Hajime no Ippo: Rising

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Official Series Artwork for Hajime no Ippo: Rising

Hajime no Ippo: Rising is the third season of the Hajime no Ippo anime. It started airing on October 6th 2013 at 1:35 am and concluded airing on April 2014.

Overview

Rising aired for 25 episodes. The anime was confirmed to contain Aoki's title match, Ippo's 4th and 5th title defense match, and Takamura's Middleweight World title match. The last episodes tell the story of Kamogawa and his rival Nekota in their younger years, the After the War Arc.

List of Episodes

Round 1: The Greatest Challenger - Ippo faces the Ryukyu Warrior Shimabukuro Iwao for his 4th Title Defense. This episode includes the tragic accident of Ippo's late father Makunouchi Kazuo.

Round 2: The Dempsey Roll Destroyed - Ippo continues his epic battle with Iwao who was mercilessly beating Ippo until Ippo finally uses the Dempsey Roll on him. Iwao retaliates with brute force, but Ippo eventually wins the dual exchange.  

Round 3: A Woman's Battle - While Ippo is unconcious Kumi, Mari, & Nanako compete for Ippo (while unconcious) in his room. Meanwhile Aoki goes through stages in preparation for his upcoming first title match. Things between Imae (Champion) and Aoki start to intensify at the weigh-in.

Round 4: The Goddess of Victory - Aoki and Imae focus on the upcoming match between them at Champion Carnival. Itagaki starts off the Rookie Championships tournament and wins his bout and then Aoki's first title match starts.

Round 5: 100% Fake - Aoki and Imae both fight full force, both opponents knocking each other down. Aoki fights Imae using awkward strategies and Imae fights using perfectly textbook strategies.

Round 6: The Distance Between Me and Glory - Aoki and Imae finish the title match both, with boxers equal in scores (95-94;94-95;94-94) leading to Imae retaining the title. Aoki thinks about retiring boxing but is quickly opposed by the gang and his girlfriend.

Round 7: Cheese Champion - Features Sendo's comeback fight and Ippo meets Sawamura. Takamura defends his title for the first time and announces that he will relinquish the belt and move up to Middleweight.

Round 8: The Mad Dog and The Red Wolf - Kamogawa accepts that Ippo's next opponent will be Sawamura Ryuuhei. Meanwhile Ippo is training to evolve the Dempsey Roll with the help of Kimura and Itagaki. Later it is revealed that Volg is back in Japan looking for Ippo to get back his boxing gloves. Sawamura displays his amazing counter punches in a spar later in the episode.

Round 9: A Savage Scenario - Kamogawa tells Volg that he will introduce him to an American friend. Before leaving for America, Volg trains more after seeing videos of Sawamura's past matches, with the intent of sparring Ippo and demonstrating the Dempsey Roll counter. While in the spar, Volg stops Ippo's Dempsey Roll with a counter, rendering Ippo unconscious with one punch. Afterwards, Ippo continues training hard, trusting in Kamogawa's methods.

Round 10: The Face of Determination - Ippo's training results in evolving the Dempsey Roll, but at a grave cost of heavily straining his hips and legs. Due to this, he can use this evolved form only twice per match without risk of permanent injury. Sawamura's dark past is also revealed in this episode. The episode ends with the start of the Title Match.

Round 11: Fearless Challenger - The match against Sawamura starts with him behaving oddly and thinking that Ippo hasn't changed since last he saw him on video. Ippo surprises Sawamura swiftly by dodging his counters every time. The second round starts and Sawamura unleashes his so called Bullet punch. Ippo has a rough time to dodge all of them, taking damage even if he blocks. After that round Sawamura finally uses another technique of his, called Flash. Ippo was saved from a knockdown by the bell. At the end of the episode Sawamura said the meat is still rough and needs to be more tender.

