Hajime No Ippo

On this blog,I usually talk about games and anime and stuff.
While I usually don't put much thought into most of my posts,I would like to introduce something new to whoever's reading these,like with my Saint Seiya entries.

This series is Hajime No Ippo,also known as Fighting Spirit for the American audience.

The premise is that this quiet shy kid gets his ass kicked by bullies until one day,a professional boxer saves him and he admires how strong he is and becomes a boxer in the search of true strength

The series is basically a sports anime,but it stands out due to it's stellar fights,great character development and just fun characters.

Hajime no Ippo has 2 anime series,a "Tv special",an OVA and loads of manga chapters,so it does take some time,but I found that it was well worth the time.

*This is the order you should watch them*
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The first series is simply called Hajime no Ippo and it's 76 episodes.
The Tv special is called Champion's Road and it's about 2 hours,taking place after the first anime series.
The OVA,Kimura vs Mashiba,takes place after Champion's Road.
The second anime series is called Hajime no Ippo:New Challenger and it's the last anime related thing for this series.
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The series is very good but one flaw is that the anime barely scratches the surface,there's literally over 1000 chapters of manga material(1015 as of this writing)

I recently went back to reading the manga,and I'm all caught up now,so I wanted to pass the time telling you how great the series is.

If you're not too big on anime,no worries,you'll still like it enough.My mother of all people saw me watching this in the living room during episode 2 or 3 and she was just watching.
She ended up seeing the all of the anime episodes and specials,and she said she really enjoyed it.

I think the reason she enjoyed it is because this anime is grounded in reality.You don't see super powers or too many fantasy elements.I watched some of Ring ni Kakero with her,a boxing anime that has alot more fantasy elements like special moves,and she didn't like it nearly as much.

With Hajime no Ippo,it feels more relatable since these characters are human,and while later manga chapters seem to be pushing the limits of what a human can do,it's still done very well.

The fights in this series get pretty intense,even when you're reading the manga,you can still feel the intensity,though the anime portrays this aspect better.

Only the first series of Hajime no Ippo and Champion's Road got licensed and released in America,and the series doesn't seem to have a happy future in the West,so that's pretty much all we're getting unless FUNimation or someone picks it up,but it's very,very unlikely.


While there is an English dub of this anime,I recommend to listen to the japanese version.
The English dub doesn't have the same feelling as the Japanese one,it's more awkward and the some of the voices just plain suck.


Anyway,this is one of my favorite series of all time,so if you read this far,I expect you to at least give it a shot.


All of the episodes are on YouTube,even Champion's Road and Kimura vs Mashiba,although not all of New Challenger's episodes are found there.

If you choose to ignore my words and want to watch the dub episodes,I guess you can,you can find them at Toonami Aftermath(plug) during the weekends,although they only show 4 episodes a week,so that's hardly the recommended way to watch a 76 episode series.




As always,I shall post pictures about various things that I own from the series,it's relatively barren for a collection,but this is all I could do for this obscure in the West series.Oh yeah,and I kinda lost my drive to buy more dvds after I've seen the series 3 times online.








































EDIT:I haven't worked on this in over 2 months,it was pretty much finished,but I never published it.
Oh well,that works out greatly because they're recently announced the 3rd season of Hajime No Ippo!
You cannot even fathom the hype I have!

Region Locking and imported games

I already kinda sorta talked about this topic but its different this time,I swear!It's a rant,so it's going to be long.

I'm making this basically because I had enough of Nintendo's bullshit.
Even Microsoft got rid of the region lock,the Vita doesn't have it,it's not fucking time traveling across dimensions!

As I step away from the computer to gather my thoughts,I remember why region locking exists,basically a way to stop reverse importing.

You see,when it comes to anime and video games,they tend to be more expensive in Japan than it is in America,ESPECIALLY with anime.

If DVD players weren't region locked,I'm sure many Japanese people would import the American releases,after all,they usually include the Japanese audio in addition to the English dub and it's cheaper.
This would obviously hurt the anime industry even more in Japan.

