Hajime no Ippo: Best Memorial

Hajime no Ippo: Best Memorial's cover.

30th Anniversary of Serialisation Commemorative Publication Hajime no Ippo Best Memorial, (連載開始30周年記念出版 はじめの一歩 メモリアルベスト, Rensai Kaishi 30 Shūnenkinen Shuppan Hajime no Ippo Memoriaru Besuto) is the fifth guidebook that was released to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Hajime no Ippo. It released in September 18, 2019 with 452 pages.

The book has contains 23 colour illustrations, 9 interviews, 13 columns, and small summaries of volumes 1-125.

Round Table

Interview #1 - Birth

Early draft of "Hajime no Ippo" in a high school boxing club setting. Ippo had smooth hair at first.

Jōji Morikawa details his past when he was 23 years old and already had three series cancelled. The editorial department did not want to read his work anymore. Masahiro Nouchi (野内 雅宏), who was in charge of editing at the time, told him that the next challenge of making a manga series would be his last. Morikawa felt hopeless as his serialisation meetings consisted of "The storyboard is just written by "Jōji Morikawa", so I don't want to read it.". Nouchi suggested to Morikawa that he should draw a boxing manga series, knowing Morikawa is a boxing enthusiast. Morikawa admired the mangaka Chiba Tetsuya, and did not want to challenge Chiba's "Ashita no Joe" in the same Weekly Shōnen Magazine. Morikawa refused Nouchi's suggestion, however, Nouchi repeatedly said “Because it is the last, let's compete in the genre you like best.". Morikawa viewed boxing manga as a "sanctuary" that he shouldn't invade. Morikawa, however, decided to go through with Nouchi's suggestion and, instead of drawing a boxing manga in a professional boxing setting, he planned to make a high school boxing club setting.

As Morikawa drew storyboards for a high school boxing club setting, he had a hard time drawing a cool and muddy protagonist. He drew a prototype of Ippo, which had a handsome normal face with thick eyebrows. Nouchi's policy was consistent with the idea that he wanted to draw a story about how bad guys would do their best. At the time, "Meimon! The Third Baseball Club" (名門！第三野球部) was a series on the magazine, and Nouchi suggested for Morikawa to draw his characters with a similar muddy look. Morikawa disliked the thought of a "bad protagonist", viewing it as unbalanced to an artist. Morikawa wanted some special features on the protagonist's face, and Nouchi suggested to give him big ears like Suguru Egawa (江川 卓). Morikawa's decision of giving Ippo thick eyebrows was his own, and at this point this Ippo was close to the current Ippo. Takamura was already a character in this high school boxing club setting, while Aoki and Kimura had different names. Just like "Hajime no Ippo", Ippo was still a passive child. The story would not move unless there was someone like Takamura who influences and leads others. The storyboard of the “Boxing Club Manga" came out, and the editorial department did not respond well.

At that time, Morikawa stayed in an annex of Kodansha and redrawn the storyboard many times every time he made a mistake. Not knowing what to fix anymore, Morikawa talked to Igarashi (五十嵐), the editor-in-chief at the time. Morikawa was told to change it to a professional boxing setting and to challenge Chiba and his Ashita no Joe. About a half a year later, the storyboard for Hajime no Ippo goes through the serial conference. Morikawa showed Igarashi and, despite another series that was highly evaluated in the department going through, Igarashi said that he wanted to see what happens when Morikawa's series gets drawn professionally, making him stop a start of a different series for Morikawa. With that, the Hajime no Ippo series began.

Round 1 was drawn, and the setting of Ippo being the son of a fishing boat shop was taken from a boxer named Suhara Ryūichi (須原隆一), who also won and became the Japanese light flyweight champion. Morikawa thought "A child who is weak and had not played sports, suddenly starting boxing and standing out" means it needs to be repaired. He believed that if he wanted to have a senior high school student have a good match worthy of being ones rival, he has to be some sort of genius or give him background. "Because I'm always on the swinging fishing boat, I can always put my hand out even when I'm hit and lose my balance. With my overwhelming strength of my legs, I can concentrate energy in my fist." With this background, a convincing power is born. There was also a boxer named Yoshiaki Tajima (田島吉秋) who was working at fishing market, and was also a candidate to set up the idea of "I am physically trained because I am working at a fishing market." Morikawa noticed that there was a short series by Chiba called "Fish Shop Champion" (魚屋チャンピオン) that was based on a boxer working at a fish market, thinking "that's not good."

In Round 1, Ippo asks Takamura, "What does it mean to be strong?" At first, Morikawa was lost in the dark about the theme, and his first written story of "Ippo meeting Takamura" was not good. Then, after a few rewrites, he didn't remember what was the cause, but he drew a scene where "Takamura grabs the leaves.". The moment Igarashi read it, Igarashi came to bite. Igarashi's favourite phrase is "manga is a one point breakthrough." Morikawa took the one idea and ran with it until half a year later, Ippo's storyboard was written.

Morikawa couldn't believe it when Round 1 got first place in the popularity contest at the time. Thinking the popularity would end in ten weeks, he was pushed by his assistant Takahashi (高橋) to continue for another ten weeks. Afterwards, the ranking didn't drop much, and from Round 5, he was able to get first place for fifty consecutive weeks. He thought "it will end in 10 weeks," "Is it possible to draw for 15 weeks?" "I may be able to go for 20 weeks", until the world opened little by little. Then, "Hajime no Ippo" became his first series where all readers wanted to read more.

• 1. Suhara Ryūichi (須原隆一) - "Former Japanese light flyweight champion. Height 160 cm, southpaw. In 1991, he retired after returning the title to inherit the family boat business."

• 2. Tajima Yoshiaki (田島吉秋) - "Former Japanese middleweight champion, former OPBF Oriental and Pacific middleweight champion. In 1990, he retired after losing by TKO in round seven in his first world's challenge in the super middleweight class."

• 3. "Fish Shop Champion" (魚屋チャンピオン) - "Written by Chiba Tetsuya. Published in the April 1962 issue of the "Tanoshii 4-nensei". A series drawn from a boxer who worked at a riverbank in the neighbourhood."

• Round 1: The First Step

Column #2

Editor in charge of "Hajime no Ippo" talks about "Ippo and Jōji"
Nouchi Masahiro is the first person in charge of Hajime no Ippo, and the current president and representative director of Ichijinsha.

Nouchi was aware that Morikawa liked boxing since his previous series "Signal Blue" was serialised. Even though it was a storyboard meeting for an F1 manga, they were talking about boxing very happily, even imitating Hearns' Flicker in a family restaurant. At that point, boxing manga had a taboo atmosphere even in the editorial department of the magazine, and Nouchi thought that Morikawa himself must have felt "afraid of Chiba-sensei". Even so, Nouchi still wanted to say, "Why don't you compete in boxing manga?". Nouchi thought that many of the young manga artists at that time were shy, and drawing manga was an easy way to let out their feelings, but Morikawa was good at getting to know people and had a fascinating way of talking. Nouchi thought that it was quite rare for a person like him to continue the steady and patient work of drawing manga. Nouchi praised Morikawa's communicative skills, explaining how even when meeting a world champion like Tatsuyoshi in an interview, he was not timid and they got along easily.

Morikawa would frequently say "I've never been able to finish a story until the end (because it was cancelled)". Nouchi is sure that Hajime no Ippo will go on, but he truly hopes that it will make it all the way to the end. In order to do so, it is of course important for the work to continue being popular, but it is also important for the sensei himself to have enough energy and stamina. Nouchi ends the column telling Morikawa to take care of himself, and to keep going until the end.

Interview #2 - Rival

Matchmaking and the opponents of Ippo in "Hajime no Ippo" are based on Morikawa's interest as a boxing otaku. For example, Ippo's models are Mike Tyson and Ray Mancini. Both of them are fighter types and have an aggressive fighting style. If Morikawa had to pick one, he'd say Ippo is more like Mancini. He would wonder what would happen if Mancini, who bobs and weaves his way to the front, were to face Sugar Leonard, who has extreme speed and artistic technique. Or if he fought Thomas Hearns, who was called "Hitman" and could win with a barrage of Flicker Jabs. Leonard is Miyata's model and Hearns is Mashiba's model. Morikawa wanted to realise his dream title match, which never happened due to the difference in weight class and time period, so he drew this image for himself.

He also thought "I want to make Ippo stronger", drawing it thinking, "I want to make Ippo the world champion," because he believed he was Ippo's second. However he believed that there was something missing in that boy. In the first place, he never once said or even thought that he wanted to become a world champion. So, in order for Ippo to grow steadily, Morikawa tried to make sure that he is not wasting any time in matchmaking, whether it's training him technically by having him fight technical opponents, or mentally by having him fight hungry (for success) men like Keīchi Take.

