Episode 26 (Season 2)

NEW CHALLENGER
Episode Information
Previous	Please Accept This Bronze Statue
Episode	Season 2 #26
Next	The Strongest Challenger
Japanese Title	NEW CHALLENGER
Romanized Title	NEW CHALLENGER
Arc	Submarine Wars Arc
Manga	Round 416 (p.1-19) Round 417 (p.1-15) Round 418 (p.1-5, 16-17) Round 419 (p.16-19) Round 420 (p.1-15, 19)
Air dates
Japanese	June 30, 2009
Music
Opening	Hekireki
Ending	8AM

NEW CHALLENGER is Round 26 of the Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger anime, which is the adaptation of Jōji Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo series.

Summary

Miyata trains at the Kawahara gym and afterwards, he goes and tells to his father if Kamogawa gym responded yet. Next morning at Kamogawa gym, Ippo takes an interview about his defences. Asking him if he aims higher or has someone who want to beat. The interviewers disappointingly leave with nothing, then Aoki , Kimura and Takamura shout to Ippo of why he didn't tell that he wants to go after Ricardo's belt and take him down. At the same time Yagi comes out, saying that they have matches in spring (Ippo's fourth title defence, Aoki's title match, Itagaki East Japan Rookie King Tournament match and Takamura's world title defence). Everyone got surprised that Aoki has a title match, which he got it by luck. The rankers fell apart and only Aoki left which he is ranked 5th. After Aoki mocked Kimura, they went immediately punching sandbags, and Ippo started training with Kamogawa. Later that night when Ippo was going home, he was talking to himself of what he is after until Wanpo runs on him alone, and behind, Miyata walking towards him and takes him from the shirt, yelling him about not responding to the match. Ippo didn't know anything about it so he ran back to the gym to tell Kamogawa why he didn't respond. Kamogawa gets all angry, shouts at him for reasons that he doesn't understand yet. The next day Ippo tells to Kamogawa that he has speed up the Dempsey Roll, and Kamogawa likes to see what he came up with. The results weren't good, Kamogawa countered him right at the beginning. It was fast but it wasn't powerful, his punches were light. Later at night Kamogawa is speaking to Yagi about Ippo, that he tries to find a way to evolve the Dempsey Roll, and at the same time on Kawahara gym, Miyata tells his father that the Dempsey Roll is weak to counters, and that's why Kamogawa gym has yet to respond. Miyata goes on the roof of their gym saying that Ippo will evolve the Dempsey Roll. Back at Kamogawa, he says that he will challenge modern boxing, and make it to the top. In the end, Ippo and Kamogawa train, and later he goes to the tree where it all started. Kumi watches him throwing some jabs from the path behind him, Ippo says that he will become faster and stronger.

Trivia

• The list of the lightweight division's rankings after Aoki rose to the first rank was partially shown. It showed the second ranker, which was "Yūsuke Tanaka" (田中 雄介) from the "Kitagawa" (北川) gym.

Anime-Manga Differences

See also: Anime-Manga Differences

• The anime adds a scene of Miyata training at the Kawahara gym and asking his father if the Kamogawa gym responded to them yet.
• In the manga, when Aoki was excited to fight in a JBC lightweight title match, he wore Ippo's champion belt. In the anime, this is removed.
• In the manga, Iwao Shimabukuro was interviewed by Fujii and Mari. In the anime, this is removed.
• In the manga, the Kamogawa gym members watched a recording of Shimabukuro's last match. In the anime, this is removed.
• In the manga, the Kamogawa gym members talked about how Ippo is no longer training with his gloves. In the anime, this is removed.
• The anime removed the mention of Jack Dempsey and Fuji Takeshi.

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
Coach Kamogawa	Kenji Utsumi	内海 賢二	Utsumi Kenji
Yagi	Toshihiko Nakajima	中嶋 聡彦	Nakajima Toshihiko
Masahiko Umezawa	Mitsuaki Madono	真殿 光昭	Madono Mitsuaki
Ichirō Miyata	Tomokazu Seki	関 智一	Seki Tomokazu
Miyata's Father	Unshō Ishizuka	石塚 運昇	Ishizuka Unshō
Reporter	Kunpei Sakamoto Toyo Toyota Goblin	坂本 くんぺい 豊田 豊 ゴブリン	Sakamoto Kunpei Toyota Toyo Goburin

Episode Credits

Role	English Name	Japanese	Rōmaji
Screenplay	Sei Moriwaki	森脇 誠	Moriwaki Sei
Storyboard	Kotono Watanabe Jun Shishido	渡邉 こと乃 宍戸 淳	Watanabe Kotono Shishido Jun
Director	Kotono Watanabe	渡邉 こと乃	Watanabe Kotono
Animation Director	Kōji Sugiura Ichirō Uno (Assistant) Fumie Muroi (Assistant)	杉浦 幸次 夘野 一郎 室井 ふみえ	Sugiura Kōji Uno Ichirō Muroi Fumie