Alternative Titles
English: The First Step
Synonyms: Fighting Spirit
Japanese: はじめの一歩

Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 76
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Oct 4, 2000 to Mar 27, 2002
Producers: Madhouse Studios, VAP
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Shounen, Sports
Duration: 23 min. per episode
Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Review


Animation:
It's nothing new, but it's not really old yet, either, so average I guess, but exspeccialy the punches in the fights are very good animated.
-> 8 points

Sound:
The voices sound rather good and are giving the right atmosphere, they also support the rare humor, either.
There are very few annoying voices and they appear rarely, either, so it's bearable.
The fighting sounds are very atmospheric and the noises from the people watching the fights in the halls arn't really giving the perfect atmosphere that makes you feel like you would sit in the hall yourself, but still makes it easier to imagine it.
All in all the sound is a bit inferior to the animation.
-> 7 points

Story:
The story definetly has its heights when Ippo trains in ordner to get stronger to win the fights and each time he got stronger you feel really good either, exspeccialy when he discovers a new technique with thinking about it before.
The background, getting up with pure willpower after falling down on the mat, is fascinating, anyway, but if you finished watching the series you feel like they should have spend less time on some minor things and more time on his growth as a boxer and his further fights or maybe they should have just maken a few more episodes, atleast I wasn't satisfied with the end.
There is some boy girl love, too, but unfortunately it doesn't even reach the stage where they would confess, much less the stage where they would kiss. Again a point where you feel they should have spend more time in.
The flow is good as long as there are exciting fights, it's easy to watch more episodes in one rush than you can count on two hands, but there are some times when you don't feel like watching anymore, either, in other words times where the anime gets a bit boring.
So you can summarize the story is good all in all, but still easily improvable
-> 7 points

Character:
You get a deep look into the main characters feelings, ambitions and his personality and you also get attached to his fightings easily, but sometimes you can't help but getting annoyed by his naivety.
The characters surrounding him are well made, either, and you can easily imagine their personality even if they dont appear on screen often enough to learn more about them.
There are also many totaly different guys who appear as his enemys and keep the anime from getting boring and each of them has it's own background, personality and reasons to fight.
All in all there arn't anymore characters that annoy you besides Ippo, but since he's the main character it still has an impact if he get's annoying from times to times.
-> 7 points

Value:
Although the anime is entertaining and it features a unique theme, (atleast I didn't watch any animes featuring boxing before) it lacks variety and it ends when you just feel like it's starting to get really good.
Also I am not really into boxing, either, so I might have considert keeping it more likely if it featured some other material arts.
-> 6 points

Enjoyment:
I don't really like boxing too much, but the series still entertaint me very good from begining to end and the fights were packed with action supported by the solid animation.
If it would have had concentrated a bit more on ippos fights and growth, I would have been able to enjoy it even more, but this way I felt a bit unsatisfied in the end.
-> 7 points