Ippo and Ichirō Miyata want to fight each other at their best. In fact, in the original concept, Ichirō Miyata's role was going to end after the first sparring session with Ippo. However, the popularity vote for the chapter that featured Miyata was outstanding. Morikawa felt like the readers were telling him, "Oh, perhaps Miyata is an important character.". Then, Miyata lost in the second sparring session, and the next thing Morikawa knew, Miyata had become a very prideful person and quit the gym. It was a surprise to Morikawa as well. Afterwards, even though Morikawa had originally planned to have him face Ippo in the East Japan Rookie King Tournament finals, he lost to Mashiba in the semifinals. But since Miyata lost to Mashiba there, then he would have also lost to Ippo at that point. So, Morikawa told Miyata, "You won't get stronger if you stay in Japan, so go to Thailand for a little training.". At first, Morikawa had planned to finish the Training Overseas Arc in one or two chapters, however, when he saw that it was popular, he found himself drawing almost an entire volume's worth. Back then, there was no concept of spin-offs in the manga world, and Morikawa was worried about proceeding with the story without Ippo, but he felt like the readers were telling him that it was okay to draw it.

Afterwards, Morikawa began to think that he wanted to put Ippo and Miyata against each other in their best condition. As he suspected, Ippo's special move, the Dempsey Roll, is not the best match against counters. One moment he thought, "Oh, Ippo can't beat Miyata if I do this now. I need to improve the Dempsey Roll". Then when he does improve it, "Oh, now Miyata can't beat him". This time, Miyata took Takamura's advice and improved his counters and learned the "Jolt Blow". It's hard to get the two "best" to engage, and Morikawa still finds himself salivating over it.

Sendō and Volg are the "rivals" who brought everything out of Ippo and lost. The model for Takeshi Sendō is Donovan Ruddock, who fought to the death with Mike Tyson. Morikawa wanted to draw the match very much since Ippo is both Tyson and Mancini. Ruddock is the strongest out of the bunch because he has the Smash. Morikawa tries to trace things that happen similar to real boxing matches. For instance, Tyson is trying to get into his opponent's chest, but it's hard to get in because Ruddock is trying to match him with a Smash. Since there were two Tyson vs. Ruddock matches, he was thinking that it would be nice to draw Ippo and Sendō having two matches as well. In fact, the second match became so exciting that it could be called the climax of the first half of Hajime no Ippo.

There are fans who say that Sendō's attitude toward losing was the coolest thing, but that's because Sendō became cool on his own. As with any character, Morikawa doesn't know who they are at all when he starts drawing them. There are fans who say that Sendō's attitude toward losing was the coolest thing, but that's because Sendō became cool on his own. As with any character, Morikawa doesn't know who they are at all when he starts drawing them. For example, when one puts someone in front of them or throw them into a certain situation, how will they react? Just like when he had Sendō meet Ippo, Sendō said to him, "Ya don't know me?". Furthermore, when Ippo got injured and Sendō was given the idea that he might not be able to fight with him due to his injury, he came all the way to the Kamogawa Gym to complain. Then, he goes on a roll and becomes friends with the guys at the gym. At the end, Sendō says, "I'll be waitin' for ya in Osaka!" and forgets to take his souvenirs with him. Around this point, one starts to get a solid idea of what kind of guy he is. That is how he creates his characters. Sendō is a manly man, and in fact, he has a lot of "protagonist attributes" in him. He would constantly take on the passive Ippo and give him everything he had and lose both fights.

Volg Zangief also turned out to be a completely different character than Morikawa originally imagined. Originally, he had the image of Drago from the movie Rocky IV and Yuri Arbachakov, from the "Perestroika" movement, and he thought Volg would be a guy who beat people ruthlessly like a machine. But when Volg met Ippo at the station, he said something like "much trouble". Morikawa thought, "Oh? He's got some humanity in him.". Then, the question is, how will Ippo react to that opponent? Ippo loves polite opponents, so he is sure he'll think, "I have to have a serious fight with this guy.". Even though Sendō seems crude at first glance, Ippo sees his true nature and thinks, "This person is sincere with me.". With such an opponent, Ippo can give it his all. Eiji Date is another example.

Not only was Mashiba's boxing style modelled after Hearns, but his visuals were as well. The real Hearns is very much a gentleman, though, unlike Mashiba. His look and boxing style scared Morikawa, so he drew him with that in mind. Mashiba was so obsessed with not wanting to lose that he did all sorts of dirty things, like stepping on people's feet. Morikawa thought Mashiba realised at some point during the match that he was not going to win against Ippo. After that, Mashiba was quite impressive. When Ippo was only targeting his elbows, he put up with a lot of pain and raised his elbows. Morikawa questions himself why he made Kumi, the girl that Ippo has feelings for, the younger sister of Mashiba, but he answers that he doesn't know either. Thanks to that, he was able to create a lot of entertaining comedic scenes involving Mashiba and Kumi. When he first revealed Kumi, he received a lot of fan letters saying, "That's Miyata's younger sister, isn't it?". He thought to himself, "Oh, yeah, maybe the two look a little bit similar visually speaking. I wonder if that's possible.". In the beginning, Morikawa didn't expect Kumi to be so involved with Ippo. It was Aikawa who he first thought of as the girl who would be involved with Ippo. He is sure the readers have forgotten about it, reminding them that she is the girl who invited the bullied kid, Ippo, to the movies at the beginning of Round 1. Morikawa notes that she hasn't appeared since then, and wonders if maybe she will reappear in the future.

• 1. Mike Tyson - "A superstar who led the boxing world in the late 1980s by unifying the heavyweight titles of the WBA, WBC, and IBF."
• 2. Ray Mancini - "Former WBA world lightweight champion. His fierce fighting style earned him the nickname "Boom Boom," a reference to his whirlwind style."
• 3. Sugar Ray Leonard" - "Former WBC World Middleweight Champion, etc. He attracted audiences with his explosive speed and technique, and made the boxing world more exciting in the late 70s and 80s."
• 4. Thomas Hearns - "He is known for his Flicker Jabs, accurate punches, and machine-gun-like rushes. Known as "The Hitman," he became the first fighter in history to win five weight classes."
• 5. Donovan Ruddock - "He is a hard puncher who uses the weapon called the "Smash". He fought Mike Tyson to the death on two occasions immediately after Tyson lost his titles."
• 6. Drago - "A fictional boxer who appears in the movie "Rocky IV: Flames of Friendship". He is an amateur heavyweight champion of the Soviet Union with a ruthless expression and punches with machine-like accuracy."
• 7. Yuri Arbachakov - "He came to Japan as part of the "Perestroika Program" with the help from Antonio Inoki, and won the WBC world flyweight title, which he successfully defended nine times."

Column #1 - Round 12

"This is the story of "Hajime no Ippo" that leads into some "Unfinished Business".""
He begins a fated confrontation with Ichirō Miyata, who will later become his lifelong rival!

In order to get approval to join the Kamogawa gym, Ippo must spar with the gym's rising star, Ichirō Miyata. Ippo loses, but his surprising strength of guts to get up no matter how many times he falls catches the coach's attention and he is allowed to join. He also was scheduled to spar with Miyata again in three months, and began training with the coach. In the process, Ippo learns an uppercut reminiscent of Jofre and other techniques, and is taught how to escape from Miyata's signature move, the counter. However, when Ippo learned of Miyata's passion for counters, he appealed directly to the coach, saying, "I don't want to run away from counters". He then proceeded to carry out more intense training. And then, the day of the rematch arrived. The match is going at Miyata's pace, but Ippo gives it his all in the final round!

Ichirō Miyata

Ichirō Miyata is the current OPBF featherweight champion. When he was a trainee at Kamogawa gym, he sparred with Ippo twice with one win and one loss. He is "Ippo's fated rival", who has been hoping for a rematch in the professional ranks, but due to various twists of fate, they have yet to meet. He is a calm and collected out-boxer, but when he is agitated, he can show some in-fighting. With his superb speed and counters, he aims for the world.

• Round 12: Doing What's Left

Interview #3 - Killer Technique

Ippo's killer technique, the Dempsey Roll, was created by Jack Dempsey, who was active around 1920, and uses the in-fighting style. Usually, boxers move with their feet apart, so in orthodox style, for example, the left foot is always in front. Southpaws are the opposite. But the Dempsey Roll doesn't matter once one can reach their opponent. Just think that someone threw a left hook with their right leg as the axis, and then go straight to a right hook with their left leg in front of them. It's basically a "walk forward and hit it hard" style. In fact, Tyson and Mancini, the models for Ippo, have a similar hitting style. But what keeps them from going into the Dempsey is the fact that they pack an overwhelmingly strong punch. If it ends in one or two shots, it can't be a Dempsey.

