Episode 4 (Season 1)

Shadow Boxing
Episode Information
Previous	Tears of Joy
Episode	Season 1 #5 (Watch Online)
Next	3 Months to Counter
Japanese Title	シャドー ボクシング
Romanized Title	Shadō Bokushingu
Arc	Early Days Arc
Manga	Round 5 (p. 7-19) Round 6 (p. 3-19)
Air dates
Japanese	October 24, 2000
English	July 6, 2004
Music
Opening	Under Star
Ending	Yūzora no Kami Hikōki

Shadow Boxing is Round 4 of the Hajime no Ippo anime, which is the adaptation of Jōji Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo series.

Details

• Misc. Introduced: Shadowboxing, Mitt Practice

Summary

Ippo arrives outside the Kamogawa gym, he then meets Aoki and Kimura, who teases him. Ippo enters the gym and is greeted by Yagi, who gets interrupted by Aoki and Kimura. Aoki and Kimura brings Ippo to the room next door and tells him that they'll teach him the basics of boxing. Before they go down stairs, Takamura sees them and states that he will train Ippo, as Takamura, Aoki, and Kimura fight, Kamogawa appears and orders everyone to train and that he will be the one to train Ippo. Kamogawa and Ippo starts mitt practice, Takamura watches and points out that Kamogawa is using unpadded mitts to produce a better sound and feel when punched and that he is also positioning the mitts in a way that helps a boxer's punch angle. As Ippo does mitt practice, Kamogawa says that if Ippo's punches hit an opponent, like Miyata, they would be in trouble, and that if he keeps training, in three months he would be at Miyata's level. Miyata overheard what Kamogawa was saying and glared at Ippo. Kamogawa continues and says that Ippo only lost because he only knew how to use straights and that if he learns how to use multi-directional punches, he could beat Miyata. Kamogawa demonstrates an uppercut. The next day, as Ippo is rope training, he sees Miyata and trips over the rope, causing him to fall. Kamogawa tells Ippo to get in the ring to learn how to do an uppercut. Kamogawa shows Ippo how to position the body for an uppercut, Ippo does an uppercut as Kamogawa had shown him, but he misses the mitt. That evening, while Takamura, Aoki and Kimura are running, Takamura states that it was a perfect uppercut. The following day, Kamogawa tells Ippo to train by shadowboxing. Not knowing what shadowboxing is, he asks Kimura to tell him how to shadowbox. Kimura demonstrates shadowboxing, Aoki then goes and demonstrates it, they both disagree with each other, they fight and knock themselves out. Ippo then watches gym mates shadowboxing and figures out that they are fighting an invisible opponent. Ippo imagines Miyata, but needs to see how Miyata moves in order to shadowbox. Ippo sees Miyata sparring but didn't see how Miyata knocked his opponent out. That night, Ippo is laying on the floor in the living room at his house imagining how Miyata moves. Hiroko asks Ippo about leaves in a magazine, saying they're his treasure, he grabs them and remembers his leaf training. The next day, Ippo watches Miyata sparring with a gym mate, he focuses on Miyata's footwork. He tries to learn what he would do about Miyata's footwork but fails. Three days later, Ippo watches Miyata spar, he notices how Miyata punches. After school Ippo runs into Umezawa, who tells Ippo to hang out with them, Ippo refuses and runs, Umezawa and his gang couldn't keep up and notices that Ippo is running faster. The next night, Ippo shadowboxes at the gym and finally captures Miyata's shadow.

