It actually feels like an arc from the very first Ippo series, however the show does not get points for showing that despite all the garbage they've had us sit through, it can still produce a quality arc. They are excellent, serious, story-driven episodes against a clearly powerful opponent, where it feels as if the characters are fightiing for something. One last thing of note, the final 4 episodes are entirely flashback, but they are the polar opposite of the series upto that point That is to say, not garbage. Ippo's fighting style continues to be absolutely pigeonholed into 'Dempsey Roll or Die', and the fight with Miyata that we have been set up since the last series for. Doesn't even happen. On top of that, two crucial areas make no progress at all. Aoki and Kimura's fights before Takamura's fight are both entirely joke fights, from start to finish, and are more annoying than entertaining in any way. Aoki's entire arc can be cut out without a second thought. Takamura's big fight lasts a few episodes, but is hardly set up at all, and is even worse than his crap fight against Eagle in the last series.

The bottom line is, the show is mostly unwilling to be serious anymore, and the only times it tries, it doesn't deliver a good fight. It's terrible, in more ways than I have words for. They look like partially deflated, sweating balloons. Beyond the stupid jokes and unneeded distractions, two new minor characters are introduced, whose entire role seems to be to piss me off when I see their character design. A few episodes, devoted at least 50% to fishing, in your boxing show. Beyond that, the series seems to have completely lost it's ability to be serious at all, as even during fights, it cracks terrible jokes and puns, and between the fights each episode is a veritable mountain of bullshit before the next fight, such as the entire fishing arc. Because it jumps around so much, and establishes so little progress with each fight, none of them advance as fighters. The series jumps around between characters, focusing on ippo, takamura, and aoki of all people. The characters and story have taken another dive, with little to no progress being made for any character. The punch sounds have hardly any weight to them, and makes it seem like the fighters have strapped pillows to their hands, rather than gloves. It has become more obvious than the last series, and the actual sounds in the fights is terrible. The blasts of air are there, as are all the dramatic lighting and blasts of pressure by the punches.

The visuals are sharp as ever with the Ippo series, and don't disappoint, unlike everything else. Whereas there were good parts to New Challenger, Rising seems rotten to the core, and I have a hard time finding anything to praise it for. This series didn't have as much to live up to as New Challenger did, but somehow manages to fall even flatter than that one.

Hajime no ippo manga downloads