We're already seen it with Persona 4 Arena and with the Persona 4 Anime.
They basically didn't want the Japanese to reverse import the cheaper versions.

However,for us Americans and especially you poor Europeans guys,we don't always get the same things that Japan does,be it anime or video games.

We have to import the game,and try to play through a game in a language we don't understand.
If the system is region locked,we might miss out on a great game

Dragon Ball Kai Ultimate Budoden is simultaneously the best Dragon Ball game and the best fighting game on the DS.
I don't understand Japanese,but I know Dragon Ball Z like the back of my hand,so the language wasn't an issue for me,and I LOVE that game.

There's a few games I also like quite a bit on the DS,Hotel Dusk and Trace Memory.
Both of those games have sequels,released in English for European countries only.
I imported the Hotel Dusk sequel and loved it more than the original,glad that I have it.
Now I'm sure I would love the Trace Memory sequel but it's on the Wii,which is region locked.

*sobs uncontrollably*

The Nintendo DS wasn't,and because it wasn't,I got to experience a really great game in English.
I can't do the same with Another Code R,I would have to import a European Wii to play it and believe me,I was tempted a couple of years ago.

I'm sure you remember the Operation Rainfall Trilogy,Xenoblade,The Last Story and Pandora's Tower were all in English,but Nintendo refused to bring them over to America for some reason.
If I imported a European Wii,I could've bought Xenoblade,The Last Story,Pandora's Tower,Another Code R and Disaster:Day of Crisis,all good to excellent games that probably weren't coming over here.

Of course,then Nintendo brought Xenoblade over here and XSEED brought Pandora's Tower and The Last Story over here,so buying a European Wii for 2 games couldn't be justified.
In fact,the idea of buying a European Wii so I can play 5 games in English is crazy,after I beat those games,that Wii would probably be in a closet somewhere,and I would only bring it out when I wanted to replay those games.



EX Troopers,a game I talked about far too much,wasn't coming over here,but I imported it and I loved it,despite not knowing what the story was about.

Jump Super Stars,that Smash Bros clone with Shonen Jump characters,was pretty fun,and glad I imported it.

Saint Seiya Sanctuary Battle,game that wasn't released in America but it was in Europe because it's more popular over there,was pretty cool to play as the Saints,also worth the import price.

Saint Seiya Brave Soldiers.I will also be importing because I know it's not coming out over here but it will be in English,so I'll have no problems whatsoever.

J-Stars Victory,another Shonen Jump crossover game on the PS3,hasn't a word on an English release,so I may end up importing it in the future.

I know I'm in the minority here,but region locking is a huge pain for people like me.
Importing games tends to be at least 30 to 70 bucks in my experience,and I'm not one to import for the hell of it,if a game gets released in my country,I'll buy it new,preorder it to support the publishers and all of that.

When Sega did that Facebook thing for Hatsune Miku Project Diva F,I thought it was brilliant and yet simple,simply like and share,and that's how Sega gauged interest in the game.No advertising whatsoever,just make a banner and if it got enough attention,it would come out over here.

Project Diva F IS coming over here and I WILL be preordering it and getting it day one.

Really though,like every game company has a Twitter and Facebook,so they should be taking full advantage of it,Sega should really be applauded for taking the first step for what could be a better way to gauge interest in Japanese games.

(And yes,I remember that Level 5 also had a Facebook poll but since we didn't get the game yet,I feel it's weird to credit them,but I guess they do deserve some praise.)

And then there's games like Retro Game Challenge,a game based on that Japanese show,Retro Game Master and while it gets localized,the sequel does not because of poor sales of the original.
This is the sad reality when it games,if it doesn't make enough money,you might not see the other one,so if you really care about something,buy it new so the publishers get the money.

Anyway,I'm still sore about region locks,I know a lot of games get published here anyway,and I do support them when they do come out,but I have 5 games that I imported.
I enjoyed all 5 of those games and it just sucks that I may miss out on more games and I won't ever have the chance to play them because frankly,I don't want to buy Japanese or European versions of game systems I own and I don't want to hack my systems,I like to do everything legitimately.

These games will be mine!