The Kamogawa Gym Swings into Action is Round 67 of the Hajime no Ippo anime, which is the adaptation of Jōji Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo series.
Details[]
- Characters Introduced: Akira Shigeta, New Japan Coach, Mari Īmura
- Real Life People Mentioned: Thomas Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Durán
Summary[]
At the Monthly Boxing Fan, Fujii reads an article about Takamura's upcoming JBC middleweight title defence and Ippo's upcoming rematch for the JBC featherweight title, thinking that it is getting harder for him to take his eyes off the Kamogawa gym. Someone gives Fujii a paper with more information regarding the Kamogawa gym, which surprises Fujii and makes him leave for the gym to do an interview after telling his editor-in-chief to carry on the upcoming meeting without him. When the Kamogawa gym members return to the gym and Kamogawa begins to dismiss the boxers, a coach from the New Japan Boxing Gym enters the gym. The coach asks Kamogawa for a sparring session for his boxer, Akira Shigeta, to go against Ippo to gain confidence before fighting Sendō. Ippo recognises Shigeta as the fourth ranked featherweight boxer in the JBC and wants to gain any information he can against Sendō's next opponent. When the spar begins, Ippo quickly has trouble with his timing and gets hit by right jabs. As Aoki and Kimura wonder what is happening, Takamura tells them to look at Shigeta's stance. Ippo then realises that Shigeta is a Southpaw as he is using his right to jab and his stance is mirrored. Aoki, Kimura, and Takamura want to give Ippo advice, but Takamura and Kimura never fought a Southpaw before, and Aoki fought one, but lost in thirty seconds. The spar ends with Ippo beaten up due to inexperience against Southpaws and Shigeta leaving the ring with confidence. Kamogawa notes that Ippo is at peak fatigue and that no matter who he sparred with it wouldn't turn out good, but to use the spar as an opportunity to check out his possible future opponent.
On his way home, Ippo thinks about how he never considered Shigeta being a possible future opponent for the title, and that Shigeta has huge talent. He believes Sendō has never fought a Southpaw before either. When Ippo gets to the Makunouchi Fishing Boat, Umezawa asks Ippo if it is true that Takamura knocked out a bear as it claims on the newspaper. Ippo then spots that it says that Nekota reported the incident. Ippo gets a phone call from Sendō, who asks Ippo if the news about Takamura knocking out a bear is true. Ippo warns him about Shigeta, causing Sendō to assume that he took Ippo down because he is a Southpaw. Sendō claims that he does not need a strategy against Shigeta as he does not care about him, but he has been training to fight against Ippo. He then offers to send Ippo tickets to see him fight Shigeta, however, he tells Ippo that he has to pay for them. When Ippo runs to the Kamogawa gym, he notices that there are a lot of reporters. He finds Aoki and Kimura, who are annoyed about Takamura telling his story about how he knocked out a bear to a group of reporters for an hour and a half. Kamogawa then kicks the reporters out and scolds Takamura as his opponent will be a human and not a bear. Fujii, however, stays in the gym and comments that he thought that Takamura would be nervous about his world title match. Everyone gets shocked at the news but Kamogawa, who wanted to keep it a secret for the time being. As the secret is out, Kamogawa explains to Takamura that the second ranked junior middleweight boxer in the world is scouting for an opponent for a preliminary match to the world title. While the opponent sees Takamura, who is the sixteenth ranked middleweight boxer in the world and champion of a small country, as small fry, if Takamura wins, he would take the second rank placement and the number one contender for the world title. With Takamura fired up and hitting the sandbag, Ippo soon follows, as he realises that the Kamogawa gym might get its first world title match and world champion.
Fujii then introduces Aoki and Kimura to sports writer Mari Īmura. Aoki and Kimura are quickly irritated when she asks for the duo to act naturally and to not give her special treatment because of her gender. When asked about what boxers she likes, she names Thomas Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Roberto Durán, noting that she has no favourites in Japan. She adds that she went to Las Vegas and Mexico many times to watch matches as she is not interested in Japan due to her beliefs that Japanese champions match up to 4 or 6-rounders over there. Despite not being interested in Japanese boxing, she admits that Takamura is an exception. She then recognises Ippo next to Takamura, who she predicts that he is growing and may turn into something, believing to have found interesting subject matter. When Fujii and Mari leaves the gym, Aoki and Kimura are shocked that a woman came into the gym and Takamura ignored her, deducing that it is about the world title announcement. Aoki and Kimura are fired up thinking about Takamura bringing a world title belt to the gym. That night, at the Makunouchi Fishing Boat, Ippo tells Umezawa about Takamura's possible world title match and how Takamura has become completely silent from the pressure.
Later, while Ippo, Takamura, Aoki, and Kimura are doing roadwork, they talk about how the tickets for the upcoming matches have sold out because of the news about Takamura killing a bear is all over the news. Aoki and Kimura hopes to win for their matches in the semi-finals for Takamura's title defence. Takamura claims that when his match begins, everyone will forget about everything that happened, as his entrance alone will rock the Kōrakuen Hall. When the day of the matches arrive, Ippo gets jumped by Hachi outside the Kōrakuen Hall. Ippo then notices Nekota, who is arguing with an employee, trying to get Hachi into the venue despite rules not allowing dogs. As there is no way to bring Hachi in, Hachi is tied to a post outside the venue. As Ippo and Nekota heads to the changing room, Ippo notices Nekota carrying a huge bag, which Nekota claims that Takamura requested it. As Kumi and Tomiko arrive to the venue the latter is worried about Aoki, wondering if he will win. Kumi is sure he will do fine, planning to cheer him on with Tomiko. As Fujii and Mari arrives to the venue, Mari mentions that Takamura claimed that he will fight a match so shocking, it will rock the venue. In the changing room, Takamura, Aoki, and Kimura wait for their matches to begin.
Anime-Manga Differences[]
See also: Anime-Manga Differences
- The anime adds a scene at the Monthly Boxing Fan where Fujii decides to go to the Kamogawa gym to do an interview after receiving information from Mari
Credits[]
Characters are named as they appear in the credits.
Episode Credits[]
| Role | English Name | Japanese | Rōmaji |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screenplay | Kenji Sugihara | 杉原 研二 | Sugihara Kenji |
| Storyboard | Mihiro Yamaguchi | 山口 美浩 | Yamaguchi Mihiro |
| Director | Mihiro Yamaguchi | 山口 美浩 | Yamaguchi Mihiro |
| Animation Director | Shizuo Kawai | 河合 静男 | Kawai Shizuo |
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| Mountain Training Arc | |||||||||||||||||||
| Manga Volumes | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 26 | 27 | |||||||||||||||||
| Manga Rounds | |||||||||||||||||||
| 223 | 224 | 225 | 226 | 227 | 228 | 229 | 230 | 231 | 232 | ||||||||||
| 233 | 234 | 235 | 236 | 237 | 238 | ||||||||||||||
| Anime Rounds | |||||||||||||||||||
| 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | ||||||||||||||||