The idea of having Ippo acquire the Dempsey came from the thought of "how to make Ippo, who has Tyson's fighting style but doesn't punch as hard as Tyson," win. However, originally, Ippo's punches, whether it was a left hook or a right straight, all had the strength to become killing blows. An ordinary boxer would be freaked out by that. But once one gets past a certain level, some fighters don't get scared and start hitting back. Eiji Date is that type. After the Rookie King match against Sendō was over, and around the time Morikawa had him fight Keigo Okita and Eiji Date, Morikawa was thinking, "It's going to be tough for Ippo to win without killer techniques," and sure enough, he lost to Date. Morikawa thought, "this is it," so he had Ippo acquire the Dempsey. However, the Dempsey is just an "ancient technique" and there are in fact many ways to beat it. In fact, after learning to use the Dempsey, Ippo would proceed to lose. Morikawa won't go into detail now about the reason for Ippo's loss, as it's a recent development and is depicted in the story, but it's the same reason why Tyson began to lose in the past.

It was really challenging for Morikawa to draw the Dempsey Roll. There were no references. There was no internet back then, and he could only watch the occasional NHK program like "The History of Boxing". And if he draws it with easily recognisable afterimages of the upper body, it takes about 25 hours per page. In addition, the lower half of the body moves differently from the legs of a normal boxer, so it is difficult to find the right bend in the knees. It is not a killer technique that can be drawn a lot in a weekly series. In fact, the times when the Dempsey Roll appears are rare. The editor who was in charge of him for almost seven years was very happy when Morikawa brought back a Dempsey Roll manuscript once.

Leonard is the model for Miyata, but his counter is in the image of Naoto Takahashi, known as the "Prince of Reversals". Morikawa describes Naoto's Cross Counter as "beautiful". Instead of the usual counter to the opponent's left jab, he dives in for his opponent's straight, avoiding and striking him with a paper-thin blade. He claims that that is a real Cross Counter, matching cannon to cannon, and is why Naoto meets a spectacular end to a match. In a match against Jong-pil Park (朴鍾弼), he tried to counterattack to turn the tables, but was struck by a blow to the head and suffered a brain haemorrhage. That intense match is still very much in Morikawa's memory.

Kimura's Dragonfish Blow is a combination of "a left blow to the body followed by a hard right blow". This is the blow that Hearns, the model for Mashiba, had the most difficulty with. One needs the reach and size difference to hit him, and Hearns was tall enough that he didn't get hit so easily, but it was only after he moved up to light heavyweight that he started getting hit more. Morikawa thought about using the blow to torment Mashiba throughout the story, but Ippo didn't have enough reach. That's why he decided to have Kimura do it and gave it the name.

The Flicker Jab, synonymous with Mashiba, is Hearns' signature move. A Philly Shell (L-shaped guard), with the front arm hanging down, similar to the Detroit Style. That style was the one he was most into, letting him hit with a Flicker that would come out from his elbow. The length the hand reaches and the way the hand returns is distinctive, and can be clearly seen in bare hand shadow boxing. It becomes a trajectory like one is trying to grab something.

In addition, Sendō's Smash is his typical dynamic blow. It is a three-quarter blow that is between a hook and an uppercut. He hits with his chin up, so if he gets a counter blow there, he's done. This blow requires a very strong heart to be able to deliver. It's only for fighters like Donovan Ruddock, the model of Sendō, or Japanese fighters like Hiroyuki Yoshino (吉野弘幸), who think "There is no one who can counter me".

There are quite a few fighters who use Date's Heart Break Shot. Morikawa saw it all the time in the professional ring. When he was in elementary school, there was a popular game called "Choking Game" in which one's heart had to be hit hard with a fist. It's a really dangerous game, but when he got Date to do the "Heart Break Shot", it became a bit popular again. After that, Morikawa refrained from sending it out.

Boxers often target the heart and solar plexus. The one who was hit would instantly stop moving. But the truth is, one can train their solar plexus. Boxers can train solely their solar plexus by lying down and dropping a heavy ball on their stomach. It seems to be rather bearable if one puts in a lot of effort when they think "it's coming". Occasionally there are monsters like Myung-woo Yuh (柳明佑) who say, "I can hear your breathing, so if I hit you when you breathe in, you will fall down". He's good at a series of blows called "Sonagi" (Downpour), but Morikawa wonders how he can hear his opponent's breathing during those blows.

Aoki's killer technique, the Frog Punch, of course, came from a blow that Kōichi Wajima delivered in his title match with Carmelo Bossi (カルメロ・ボッシ). People think it's his signature move, but in fact, Wajima has only shown the "Frog Punch" in that match. If one does irregular punches repeatedly, their opponent will be able to make strategies easily.

Volg Zangief's White Fang is a super fast combination blow. Morikawa images the White Fang as a blow like the one Naoya Inoue (井上尚弥) used against Payano (パヤノ). It's important to have a sense of speed and tempo as one punches left and right with tons and tons of punches.

When Morikawa draws killer techniques as well as regular blows, he rarely draw from photographs of fights. Videos can be helpful, but photos are still for "I want to stop the moment and save it". We usually don't draw a stopped fist. Of course, there are exceptions. For example, Ippo's body blow is not very cool unless the moment when his fist is buried in the opponent's side is drawn. He draws it with a slightly different mindset than the body blows of other fighters.

Morikawa tries to make sure that the killer techniques work well with each character's personality and characteristics. Sendō's Smash is full of "oresama-ness" and Miyata's counter is connected to his own tragic heroic-like fighting style. The Dempsey Roll can also only be used by boxers like Ippo, who have a monster of a lung capacity and stamina. Whether it is Kimura or Aoki, they have acquired a "killer technique" that only they can throw. If one doesn't have the inevitability of "this is the fighter, so this is the killer technique," it loses its persuasiveness.

• 1. Jack Dempsey - "A former world heavyweight champion active in the 1920s. Nicknamed "The Manassa Mauler," he is believed to be the first boxer in history to fight with a forward-leaning stance."
• 2. Naoto Takahashi - "Former Japanese bantamweight and super bantamweight champion. He was known as the "Prince of the Reversal," specialising in Cross Counters."
• 3. Jong-pil Park" - "Super bantamweight. He defeated Naoto Takahashi by KO in the 9th round. Takahashi was unable to move and went down in this match, suffering a brain haemorrhage and retiring from active duty."
• 4. Detroit Style - "This is the style that Thomas Hearns specialised in. His weapon of choice was the Flicker Jab, which he released from a relaxed position with his forearm guard down."
• 5. Hiroyuki Yoshino - "Former Japanese super welterweight, welterweight, and OPBF welterweight champion. He held a record of 12 consecutive KO victories, tied for second in Japan at the time."
• 6. Myung-woo Yuh - "Former WBA light flyweight champion. He had overwhelming stamina, and his weapon of choice was the "Sonagi" (Downpour), a series of strikes that never stopped once launched."
• 7. Kōichi Wajima - "Former WBA and WBC super welterweight champion. Known as the "Man of Fire," he is an irregular right-handed boxer known for his "Frog Jump"."
• 8. Carmelo Bossi - "WBA and WBC junior middleweight champion. The challenger, Kōichi Wajima, played a trick on him, and he lost the decision and fell from the throne."
• 9. Naoya Inoue - "He has conquered titles in three weight classes: WBC light flyweight, WBO super flyweight, and WBA bantamweight. He is the strongest and most popular champion in Japan today."

Column #3 - Round 193

"This is the story of "Hajime no Ippo" so far leading up to Round 193 "Prohibited Finishing Blow""
Ippo, getting stronger with each match, finally gets to the Japanese title match!

Ippo passed the pro test, and won two matches from his debut. He also defeated strong opponents such as Hayami, Kobashi, and Mashiba to earn the East Japan Rookie of the Year and the Best Rookie of the Year titles. He also faced Sendō, the West Japan Rookie of the Year. With a hard-fought victory, he was declared the All Japan Rookie of the Year. He would later win in the Class A Tournament, beating Saeki and Volg. Finally, he decided to challenge for the All Japan featherweight title match. His opponent, Eiji Date, is a man of determination who once retired after losing to world champion Ricardo Martínez, but made a comeback with the intention of a rematch against that same man. Ippo had challenged Date in sparring a few months prior and was easily beaten. Ippo's strongest power vs. Date's expert technique and determination. After a back-and-forth battle of offence and defence, the match reached its climax.

Eiji Date

A champion of determination who came back from the bottom to make his rematch with Ricardo happen. He is a former Japanese featherweight champion. He once faced the wall of the world and retired, but returned for what he hoped would be a rematch with the champion, Ricardo Martinez. He was defeated, retired again, and now teaches the next generation. He was a champion who led the Japanese boxing world as an all-round player with his Corkscrew Punch and Heart Break Shot, and with his high level of technique in all aspects of the sport.

• Round 193: Prohibited Finishing Blow
• Round 194: 5R 2 Minutes 32 Seconds

Column #4 - Round 213

"This is the story of "Hajime no Ippo" so far leading up to Round 213 "The Classic Blow""
After the defeat against Date, Ippo tries to learn a new blow...

