to face Ricardo at equal terms after having turned the tides, as he hangs at the edge of the cliff.

He is accustomed to scaling to the level of his opponent’s level, ramping throughout the fight. Tanking a lot of punishment like Makanouchi, who differs since he figures a way to beat his opponent, rather than doing the same and amping up his output. Other question might be if he could remain at the top, long term against diverse world class challengers for the championship belt if he were a world champion.

Sendo has suppressed Ricardo’s counters with his wild instincts and the risk of the destructive punching power. Also having limited his right hand with his constant pressure, which made him have limited use of his options and picks his shots to avoid getting his arm injured as a disadvantage.

Yet, think that Sendo having hit the max of being fully amped in adrenaline, while going on a downslide without a second wind and going all out before he hits a threshold, the upcoming rounds he might be going to fight under different conditions from this point forth.

Such as:

-Has Sendo left throwing at a guard surface, has he suffered any recoil? Considering he throws at full output at every shot? One of his biggest strengths being his conditioning.

Yet the durability of the hands, most have a limit of many can land at a tough surface. Especially since it can be affected with a single shot, most opponents either attempt to directly avoid it, or get put down. His smash had been blocked twice, and he threw his left in aiming to land in dual exchanges.

There are examples such as during the “incident” of the spar between Sendo and Martinez, Sendo had thrown with an open fist having knocked down Ricardo, fracturing a finger, against Makanouchi, Nargo, and Gonzalez. Through a span of the fight, he has fractured one of his hands, such as the knuckle drop with his right on Nargo’s temple after finally having success at landing in the eighth, Gonzalez’s forehead in the third-fourth round, and Sendo heavily fractured/broke his right hand and strained his left from continuously trading high-impact blows and smashes with Ippo over the course of the grueling five out of seven rounds. Sendo is currently numb to the pain, not invulnerable to damage. So question if he can keep suppressing Ricardo’s right without consequence.

-After having fully adapted to the motionless jab, it won’t be enough for Ricardo to keep using his left alone, or he will be overwhelmed again, whether Sendo lands on the guard or not, that will still be dangerous either way, it will be worse if it is stretched out for his guard. He will have to change his pattern and take risks to push the momentum as well.

This gives Sendo more opportunities within his preferred range, doubling his odds, to land one out of fifty shots to land it.

But it also accelerates the damage Sendo will be receiving as he slows down, through the accumulation of punch combinations and counters. There is also the fact that the Anti-Ricardo strategy after Sendo intentionally let Ricardo learn the pattern like Gonzalez did Ippo, to break it by using a strategy to react between punches, even if he used a variation Martinez is aware of it, which either Ricardo will avoid countering or it might backfire on Sendo.

So next round is after they reset in the corner break. Which direction will the fight likely go? since it won’t be like the second, third, and the fourth.

Every sports anime I grew up on runs on the same rule: never give up and you win. Ippo is the only one I've watched that actually asks what happens when that rule is wrong.

I made a short video essay (about 5 minutes) on this, do let me know what you think of it

Hey everyone!

I'm wondering if anyone here is planning to watch the Dynamite Glove 2026 event for Hajime no Ippo live in Boxing Raise.

As far as I know, the event is paid and requires a credit card to purchase access. Unfortunately, not everyone has a credit card or can get one, which makes it difficult for some fans to watch the event.

So, if you're planning to watch it and would be willing to share your screen on Discord, that would be amazing! It would give other fans who can't purchase access a chance to enjoy the event too.

It doesn't matter if you speak English or Spanish. I'm Spanish myself, but I'm happy to join either an English-speaking or Spanish-speaking group.

I'd love to watch the event together with other Ippo fans and experience everything live!

If you're interested in sharing your screen or joining a watch party, feel free to comment below or send me a DM.

Thanks, and let's enjoy some Ippo together! 🥊

Good news for Hajime no Ippo fans overseas!

It looks like the official merch from the October 28 event at Korakuen Hall will also be available through an online store after the event!

International shipping is also planned, so fans outside Japan should be able to get their hands on the merch too!

More details will be announced later on the official social media accounts!

Kind of freaky how mashiba is just stuck in a coma limbo