Round 12: The Anti-Dempsey Perfected - The 4th round of Ippo's 5th title defense against Sawamura Ryuuhei starts. Ippo used the Dempsey Roll against him two times, both getting stopped by a powerful counter punch nearly knocking Ippo down. After Ippo used it two times, the third time, he finally did what he was aiming for. He stopped his rotation in the middle of its use, and then again moved it forward, making the New Dempsey Roll. This caught Sawamura off-guard and he took a brutal hit, knocking him down immediately.

Round 13: A Fist that Picks You Up - Sawamura just barely recovered from the last knockdown. After using the New Dempsey Roll for a second time it was finally the end. And at last, the fearsome match ends with Ippo being the victor and keeping his belt. Sawamura left on a stretcher and went immediately to the hospital. Sendou visited him saying that not even the Owari dragon could win against Ippo. Sendou also stated how Ippo's fists pick you up and make you want to get stronger the next time to finally defeat him.

Round 14: Empowering Words - Umezawa has been working for Ippo's mother for a long time, but talks about wanting to continue his real dream, becoming a manga artist. He then leaves Makunouchi Fishing Boat. Umezawa shows Ippo his first manga, which is about about fishing. After he left, Itagaki came to help the enterprise and learned the secret to how Ippo got his muscles. He then went on to win in the first round at the end of the episode.  

Round 15: A Storm Descends on Makunouchi Fishing Boat! - The whole KBG crew charter Ippo's fishing boat to catch some fish and Yagi decides to make a bet of who can catch the most. Takamura and coach Kamogawa can't catch anything and eventually Takamura gets annoyed and starts rocking the boat trying to catch a huge fish...only to reel in Aoki who he knocked off the ship accidentally. Later, coach announces to everyone Takamura's World Middleweight Title Match along with Miyata's OPBF Featherweight Title Match. Takamura and Miyata go to a training camp together where Miyata realizes how weak he's become from just training by himself with nobody to look up to.

Round 16: Golden Eagle - It's almost time for Takamura's second World Title Match. The WBC Middleweight American champion, David Eagle, arrives in Japan for the match. The Japanese reporters ask Eagle how he sees Takamura and he immediatelly answers that he is interested in Takamura's strength. Eagle is called a super hero and local kids came to get his autograph. Even Miyata and Ippo had t-shirts with the WBC Middleweight Champion's name on the back (David "Golden" Eagle). Afterwards he sparred with some boxers at Miyata's gym. Then it showed a flashback with Bryan Hawk and David talking about Takamura. Hawk seemed completely changed from his loss. Eagle wants to understand how this happened by fighting Takamura for himself.

Round 17: Eleki's Shocker and Papaya's Coconut - Now it's Aoki's and Kimura's turn against their opponents, the Filipino Lightweight Champion Eleki Battery, and the Indonesian Jr.Lightweight Champion Papaya Dachiu. Both of them were nervous about the matches, but Ippo and Itagaki tried to calm them. Takamura came and ruined everything, reminding them again about their bet if they don't win. In Kimura's match he was on defense for a while, but then he noticed Eleki's weakness, body blows. The match ended by a draw in the final round. Next up was Aoki's match against Papaya. Aoki was confused by Papay's strange tactics that seemed to mimic his own. Eventually their bout ended in a draw just like Kimura's. Miyata is ready for his 4th title defense match and there is only one thing on his mind - winning.

Round 18: The Unfinished New Counter - Miyata's match begins with him setting the pace with amazing speed. His jabs are fast and accurate, but the challenger only blocks, never fighting back. Eventually Miyata breaks his guard and the challenger responds with a very quick left hook. Despite this, the challenger backs off and goes back to defense like before. A flashback shows why he's just been guarding this whole time, the manager simply wants to observe Miyata's moves. Miyata pressures him enough to get in a few clean hits and the challenger decides for himself to fight back. After a brutal cross-counter, the challenger falls to the mat...only to get up at the count of 6. However, a more powerful counter punch knocks him right back down, ending the match immediately. Later Ippo shouts that he wants to fight Miyata and the crowd notices the Japan Champion. Miyata and the entire crowd want them to see them fight.

