The Dark Side to Hajime no Ippo
Introduction
Don’t worry I’m not the anime POLICE or anything! I am just bewildered as to how anime gets away with anything. In all honestly, this is the GREATEST aspect of anime in which being politically correct is not on the to-do list. But Hajime no Ippo has PIQUED my interest to say the least, especially when my son decided he wanted to watch this anime too!
So what happened?
I ran out of decent anime (as you do) and tried my best to find something else to watch when I discovered Hajime no Ippo which is 20 years old. The anime is actually AWESOME, I felt a sense of hope and motivation being rubbed off on me through every episode. I started lifting more and boxing! 🙂 HOWEVER, it is riddled with references to adult material.
This anime is a PG and according to IMDB contains sexual jokes in a comical nature.
Discussion
Let me give a FEW examples as to what I am referring to:
- Episode 5 – ‘The shower scene’
- Ippo Makunouchi has a shower after boxing training. For some reason, the director decides to show everyone’s ASS while they are showering…OK… and makes things even more AWKWARD when Mamoru Takamura (Ippo’s mentor) enjoys swinging his c*ck around the showers and wants to check out Ippo’s. Ippo happens to have a MONSTER which makes Takamura jealous and he starts grabbing it…Maybe I’m missing something here but why?…..
- Episode 46 – ‘Ippo visits Takamura’s house scene’
- Ippo is invited to have further talks with Takamura. Baring in mind, that Takamura is the Japanese World Champion and a highly respected boxer who partakes in commentating boxing fights. Ippo tries to find a video of one of his opponent’s bouts when he comes across all of Takamura’s adult magazines. There is a slight display of BOOBS on one of the front covers and just when I thought it was over (as it’s usually just for humour purposes) Ippo ACCIDENTLY puts in the wrong tape in and porn is played instead and referenced by another character…but why?
- Episode 51 – ‘The attempted kiss/rape scene’
- While arranging for a group date with the nurses at the hospital and boxers at the gym, Takamura KINDLY walks his date home…respect!…only for everyone to wonder if he landed THIRD BASE or not. The next day at the gym, Ippo and the guys were casually reading the latest boxing magazine where they discovered a picture of Takamura trying to FORCE himself onto the women (HOPEFULLY just for a kiss) but the woman REJECTS him. Takamura decides to laugh this off…I’m pretty sure you can go to jail for that nowadays, jeezzz!
So what do you think?
Firstly, I REALISE that anime is great as it allows for freedom of expression and is unpredictable due to this. But would you let your son watch this? My son is 9 years old and I have spoken with him advising him to SKIP episode 46 and that he can watch the rest. I feel CONFLICTED with the mention of ‘pornography‘ in this episode which forces me to intervene.
In all honestly, he will be fine even if he watches this episode but where does it stop if I let him watch any anime available. My first thought/ horror is Redo The Healer 🙂 Jeeezzzz!
Summary
Coming back to Hajime no Ippo and the anime itself, I actually really ENJOYED the build-up to the fights and watching Ippo progress through his countless challenges. However, after the first 76 episodes, the movies and proceeding episodes became TOO REPETITIVE. The fight scenes, humour, and Ippo’s niceness becomes MUNDANE and I lost the drive to keep watching (but kept going to finish this article 🙂 ).
I suggest giving this anime a chance as it’s WAY better than some of the latest anime shown today but bear in mind if you’re watching this with your kids!
Let me know your thoughts in the comment below.
- Is this anime going too far?
- Is this humour even that funny?
- Should political correctness come into anime?
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