Episode 18 (Season 2)

Extreme Weight Loss
Episode Information
Previous	Wild Child
Episode	Season 2 #18
Next	Critical Situation
Japanese Title	極限の減量
Romanized Title	Kyokugen no Genryō
Arc	Battle of Hawk Arc
Manga	Round 371 (p.2-4, 6-19) Round 372 (p.1-19) Round 373 (p.1-19)
Air dates
Japanese	May 5, 2009
Music
Opening	Hekireki
Ending	8AM

Extreme Weight Loss is Round 18 of the Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger anime, which is the adaptation of Jōji Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo series.

Details

• Locations Introduced: Misawa Boxing Gym

Summary

At the Kamogawa gym, Ippo, Aoki, and Kimura look at the match poster for the "BATTLE OF HAWK" event. Kimura noticed that Ippo's opponent, Yi Yon-su is a Korean. Ippo mentions that Yi seems strong since he just recently came to Japan, but was able to become fifth rank in the JBC immediately. Takamura enters the gym and is pleased by the look of the match poster. He notes how every time he sees it, he can see the sight of him wearing the belt. Takamura realises that losing weight will be hard, so he came up with an idea: shave his pubes off to take off about 10kg (22ib). Noticing that Aoki's eyebrows almost looks like Hawk's Takamura gets an idea to shave Aoki's eyebrows to make it look even closer to Hawk's. Takamura ends up shaving both eyebrows too much, making Kimura compare him to a maro (麿, person with thin or shaved eyebrows). Takamura then ends up completely shaving off both his eyebrows, making Aoki angry as Takamura, Ippo, and Kimura laugh. Kamogawa enters the gym and wonders what the noise is all about. When he sees Aoki, he doesn't recognise him and thinks he is a new student. When he realises that he is Aoki, he beats him with his cane, thinking that Aoki was trying to scare him. Kamogawa draws eyebrows on Aoki with a black marker, and orders everyone to do roadwork.

During roadwork, as Takamura heard from his sister that they went to his house, Ippo mentions how they wanted to ask him why he started boxing. Takamura answers that he started boxing for one reason: to prove he's the strongest. As the three boxers are unsatisfied by the ordinary answer, Takamura yells at them and throws his towel at them to wipe off their sweat. Takamura mentions how a world title is too much to even dream of for small fries like them, but since they have worked hard and sweated together, he is willing to show them the dream and take their sweat with him to the top of the world. Itagaki joins the group and asks if he can use the towel too, making Ippo happy that he came back. Itagaki notes how he didn't know how to face him, but with the world title match coming up, he thought it would be a shame not to be by his side. As everyone notices Aoki's drawn eyebrows have now smeared after he wiped his face, everyone laughs at him. Takamura is reminded that in the ring and with his gym mates is where he is comfortable and where he belongs. Takamura tells everyone to follow him as he will take them to the top of the world.

At the Kamogawa gym, Ippo spars against Itagaki, downing him after landing multiple punches. Aoki switches with him, and Kimura tells Itagaki that he should use his footwork more since he should be faster than Ippo. Itagaki claims that the speed Ippo closes in with is incredible, as he catches him before he even has a chance to get away. Ippo wins his spar against Aoki by knocking him out of the ring. As Itagaki sees that Ippo is in good shape three weeks before the "BATTLE OF HAWK" event, Kimura points out that the real problem is Takamura, who is visibly exhausted from his weight control. Kamogawa tells Takamura that he has to sweat more, since once he hits his stamina limit, that's when he will really start to take the weight off. While Itagaki is amazed by Takamura, Aoki and Kimura note how the hard part is just starting, since his natural weight is close to 90kg (198ib) (heavyweight), so he has to drop 20kg (44ib) to make it to junior middleweight. Kimura adds that it is almost unheard of for Japanese people to be in the heavier weight classes, and the competition in them is really fierce. Aoki claims that Takamura had to wait a long time for this chance, so he has to make sure he can capitalise on this opportunity. At Takamura's house, Kyōka brings Takamura fruit and soup. Takamura mentions how she and Suguru hasn't changed at all. Kyōka believes Suguru is worried about him in his own way, and states that Wataru is excited about cheering for him. Takamura claims that he will get his family tickets for the match. As Kyōka leaves, she hands Takamura dried shiitake, mentioning that it will feel like he is eating something and draw out his saliva, helping out his weight control.

Later, Takamura does roadwork with Kamogawa following him while riding on a scooter. While taking a break, Kamogawa thinks about how weight control has been harder than ever due to how close the previous and upcoming matches are, believing it to be admirable that he hasn't complained at all. Takamura asks Kamogawa if he received any intel on Hawk. Kamogawa claims that even though the match is close, Hawk is only working up a light sweat. Takamura believes that he has his way and Hawk has his as well. He describes being inside the ring makes him feel great and is what makes him feel alive, and he will never lie about boxing. Kamogawa hits Takamura for trying to sound sensible as it feels disturbing to him. Kamogawa and Takamura remember the night that they met, where Kamogawa stopped him from further injuring someone. Kamogawa mentions how he believed at that time that he could make it this far and take a world title. Kamogawa thinks that there is no way that Takamura can understand how he felt when he found a perfect specimen that needed no refinement. Kamogawa remembers that after seeing Takamura win his pro debut match, he knew that he could take him to places he'd only dreamed of. Kamogawa apologises to Takamura for not making a world title match at his natural weight class for him sooner. Takamura tells him that it is alright, as he will go from the junior middleweight world title match and then make his way up one weight class after the other in a six weight class conquest, and he will give his first belt to him. Kamogawa then gives Takamura dried shiitake as a gift. Later, when Takamura goes to the Kamogawa gym, he receives multiple paper bags full of dried shiitake from his gym mates. Takamura returns home with heaters on and using the dried shiitake to dehydrate himself.

