I'll take the space to talk about Ring ni Kakero's manga, after all, the anime probably covered 50% of the entire work alone, which is incredible.
Released in 1977, Ring ni Kakero, as already said, was the first great work of Master Masami Kurumada, legendary author of Shonen Jump, also famous worldwide for Saint Seiya. The story tells of two brothers: Ryuuji and Kiku Takane, two brothers whose father was a famous boxer but who died young. Thus, they live with their mother amidst a scenario of poverty, where the matriarch of the family is married to a drunkard who mistreats everyone. Kiku sees talent in his brother, and starts training him to become the world champion.
The manga is much more complete, showing the protagonist Ryuuji Takane since his childhood, when he was just a scared and crying little boy, and his sister, Kiku Takane, who inherited all his father's tactical knowledge. And Ryuuji inherited the talent for fighting.
The first volumes are "slower" and tell the story of the two brothers, who suffer a lot in childhood, even running away from home because of the constant mistreatment of their stepfather.
Later they meet Jun Kenzaki, a rich and spoiled boy who is considered a boxing genius, and who from this moment on, becomes Ryuuji Takane's great rival.
I particularly like the development of the two brothers a lot, being the best that Kurumada has done so far. The growth of both is excellent. Just reading to understand.
After a certain point, the manga takes a plot twist and becomes "exaggerated" style, so to speak. Where the blows given by boxers are practically "powers". The ring is damaged, characters are thrown out of the stadium. If nowadays we see "exaggerated" manga, such as "Inazuma Eleven" and "Kuroko no Basket", it is purely due to the influence of this manga. Particularly I've never seen anything prior to RNK that has this kind of thing. It was also the first manga to work on the issue of groups of friends, friendship above all, etc. Overall, Ring ni Kakero was very important to Shueisha (Jump) publisher, having been the first work to win a color page.
As said, the anime only covers part of the manga, and after the world championship, there are three more arcs.
From the moment the manga takes this direction, everything literally changes. In the arc of the world championship, the work is very "peculiar" (the correct term eludes me) the characters from other countries. Italians are mafia. The French are of the nobility. The Germans... Well, you know. And finally, the Greeks are gods.
That's right. The final enemies of the world championship bow are Greek gods. But "lesser" gods, so to speak. Soon after there is another arc of confrontation against gods, and then we see Zeus, Hades, Poseidon etc.
And yes, a lot of what we saw in Saint Seiya came out of here. The question of Greek mythology and other concepts.
After that, one of the characters fights a boxer named JESUS. That's right.
Anyway, Ring ni Kakero is Masami Kurumada's homage to "Ashita no Joe", and does it in a very cool way. It's a good work and has many emotional moments. Unfortunately the anime doesn't cover most of the events, leaving a taste of "I want more".
