Hajime no Ippo - Ch. 1481 - Reach!

[chusetto]

OH COME ON!!!

 

[torrenz]

What the hell was the hint, I was unable to catch it I completely fell for it.

it's all about ippo, the main character people seem to think is irrelevant

volg vs woli provided the professional impetus for ippo's comeback. rosario vs mashiba would add a personal reason, but only if mashiba loses
before the fight, ippo promised he'd look after his sister until mashiba has the belt (uh oh)
the nail in the coffin was mashiba accepting ippo as the "man stronger than me" mid-fight in 1479 and giving komi his blessing

people forget why ippo retired. he doesn't need to change, komi does

 

[DLRevan]

You fucks support this manga? I've been reading for years and never given Morikawa a single cent. I've only bought two volumes of manga in my 30 years following anime and manga.

Congratulations, you've won.

I disagree. Rosario losing here would show that this mythical construct of "the world stage" they keep talking about isn't the kind of place where even a champ (or a "monster" to use Takamura's example) can survive if he slacks off, because another monster that's hungrier and more dedicated will come along and tear you down. All this showed is that you can totally afford to slack off, bum around, get your ass beat, and not take the sport seriously because lmao talent. "The world stage" is apparently just filled with the athletic equivalent of trust fund babies who don't need to do shit, and getting there is meaningless, because all it proves is that you're also a trust fund baby at heart.

Someone like Rosario winning against Mashiba after this arc in particular completely undermines the concept and image of "the world" the manga has spent decades building.

Actually, this idea that someone more dedicated would come for your crown has never been the case in the series. It's something the characters keep trying to prove but fail. It's been the narrative some characters are espousing in the last few arcs (almost a decade, but in perspective, only a 'short' part of the whole series), but none of them have actually proven it to be true, except for a short time, Ippo, and only at the Japanese Champion level. Even if you only look at Ippo's rivals in fact, most of them with actual talent have moved way beyond the rest by now, like Volg. True, they have attained that because most of them learned some version of "I have to work hard" from Ippo. But their achievements and ability after fighting Ippo is way beyond most other characters. They're just better fighters by default and in this world, that counts the most.

If you had to distill the messaging down to a few points, it would be that hard work and even 'hunger' only gets you so far. Talent is still usually better. Talent plus motivation and hard work? Unbeatable. Unless there's someone with even more talent.

Now, maybe that theme is distasteful to many readers, but it doesn't contradict the narrative the manga has run on for the past 30 years. Even Takamura, as hard as he works, owes his wins most to having prodigal talent...and he hasn't always been in top form when he wins either. He still does anyway. It's played for comedic relief but the fact remains. It's a big fat reminder Morikawa keeps around for readers.

It doesn't mean the manga won't go in the direction you're aiming at. But it's clearly not doing that yet. And probably won't until and unless Ippo returns. As I said, it doesn't prove much anyway if Mashiba won because his opponent wasn't prepared. And the details matter. Rosario isn't actually lazy. He's in bad shape because he didn't respect Mashiba or Japan. And he didn't sit around like a 'trust fund baby', he was jailed as a result of that lack of respect which led to his situation. He's actually dedicated to boxing, and once he came to respect Mashiba, fought him seriously. And it seems it saved him just a couple of centimeters from losing.

Exactly, but at this point George 100% doesn't give a fuck about what he's writing.
He's old, tired of writing the same series for decades, and the last few arcs feel like they were made because Morikawa needs a paycheck and he can't do it without Hajime no Ippo.

Mashiba, with all his hunger, dedication, with everyone on his side, lost to a bum who did not take the sport seriously until he was beaten to a pulp, this is a disrespect and a disgrace to Mashiba's character, his growth and his development over the course of 1400 chapters.

The idea of effort meaning something was the very core of this manga. Ricardo was the perfect boxer, he oozed talent, he never loses, you can't even see his punches - And Ippo was a piece of shit that everyone kicked around until he found something he loved and that he felt like he could dedicate his life to.

This whole idea was dropped when Ippo retired and it was executed right now.

Having already talked about why the 'hardwork' narrative isn't really the case, I'd just add that even if it were different, saying Morikawa doesn't care about what he's writing doesn't make sense.

He could have had Mashiba win. Or Mashiba loses. Or something else happens. What about the conclusion exactly, proves that Morikawa is just phoning it in? If he was tired of writing, Mashiba would have won (or lost) behind the scenes, and we'd never see a single one of Ippo's former rivals again. Expanding them into pseudo main characters is harder work, not less. Regardless, the chosen ending doesn't reflect the 'work' the writer is putting in.

It would instead be some hamfisted story about Takamura losing, Ippo getting back in to pay back and support Coach Kamogawa, and just getting stronger again with the same 'piece of shit' style he had before. Or he never would have retired. That would have been the easy way out. I think the manga is more nuanced than it has ever been frankly.

You can disagree and even dislike the direction. But that's a whole different thing.

 

[brainman]

If you had to distill the messaging down to a few points, it would be that hard work and even 'hunger' only gets you so far. Talent is still usually better.

I guess the more accurate answer is that "the message is whatever Morikawa wants it to be for any given arc, and fuck consistency". Because while the story has forgotten about him, Itagaki's entire fucking thing was that he's this incredibly one in a million talent of a boxer, but his attitude's shit. And because his attitude is shit, he can never realize his potential. He manages to dominate those with less talent at the lower levels, but he got folded pretty handily by the far less raw talented, but way more driven, dedicated, and hungrier Imai, who actually took his opponent seriously and devised counter-strategies.

So I guess based on this arc, we can assume that, relatively speaking, Rosario is a Takamura-tier talent, who will slack off, fuck around, mess up his weight management, take the sport lightly, underestimate his opponent, and still pull through against someone like Mashiba who put his all into preparation, training, and the fight itself.

 

[tave49]

Oh well... Who's up next, sendo? Theres no way in hell he wins, but ippo fighting sendo for the belt a THIRD TIME would be the funniest thing ever.

 

[ribbitribbitsaga]

people forget barnacle head didn't take training seriously and was still able to keep up with mashiba.

 

[goodknife]

This, I don't understand this descision, Rosario is not defending, and is not leaning on ropes, he's FULL ON grasping on them to stand up, how is this not a stop? What even is this ending for fight. Rosario wasn't a recurring character, I'd be fine with Mashiba losing to somebody like Eagle, to show that he has ways to go, but this fight? Losing to a dirty fighter just by running out of gas? Why Goerge, why? Its like setting up something that will probably be offscreened if not forgotten outright.

probably a setup for mashiba retired