Hajime No Ippo: Rising

This is the third installment of the franchise. This sequel lives up to mosts expectations compared to it's predecessor.

The story is pretty good. Though he lack of Ippo in this season was a bit disappointing. The pacing is pretty good , the beginning was solid but the last few eps were just absoloutely moving, it's where we get a backstory on Kamogawa and Nekota's past. Most of the fights lacked in depth and tension that the past two seasons had. The few " fishing" filler episodes were pretty good also. The biggest flaw I had with this season was the limited amount of creativity and repetitivity in plot elements.

The characters are solid I expected some more Ippo screentime but sadly it didn't happen, but his wimpy/awkward personality is getting a bit tiring and we should see some development from him. Aoki manages to a small arc somehow and Takamura has his world title match. There were a couple of new characters introduced most being minor for the part. I feel like the opponents and their character writing is dropping in quality and creaitivity.

The intros and outros were perfect. The OG electronic music is non exesential whatsoever. The use of vocals, violin, and piano were perfect and really matced the tone and atmosphere of the story.

The visuals were fantastic. They were quiet similiar to that of last season in terms of artsyle and animation. But the shading and the sharpness of the images have definitely improved.

Memorable: Sort of Rewatchable: Maybe..

... focus to the production team behind IPPO that is rare. Sometimes success will take a favored anime down a different road and lose fans along the way, but that is not a comment you can make about IPPO RISING. Even though it can be considered backstory, it is every bit as good as the original. Which is another way of saying that IPPO and its sequels probably ranks among the top-5 animes of all time.

In all the season this seasons last episodes are more emotional...it's the story of the coach. This sports anime is great. It would be great if they continue this anime. Expecting new seasons a lot.