Round 19: Hawk Vs. Eagle - Time for the main event, Takamura's match against Golden Eagle. Miyata discuss with Ippo about Takamura's right eye, that possibly be a detached retina of the eye. As the match begins both fighters rush in and trade lefts, but no clean hits yet. Afterwars, Takamura goes down in the second round making him get angry, and starting to throw big swings. In the end of the third round as Eagle goes victorious in his corner, his seconds asked him that this is going according to their plan. Eagle immidiatelly answers, that he is in trouble. In Takamura's corner, Takamura looks alright, and maybe that he has a plan.

Round 20: A Lesson Never Forgotten  - The match continues, as both fighters getting injured above their eye. The referee is about to stop the match, and calls for the doctor. Then Takamura tells him not to stop the match, and raises his both arms up, plus the crowd doesn't want the fight to be stopped. Eagle says the referee as he too raises his arms up, to continue the match. The match then continues with both sides exhausted, and both their eyes injured.

Round 21: The End of the Death Match - The death match continues with both fighters injured, until Takamura's left eye gets swallowed and cannot see, the same goes for the other eye which has blood on it. Takamura gets beaten up, until he says that he will hit to the training mits, that Kamogawa has. He doesn't miss were to hit, and he rushes in while he is completely blind, by only see his foots below infront of him. Punches of Takamura do not miss the mark, and Eagle is almost losing contol on winning against him. As Takamura continues to throw punches, with his vision completely black, he finally gets Eagle to the ground. Takamura does not stop throwing punches in the air, until Kamogawa stops him. Eagle, was on the canvas unconscious. He conquered the second weight class, and won against David Eagle. Kimura, Itagaki and Aoki go in the ring to see him.

After the War Arc

Round 22: Flower of Hope - This episode shows the backstory of Kamogawa and Nekota in their younger years. And it is the start of the After the War Arc. At the beggining, we see young Dankichi, Nekota and Kamogawa having fun, and doing some footwork around the rivers of Tokyo in the 40s. Ralph Anderson, with his fellow second Miguel Zale appear, in the fight were Dankichi defeated, while Kamogawa came to see how they are doing. After the americans, throwed to the crowd something to eat. The only person who didnt picked them up was a beautifull girl who Kamogawa and Nekota met, named Yuki. Later Anderson beats both Kamogawa and Nekota, thinking that they will save the girl. She didn't need any help at all, but then because she didn't have were to sleep she went to Kamogawa's place, and Nekota followed. They continued for many months like that. 

Round 23: The Courage to Live

Round 24: Iron Fist

Round 25: A Vow - As the end of the Rising series, and the end of the After the War Arc, we finally get to see Kamogawa's full power with tekken that nearly kills Anderson. In the end after winning the match and with two broken fists, he says to Yuki that he will raise up a world champion in the near future, since he couldn't do it by himself cause of both of his fists broken. Nekota leaves with Yuki, to the country side of Japan, so she can enjoy all her life that's left. After it finished, Aoki and Ippo gotten all emotional from the story and Kamogawa said that Takamura wasnt trained by him, it was all his own, but instead the one is Makunouchi Ippo who has the real will, as Nekota said. 

Credits

Production Crew

• Original Creator: Morikawa Jouji
• Director: Shishido Atsushi
• Music: Imahori Tsuneo
• Sound Director: Masafumi Mima
• Series Composition: Fudeyasu Kazuyuki
• Character Design: Koji Sugiura
• Planning Cooperation: Kodansha Weekly Shonen Magazine Editorial
• Animation Production: Madhouse MAPPA
• Production: Nippon Television, bop

