Fighting Spirit

Fighting Spirit, known in Japan as Hajime no Ippo (はじめの一歩) is an anime television series based on the manga series written and illustrated by George Morikawa. The series was directed by Satoshi Nishimura and produced by Madhouse, Nippon Television and VAP. The series originally aired in Japan between October 2000 and March 27, 2002, consisting of 75 episodes. The series was released in North America on DVD by Geneon Entertainment between July 6, 2004 and December 19, 2006.

Synopsis

Ippo Makunouchi is an ordinary high school student in Japan. Since he spends most of his time away from school helping his mother run the family business, he doesn't get to enjoy his younger years like most teenagers. Always a target for bullying at school, Ippo's life is one of hardship. One of these after-school bullying sessions turns Ippo's life around for the better, as he is saved by a boxer named Takamura. He decides to follow in Takamura's footsteps and train to become a boxer, giving his life direction and purpose. Ippo's path to perfecting his pugilistic prowess is just beginning.

Cast[]

Character	Seiyū	Dub Actor
Ippo Makunouchi	Kōhei Kiyasu	Steve Staley
Mamoru Takamura	Rikiya Koyama	Eddie Frierson
Masaru Aoki	Wataru Takagi	Peter Doyle
Tatsuya Kimura	Keiji Fujiwara	Grant George
Genji Kamogawa	Kenji Utsumi	Richard Epcar
Yagi	Toshihiko Nakajima	Paul St. Peter
Fujii	Kenichi Ono	Joe Cappelletti
Ichiro Miyata	Tomokazu Seki	Jason Palmer
Miyata's Father	Unshō Ishizuka	Paul St. Peter
Ryo Mashiba	Masahiko Tanaka	Terrence Stone
Chairman Toho	Yukitoshi Hori	Richard Epcar
Kumi Mashiba	Sanae Kobayashi	Stephanie Sheh
Hiroko Makunouchi	Yorie Terauchi	Joan-Carol O'Connell
Umezawa	Mitsuaki Madono	Kirk Thornton
Shinoda	Seiji Sasaki	David Lodge
Ginpachi Nekota	Ichirō Nagai	Joey D'Auria
Eiji Date	Masaki Aizawa	Tony Oliver
Nakadai	Mitsuru Ogata	Michael Sorich
Aiko Date	Sakiko Tamagawa	Dorothy Elias-Fahn
Yūji Date	Naomi Wakabayashi	¿?
Takeshi Sendo	Masaya Onosaka	Doug Erholtz
Yanaoka	Naoki Tatsuta	Dave Mallow
Alexander Vorg Zangief	Toshiyuki Morikawa	Dave Wittenberg
Alexander Vorg Zangief	Fujiko Takimoto (child)	Barbara Goodson
Ruslan Ramuda	Motomu Kiyokawa	Michael Sorich
Keigo Okita	Hiroaki Hirata	Tom Fahn
Naomichi Yamada	Daisuke Sakaguchi	Tony Oliver
Mari Iimura	Emi Shinohara	Michelle Ruff
Tomoko Yamaguchi	Yuko Kobayashi	Mona Marshall
Takuma Saeki	Kiyoyuki Yanada	Lex Lang
Akira Shigeta	Hiroyuki Yoshino	Sam Riegel
Jason Ozuma	Masahiro Kobayashi	Hall Hollis
Chairman Hachinoe	Issei Futamata	Robert Axelrod
Otowa	Keiichi Sonobe	Peter Doyle
Yusuke Oda	Nobutoshi Canna	Joe Cappelletti
Mikami	Chō	Bob Papenbrook
Reiko Mikami	Akemi Okamura	Michelle Ruff
Kenta Kobashi	Taiki Matsuno	Richard Cansino
Yasuda	Toshiya Ueda	Steve Kramer
Ryuichi Hayami	Kōji Tsujitani	Nathan Smythe
Tomiko	Shōko Tsuda	Ellyn Stern
Reiko	Yuka Komatsu	Dorothy Elias-Fahn
Megumi	Mayuko Arai	Stephanie Sheh
TV Announcer	Jin Horikawa	Kirk Thornton
Teacher	Masashi Hirose	Kirk Thornton
Referee	Naoshi Izumi	Richard Cansino
Takemura	Kōichi Hasebe	Richard Cansino
Matsuda	Shinichi Namiki	Terrence Stone
Ring Announcer	Katsuyuki Konishi	Beau Billingslea
Reporter	Naomi Shindō	¿?
Sendo's Grandma	Kazuko Sugiyama	Mona Marshall
Volg's Mother	Mizuka Arima	Mona Marshall
Kida	Tōru Ōkawa	¿?
Atsushi Tamaoki	Hiroshi Yanaka	¿?
Chana	Chie Kōjiro	Mona Marshall
Kumiko Morita	Tomoko Kawakami	Stephanie Sheh

Additional Voices[]

Notes[]

Episode 76 was never dubbed.

Video Releases[]

Year	Contents	Region	Country
2004-2006	The Complete Series	1 NTSC	United States
2004-2006	15 Volumes
2007	The Complete Series
2007	2 Volumes
2021	The Complete Series*	A DVB-T
2021	3 Volumes	A DVB-T