Alternative Titles
English: Fighting Spirit: New Challenger
Synonyms: Hajime no Ippo New Series, Hajime no Ippo Season II, Fighting Spirit: New Challenger, Hajime no Ippo 2
Japanese: はじめの一歩 新シリーズ

Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 26
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Jan 6, 2009 to Jun 30, 2009
Producers: Madhouse Studios
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Shounen, Sports
Duration: 23 min. per episode
Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Review

Animation

If you have seen the previous episodes of Hajime no Ippo then you will not be surprised by the animation in The New Challenger. There will be the same over the top drawing style in the ring, with extremely defined moves and muscles with a fair amount of stop action. Outside of the ring the super deformed characters were toned down abit from the last installments but the flavor is still there. The woman of HnI still look decidedly manly... but I guess that's an aesthetics thing.

One thing that is new in the animation department was the experimentation with faces. Trying to display health and dehydration in different ways. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it just plain failed, but I have to give marks for trying. That is an important thing to include in a boxing anime.

Sound

I am not a sound guy and as long as nothing is really bad I tend to just go with the flow, music wise. I liked the voice actors and the music was used well, tho I would have liked a little more "punch" for the matches ( pardon the pun ). My only complaint lies with one of the female VA's who basically could not act to save her skin. Besides that the opening was good but the ending was kinda blah for me. But all in all I liked the sound in general, brought back the feel of HnI well.

Story

The New Challenger leaves off where the movie ended pretty much. Miyata is highlighted in the start and the beginning is largely focused on building up for future episodes. Because I loathe spoilers I will try not to give anything away but expect the same formula they used in the past. Fight ( or 2 ) / Fun and training / more fights. It works and i have no complaints except that sometimes I wish I could enjoy the New Challenger in fast forward .

There really is nothing to surprise you if you have seen the previous episodes and that's not a bad thing. In fact that's what I wanted!! So why the low score you ask... because despite 26 episodes this felt like an appetizer... or a really small dinner. I want more. I can't be more specific without giving stuff away, but the end just left me hanging.

Character Development

You mean... FIGHT DEVELOPMENT! Well basically that's all that happens character wise of real importance. My score in this is largely due to the fact that Ippo hardly develops in this installment of HnI and I even felt he was slipping several times throughout the anime. I think if one character had been highlighted a little more after a "certain" fight it might have been a more interesting in general for both Ippo and him.

But the real development happens during the fights and that is always interesting with the characters iron wills and drive largely keeping them going in the matches. The humor and romance in the "filler" episodes never really kept my interest and only the stuff dealing with the upcoming matches was really entertaining anyway. Miyata in particular was very interesting and I really would liked to have seen more of him.

Value and Enjoyment

If I were to watch this again I would only rewatch the fight scenes and skip the filler. But 2 of the matches were truly great and had me on the edge of my seat spanning multiple episodes. I really enjoyed this and recommend it if you like the sports genre of anime at all. Watch the first installment of Ippo if you have not seen it yet, but you can get away with watching this first... but being that this is a sports anime I would feel skipping the development is kind of missing the point.