The Coach's Crisis is Round 68 of the Hajime no Ippo anime, which is the adaptation of Jōji Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo series.
Details[]
- Characters Introduced: Nefuma Ozca, Boy Allade, Takaaki Itō
- Locations Introduced: Rabbit Courier
Summary[]
When the event starts and semi-finals arrive, Kimura wins against Nefuma Ozca after landing a right counter and then hitting him with a barrage of punches at the corner until the referee stops the match. Then, Aoki wins against Boy Allade after landing a Frog Punch. then hitting him with multiple punches at the corner until Allade's corner throws the towel. In the audience, Mari introduces herself to Ippo, who she claims to be interested in. Kumi and Tomiko congratulate Aoki and Kimura on their wins. Kimura points out Ippo in the audience to Kumi, however, they see Ippo talking to Mari, making Kumi jealous. As the main event begins, the challenger Takaaki Itō is ready in the ring, thinking that the story of Takamura knocking out a bear is untrue, champion Takamura walks to the ring in an unique entrance wearing a bear costume given to him by Nekota, shocking the venue. When Takamura takes off the costume, everyone witnesses him having a bear claw mark on his chest. Kamogawa expresses that he did not want to go through with the bear costume but did it because Yagi recommended it. However, Yagi claims to have recommended it because Takamura told him that it was Kamogawa's idea. Before Kamogawa could scold Takamura, the announcer calls for seconds out.
When the match begins, Takamura and Itō attempt to control the pace by using their lefts, dodging each other's punches while moving around in the ring. Takamura begins landing lefts, however the audience is disapproving of Takamura's textbook boxing and not throwing a right. With the left jabs starting to turn into left straights, Ippo realises that Takamura is trying to win using just his left. As the audience continues to complain about Takamura not using his right, Takamura's barrage of lefts crumbles Itō, eventually going down on his knees. The referee signals the end of the match, with Takamura winning the match using just his left and defending his JBC middleweight title for the fourth time. Nekota informs Ippo that Takamura went by an old proverb of "Those who rules with the left, will rule the world." When Takamura admits to Kamogawa that the bear skin costume was a bit much, he offers him to lecture him. Kamogawa, however, can not lecture him due to his incredible performance.
Five days after the event, Ippo, Aoki, Kimura, and Takamura notice that Nekota is still in the Kamogawa gym. When Aoki and Kimura wants to do mitt practice, they note how Shinoda is away from the gym. Nekota then offers to do mitt practice, but they underestimate him due to his old age. When Kimura attempts to do a mitt practice session with Nekota, the gym members become surprised when he was able to keep up with Kimura and make him tired. Kamogawa is impressed with Nekota, wanting to let him stay longer to help with the large amount of new recruits as the gym is short on trainers. As Ippo leaves for roadwork, he meets Kumi and Tomiko outside the gym. Tomiko enters the gym to see Aoki as Kumi stays outside with Ippo. Kumi then goes with Ippo on her bicycle as he does his roadwork. While taking a break, Kumi makes a promise to Ippo to be the first girl to get an autograph from him. On the way back to the gym, Kumi asks why Ippo started boxing. Seeing Ippo unable to answer, she assumes it is because he likes it. They then split ways so that Kumi can buy a sign board and magic marker for Ippo to sign his autograph. At the Kamogawa gym, Ippo meets Mari, who wanted to ask him questions. When asked what match left the greatest impression to him, Ippo answers that it was his match against Date, shocking the reporter. Mari then asks why he started boxing. After Ippo claimed that he was just asked that question earlier, she decided that he didn't need to answer if he was already interviewed about that. Ippo is then pressured into signing his autograph for Mari. Kumi sees this through the window and leaves a "baka" sign outside, which Ippo soon finds, not knowing who put it there.
Fourteen days since Nekota has stayed at the Kamogawa gym, Nekota has become popular with the students, with Ippo informing Kamogawa that Nekota has been doing review meetings after each training session. On the sixteenth day, Kamogawa attempts to do review meetings, but no one comes and regular members have been getting distanced from him, and on the twentieth day, he feels like he is getting displaced in his own gym, wondering if his method of guidance doesn't suit today's boxers. Kamogawa decides to listen in on Nekota doing a review meeting. When Nekota was telling a sensitive story about Kamogawa to the students, Kamogawa stops him, scolding Nekota for using him to get everyone to like him, wanting to throw Nekota in a delivery box and ship him back to the mountains. Nekota asks for mercy as he is jealous of Kamogawa due to him living surrounded by young people living life to the fullest in a city while Nekota is a hermit living alone in the mountains. As Kamogawa feels bad for what he said and offers for him to stay as long as he wants, an express delivery driver from the Rabbit Courier enters the gym to pick up Nekota, as Nekota requested. Nekota gives his farewells to the Kamogawa gym members before going back to the Pension Yoshio, wishing for Ippo to get the JBC featherweight title. Ippo then opens an envelope with tickets to Sendō's JBC featherweight title defence match against Shigeta as Summer ends and Fall comes.
Anime-Manga Differences[]
See also: Anime-Manga Differences
- The Kamogawa gym members and Nekota having a celebration party at the Sugar Ray is removed in the anime.
- Ippo doing roadwork with Takamura and then going to the tree where he did the leaf catching test remembering that he started boxing to find out how it feels to be strong.
Credits[]
Characters are named as they appear in the credits.
Episode Credits[]
| Role | English Name | Japanese | Rōmaji |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screenplay | Daisuke Aranishi | 荒西 大介 | Aranishi Daisuke |
| Storyboard | Toshiya Niidome | 新留 俊哉 | Niidome Toshiya |
| Director | Yoshiyuki Takei | 武井 良幸 | Takei Yoshiyuki |
| Animation Director | Kōichi Horikawa | 堀川 耕一 | Horikawa Kōichi |
[]
| 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 | ||||||||||||||||