He is a citizen in Japan. He has a tendency to crack the most terrible of puns, and his poor sense of humour rivals that of Mamoru Takamura's. The two often trade puns at Manabu Itagaki's matches.
History[]
Part II[]
Submarine Wars Arc[]
The Itagaki family having dinner with Ippo.
When he arrived at his house for dinner, he met Ippo Makunouchi, who was invited by his son to celebrate his first victory as a pro boxer. While eating dinner with everyone, he exchanged terrible puns with his family. He and the rest of his family cracked jokes much to Ippo's discomfort. He then laughed with his family at Ippo's unintentional pun, much to the latter's chagrin.
The next day, he was confronted by Mamoru Takamura in a pun match after Takamura heard from Ippo that the Itagaki family was like the ultimate comedy, and Takamura believed the word ultimate was only reserved for him. He won the match against Takamura after he removed his wig and made a pun, and took Takamura as his student.
Comic Show Arc[]
While Masaru Aoki was testing an idea for his new technique, the father walked by Aoki and looked around in confusion when Aoki turned his head to look at something. The father later went to the Kōrakuen Hall to watch Manabu's first round of the East Japan Rookie King Tournament, along with Aoki's JBC lightweight title match. During the matches, he sat with his pupil, Takamura. They proceeded to make puns and mocked Aoki's title match, resulting in a slap on the face from Aoki's girlfriend, Tomiko.
Spirit of a Weed Arc[]
During Manabu's East Japan Rookie King Tournament semi-finals, he came home after a spar with Ryō Mashiba that made his face swollen. When Ippo arrived to the house to check on him, the father greeted him and made a pun before inviting Ippo to their home. Two days before his son's semi-finals, he waited for him to come to eat dinner.
Phantom Card Arc[]
The father at his son's East Rookie King Tournament finals against Imai.
When Nanako revealed that Manabu bet on her in his match against Kyōsuke Imai, the father expressed how he wished for Nanako to have Ippo instead of Imai. However, when he and his wife learned that Imai comes from a rich family, they plead for Nanako to marry Imai so that they don't have to pay her college tuition. When Manabu's East Japan Rookie King Tournament finals match against Imai arrived, the father went to the Kōrakuen Hall and sat with his family, Kumi Mashiba, and Masahiko Umezawa, who gave everyone headbands to cheer for Manabu. He cheered as Manabu won and became the Eastern Rookie King by decision after six rounds.
Seiken Arc[]
He went to the Kōrakuen Hall to watch Manabu fight in a six round match, which resulted in Manabu's victory by decision.
Destined Boxer Arc[]
He went to the Ryōgoku Kokugikan to watch Manabu's match against Alex Harker, where Manabu won by knockout in the first round.
Red Lightning Arc[]
The Itagaki family inviting Imai for dinner.
When Manabu arrived home with Imai after they were beaten in a spar, he and his wife invited Imai for dinner. When Imai noted how interesting the house is, he and his wife asked how his house was and were daydreaming about how big his house is when he described it, imagining themselves living in it if they became his in-laws if he got married. He wished to call Imai "milord" after hearing this. Him and his wife began saying puns during dinner as Imai also chimed in. After dinner, he and his wife saw Imai off.
In the Jungle Arc[]
While Manabu's mind was on training during dinner, he noticed that Manabu wouldn't talk.
Chronos Arc[]
He ate dinner with his family, minus Manabu since he had to do his weigh-in the next day. During dinner, he joked about how poor they are.
Speed Zone Arc[]
The Itagaki family doing the "Itag-kiin" pose at Manabu's match against Saeki.
He arrived to the Kōrakuen Hall for Manabu's Class A Tournament finals. Before his match began, he, along with his wife and Nanako did the "Itag-kiin" pose with Manabu. He watched Manabu's match against Takuma Saeki, which ended in Manabu's victory in the fourth round by knockout, celebrating by doing the "Itag-kiin" with his wife, Nanako, and Manabu. He stayed to watch Tatsuya Kimura and Aoki's Class A Tournament finals match, where Kimura lost by decision and Aoki lost against Shinobu Iga by a seven round knockout.
When Manabu got his prize money from winning the tournament, he treated his family to sushi at the Koedo Sushi in celebration. While Nanako and Manabu were shocked to see Saeki working there as a chef, he and his wife were eating as soon as they came in. After complaining that there is no food on the sushi belt and that Saeki is being slow, Saeki put extra wasabi on Manabu's sushi, however, he ate it and passed out from the spiciness.
Go to the World Arc[]
After being laid off from work, he went to the Kamogawa gym and eavesdropped on Takamura, Aoki, and Kimura making fun of Ippo as he saw everyone having fun. He was approached by Manabu and informed him about being laid off from his job before leaving with a pun about Ippo pulling his "holy sword" from the stone, the Excalibur.
When Manabu's match against Imai for the vacant JBC featherweight title and Ippo's match against Alfredo González arrived, he went to the Kōrakuen Hall to watch the matches. He watched as Manabu lost in the first round by knockout and Ippo lost by knockout in the seventh round.
Part III[]
Judgement Day Arc[]
Takamura revealing his intention of making a Pekitter account to Lord and Itagaki's father.
He was invited to Takamura's house for mushroom hotpot. As he, Takamura, and Lord sat down, Takamura told him and Lord that he will be making a Pekitter account because he knows everyone wants to know about his daily life. He invited the two over for hotpot to make his first pekeet a food post so that his first pekeet won't start a flame war. Takamura suggested for the two to strip in order for them to not pass out since it is in the Summer and a hotpot is like a sauna in his room. When he stripped, his wig flew off his head, making Takamura laugh. As the three began to drink, he spilled his drink and made a pun, causing Takamura and Lord to laugh. Itagaki's father reminded Takamura and Lord that their goal for the night was to take a picture of the food for Takamura's Pekitter. Takamura, however, didn't want his first pekeet to start a flame war, pointing out that Itagaki's father and Lord are naked. Itagaki's father noted his extremely small underwear makes him not naked, and Lord is handed boxing gloves by Takamura to cover up. Itagaki's father had the two gather together for a group shot and took the picture. Takamura posted the pekeet, however, it resulted in him getting permanently banned from Pekitter.
Appearance[]
He has a pale complexion and long face with a reasonable amount of wrinkles and facial markings to tell of his age. He wears a black coloured wig over his bald head. He has thin eyebrows, dark coloured eyes, and wears a pair of glasses.
Personality[]
Along with the rest of his family, he has quite the notorious personality of cracking some of the worst puns ever heard. He is shown to have a terrible sense of humour, but is a kind, caring father when his comedic acts are overlooked. He often competes with Takamura over who has the better puns and often gets the last laugh.
Whether he cares about his son's boxing career or not is something of a mystery. He shows up for most of his son's matches, but his main concern seems to be centred around the money Itagaki will earn if he wins.
He passes gas whenever he gets excited or sad while saying his son's given name as a pun. At boxing matches, this upsets those sitting around him.
Creation and Concept[]
The personality of Itagaki's father is modeled after 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. 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. 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. 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.[1]
Gallery[]
