Episode 64 (Season 1)

Enthusiastic Era
Episode Information
Previous	Burning Youth
Episode	Season 1 #64 (Watch Online)
Next	Kamogawa Corps' Summer
Japanese Title	熱中時代
Romanized Title	Netchū Jidai
Arc	Aoki and Kimura's Delinquent Youth Days Arc
Manga	Round 219 (p.12-19) Round 220 (p.2-19) Round 221 (p.1-19) Round 222 (p.5-16)
Air dates
Japanese	January 8, 2002
English	August 29, 2006
Music
Opening	Tumbling Dice
Ending	Eternal Loop

Enthusiastic Era is Round 64 of the Hajime no Ippo anime, which is the adaptation of Jōji Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo series.

Details

• Characters Introduced: Junichi Hotta, Hiroshi Yamanaka
• Locations Introduced: Barbershop Corydoras

Summary

After Kimura read on the Monthly Boxing Fan magazine that Takamura is affiliated with the Kamogawa gym, e goes there with Aoki. Once they go in, they are beaten by Kamogawa, who tells them to greet every time they go in and that their hairstyles are not acceptable. After Kamogawa throws the duo out, Takamura and Miyata remembers who they are. After getting a haircut at the Barbershop Corydoras, they return to the Kamogawa gym and are greeted by trainer Shinoda who plans to train them. While Aoki and Kimura wanted to be taught how to throw punches to knock down Takamura or guarding, Shinoda orders them to do roadwork, adding that if they can finish the roadwork course in under forty minutes, he will teach them how to punch and guard. While Aoki and Kimura thinks that it would be impossible, they attempt to do it after Takamura taunts them. However, Shinoda timed them and they end up finishing in one hour, three minutes, forty-eight seconds. After two weeks of training, Aoki and Kimura voice their frustrations to each other about how the gym is forcing them to be healthy and not even have time to smoke. Two months later, Shinoda compliments Kimura on how he is starting to look like a boxer now, and Aoki has learned the straight, which Kimura is surprised about since he is still stuck on jabs. They soon learn the hook and uppercut. Four months later, Aoki and Kimura feels as if they understand boxing now and wonder if they can beat Takamura. Overhearing their conversation, Takamura invites them into the ring for a spar, which they accept. The spar begins and Aoki immediately falls to Takamura's devastating attacks and so does Kimura. They spar against Takamura repeatedly throughout a month while losing every time, however, Takamura is also teaching them as they spar. After two months, they become surprised as they notice that Takamura is sweating and out of breath after their spar, making them fired up. Realising how much they have improved, they keep on training even harder so that they can at least land a punch on him. One day during another spar, Kimura is finally able to graze Takamura's face. Aoki and Kimura ended up losing again that day, however, they feel as if this is exciting. After a total of eight months training at the gym, they are both informed by Shinoda that they have the chance to have a debut match as openers. Hesitant at first, they accept to do it. The day of Aoki's and Kimura's match, they arrive to the Kōrakuen Hall. Takamura and Miyata arrive as well to watch their matches. At the waiting room Aoki tells himself how easy it would be, based on the appearance of the fighters in the room. His leg however, does not to shaking, indicating how nervous he is. The first to fight is Kimura, who is fighting against Junichi Hotta, who is also having his debut match. Kimura gets in the ring and is overwhelmed by the pressure, allowing his opponent to get close and knock him down with a left hook as he didn't know what to do when the gong sounded. Kimura gets up but is unable to move, due to the pressure of being in the pro ring. While Shinoda tries to shout out advice, Kimura is unable to hear him. Aoki and Takamura arrive to the ringside and learns from Shinoda that Kimura seems to be unable to listen and isn't on solid ground. When Takamura yells out to Kimura, asking if he reverted back into a pervert who plays with his balls. Kimura responds back, yelling that it is Aoki who did that. Kimura starts remembering the advice Takamura told him during their spars about how he as speed and shouldn't force an exchange. Kimura begins using footwork and dodging his opponent's punches. Kamogawa realises that Takamura triggered Kimura into fighting back. As Kimura dodges more punches, he notices how out of breath his opponent is and that while he must have trained hard, he never fought a monster like Takamura. After hitting his opponent with a left jab, he gets hit by a left jab, but he thinks that Takamura's punches hurt worse. As his opponent begins throwing a left, Kimura thinks of how slow his opponent is, and counters his punch with a right straight, sending him down. Kimura wins by a first round knockout and becomes overwhelmed by the feeling of the audience congratulating him. As Kimura bows to the audience as thanks, he wonders when the last time he bowed his head to others and really meant it. He remembers always trying so hard to look cool and looked down on people, thinking it was okay back then. He never thought he'd graduate properly and maybe meet up with old friends to say that he also "settled down" and live a boring life if things stayed the way they were. After Aoki wins his debut match against Hiroshi Yamanaka with a left uppercut after getting hit many times, he celebrates in the ring. Kimura believes that they can't give up boxing now. Outside Kōrakuen Hall, they begin talking about how unreal the sensation of winning is. They reflect on how they got there and despite not wanting to admit it, they come to the conclusion that they owe it all to Takamura. Knowing that without meeting him their lives would be worse, they attempt to thank him once they see him but his usual arrogance reminds them how much they dislike him. They promise to get revenge for all he has done to them and, they leave. Back in the present, Ippo asks the duo how it was when they actually hit Takamura for the first time. Their reactions make it obvious that they have not and Takamura begins teasing them. Aoki and Kimura beat Ippo but are interrupted by Reiko, who was regained consciousness and begins moving again.