Anime-Manga Differences

See also: Anime-Manga Differences

• The anime changes the following:
  • In the manga, before Ippo arrives at the gym, Miyazaki at the Makunouchi Fishing Boat talks to Hiroko Makunouchi about Ippo Makunouchi starting boxing. In the anime, this scene omitted.
  • In the manga, when Ippo opens the door to the gym, he arrives by himself and screams his greeting to everyone, and the first person he sees is Genji Kamogawa. In the anime, he arrives with Masaru Aoki and Tatsuya Kimura after meeting them outside and doesn't yell he greeting, and the first person he sees is Haruhiko Yagi.
  • In the manga, Kamogawa is the one who begins training Ippo. In the anime, Yagi was going to train Ippo until Aoki and Kimura decide that they will. They then run into Mamoru Takamura who decides to train Ippo until Kamogawa arrives and trains Ippo.
  • In the manga, Kamogawa wears a plain white shirt and light coloured pants. In the anime, he is wearing a white long sleeved KBG shirt and black pants
  • In the manga, Kamogawa starts training Ippo right away. In the anime, he tells Ippo to change clothes first, which Ippo changes into a KBG shirt..
  • In the manga, jump roping is the first training session, then the second is mitt practice. In the anime, mitt practice is the first, then he does rope training later on.
  • In the manga, unknown gym members comment on Ippo's punches as he does mitt practice. In the anime, Aoki and Kimura are the ones who make a comment.
  • In the manga, Takamura thinks about how Kamogawa is using unpadded mitts. In the anime, Takamura discusses with Aoki and Kimura about he unpadded mitts, as they remember when Kamogawa was using them with them.
  • In the anime, Ippo is exhausted after the mitt practice session unlike in the manga.
  • The mitt practice session lasts longer in the anime than the manga.
  • In the manga, Ichirō Miyata is already in the Kamogawa gym training before Ippo arrives. in the anime, he arrives in the middle of Ippo's mitt practice session and talks to Takamura.
  • In the manga, Miyata glares at Ippo after Kamogawa claims that he could beat Miyata in three months. In the anime, he glares at Ippo after Ippo agrees to train to outdo Miyata. Ippo then apologises to Miyata, unlike in the manga.
  • In the manga, when Kamogawa demonstrates the uppercut, both of his mitts are off. In the anime, one of his mitts are on his hand.
  • In the manga, both the rope jumping, mitt practice, and uppercut training happened in one day. In the anime, it is two days. Ippo does mitt practice and is shown the uppercut by Kamogawa, and then goes home for the night without throwing the uppercut. The next day, Ippo does the rope jumping and throws two uppercuts that misses before going home.
  • In the manga, after Ippo throws a second uppercut, Kamogawa remembers the time when he was watching Éder Jofre in 1965 throwing an uppercut and was amazed, comparing Ippo's to his. In the anime, this scene is omitted.
  • In the manga, Aoki and Miyata spar before Kamogawa tells Ippo that he wants him to shadowbox. In the anime, the spar is omitted, and Miyata spars against an unknown boxer later.
  • In the manga, after Kamogawa leaves, Ippo immediately goes to talk to Miyata to ask about shadowboxing before getting shooed off by Miyata's father, then he imagines Miyata as his shadowboxing opponent.. In the anime, Aoki and Kimura shows him shadowboxing first, then he imagines Miyata as his shadowboxing opponent, and Miyata's father doesn't appear in the episode.
  • In the manga, while training on his shadowboxing, Ippo finally captures Miyata's shadow at the Kamogawa gym during the day. In the anime, he is at the gym at night.

• The anime adds the following:
  • The anime adds a scene of Ippo running to the Kamogawa gym as Aoki and Kimura notice him running by and accidentally punching a bowl of vegetables that someone was carrying.
  • The anime adds a scene when Ippo arrives outside the Kamogawa gym, where Aoki does a kanchō on Ippo to help Ippo relax, and Kimura claiming that boxing champions perform a kanchō on themselves to help them relax.
  • The anime adds a scene of Aoki, Kimura, and Takamura attempting to get Ippo to be trained by them, resulting in an argument until Kamogawa arrives.
  • The anime adds dialog after the mitt practice session where Kamogawa explains that Ippo hit the mitts as long as one round's worth in a match. They then practice for a second round.
  • The anime adds a scene of Miyata talking to Takamura after arriving to the gym.
  • The anime adds a scene of Ippo sleeping and thinking about the training he did and how Miyata looked mad at him.
  • After Ippo misses the uppercut the first time, that evening Takamura, Aoki, and Kimura does roadwork while talking about how it was a perfect uppercut.
  • The anime adds a scene of Aoki and Kimura showing Ippo how to shadowbox.
  • The anime adds a scene of Ippo thinking about Miyata at night.
  • The anime adds a scene of Masahiko Umezawa and his gang trying to chase Ippo.

Credits

Characters are named as they appear in the credits.

Role	English Name	Japanese	Rōmaji	English Voice Actor
Ippo Makunouchi	Kōhei Kiyasu	喜安 浩平	Kiyasu Kōhei	Steve Cannon
Mamoru Takamura	Rikiya Koyama	小山 力也	Koyama Rikiya	Eddie Frierson
Coach Kamogawa	Kenji Utsumi	内海 賢二	Utsumi Kenji	Richard George
Ichirō Miyata	Tomokazu Seki	関 智一	Seki Tomokazu	Jason Palmer
Manager Yagi	Toshihiko Nakajima	中嶋 聡彦	Nakajima Toshihiko	George Z. Cole
Masaru Aoki	Wataru Takagi	高木 渉	Takagi Wataru	Jim Taggert
Tatsuya Kimura	Keiji Fujiwara	藤原 啓治	Fujiwara Keiji	Grant George
Ippo's Mother	Yorie Terauchi	寺内 よりえ	Terauchi Yorie	Joan Carol O'Connell
Masahiko Umezawa	Mitsuaki Madono	真殿 光昭	Madono Mitsuaki	Ron Allen
Takemura	Kōichi Hasebe	長谷部 浩一	Hasebe Kōichi	Edward Zilla
Matsuda	Shin'ichi Namiki	並木 伸一	Namiki Shin'ichi	Terry Roberts

Episode Credits

Role	English Name	Japanese	Rōmaji
Screenplay	Daisuke Aranishi	荒西 大介	Aranishi Daisuke
Storyboard	Nanako Shimazaki	島崎 奈々子	Shimazaki Nanako
Director	Nanako Shimazaki	島崎 奈々子	Shimazaki Nanako
Animation Director	Hiroshi Kōjina	神志那 弘志	Kōjina Hiroshi