After suffering his first loss in a Japanese title match against Eiji Date, Ippo realised what he lacked: the determination to win. During his downtime, Sendō and Volg fought fiercely for the champion belt that Date had vacated to challenge for the world again, with Sendō narrowly winning the match by decision. Meanwhile, Ippo's opponent for his comeback match will be the Thai boxer Ponchai Chuwatana, who shows toughness and has never been downed before. Ippo challenges himself to learn a new blow with an eye toward a fighting style that combines offence and defence in order to put into practice coach Kamogawa's words, "hit before getting hit". In his comeback match, Ippo and his opponent Ponchai engaged in a spectacular exchange of blows in the first round. As the second round approached, Ippo told an unusually bold statement to coach Kamogawa, "In the next round, I'll defeat him", before heading to the centre of the ring.

Volg Zangief

Volg "White Fang" is a former Soviet Union-born lone boxer who loves his mother. Growing up in the former Soviet Union in a poor mother-son household, he came to Japan with more than 200 amateur fights on his record. He fought Ippo in the Class A Tournament and lost by KO after an intense battle of blows. He also lost a title match against Sendō by a seemingly unreasonable decision and returned to Russia. A few years later, he made a comeback in America and challenged the world under Dankichi Hama. He is an unyielding man who overcame every disadvantage to win the title.

• Round 213: Classic Blow

Interview #4 - Match

When Morikawa draws a match, he is careful not to have it be predictable in anyway. He doesn't want to draw it in a way that makes the reader think, "Well, you know, he is going to win anyway, right?" or "See, I knew he would win." Naturally, once a boxer knows who his opponent will be, he will take measures to beat that opponent. There's no way to win so easily, as every round, they have quite a tough struggle. Even more than his opponents, Ippo needs to be trained to match his opponents.

He also gives a lot of thought to the methods used to convey the match development to the reader in an easy-to-understand manner. The easiest way to do that is to use "a God's voice". The method is to create a square frame within the panel and include a "superior third-party" commentary. Although this is an established technique, the narration is not heard when watching the actual match. The "explanatory text" within a square frame and the "illustrations" that supplement it do not convey a sense of realism and body temperature well. He believes now that manga should be in the form of dialogue, human movement, and drama that the reader can dive into.

The way Morikawa helps the reader to quickly understand how the match unfolds is the role that Kimura, Aoki, Itagaki, Takamura and others in the audience play. However, they can make mistakes as well. The insightful Kimura says, "This is what Ippo is trying to do, isn't it?" but it is actually a misleading statement. Itagaki, Aoki, and Kimura, as fellow boxers, think, "I would do this if I were in Ippo's position," but sometimes this does not quite match up with Ippo's thinking. Then, Takamura, who sees the bigger picture, says, "That's not so," and gradually gets to the bottom of the matter. And then, looking at it from a higher perspective, is coach Kamogawa, who is the second... And that is the pecking order.

He sees himself as a novice mangaka, but his greatest pride is that he is a mangaka who has watched many boxing matches from the closest position in the world. He thinks that he probably has been a second for over 250 matches, and thinks that it's a great learning experience. He was once surprised to see a boxer come back to his corner without being hit at all, but his mouthpiece was covered in blood. Even if one stops the punch with their guard, the momentum smashes them and cuts the inside of their mouth. Other times, they don't even receive a single hit, but they still end up with red welts on their body that look like whip scars. When Morikawa see these things up close, he thinks, "Oh, I'll draw that next time," and finds himself looking at it from a mangaka's point of view.

However, Morikawa is always concerned about how far he can go to get readers to keep following him, because if h is too maniacal, it might not be in line with what they are expecting. He thinks he should keep the hard-to-understand feints and such to a minimum, and move more toward a flashy presentation that displays the action through pictures, like the Dempsey Roll. But during the Volg's world title match, Morikawa drew a rather maniacal feint exchange, which was also very popular. This match was when the volume number exceeded 100 already. He thought it was around that time that readers finally gave him permission to draw what he enjoys. He felt there are two reasons for this. One is that he is getting better at drawing maniacal developments in a way that is more or less easy for readers to understand. The other is that readers are becoming more open-minded and want to read "maniacal depictions of boxing". There is a sense of coming to terms on both sides.

Incidentally, the ringside stoppage and Volg's speech after this match is one of Morikawa's favourite scenes. Volg tells the audience "Thank you" in his native Russian and in English and Japanese. He thinks Volg's character was really captured in that scene. He looks forward to seeing how his characters act when they win and when they lose. He draws a lot of matches other than those of Ippo, but what he is conscious of when he does so is to make sure that he lets Ippo share his thoughts on them. This is a story about Ippo, so every match must be an inspiration and learning experience for Ippo. Of course, other boxers are the main characters in their own lives, but in this story, they also play the role of " nourishment" for the growth of Ippo.

Morikawa was particularly impressed with Mashiba vs. Miyata in the semifinals of the East Japan Rookie King. He was determined to have Miyata win. But during the storyboard meeting, Nouchi, who was the editor In charge said, "The readers will be surprised if Miyata loses this match. Why don't you do that?" Morikawa was the most surprised by this. He always draw with a sense of excitement, not wanting to disappoint the reader's expectations. He was looking forward to the match between Ippo and Miyata, and thought that if he didn't make it happen here, readers would think, "You've got to be kidding me," and would move on. He told Nouchi, "Don't mislead me with such wild ideas!" He dismissed him with strong words.

But when he got home and tried to make the storyboard happen, he couldn't get that whimsical suggestion out of his head. Most of all, he was shocked at his own naivete in not even considering the possibility. He felt that if he didn't do this, he would end up with a "just as predicted" scenario that he disliked the most, so he decided to revisit the character of Mashiba, irrespective of what the outcome would be. And as he got to find out the background behind Mashiba's commitment to boxing and why he cannot lose, he gradually began to see it. "Miyata is the better player on the canvas, so I think the best pattern for Mashiba to win would be "foul play."" "When he steps on his foot, Miyata will react like this," "After that, Mashiba will be in a great mood and hit repeatedly," "Ippo will react like this when he sees this," "After losing, Miyata will not come out of the medical room," "Ippo will see this while trembling with anger." The reactions of the characters come to life one after another, and a story is created.

Still sceptical, Morikawa started drawing without deciding who would win and who would lose. But as he continued to draw, the two of them were more skilled than he had thought. At a certain point, he thought, "Oh, Miyata is going to lose this one." After the match, there is a scene in which Ippo angrily hits a vending machine and leaves, a scene that Nouchi liked very much. Even though Miyata lost there, he became more and more popular, which made the person in charge do a guts pose. He couldn't help but feel frustrated seeing Nouchi's goofy face.

Even now, a single word from the person in charge can change the way things are presented. The storyboard is a rough sketch, so sometimes the person in charge reads it differently from what Morikawa had in mind. He learned how to mislead the reader, for example, "Oh, if that's the kind of misconception I'm going to make, then I'll make it that way." If a mangaka finds even one of the one hundred comments that an editor makes that he or she can apply to the work, he or she will make use of it. Morikawa thinks it is a matter of attitude and ability on the part of the artist to be aware of this and to make the most of it.

Column #5 - Round 264

"This is the story of "Hajime no Ippo" so far leading up to Round 264 "Premonition of Demise""
Directly handpicked by the Japanese champion, the "Lallapallooza" begins!

After Ippo's victory against Ponchai, Sendō, who was watching from the stands, issued a challenge to Ippo with a mic performance. During Ippo's downtime, the members of the Kamogawa gym get into a lively conversation about the stories of Aoki and Kimura's adventures during their high school days. Then, Ippo watches the Sendō vs. Saeki match and thinks that the Dempsey Roll as it is now is not good enough against Sendō. With the match with Sendō set to take place in four months, Ippo decides to train at a mountain cabin with Nekota. In addition, he will also be "dojo storming sparring" at five gyms. As the match approaches, the catchphrase for the Sendō vs. Ippo match is decided to be "Lallapallooza" (literally, "the rumbling of the ground"). Indeed, the match turned out to be a punching match that had the crowd going wild and the ground shaking with excitement. Both become stronger as they fight. The match enters its final stage...

Takeshi Sendō

The man is the "Tiger of Naniwa," a man who is not only wild, but also proud of his strength. Former Japanese featherweight champion. His parents died when he was a child, and he lives with his grandmother who runs a small candy shop. He is a strong boxer with a powerful smash as his special technique. He fought Ippo for two big titles, the All-Japan Rookie King title and the Japanese featherweight title, losing both matches after almost evenly matched battles. He is competitive and has a violent temper, but he also has a compassionate and good-natured side.

• Round 264: Premonition of Demise
• Round 265: DEAD OR ALIVE

Column #6 - Round 282

"This is the story of "Hajime no Ippo" so far leading up to Round 282 "Premonition of Danger""
Kimura has a big battle with his retirement on the line as he takes on the eerie "Grim Reaper"!

