Released and Relinquished Part 4: Fighting Spirit

(For anyone that missed it check out Part 3: Simoun over on Fuzakenna) Hello everyone and welcome to part four of Released and Relinquished. This time I am going to talk about a show that came out and seemed to be all but completely ignored. Fighting Spirit otherwise known as Hajime no Ippo which came out in the US back in 2005/2006.

Fighting Spirit is the story of a kid named Makunouchi Ippo. He spends all his free time helping his mom run a fishing shop, and is constantly being harassed by bullies but never fights back. During one of these attacks a man comes and rescues Ippo. This man named Takemura just happens to be a middleweight boxer and with that encounter Ippo is slowly drawn into the world of boxing.

As the series moves on we get to watch Ippo as he grows from being a meek kid into a pro boxer. But that isn’t to say that the show is all serious business all the time. It is actually a very funny series at the same time. The cast of characters makes everything a ton of fun from Takemura and the other guys at the gym to Ippo himself. The series likes to make use of potty humor and the goofiness of the guys on a regular basis to balance out the seriousness and drama, and it makes the series all the more fun to watch.

The thing that really sells the series is the very passionate way that Ippo and his friends are about what they do. You can watch these guys and even though they are goofing off you still see that they are serious about what they do. It is great to watch Ippo train and fight and evolve as the series goes on. The series doesn’t fall into the usual Shonen tropes of the lead magically becoming stronger instead it is all about hard work and guts. Everything is about Ippo evolving as a fighter as he meets new rivals, and becomes a greater and greater fighter.

Unfortunately Fighting Spirit was a pretty big failure in the US. It was released in the US by the now defunct Geneon Entertainment. The show in some bizarre turn of events actually has two dubs. It was dubbed in both English and Spanish. It seems that Geneon was expecting something big with this show but it just didn’t happen. According to the Wikipedia entry on the series “The first DVD was the best selling at ~5,000 units with each DVD afterward selling ~1,000 units.” those are horrible sales numbers to say the least. Luckily Geneon still managed to release the entire 75 episode series and the Champion Road special. Since it was such a huge flop the singles are very easy to come by. Right Stuf actually has all the singles available right now for only 5 dollars a piece.

And there you go everybody. Be sure to check out Fuzakenna for Part 5 tomorrow.