Hajime no Ippo New Challenger Ep 11

Screens:

Summary:

The title match starts, and Itagaki comments that Ippo looks ready. Takamura though wonders if he’ll be able to hit Nao, and Kitamura comments they’ll have their answer soon enough. Fuji comments that the odds say that Ippo will get an easy win, but Mari wonders if it’ll work out like that. The match starts and Ippo begins a brutal onslaught on Nao with Nao only able to guard; Nao tries to get away from Ippo, but is chased down and knocked to the floor. Kitamura and Itagaki comment that Ippo was really able to hit Nao and Aoki comes in and comments that he has no complaints giving Ippo the “Kamase Inu Hunter” title. Kitamura and Takamura knocked Aoki around a little and tell him he should be learning from Ippo. Ippo is looking down at Nao with a serious face as the referee is counting. Nao slowly gets up and wonders if his down is from a difference in experience; after Nao takes a fighting pose Ippo immediately rushes in, but Nao clinches.  However, Ippo makes some distance with his left, and Itagaki comments that this is the first time he’s seen Ippo this serious. Nao tries a left hook, but Ippo dodges it with a sway; Nao gets his confidence back , telling himself he just has to get closer and hit. Nao begins his own barrage of hooks on Ippo, but he is able to dodge everything in close quarters and Nao comments that he’s faster than he used to be and he can’t catch him. Ippo lands a right counter when Nao goes in for a  left and get Nao cornered on the ropes while following up with another right. Ippo continues a brutal rush on Nao at the ropes. Everyone comments on how  brutal and scary Ippo’s being, but Takamura comments that Ippo looks scared to him

Takamura’s comment is right on the money, as Ippo hopes for it all to end this round and continuing his barrage on Nao. Nao gets knocked down again with some blood coming out his mouth; Ippo tells himself how he felt his punch connect and how he can still feel the sensation of hitting Nao, but convinces himself it’s over now. Nao gets up though and Aoki and Kimura are surprised that he’s able to get up. Desperately Ippo prays for the referee to stop the fight, but Nao tells himself that he still hasn’t done anything yet and prepares to himself. As the match continues, Nao takes up a peek-a-boo style stance, and Ippo tries to break through the guard with a continuous combo of punches. Aoki comments that Ippo isn’t a soft boxer, and the fight’ll be over soon, but Takamura denies this saying Ippo is naive stating that Ippo is trying too hard to finish the fight fast and is only punching with his arms instead of using his full body weight.  Nao continues guarding, but decides to gamble on his speciaty punch and manages to land a right hook on Ippo, but Ippo is able to guard it at the last second. Regardless the power of Nao’s punch pushes Ippo back 10cm. After calming down, Nao realizes that while Ippo’s head is moving around dodging his body isn’t.  This time Nao goes on the attack and Ippo guards, but Nao manages to land a body blow on Ippo; they both exchange blows with only 30 seconds left in t he first round. The seconds slowly count down with Ippo landing a hit to Nao’s face and as Nao goes in for another hit, the referee stops them both as they both didn’t hear the gong. Nao is visually irked at being stopped while he had his pace, and with that returns to his corner.

In his corner Nao concentrates on how he was in a good pace and goes through his plan to land more body blows on Ippo, but realizes that Ippo has already taken some and that body blows take a long time to add up and his coach tells him that taking Ippo’s punches while trying to land enough body blows is impossible. While thinking up what he can do, Nao’s coach tells him there is one body blow with immediate effect: a body blow to the solar plexus. In Ippo’s corner the coach asks Ippo if he knows why he wasn’t able to finish the fight last round, and it seems Ippo is aware that’s he’s being to eager to finish the fight early. But the coach is asking he understands why he’s being impatient. Ippo relies it’s becasue he manage to knock his opponent down twice and thought he could finish it that round. The coach proceeds to tell Ippo the requirements of being a pro: 1.) To finish the job you accepted 2.)  Live up to the crowd’s expectations. 3.) Commit yourself to the match.  If you can’t follow these 3 rules you can’t be a pro boxer; the coach tells Ippo to  harden his heart, and with that the 2nd round starts. The gong sounds, and Nao goes for body plans, but Ippo is able to block them all. Nao takes a few hits, but continues with his body blow plan. The crowd criticizes Nao’s strategy, but he continues with it. As Ippo guards Nao uses his hand to push Ippo’s left guard open and lands a body blow to Ippo’s solar plexus commenting that being a kamase inu, he’d need to have tricks like this. Nao follows up on the body blow and Ippo guards and remembers what the coach said about committing to the fight and comments that right now Nao is more committed than him and that Nao is a real Pro boxer. Nao opens up Ippo’s guard and lands another solar plexus blow. Everyone notices that Nao is commiting a foul as he’s using his hands to push Ippo’s guard open, but the coach comments that as long as the referee doesn’t call it then it isn’t a foul. He continues commenting that Nao must have come up to survive in the ring and comments that he’d let him use it if he were Nao’s second. He also comments that you can’t be picky about how you win and that Nao is good and that Ippo is soft.

Opinion:

Not a bad fight, it looks a little better in the anime than the manga. It’s probably because in the anime I can see things a little better from Nao’s point of view and really get in the head of the underdog, Ippo’s been the underdog before but Nao has all the desperation and odds against him to make him a true underdog. On that note, I agree with the coach on the foul. In the first place if Ippo were more clear headed he could do something about those fouls; more or less, the success of those fouls lies entirely on Ippo’s own naive outlook of the match. In any case it looks like Ippo’s recognized Nao as a boxer Nao which should mean he’s ready to fight seriously next episode. It may even end next episode.

PS. The whole fouls are ok thing just kinda makes me think of how acceptable it would be in real life, nowhere near as understanding as it is in here, but makes you wonder. Like for example: playing Street Fighter IV, you’re in a pickle; just happen to get a little over excited and “just happen” to knock into your opponent sending  his controller out of his hands giving you a good 5 seconds of beat down time. Or maybe playing some FPS and just happen to use a cheat to better your odds……ok ok that one’s a bad example, but think about it! If it’s done right, cheating is an art form! Not that I’m condoning cheating………… well everyone does it at some point in their life regardless of how big or small.