Ippo finally became the Japanese champion by defeating Sendō. The joy is short-lived, however, as Kumi informed him that he may not see her again. The reason was because the decision of the title match between Kimura and Mashiba (Kumi's brother). Before his fight with the superior Mashiba, Kimura has Miyata be his sparring partner. From there, Kimura left the Kamogawa gym and practised in solitude, successfully learning the Dragonfish Blow, a special technique for the fight against Mashiba. He declared, "If I lose, I'll retire," and the match began. The gong of destiny rang, and Kimura was tormented by Mashiba's Flicker from the beginning of the match. But gradually, he continued to foreshadow a comeback...

Ryō Mashiba

The wielder of the "Grim Reaper's Scythe" is the older brother of Kumi, whom Ippo has feelings for. He passed the Pro Test at the same time as Ippo. In the East Japan Rookie King semi-finals, he beat Ippo's rival Miyata by dirty means and then lost to an angry Ippo in the finals of the same tournament. He later moved up to the junior lightweight class and won the Japanese title. He struggled against Tatsuya Kimura in his title defence match, but managed to win. He lost by fouling against Sawamura, but moved up a weight class again after his return and is now the OPBF lightweight champion.

• Round 282: Premonition of Danger

Interview #5 - Champion

Morikawa always thought, "Ippo can't become a world champion as he is now," as he drew him. In volume 109, Takamura and Ippo were talking on the riverbank. In the scene of the "Line of Non-Humans," he says, "The place of world champions is inhabited only by non-humans, so don't come in if you want to stay human" This was something Morikawa came up with around volume 30. Rather, it could be said that Ippo had to gain such experience in order to have this kind of conversation with Takamura, and that he was making Ippo increase his experience by planning backward from the future. There was also the scene in which Eiji Date tells Ippo about the weight of a champion's fist. Morikawa can't go into detail now, though, because the significance of these scenes will have a bearing on future developments.

Hearing about non-humans and the weight of fists, the average person might think, "Is being a world champion really that great?". But it is indeed really that great. For example, Daisuke Naitō was training at Morikawa's gym when he was a fourth rounder, and in those days, things were different. At that time, Morikawa couldn't get any sparring sessions for him in his weight class, the flyweight class. He would go up against a boxer two or more weight classes above him and dominate them. Morikawa thought, "If this guy doesn't win in the world stage, who can?"

Also, Morikawa thinks Eiji Date would have been world champion if not for Ricardo Martínez. In fact, there are many such boxers. Eijirō Murata, who won the OPBF bantamweight title, failed in all four of his world title challenges, but two of those were draws with notable champions Lupe Pintor and Jeff Chandler. At that time, he was ranked first in both the WBA and WBC at the same time. Even that strong fighter did not reach the level of a world champion. The world champions are chosen by fate, and they are extraordinary people.

Morikawa believes that "a world champion need not personality." Of course, he wishes that they do have "personality." But since they are "strong people from birth," he doesn't think there is any reason for them to have so much personality. There are mangaka, too. People who can draw well from childhood and create stories effortlessly might not have personality. Tetsuya Chiba, whom he admires and still aspires to be like, is the same type of person who creates his works while suffering. The sensei has one of the best personalities among mangaka. But there are also the type of mangaka in the world who say, "He has a screwed up personality, but if you give him money and let him keep going, you'll get a tremendous return". He knows it must be annoying for the editors though.

With that in mind, neither of the two characters in the Takamura vs. Hawk match have good character. This kind of battle of wills between the two was also interesting to portray. A boxer Morikawa likes as much as Thomas Hearns is Roberto Durán. He has strong punches known as "Hands of Stone," his reflexes are sharp, and his movements are wild. He is the model of Takamura. So, about 20 years after Morikawa had become a big fan of Durán, a whopper of a boxer appeared on the scene. That is Naseem Hamed, the "Devil Prince," who plays with his opponents with his creative moves. He is the only boxer in the world who can throw a KO punch even with one leg in the air. Morikawa once talked to Jōichirō Tatsuyoshi about him, and he said, "He is not just a boxer with strong arm strength. He is a boxer who is terrifyingly good at shifting his weight.

So Morikawa wondered what would happen if he made Hamed the model for Hawk and have him fight Takamura who is based on Durán. It was like a dream title match of "Durán vs. Hamed" in the magazine. As a boxing fan, he started to get into the groove of drawing, but it was tough. Hamed's movements are so unique that he just didn't know how to draw them. However, the match between these two had powerful punches. he thinks it's the same in all sports manga, not just boxing, but there is a big problem: "The more sophisticated the manga is, the less powerful it becomes." The ideal jab in boxing is one that is released with minimal shoulder movement and appears to the opponent as a "fist that suddenly gets bigger." Actually, this is the most difficult to make powerful when it comes to drawing. It is easier to understand and more powerful to use a punch that blasts the opponent straight up with a big motion, as is often depicted in manga featuring bad guys. No professional would take such an obvious telephone punch. But in "Takamura vs. Hawk," he thinks that the bigger movements made it more powerful, because the fighters hit while avoiding each other's punches with irregular movements.

The setting of Takamura being a son of a wealthy family and a sis-con with many siblings came to Morikawa as he was drawing the scene. First, Takamura likes women but has no girlfriend. The reason for this fits well with the fact that he is a sis-con and, while he has many siblings, he is not the eldest son. If he is a disruptive, erudite, but caring person, he has to be the second son. It felt like the family structure was gradually being solidified.

At first, Morikawa did not think that Takamura would become a man who talked about how he would dominate six weight classes. This is because there was no Japanese champions in the middleweight world stage, to which Takamura belonged, at that time. It was "Class of God's," with superstars such as Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Thomas Hearns. Also, it was not so easy to draw a two weight class domination and unified title match. It was a time when Hiroki Ioka had won two weight classes at minimumeight and light flyweight, but failed at the third weight class. Also, Jirō Watanabe challenged for the WBC title while holding the WBA title, but since the WBA and WBC have different rounds and rules, according to the regulations at the time, he was told that his WBA belt would be revoked once he entered the ring to challenge for the WBC title. Even so, Watanabe went ahead and went up there. So, the situation was that he won that victory, and he wore two belts in the ring, but it's really only one. But this Watanabe was also a super flyweight.

There really wasn't anyone in the middleweight class who could see the world stage. Therefore, Morikawa made Takamura lose weight and let him win the junior middleweight title. Then, in 1995, Shinji Takehara finally became the WBA world middleweight champion. This is, of course, a first for a Japanese and the second for an Asian. When he saw this, he thought to himself, "A Japanese person can also win this." It was a major event that seemed to open up a path at a time when he had been worrying about the development after Takamura's junior middleweight title match.

And after Takamura won the middleweight title, Manny Pacquiao emerged. A monster has emerged from Asia to dominate six weight classes. All the little boundaries in Morikawa's head have been removed now. Takamura's "anything is possible" image was born thanks to those two.

Mamoru Takamura is the only world champion at Kamogawa gym at this time. The development of Hajime no Ippo will change depending on how far he goes in his rush. Morikawa will continue to draw it with a sense of excitement.

• 1. Daisuke Naitō - "Former WBC world flyweight champion. In his first defence, he won in a perfect match against Daiki Kameda, the second son of the Kameda brothers, winning a decision. It led to national popularity."
• 2. Eijirō Murata - "OPBF bantamweight champion. He failed to challenge the world on four occasions, but had a draw with two famous champions in the Hall of Fame, and is also known as a boxer with tragic luck."
• 3. Lupe Pintor" - "Former WBC world bantamweight champion and former WBC world super bantamweight champion. A native of Mexico, he is known as the "Aztec Warrior.""
• 4. Jeff Chandler - "Former world bantamweight champion. He had a draw in his first match against Eijirō Murata and then won the next two. It was the biggest battle for Murata."
• 5. Roberto Durán - "WBA world super welterweight champion and four other weight classes. A fighter from Panama, he is known for his wild and powerful strikes, which earned him the nickname "Hands of Stone.""
• 6. Naseem Hamed - "Former IBF/WBO/WBC world featherweight champion. He is nicknamed "Devil Prince" for his creative and genius style of playing with his opponents."
• 7. Jōichirō Tatsuyoshi - "A man who has won the WBC world bantamweight title three times. He is popular for his flashy "take down or be taken down" matches."
• 8. Telephone Punch - "A punch that strikes after a large swing from a fist that was up to the ear. It is called this because the fist drawn up to the ear looks like a person making a phone call."
• 9. Marvin Hagler - "He is a famous champion who made 12 consecutive defences as the unified world middleweight champion. He was a southpaw and an all-around fighter dubbed "Mr. Perfect"."
• 10. Hiroki Ioka - "Former WBC world minimumweight champion, ans former WBA world light flyweight champion. He is also known as the last pupil of the famous trainer Eddie Townsend."
• 11. Jirō Watanabe - "Former WBA/WBC world super flyweight champion. As the WBA champion, he planned a unification match with the WBC, but the WBA did not recognise it, and although he won, he did not unify the titles."
• 12. Shinji Takehara - "He became the first Japanese to win the world middleweight title, but lost it in his first defence six months later. He retired when it was discovered that he had retinal detachment."
• 13. Manny Pacquiao - "A Filipino hero who was active from the late 1990s to the mid-2010s, conquering six weight classes from light flyweight to super welterweight."