Takamura weighs himself and sees that he is at 75kg (165ib), meaning he has 5kg left to go. Later, at the Kamogawa gym, as Takamura punches the sandbag, his gym mates notice that his punches don't sound impressive or sharp anymore. Kimura notes that Takamura is at the peak of exhaustion from his weight control. Kamogawa points out that Takamura's skin is so dried out that it feels like it might tear apart. He adds that he used up all the extra moisture in his body, so the rest comes down to chipping away at flesh and bone. When Takamura goes home and weighs himself, he sees that despite all the exercise he did, his weight didn't go down. The next day, Takamura does mitt practice with Kamogawa and roadwork, making his weight go down 1kg with 4kg left to go. Takamura pours down the soup Kyōka left him into the sink as he couldn't have any liquids. He tries to chew on the dried shiitake, leading him to notice that he doesn't have anymore saliva left.

The next day, at the Kamogawa gym, as Kamogawa was worried that Takamura was overworking himself, he tries to get him to stop punching the sandbag, but Takamura warned him to not touch him because he doesn't know what he would do to him. When Takamura sits down, Itagaki attempts to calm him down with a pun, telling him to "shh-" then hits his head while saying "-sukon" (シスコン, siscon, short for "sister complex"). As Takamura walks away, Aoki and Kimura beats a confused Itagaki up as they tell him that he should be glad he is not dead. Ippo wonders what effects weight control does to someone's mind since he never had to do weight control before. Kimura explains that a short temper is the first side effect, as a person gets tense when they are hungry. He adds that in the first week, they want to eat something like ramen, steak, or curry rice very badly until they stop thinking about food entirely. He adds that they will then start craving liquids with flavour such as cola and juice until they only think about water. He further explains that it is around that time that it feels like their nerve endings are fully exposed since they've lost so much weight and feels like they've completely worn away. He adds that he hasn't experienced the insane weight control that Takamura is under, where the effects on his mind is something they can't even imagine. That night, at Takamura's house, Takamura tries to sleep, however, he starts hallucinating as he hears voices.

With a week before his match, Hawk arrives in Japan at the New Tokyo International Airport with women. As reporters ask him for a message to Japanese boxing fans, Hawk answers that he just came to enjoy the "local delicacies". Takamura weighs himself and has 2kg left, growing more agitated as he looks at a picture of Hawk and wanting to kill him as he feels it is his fault he has to struggle like this.

Anime-Manga Differences

See also: Anime-Manga Differences

• In the manga, Yagi was selling tickets for the "BATTLE OF HAWK" event outside of the Kamogawa gym, where a large crowd gathered to get them. In the anime, this scene is removed.
• In the manga, when Takamura entered the gym while Ippo, Aoki, and Kimura was talking about the match poster, Aoki and Kimura wanted to talk to him about his family, but Takamura told them to not talk about his family. In the anime, this is removed.
• In the manga, Takamura told Ippo, Aoki, and Kimura that he saw the recordings of Hawk's matches and concluded that Hawk can't beat him. In the anime, this is removed.

Credits

Characters are named as they appear in the credits.

Role	English Name	Japanese	Rōmaji
Ippo Makunouchi	Kōhei Kiyasu	喜安 浩平	Kiyasu Kōhei
Mamoru Takamura	Rikiya Koyama	小山 力也	Koyama Rikiya
Masaru Aoki	Wataru Takagi	高木 渉	Takagi Wataru
Tatsuya Kimura	Keiji Fujiwara	藤原 啓治	Fujiwara Keiji
Manabu Itagaki	Daisuke Namikawa	浪川 大輔	Namikawa Daisuke
Kyōka Takamura	Kikuko Inoue	井上 喜久子	Inoue Kikuko
Coach Kamogawa	Kenji Utsumi	内海 賢二	Utsumi Kenji
Bryan Hawk	Akio Ōtsuka	大塚 明夫	Ōtsuka Akio
Unknown	Satoru Inoue Chikara Ōsaka Katsunori Kobayashi Ayaka Shimizu	井上 悟 逢坂 力 小林 かつのり 清水 彩香	Inoue Satoru Ōsaka Chikara Kobayashi Katsunori Shimizu Ayaka

Episode Credits

Role	English Name	Japanese	Rōmaji
Screenplay	Fumie Muroi	室井 ふみえ	Muroi Fumie
Storyboard	Masayoshi Nishida	西田 正義	Nishida Masayoshi
Director	Fujiaki Asari	浅利 藤彰	Asari Fujiaki
Animation Director	Takuji Abe Masaki Hinata Mutsuaki Murata (Assistant)	あべ たくじ 日向 正樹 村田 睦明	Abe Takuji Hinata Masaki Murata Mutsuaki