There are plenty of shows that are remembered for their soundtracks: you got your Samurai Champloo, your Cowboy Bebop, and of course your Initial Ds, but among the many animes with great soundtracks I always found the shows with work by Tsuneo Imahori to be some of the most memorable.
Hajime no Ippo is a sports anime from 2000 by Studio Madhouse. This 76 episode long show centers on a bullied youth who grows more mature and confident through learning how to box, and decides that becoming a professional boxer is the path for himself to follow in life. Full of many of the harsh realities of professional boxing such as the dangers to your health, the low pay along with the trails and tribulations of getting by every day, and the harsh training regiments that don’t often leave to much of a social life, Ippo is a show that doesn’t hold any punches when it comes to painting a picture of what it means to box, and hey, not holding punches is probably the most fitting thing here.
However, Ippo is more than just a sports show, it’s a show that is carried by its phenomenal soundtrack. Like I was saying earlier, Ippo is by far an incredibly rememberable watching experience because of how it implements a lot of unique music genres to create its score. From street hip-hop, to African drumming beats with a bit of Funk, with barring horns and mechanics piano keys, and of course the pièce de résistance of the whole soundtrack: Imahori’s bitchin’ guitar playing where he just lets loose such a wide range of emotion—the soundtrack absolutely brings the show to life and makes it stand out. The originality of the music combined with great animation from Studio Madhouse is really what sets Ippo to be one of the quintessential sports anime of its generation, and no doubt one of the reasons why it would go on to spawn many a TV Movie, OVAs, and many sequel TV seasons later on.
One of my personal favorites from the soundtrack is Arayashiki. The song is just oozing with so much atmosphere and so many different and unique sounds can be heard in it. It’s a song that is able to whip up a great many different kinds of feelings, from excitement before a match, to overcoming a great fighter, as well as the fear that one might feel from the pressure of the boxing life style, this song manages to capture it all.
The story itself, though, is of course interesting also. The interweaving of characters from the innocent boyhood of Ippo Makunouchi; a young man who strives to be the best boxer he can be, never giving up, and always believing in his trainer and mentor, Kamogawa—called ‘The Chief’ by his boxers. An old man who is quick to anger but secretly has a heart of gold deep down and will do anything for his boxers. Even in his old age it is obvious he pushes himself a great deal for his boxers. Then there is the loud and boisterous Takamura, the man who introduced Ippo to boxing and is an undefeated animal who’s on his way to becoming Japan’s Champion. Takamura stands as a symbol of strength to Ippo … that is when he isn't being a jack ass, though, as he is quite the party animal. Then there is Miyata, a talented young boxer whom Ippo tries desperately to live up to only to somehow surpass leading to an interesting case where the Ippo finds himself in the spotlight and feeling he ill deserves it while his rival has to suffer and leave Japan to fight in other boxing associations. The characters all create a unique web of interaction and keep a constant pace of unexpected turns as they all try to get by in the harsh world of professional boxing.
The fight scenes, often times brutal in their implementation, leave the audience on the edge of their seats. Many fights can turn into death matches with characters bruised, bloody, or even worse. One of the early examples of the gravity of the fights is Ippo’s match against Mashiba, a boxer who, at the time of their match at Eastern Japan Rookie Champion finals, is thought to had ruined the career of Ippo’s rival: Miyata. through cheap tricks such as stomping on Miyata’s foot as to keep him from getting any distance between the two. A tall looming young man with a criminal record and known to fight dirty, Ippo wishes to overcome him and get revenge for Miyata in the final match of the tournament. What should have been a tasteful rematch between old friend turns into a grudge match against the boxer from hell! The struggle is a bloody one, but Ippo overcomes his obvious physical disadvantages with his own reckless disregard for his health, and in the process grows a better appreciation for the sport as well as learns to overcome feelings like revenge and even respects his opponents skills. It’s a chilling match to sit through made even worse as the audience learns that Mashiba is the older brother to Kumi, the girl Ippo has had a crush on the entire series. In the end Ippo is able to prevail, but even then, can it really be called a win? Never getting a chance to have his rematch with his rival who was embarrassed by his match with Mashiba and forced to leave the country, and beating Kumi’s only family member to a bloody pulp, Ippo finds himself standing on top.
Hajime no Ippo is an intense sports drama made the richer for its amazing soundtrack. The following works after the original first TV season replaces Imahori as the composer and are often considered weaker series because of it. They still follow the intense sports drama, but there is something to be missed with the incredible soundtrack no longer used in the following seasons. However, as it stands, Madhouses’s 2000 adaption of Hajime no Ippo will stick with its viewer, and leave them wanting for more. It’s one of my personal favorite sports anime, with a dub that has aged incredibly well (some great fighting narration done by Kirk Thornton as the announcer) and definitely has one of my favorite soundtracks in anime in general.