Column #7 - Round 395

"This is the story of "Hajime no Ippo" so far leading up to Round 395 "Unknown Animal""
The Kamogawa gym unites in preparation for Takamura's first world fight!

Around the time that Ippo made his first successful defence against Kazuki Sanada, Miyata won the OPBF title. Date challenged Ricardo Martínez in a rematch, which he longed for, but was unfortunately defeated. The Kamogawa gym became even more lively when a promising newcomer, Itagaki, joined the gym. Then, Ippo wins a defence match against his former junior pupil, Hammer Nao (Geromichi). After Kamogawa gym's annual summer training camp, Takamura's world challenge is finally set! Takamura won a hard-fought preliminaries to the world title match, and now he is ready to face the most fearsome champion of all, Bryan Hawk. After a back-and-forth battle between the ever-changing and wild Hawk and Takamura, the fight turned into a brawl, with Takamura gaining the upper hand. Will the world champion's belt finally be tied around Takamura's waist!?

Mamoru Takamura

WBA/WBC unified world middleweight champion. He is the strongest boxer who started his six weight class domination in the junior middleweight division. He is also the man who helped to get Ippo onto the path of boxing. He is a no-nonsense character and reigns as the emperor at the Kamogawa gym. However, in addition to his overwhelming ability, he is also respected by his kōhai for his sincere approach to boxing and his words and actions in favour of his friends, and is mysteriously well-liked.

• Round 395: Unknown Animal
• Round 396: 10 Count

Interview #6 - Teacher and Student

The model for Genji Kamogawa is, basically 'every stubborn old man in the world'. Add a bit of legendary trainer Eddie Townsend's taste to the mix, and you have an "old man who is stubborn but tries his best to understand the feelings of the youngsters". Morikawa felt that Kamogawa had to change after meeting Takamura and Ippo. Because, first of all, one wouldn't dare listen to what Takamura would say, would they? One can't manage Takamura just by being a stubborn old man. Kamogawa respects Takamura in a way and is grateful to him. And in the story, he says "I've been given a gym with a world champion". On the other hand, Nekota suggested in the story that Ippo would be the first world champion that Kamogawa will have to create by himself. To Kamogawa, Ippo's way may be a little innocent. But pupils who need a lot of work are sometimes innocent anyway.

Using the analogy of the relationship between a mangaka and their editor, the editor-in-charge may be a veteran author like Morikawa working with a newcomer who is just starting out, together. Morikawa's responsibilities were such that he only had to worry about when the manuscripts would be ready, and there were barely any meetings to discuss the story. What Morikawa would do as an editor-in-charge is a kind of forced criticism of the storyboard and manuscripts that come in. On the other hand, when working with newcomers, it takes probably many times as much effort to make a series with them as it does to encourage them while giving them bad advice. Which is more fun depends on the person, but if a newcomer like Ippo said, "I'm not very good at this, but I'll do my best!" Morikawa thinks it would be funny.

Although the series of chapters called the "Post-War Arc" that Morikawa has included in this book first appeared in volume 45, he had already started to think that he wanted to draw it when he was drawing volumes 7 and 8. But his friend stopped him, saying "You're too naive! If you draw something like that, you'll instantly lose your popularity." So Morikawa became a bit more cautious. He went about preparing two methods for it to be drawn when the time came. The first was to gradually learn more about post-war boxing from resources while working on the series. For example, reading a book by Piston Horiguchi, who was active in the early Showa period and was nicknamed "Kensei", he said that although it was a different era, he would fight once a month and often had four 10-round matches in one week. Morikawa believed it was so awesome and messed up. Studying these books will gradually give one some background information. There were things like steam locomotives running and open-air rings. The backbone of the story slowly filled in.

The second part of the preparation is to prepare the characters. First, Ginpachi Nekota was presented as an old friend of Kamogawa's, and Dankichi Hama as a trainer for Kazuki Sanada, who fought Ippo. And with Miguel Zale as Bryan Hawk's second, we finally have the characters. Miguel Zale's use of the word "samurai" in the Hawk fight is, of course, a reference to the "Post-War Arc" that lied ahead.

When Morikawa put out Nekota as a stepping stone, Nouchi, the editor in charge was extremely amused. He suddenly says "~dani" and his face looks like something out of a gag manga. However, he was actually modelled after Morikawa's grandfather. He was about 80 years old at the time, and about two years before he died, he was hospitalised and weighed about 35 kg. That figure at the time was like Nekota. They laughed at Morikawa, so he complained and said, "You guys are being too rude".

In the Post-War Arc, Hiroshima appears as a key word, but Morikawa purposely did not use the word 'atomic bomb' because it is a story about people who are working hard to rebuild after the war. Yuki, the heroine, died of an illness, but he didn't draw her based around that, instead he impressionistically portrayed her as "as bright as a sunflower". Morikawa believes it was a good decision.

In addition to Kamogawa and Takamura/Ippo, the story also features a number of teacher-student relationships, including the Miyata father/son duo, Yanaoka and Sendō, Dankichi Hama and Volg, Bill Stewart and Ricardo Martínez, Miguel Zale and Bryan Hawk. Among them, the most impressive for Morikawa are Miguel Zale and Wally. Zale originally appeared as Bryan Hawk's second, but the relationship between the two is probably that Hawk, the fighter, sees Zale, his second, as just his "employer". At its root, this employment relationship means that even Zale, who is supposed to be a great teacher, essentially has no control over Hawk.

Wally, on the other hand, is a talent whom Zale himself is so invested in that he calls him his "Last Sun" he found in Indonesia. He has outstanding wild talent, and when he fought Ippo, the only thing he lacked was experience. Wally also has a lot of respect and trust for Zale, and he has a very straightforward personality. There is no way it will end like this. Morikawa is sure those two will be back again, with an even higher level of excellence.

Ippo now works as a trainer at the Kamogawa gym. Morikawa has heard that retired boxers, when they look at the ring from the outside, usually think, "NOW I'll be stronger". Furthermore, watching the matches as a second is a real learning experience, and the desire to fight grows more and more. But after two years of being away from the ring without rigorous training after retirement, it's indeed impossible to come back. They will lose as soon as they return because it isn't a soft world.

Morikawa has been a second for a lot of boxers, but if one asked him what the ideal second is, he wouldn't be able to easily answer that. The word "second" (セコンド, sekondo) was originally "second" (セカンド, sekando). It means that they are the second leading role, after the fighters. The relationship between the first and second is important, and in simple terms, each boxer has their own "ideal second". For example, Ippo, who lost his father at an early age, likes people who genuinely scold him. Ippo's mother is strong, but she is very lenient with him. So when coach Kamogawa scolds Ippo, he is happy and thinks "This is it!" He must be very masochistic. Meanwhile, Kamogawa also treats Takamura's opponents with respect, even when the two are at the ringside.

The second's job is ultimately to get the fighter home safe and sound. It is entirely possible that a fighter may have an accident and not be able to return home, either in the ring or after the match. This "getting the fighters home safely" is the most important job, followed by "getting them to win". If they cannot do so, let them go home with their chests up. If that too does not come to pass, make sure to have a good reflection meeting. Falls may happen in the ring, but that is what good seconds are for.

What is important is still the usual relationship of trust. Such a relationship can only be established if they properly respect each other and appreciate each other's presence. The boxer thinks "I respect this teacher, so I can deliver the one-two as instructed, with confidence", and the second thanks the fighter for materialising their ideals and instructions. Some seconds yell at their boxers without giving them a chance to explain and crush the dignity of the athlete, but that's not right. Ultimately, it is the master-disciple relationship, where they believe in each other and have no regrets no matter what happens, that is important.

• 1. Eddie Townsend - "Boxing trainer. A master teacher who has trained six world champions, including Guts Ishimatsu and Hiroki Ioka. His wife was Japanese."
• 2. Piston Horiguchi - "He was an iconic figure in Japanese boxing in the early Showa period and was known as the "Kensei" (Saint Fist)."

Column #8 - Round 412

"This is the story of "Hajime no Ippo" so far leading up to Round 412 "Willpower of a Man""
This is a tale of famous teachers Kamogawa, Nekota, Dankichi, and Zale in their youth.

Aoki is driven to the point of a mental breakdown due to Takamura's demand to sell 300 bronze statues of himself for 50,000 yen each. Aoki, along with Ippo, asked for help from Kamogawa at Nekota's mountain hut. That night, they listen to the tale of Kamogawa and Nekota's past during the Occupation of Japan. Many Japanese boxers were beaten by the atrocious U.S. soldier and boxer, Anderson. Then, Kamogawa and Nekota saved a woman named Yuki, who was being attacked by Anderson on the street at night. From there, Kamogawa, Nekota, and Yuki began a strange, but enjoyable life together. However, it was discovered that Yuki was suffering from an illness and Nekota was punch drunk. Even so, with the pride of a Japanese man on the line, Nekota challenges Anderson to a match, but falls before Anderson's terrible foul punch. Trembling with rage, Kamogawa began special training to produce "fists of iron" and entered the ring to avenge Nekota.

