Well Takamura beats down live bears…
Because Takamura from the very beginning was always the best there is.
Its easier to let shit slide when the character just steam rolls almost every fight besides a few.
Ippo on the other hand fluctuates constantly, and its more noticeable when he beats shit he should have lost to.
Like Josh said above, Takamura’s temperament fluctuates, the quality of his opponents changes, but his ability as a boxer rarely does. If he’s losing, it’s completely self inflicted, outside of characters like Hawk and Eagle who are presented from the beginning as P4P greats. With Ippo, Miyata, etc. they are just straight up winning fights they should lose thanks to some old BULLSHIT like “a perfect punch!” out of nowhere, or a counter with broken ribs/hands/everything suddenly becoming chidori lighting laser beam powered.
If you don’t like how Takamura is an unrealistically powered boxer, then that’s fine. But he’s at least being presented as someone who actually is capable of knocking the shit out of a bear, let alone any boxer he comes across. Ippo’s perpetual underdog act just goes too far in some cases, he should have at least 3 losses on his record by now, AT LEAST. Same for Miyata. And to be honest, I’d like Ippo even more as a character if he took some of those losses and rebounded from them later, rather than just winning from BS plot armor. Mori apparently doesn’t believe that his readers want to see Ippo lose, when really a lot of us DO want to see him lose.
It’s not that I dislike Takamura’s characterization or presentation. I just think it’s kind of weird that Ippo gets a ton of shade when the stuff that he does at least has an explanation, even if you’re not a fan of the explanation. Sometimes Takamura does stuff and the explanation is, “shrug He’s Takamura.”
I think a good example is a fight that you’ve mentioned: When Takamura fights Hawk, there’s a point where he is knocked out. For all intents and purpose, both the manga and the anime go out of their way to go OH SHIT HE’S OUT ON HIS FEET WHAT IS HE GONNA DOOOOOO and then Takamura BEATS THE EVERLOVING DOGSHIT out of Bryan Hawk. While unconscious. EVEN IF you’re okay with the explanation that he’s practiced so much for so long that it’s ingrained into his muscle memory (and I am okay with that, because I like Takamura a lot), that’s stretching the fabric of reality quite a bit. You guys know as well as I do that people who get knocked out but are still punching usually look more like this:
I only point this out because sometimes I see you guys criticizing the manga for not being realistic regarding Ippo. That he should have lost the Woli fight, etc. etc. because the way he won wasn’t, in your opinion, plausible. But it’s got to cut both ways then. If you’re going to criticize Ippo and Miyata for “LUCKY PUNCH OUTTA NOWHERE” then you’ve got to be critical of Takamura for getting written as this indomitable, unstoppable murder machine. Even his own biggest, most glaring weakness (that he’s a hugely overconfident, self-aggrandizing, prideful dick) doesn’t really result in him losing a match. He’s a perfect 23-0, and a lot of that has to do with his pride being bruised: he literally EGORAGES himself to victory.
We don’t hate The OPBF arc because of lack of realism.
Its hated because Ippo is getting dominated by shitty gimmicks then does some baby tap bullshit and destroys their insides HNK style.
Also, Ippo has done that unconscious boxing shit like 100 times, and no one really complains about it.
Well we’re in agreement that that whole arc was dumb and should probably never be spoken of positively/neutrally again.
But my main point still stands.
Are you sure? The Takamura one sticks out, but the only time I remember something like that happening with Ippo was during his first fight with Sendo, and he was on the receiving end of an unconscious beatdown.
s’pretty good fight. Can’t wait to see the succeeding “Beetle” fight animated.
I like how the crowd was booing Takamura for doing what anyone else would’ve done. :lol:
I don’t remember Eagle screaming Jesus in the manga.
But it was funny as hell though 
That Jesus was godlike. That dude was shook.
Aokis draw was epic, he even fool takamura with those look away frog punches lol
Aaaah, time to eat dinner and watch this episode. Could one ask for more?
This fighter that died looks like Bryan Hawk
And here I thought a new chapter was up =(
Episode 22: http://www.gogoanime.com/hajime-no-ippo-rising-episode-22
It’s the start of the flashback arc!
This was one of the manliest side stories in the whole manga, can’t wait.
Love this flashback
I’m watching this shit right now, and it’s blowing my mind how fast shit went downhill in the following story arcs. I mean we did have the Mashiba/Sawamura fight to finish his arc afterwards, but then it’s like it just goes off a fucking cliff, and hits every branch on the way down until he gives up the OBPF belt.
Enjoy this while it lasts, we bout to punch a log into a fucking mountain.