Trivia

• The Tokyo Dome in the background erroneously has "TOYO DOME" on the building.

Anime-Manga Differences

See also: Anime-Manga Differences

• The anime adds a scene of Shinoda introducing himself to Aoki and Kimura and ordering them to run a course in under forty minutes to be taught on how to punch and guard.
• The anime adds a montage of Aoki and Kimura training for two weeks.
• In the manga, Aoki and Kimura talking at night in a park happened after three months of training at the gym. In the anime it is after two weeks.
• In the manga, Aoki and Kimura's first spar against Takamura happened after three months of training at the gym. In the anime, it happened after four months.
• In the manga, Aoki was bleeding from his mouth after being beaten in the first spar. In the anime, Aoki is drooling from his mouth.
• In the manga, after the first sparring session, Aoki had a cloth over his mouth, and both were unconscious. In the anime, both are conscious, Aoki has no cloth over his mouth, and Kimura has less amounts of blood from his mouth compared to the manga.
• Aoki and Kimura asking Yagi for them to have an official match against Takamura is removed in the anime.
• In the manga, when Shinoda tells Aoki and Kimura that they have a match set up for them, he details that they would be openers for the JBC bantamweight title match. In the anime, Shinoda just tells them that they would be openers.
• In the manga, Kimura won against Junichi Hotta in the second round. In the anime, he won in the first round.
• Aoki and Kimura celebrating in the waiting room, Shinoda complimenting Aoki and Kimura, Miyata congratulating their victory, and Aoki giving his signature to a fan is removed in the anime.

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 Epcar
Masaru Aoki	Wataru Takagi	高木 渉	Takagi Wataru	Jim Taggert
Tatsuya Kimura	Keiji Fujiwara	藤原 啓治	Fujiwara Keiji	Grant George
Ichirō Miyata	Tomokazu Seki	関 智一	Seki Tomokazu	Jason Palmer
Trainer Shinoda	Seiji Sasaki	佐々木 誠二	Sasaki Seiji	David Lodge
Referee	Shōji Izumi	泉 尚摯	Izumi Shōji	Edward Zilla
Trainee	Shigeomi Yamaguchi	山口 重臣	Yamaguchi Shigeomi
Audience	Satoshi Taki	滝 知史	Taki Satoshi

Episode Credits

Role	English Name	Japanese	Rōmaji
Screenplay	Daisuke Aranishi	荒西 大介	Aranishi Daisuke
Storyboard	Sumio Hiratsuka	平塚 住雄	Hiratsuka Sumio
Director	Atsushi Takahashi	高橋 敦史	Takahashi Atsushi
Animation Director	Daisuke Yoshida	吉田 大輔	Yoshida Daisuke