Genji Kamogawa

Kamogawa is the head coach of the Kamogawa gym and former Tekken user who Ippo admires. He is a masterful trainer who has trained Takamura and Ippo into champions through a well-balanced combination of stubborn, unswerving mentality and boxing theory based on scientific knowledge. In his youth, he was a bantamweight fighter in the boxing world during and after the war. Even though he is over 70 years old, he still has incredible physical strength and ability, and can easily handle Takamura and Ippo as they hit his mitts.

• Round 412: Willpower of a Man
• Round 413: Blood of a Samurai

Interview #7 - Family

In one interview, Morikawa was told that Hajime no Ippo has a lot of boxers from unusual family environments, and when he thought about it, he realised it was true. Not only has Ippo lost his father, but Miyata's parents are divorced and Mashiba lives with his younger sister. Sendō also lost his parents and lives with his grandmother, who runs a dagashi-ya. Ryūhei Sawamura stabbed his stepfather, who was violent towards his mother, however, his mother ended up abandoning him. Volg also comes from a poor single mother household. These may appear intentional, but they are not meant to have any special meaning. Many major characters have regular families, like Takamura, Itagaki, Kimura, and Aoki.

Morikawa also gets asked why Takamura hungers for power when, generally speaking, he is blessed with a fortunate family background. However, Takamura is not the type of person who pursues after strength, probably because Takamura might have been strong since he was born. Morikawa believes that Takamura had a level of strength from his childhood that would make an incident out of just a minor shove at someone. He gets compared to his older brother Suguru, who probably is just as talented but is more serious about life. The youngest, Wataru, looks at the two older brothers and sees them as nearly identical. There is a reason why Takamura, coming from such an environment, is so into boxing and is committed with collecting belts in several weight classes. However, Morikawa chooses to not discuss it in the book, as it is related to future developments.

Ippo's mother is a kind person who loves her son very much. Morikawa drew her while thinking of his mother, who also was an extremely kind person. Morikawa is the second son of three siblings in his family, and he was always saying that he wanted to be a mangaka since kindergarten, something that he doesn't recall his mother ever being angry with him for. He also doesn't think she ever told him that he needed to study either, since she felt like if you already know what you're going to do in life, then you don't have to study. At that time there were no smartphones or anything like that, so many conversations were between parents and their children. It was like the typical family image of the Shōwa era (1926-1989). Morikawa believes that Ippo's feelings towards his mother are the same as the feelings Morikawa has had towards his mother since he was a child.

All three siblings had made up their minds that they would take care of their parents when they grew up. But one cannot take care of their parents unless they themselves are stronger than them. Morikawa was a leading figure in the recovery effort immediately after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and at that time he also told people not to join him if they couldn't afford to be there. When people have their hands full with their own problems, they can't help others. Because one needs to have a certain amount of money as well as the mental and physical capacity to work for the good of others.

The story of Ippo's father is very much related to the theme of this series: "What does it mean to be strong?". This story is presented in the form of Kumi talking to Ippo's mother. Kumi became convinced that Ippo is aiming to be as strong as his father. But, whether that interpretation is correct or not remains to be seen. Ippo could already stronger than his father, as he has even made a name for himself in the boxing world rankings, there aren't many men who are stronger than that. Furthermore, in the process, he has come into contact with the "strength" of various people. However, Morikawa believes that the answer to the question of "what does it means to be strong" that Ippo seeks has not yet been found.

The Mashiba siblings lost their parents, but they both live their lives cheerfully. Mashiba himself may not be a cheerful person, but he feels safe in that department because of Kumi's cheerfulness. Mashiba is a siscon in a different way than Takamura. He is a delinquent who decided, "I will live my life to protect my little sister." He thinks "I may be crooked, but I must protect my little sister and keep her straight." He is like a bad guy with a bit of a chivalrous-ish aura. He wants to become a world champion in boxing and make his sister live a comfortable life. However, he has recently become more approachable at the transportation company where he works, and he has become less tense, even showing a troubled look when he is subjected to unexpected aggression from Kumi. This could be because Kumi brought Ippo along with her.

Kumi has dated several guys in her life. However, Mashiba would never approve of her partner. Like from a father's perspective, he thought, "If he's not a stronger man than me, I won't accept him." Then Kumi brought a man who was stronger than him. Deep down inside, Mashiba acknowledges that Ippo is stronger than he is, so a little weight has been lifted off his shoulders. But, of course, there is a part of him that refuses to acknowledge Ippo's strength. So when they sparred at the gym, he really was trying to crush Ippo. He may have pride as a boxer, but he also has a lot of pride in being Kumi's older brother.

Meanwhile, another family, the Itagaki family, also appears in the series. It feels like the Itagaki family being poor gave rise to their cheerfulness. When Morikawa sees the Itagaki family, he gets an image of a "happy household, even if they are poor." The intense personality of Itagaki's father is modeled from a man named Haruki Tokuda (徳田 春生), who used to be in the Weekly Shōnen Magazine's Kodansha Comics (KC) as the author of Ikumi no Himitsu (イクミの秘密). He was someone who always wanted to hang out and have a drink with Morikawa. It's not often that you invite someone out for a drink and then they say, "No, because I'm diabetic." But then he says, "Well, if Morikawa-san says so, I'll be more than happy to do it." and he ends up drinking. Morikawa felt like he wanted to draw Itagaki's father to express how amusing Tokuda is and to say "Tokuda-san is such a charming old man."

However, Tokuda doesn't make puns. Morikawa wonders how they ended up becoming a family that make puns. When he started drawing the Itagaki family, he was thinking of the time when young women started to dislike men who made puns nonchalantly while grinning at women. But when a guy is in the mood, he will say any pun that comes to his mind. When he draws the Itagaki family's storyboard, he finds himself constantly saying puns. Morikawa's wife was stunned and asked him, "Could you limit it to two a day?". However, Morikawa believes he isn't too great at puns. That's why, for example, the scene at the Itagaki family dining table is drawn with all the speech bubbles empty at the storyboard stage. So he would give them to the three editors in charge and tell them to fill in two speech bubbles at a time. But all he received were lame puns, and eventually he had to come up with his own. In particular, the first person in charge, Nouchi, who had already become the editor-in-chief by then, really only offered nonsense jokes.

Morikawa sees that he has drawn many different kinds of families. What most of the characters have in common is that they accept their current situation and live positively and cheerfully. He thinks everyone has some kind of shadow that they carry with them, like a hidden strength just waiting to be shown. Morikawa believes he does as well.

Column #10 - Round 503

"This is the story of "Hajime no Ippo" so far leading up to Round 503 "Memories of the Hat""
In order to get a match with Miyata, Ippo struggles as he continues to successfully defend his title.

Ippo is shocked to find out that Kamogawa has been refusing Miyata's challenge requests to Ippo. Ippo confronts Kamogawa, but the coach dismisses him by telling him that there is too much of a gap between them now. Then, in the Champion Carnival, Ippo defeats Shimabukuro, who is known for his immense toughness. Aoki, fired up for his first ever title challenge, masters an amazing new special technique called the "Look Away". He gives the champion Imae a hard time, but just barely misses out on getting the title. Takamura wins his defense against Bernard. Ippo chooses Sawamura as his challenger and they display a brutal match. To prepare for Sawamura, Ippo sparred with Volg and developed the New Dempsey Roll. After a hard fight, he wins against Sawamura. Then, accompanied by Kumi, Ippo goes home where his mother waits for his return.

Hiroko Makunouchi

Since the death of her husband, a fisherman, Hiroko has raised Ippo by herself while running a fishing boat shop. While supportive of Ippo when he became a pro boxer, she does not go to his matches since she doesn't want to go and see him get punched in the face. She is broad-minded with a gentle personality, and observes Ippo and Kumi's relationship with a bit of amusement. Volg also looks up to her as if she were his real mother.

• Round 503: Memories of the Hat
• Round 504: Strength to Live

Interview #8 - Company

When the series started, Morikawa thought that it would end in ten weeks, so he didn't think at all about the members of Kamogawa gym other than Takamura and Miyata. It was only when he was sure that he would be able to continue the series that he began to think, "Wait, is it really true that Takamura is the only pro in this gym...?" (Miyata was still just a trainee there at that time). At that time, Aoki had already been introduced, but it was only mentioned in the dialogue. In chapter 6, he was Miyata's sparring partner, and someone said "Aoki, are you okay?" That's when he realised, "Oh right, Aoki is in this gym." But this Aoki guy must be pretty weak since he was beaten by a boxer who had not even made his debut yet. He thought there must be at least one other person, and then out came Kimura. Kamogawa is a strict person, and considering that he would probably only choose a few, the pro boxers of the Kamogawa gym were Ippo plus the other three in the initial stage.