Voice Actors

Main article: http:List of seiyuu

Main Cast

• Makunouchi Ippo - Kiyasu Kouhei / (Young - Sachi Kokuryu )
• Takamura Mamoru - Koyama Rikiya
• Kamogawa Genji - Utsumi Kenji (first 3 episodes) / Izuka shozo remaining episodes / Mamoru Miyano (Young Kamogawa) 
• Aoki Masaru - Takagi Wataru
• Kimura Tatsuya - Fujiwara Keiji
• Itagaki Manabu - Namikawa Daisuke

Recurring Roles

• Yagi Haruhiko - Nakajima Toshihiko
• Shinoda - Sasaki Seiji
• Ruslan Ramuda - Motomu Kiyokawa
• Tomoko Yamaguchi - Yuko Kobayashi
• Miguel Zale - Anri Katsu (Young Miguel)
• Ralph Anderson - Kosugi Jurota
• Yuki - Fumiko Orikasa
• Hama Dankichi - Hiroki Yasumoto (Young Dankichi)
• Nekota Ginpachi - Nagai Ichirou / Hiroyuki Yoshino (Young Nekota)
• Miyata Ichirou - Seki Tomokazu
• Sendou Takeshi - Onosaka Masaya
• Date Eiji - Aizawa Masaki
• Alexander Volg Zangief - Toshiyuki Morikawa
• Mashiba Ryou - Tanaka Masahiko
• Larry Bernard - Tetsu Inada
• Shimabukuro Iwao - Egawa Hisao
• Imae Katsutaka - Sakaguchi Shuhei
• Sawamura Ryuuhei - Shinichiro Miki
• David Eagle - Hidenobu Kiuchi
• Medgern Dachboy - Kensuke Sato
• Maria - Miyuki Kobori
• Chana - Chie Kojiro
• Yanaoka - Naoki Tatsuta
• Itagaki's Father - Nobuaki Fukuda
• Sachiko - Maasa Kobayashi
• Mensore Coach  - Hisashi Izumi
• Kikumoto Coach - Seiro Ogino
• Karil - Kiyomitsu Mizuuchi
• Kawabe - Yuya Murakami
• Kizakura Hiroshi - Toru Nara
• Akamatsu Isamu - Kazuhiro Fusegawa
• Announcer - Masashi Funakoshi
• Makunouchi Kazuo - Masato Terasoma
• Makunouchi Hiroko - Yorie Terauchi / (Young - Masako Katsuki )
• Mashiba Kumi - Hayashi Saori
• Tomiko - Tsuda Shouko
• Umezawa Masahiko - Madono Mitsuaki
• Sakuma - Kunpei Sakamoto
• Fujii Minoru - Ono Kenichi
• Iimura Mari - Shinohara Emi
• Referee - Izumi Hisashi

Gallery

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Hajime no Ippo Rising logo.

Ippo's 4th Title Defense.

Itagaki's Match before Aoki's.

Aoki punches Imae (Aoki's Title match)

Smash! Sendou's comeback match.

Larry Down!.png

Takamura's World Title Defense!

Ippo sparring with Volg to evolve the dempsey roll.

Ippo's 5th Title Defense against Sawamura!

Itagaki's second Rookie King Tournament.

Kimura against the Filipino Jr. Lightweight Champion Eleki Battery.

Aoki against the Indonesian Lightweight Champion Papaya Dachiu.

Miyata's OPBF 4th Title Defense.

WBC Middleweight Title Match main event, Takamura against David Eagle.

After the War Arc: Nekota against Ralph Anderson.

Ending of this season and the arc. Kamogawa Vs. Ralph Anderson in the end.

Soundtrack

Hajime No Ippo Rising - Opening - Yakan Hikou (Full)

Shikuramen - Buchikome!! (Hajime no Ippo Rising Ending Theme FULL)

Hajime No Ippo Rising OST - The Finisher

Information

Official Website: http://www.ntv.co.jp/ippo/index.html

See also

• Hajime no Ippo (anime) - for info about the first season

• Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger - for info about the second season and the prequel to Rising