Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! on GBA, a Boxing Game From the Manga That Wouldn't Quit
Hajime no Ippo is one of the longest-running sports manga in Japan. George Morikawa began serialising it in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine on 11 October 1989, and a 76-episode anime by Madhouse aired on Nippon TV from October 2000 to March 2002. The cast is famous for its boxers: the shy, bullied Makunouchi Ippo, his rival Miyata and the rest of the gym.
The Game Boy Advance game, Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting!, was published in Japan on 12 December 2002 by Entertainment Software Publishing, not long after the anime ended its first run. It was one of nine games in the franchise to date, and it never left Japan.
At a glance
- Based on: the manga and anime Hajime no Ippo by George Morikawa
- Original release: Game Boy Advance, Japan, 12 December 2002 (publisher: Entertainment Software Publishing)
- Genre: Boxing
- What sets it apart: a story mode that follows Ippo from his first sparring match to a featherweight title
What you get
- Five modes: Story, Tournament, VS, Sparring and Customize.
- Story mode: Ippo's rise from a shy boy to a contender, starting with the spar against Miyata and ending at the JBC featherweight belt.
- Fan translation: the English text makes the menus and story readable without Japanese.
Context for collectors
The franchise's video games stretch from a 1997 PlayStation title to a 2014 PS3 game, so this GBA entry sits among the earliest wave. Both the manga and anime have since reached the West through Kodansha's digital manga service and releases of the anime from Geneon and Discotek Media. The handheld game itself remains a Japanese-only curiosity.