Television series

Hajime no Ippo

Name: Hajime no Ippo
Genre: Comedy, Action, Anime, Sports
Released: 2000
Cast: Kohei Kiyasu, Rikiya Koyama, Tomokazu Seki, Keiji Fujiwara

Hajime no Ippo is the boxing anime that made half a generation care about footwork. Shy, bullied, and utterly unremarkable, Ippo becomes a puncher through unglamorous repetition rather than destiny, and the series lingers on the mechanics of the sport with real affection. It's funny, big-hearted, occasionally melodramatic, and built for long-haul watching — over a hundred episodes of gyms, rivals, and one absurdly loyal senpai.

TVMaze rating

7.8

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Rocky1976

The original underdog boxing myth — a nobody thrown into a title fight, and the training montage that invented the genre's grammar. Ippo's rise plays like a spiritual echo of Rocky's climb from nothing.

But No anime flourish or comic relief here — it's straight drama, slower and more melancholic than Ippo's episodic bounce.

Creed2015

Takes the Rocky formula and modernises it with real emotional stakes and genuinely thrilling fight choreography — a legacy story about proving yourself under someone else's shadow, much like Ippo under Takamura.

But It's a sequel-legacy film, so some of its impact depends on knowing Rocky's history first.

Slam Dunk1993

Same studio-shonen DNA as Ippo — a hopeless beginner turned obsessive competitor, gags and heart in equal measure, and a training arc that rewards patience the same slow, satisfying way.

But Basketball instead of boxing, and its famously abrupt ending leaves a lot unresolved.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Ashita no Joe1970

Ippo's entire genre vocabulary — the gym, the rival, the training montage — descends directly from this series; watching it is watching the blueprint Takamori built on.

The show boxing shonen — Ippo included — grew out of: a scrawny delinquent finds purpose in the ring, told with grimier 1970s pacing and a far bleaker sense of what the sport actually costs.

But Rougher, older animation and a tragic undertone that never lets a win feel simply won.

Haikyuu!!2014

If what you loved was watching an underdog grind, lose, and grind again until they earn a real victory, Haikyuu delivers that rhythm with volleyball's speed and spectacle.

But Ensemble-heavy in a way Ippo isn't — less single-hero focus, more team-of-rivals structure.

Cinderella Man2005

A true story hitting the same notes Ippo does — poverty, hunger, a fighter with nothing left to lose — told with old-fashioned Hollywood sincerity and terrific ring choreography.

But Plays things straight and reverent where Ippo undercuts itself with comedy; don't expect any jokes.

The Fighter2010

Swaps clean myth-making for a messier, family-wrecked version of the same story — brothers, addiction, and a boxer who has to fight his way out of his own corner first.

But Grittier and more bruising emotionally than Ippo ever gets; this is about dysfunction as much as boxing.

Warrior2011

Same bones — broken home, unlikely fighter, a tournament that means everything — but transplanted into MMA with two brothers on a collision course instead of one hero's rise.

But Heavier on family trauma than sport; the fighting is almost secondary to the emotional wreckage.

Million Dollar Baby2004

Clint Eastwood's boxing drama centres on an unlikely fighter and the gruff trainer who reluctantly takes her on — a mentor-student bond every bit as central as Takamura's is to Ippo.

But Its tone shifts hard in the back half into territory Ippo never goes near; go in unprepared.

Baki2018no page yet

For when you want the melodrama and training-arc absurdity cranked past reasonable limits — over-the-top physiology, ridiculous villains, and a hero built the same underdog-to-monster way.

But Far more violent and gratuitous than Ippo, with less warmth and character comedy to balance it out.

When We Were Kings1996

Ippo's classic matchup — a clever, undersized boxer against a terrifying puncher — is Ali and Foreman's fight distilled into shonen form; this is the real event that shape descends from.

The real Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire, all trash talk, terror and tactics, shot with none of anime's exaggeration — proof the underdog-versus-monster story Ippo tells over and over actually happened once, for real stakes.

But No fictional shaping and no comic relief, plus a slower, talkier build before the fight itself.

Whiplash2014

Same engine — a demanding teacher, a body pushed to breaking point, practice as self-destruction — just relocated from the boxing gym to a jazz conservatory.

Trade gloves for drumsticks: a punishing mentor pushes a driven student past reasonable limits in pursuit of greatness, with the same obsessive montage-and-humiliation structure that fuels every Ippo training arc.

But There's no warmth in this mentorship, and the ending offers none of Ippo's comforting sense of earned triumph.