Chris Reviews - Hajime No Ippo: The Fighting

Title: Hajime no Ippo
          Hajime no Ippo - New Challenger

Episodes: 75 (S1) + 26 (S2)

Released: October 2000 (S1)
                   January 2009 (S2)

Genre: Sport, Violence, Boxing, Slapstick

Official Intro

AniDB

MyAnimeList





Time for a classic I think, lets introduce you all to one of my favourites.

This is one of the few animes that i find myself watching scenes from again and again, the sound assets in combination with the animation make this show a thrill to watch, and you can feel the punches as a result. I would definitely recommend watching this with a good set of speakers, and the volume up a decent amount. When a punch lands, it is a punch thrown by someone hell bent on breaking your face.

If you want to see an example, I will link one, please be warned though this can be considered spoiler, watch at your own risk: click here.

Did someone get the number of that truck?

Now, lets delve into the story a bit, being a 75 episode series there is a lot of character development (and back muscle development), I will give you a bit of an introduction.

The story focuses on an upcoming boxer named Ippo Makunouchi, from his very first punch all the way to his title debut. He is joined by fellow senior boxers Takamura, Aoki, and Kimura. As well as various others. The head coach and founder of the Kamogawa Gym is Genji Kamogawa.

Ippo was always the subject of bullying at school, and one day in particular he was getting beaten up under a bridge, when Takamura appears, swiftly deals with the bullys, and takes the unconscious ippo back to the Kamogawa Gym. Upon waking up ippo takes a good look at his surroundings, and is in awe of what he sees, professional boxers beating the crap out of sandbags.

Takamura proceeds to put a picture of the school bullys onto one of these bags and tells Ippo to throw a punch. His first of many. Although he has a long way to go, Takamura has set Ippo on the path of a professional boxer. A professional face breaking boxer.

Your face wasn't that pretty anyway.

The show does a really good job of showing what it is really like being a professional boxer, the gruelling training, the unbelievably strict diets, and the physical strain of putting your body through so much.

There is a lot of comedy as well, as it cant all be action, these scenes break up the flow and give you something else to watch, before another round of punches, its not the best comedy around, but I feel it was a necessary addition to keep things interesting over such a long watch.

If i was to complain about one thing it would probably be the pacing, there are some parts that seem to drag on for a while, and the freaking flashbacks didn't help matters, a single fight can span several episodes, on the other hand though I guess this adds a lot of tension when the blows finally connect.

Gomu Gomu no.... JET... GATLING GUN!!!!

Once again, one of my favourite shows, the intro song will forever be stuck in my head, and I will keep re-watching the scenes that highlight ippo's face breaking skills, but lets not forget that liver blow, the rib shattering liver blow.

I'll stop there, otherwise I'll go on all night. Add it to your watch list if it even interests you a little bit, you won't be disappointed.

Telek Review: Gin Tama

Basic Info:
Over 200 episodes released.
Shounen Comedy
Released Dec 8th, 2003.






Before I begin reviewing this in earnest  I just wanted to say that this is one of the few anime's that has had my crying in laughter, twice.

Gin Tama is one of those series that is really challenging to explain to anyone who hasn't seen it. I usually end up trailing off, trying to explain that there's a samurai, aliens and it's all based on the Edo period. This is often followed by people giving me weird looks and occasionally the understanding pat on the back "must be tough to be you buddy." It's a bizarre mix of fantasy, scifi and comedy that frequently smashes down the fourth wall.

I'm noticing a pattern with their behavior...

The story focuses on Gintama (the main character), who's a lazy, self centered, yorozuya (jack of all trades). He has two sidekicks, the nerdy otaku Shinpachi, who is a samurai in training and the loud, inhumanly strong Kagura, who is an alien from another planet. We follow this trio on their myriad of odd jobs and debacles. The story arcs are strangely compelling and the odd few serious episodes add to the overall effect the series has as an outstanding comedy.

They just saw you naked!

The show is constantly referring back to it's Manga roots, and Jump background. It feels like the writers know their audience well and they exploit it and I find it rare to be so invested in a comedy but with over 200 episodes, Gintama will not be finished within the week.

This is one of those oddly compelling watches that you just can't stop eating up. The main director, Shinji Takamatsu has created one of the funniest oddball series in the last decade.

Chris Reviews - Binbougami ga!

Title: Binbougami ga!

Episodes: 13

Released: July 2012

Genre: Comedy, Slapstick, Violence, Drama

Official Intro

Fan-Made AMV

AniDB

MyAnimeList

Now here is an anime that is almost never talked about, unfortunately so, because it is actualy a very enjoyable watch. The story begins with a young woman by the name of Sakura Ichiko, who just so happens to have un-natural levels of good fortune, so much so that it is upsetting the balance of fortune, and she is unintentionaly sucking all the good fortune from people around her.

This brings me to the second character, the antagonist of the series, a god of misfortune called Binbada Momiji, she has been sent to earth to restore the balance of furtune, by forcibly withdrawing Sakura's fortune. With a giant needle of all things. And so begins the fight to the death between Sakura and Binbada!

MOORTAL COMBAAT!

Not really, but it might as well have been, they have the typical over the top brawls that would outright kill a normal person, but hey, anime.

Surprisingly enough this action and comedy is occasionally broken up by some pretty serious stuff, mostly for plot and character development, but it is very well done, unfortunately these scenes are few and far between, it could have really used more.

Hang on, I thought this was a comedy...

Luckily the series knows what it wants to be, it is a comedy at heart and it nails it. It introduces some extra characters pretty early on including a perverted holy man, and a masochistic dog god. The interactions between these two are great.

There are a lot of references and parodies of other anime, including some of the greats like Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, and Naruto. I guarantee you the one piece one will at the very least put a giant grin on your face.

Ah, there's my comedy :D

Being only 12 episodes, this is a perfect weekend show, the dedicated can get through it in one sitting. I definitely recommend giving it a shot, it was one of the ones that surprised me, I went into it with low expectations and even the first episode had me hooked, it is actually pretty damn good.

Take a look at the Official Intro and the fan-made AMV I linked above if you are interested, I believe AMV's can give a good impression of what to expect from a series so I will try to find good ones where possible. This one is definitely not bad.

In summary, a very impressive and well done comedy, I enjoyed it greatly.