As for the visuals, when Aoki first showed his face at the ramen shop, Morikawa unintentionally drew him with a punch perm and a rough looking face. That made him think that Aoki must have been a delinquent in the past. He drew Kimura a little smarter, but when he put him out there, he thought "They're awfully close, aren't they? Maybe they've been friends since their school days?" As usual, he didn't make any decisions about them before making them, but rather the setting gradually came together on its own. However, before the series was serialised, characters like those two appeared in the storyboard that was set in a high school boxing club setting. So, in a sense, they were recycled from that storyboard.

Both Aoki and Kimura have almost the same skill levels as boxers. Aoki has a single-minded personality, while Kimura's is a bit more oblique. Although not the strongest in the series, it seems like these two were at unbeatable levels of strength in their student days. They could rise to the top of any sports they did, and were okay at fighting. In fact, they were at high levels in sports. But it seems like when they met Takamura in his best condition, it made them become more spineless.

The Kamogawa gym summer training camps, training at Nekota's mountain hut, and the casual baseball game that is included in this book. It's easier drawing those kinds of moments when you consider the many lines involved in drawing a match and the amount of work that it takes to create a sense of speed. However, the amount of tension within the drawing is exactly the same. While Morikawa was talking with Nouchi, who was the first person in charge, one thing they decided on was that they would not depict gags in Hajime no Ippo as if the characters themselves were trying to be funny. For the most part, the characters are serious about what they are doing. But to readers looking in from the outside, it looks comical and they think, "These guys are idiots!" The plan was to portray the comedic scenes in that way.

For example, there is a scene during the summer training camp where Aoki tries to get revenge on Takamura by making him eat a okonomiyaki with a sea slater inside of it, and Aoki was serious about it. But for some reason, Takamura split it into two, and it turned into a Russian roulette. Rather than Morikawa thinking "let Takamura break the okonomiyaki," he just handed it to him and he broke it in half on his own. In the end, Takamura eats the half containing the sea slater, and the sea slater appears in his faeces. At that time, Takamura was seriously scared because he thought that he was cursed.

Morikawa creates stories by having characters encounter people and incidents, and then expanding the story by seeing how they react to them. Therefore, especially in those "quiet" moments of the story, he doesn't know how things will turn out, even more so than usual. When the Kamogawa gym members were fishing on the Makunouchi Fishing Boat, they created the situation by themselves where Takamura was the only one who couldn't fish. And, before he knew it, Aoki fell into the water and got caught on Takamura's fishing rod. He also noticed that the manager, Yagi, became a legendary fisherman whose personality changes when it comes to fishing. Morikawa likes fishing too, and knows people whose personality changes when they really get into fishing. While making this, a moment in the story that he thought would be maybe two or three pages long turned into one to two chapters on its own.

The scene that Morikawa has drawn so far that he thought turned out to be a funny scene with good characterisation was the last scene of the training camp at Nekota's mountain hut. As everyone was saying goodbye, Nekota said something like "Hold on-dani!" and chased after the car as fast as he could. It was cute and funny that the old man was trying so hard. It's only funny because the characters are genuine and serious.

The Kamogawa group following Takamura seems to be close and they actually get along well, though Morikawa doesn't think they would be "ideal friends" material. He would definitely not want to be subordinate to a man like Takamura who is so unmanageable. Takamura is a very caring and charismatic guy, but to be honest, he is also a bit of a harasser and a jerk. It must be very difficult to be in that group, always trying to calm and soothe Takamura, and then being the target of his bullying when he is in a bad mood during his weight loss. Takamura is the reason why the gym has a world champion but only a few select number of members are in it. Only those who are able to endure Takamura's inexcusable behaviour will be able to stay. Of the current members, Aoki and Kimura have a lot of respect for Takamura, and Ippo also admires and follows Takamura. Itagaki's personality allows him to ignore what he doesn't like about Takamura. In fact, trainer Baron Kurita retired because of Takamura. There are most likely many victims of Takamura like Baron, just not depicted.

Morikawa believes there are three ways to look at boxing. One is the way he looked up at Yōkō Gushiken, who the object of his devoted admiration when he was a child. The second is the feeling he had when he was watching Naoto Takahashi and other boxers of that generation in the early days of the series. It made him think "If he is working hard, I must work hard, too." Lastly, it is the feeling of getting older and taking care of younger boxers. Seeing their desperate fights, he would think "Ahh, I used to be like that." For readers, if one were to apply these three views to the Kamogawa gym, the first being Takamura as the object of devoted admiration, and Ippo most likely thinks "If he is working hard, I must work hard, too." Furthermore, Itagaki is seen as a kōhai, as well as a new pupil of the retired Ippo. And so that is how the Kamogawa gym is structured.

The important thing is that each of them is the protagonist of their respective lives as boxers, and at the same time, each of them holds the role of being nourishment for Ippo to become stronger in this story. Basically all of the characters that exist within the story are entities that help Ippo grow. This may sound a little strange since this section is titled "company," but this is a fact that can not be dismissed.

• 1. Yōkō Gushiken - "A former WBA world light flyweight champion. Nicknamed "Crested Eagle," he is a fighter type southpaw from Okinawa. After retirement, he became a tarento."

Column #11 - Round 704

"This is the story of "Hajime no Ippo" so far leading up to Round 704 "The End...""
Takamura brilliantly won in a second weight class! The Ippo vs. Miyata match is being made!

Takamura faced David Eagle in a WBC world middleweight title match and won in a second weight class. It was a great and fierce battle with bloodshed on both sides, ending with a title victory. In addition, Itagaki advanced through the Rookie King Tournament, winning in the finals against Imai by decision, earning the Eastern Japan Rookie King title. Meanwhile, Ippo also won his match against Karasawa, and his dream match against Miyata was being made. However, the Ippo vs. Miyata match had to be postponed after Miyata injured both of his fists during his match against Choi Jong-bong. In the junior lightweight class, Mashiba and Sawamura faced off, and after a messy fight of fouls, Mashiba lost due to fouling. Sawamura, however, was also involved in an accident immediately after the match and was unable to get back into action. The members of the Kamogawa gym are at odds with each other due to differences of opinion over the unpleasant match, but they try to make up by playing some amateur baseball...

Ryūhei Sawamura

The most dangerous rough fighter, also known as "The Owari Dragon" and "The Devil." Sawamura is a former Japanese junior lightweight champion. Due to his unfortunate upbringing, he became a delinquent and started boxing as soon as he graduated from junior high school. He was a problem child with more than a few violent incidents and had various violations inside the ring. In his fight against Mashiba, he displayed himself as a rough fighter who was not afraid to use fouls. In the end, he won the title after Mashiba lost by fouling, however he got seriously injured in a traffic accident immediately after the match and forced to retire.

• Round 704: The End...

Column #9

Editors in charge of "Hajime no Ippo" talks about "Ippo and Jōji"
Jun'ichi Ikou (伊香 淳一) and Tetsuya Fujikawa (冨士川 哲也) are both Weekly Shōnen Magazine editors.

Ikou: Although I have had a long career as an editor, I became a person in charge of "Ippo" about six months ago. What surprised me when I became a person in charge was that the sensei was so obsessed with the drawings, or rather, it was the amount of work he put into them while inking his pencil sketches. Nowadays, we live in a world where digitisation is causing lines to be reduced, however, more lines are also able to be drawn in to add more detail to the drawings. There is no other master artist who freehand draws even the effect lines.

Fujikawa: I have been a person in charge for about seven years in total. To tell you the truth, before I met Morikawa-sensei, I was certain that he was this "scary person." It was because he appeared as a super-intimidating guy in the Mō, Shimasen Kara manga that was at the end of the magazine. But when I met him for the first time, he greeted me with a smile and said "I am Morikawa, the one who draws Hajime no Ippo. I'm looking forward to working with you.". I told him "You're a very nice person!"

Ikou: I remember about two years ago, both of our names appeared together in the sensei's comment section at the end of a magazine issue.

Fujikawa: It said "I'll get you back for that, Ikou, Fujikawa, remember that." There was actually quite a lot of people on Twitter wondering if "Ippo" was going to get cancelled.

Ikou: Oh, that one was actually just about mahjong. Morikawa-sensei is a big fan of the M LEAGUE, a professional league for competitive mahjong, and we sometimes sit around the table together.

Fujikawa: Since we won quite a few times, Morikawa-sensei made the comment jokingly.

Ikou: That "small flame" remains as a "digital tattoo," so I thought I'd just explicitly say "I'm not in trouble."

Interview #9 - Retirement

Column #12 - Round 1069

• Round 1069: Oblivion

Column #13 - Round 1208

• Round 1208: Leaves

Trivia

• The picture of Ippo Makunouchi on the cover is from the cover of volume 90.
• The book hinted at Aikawa's return, with Morikawa jokingly wondering if she will be Kumi's rival.
  • It also hinted at Miguel Zale and Wally's return, which happened two years after this book came out.