Fighting Spirit: Rising
はじめの一歩 Rising (Hajime no Ippo: Rising)
- Sports
- Combat Sports
- Episodes
- 25
- Duration
- 22 min per ep
- Aired
- Oct 6, 2013 to Mar 30, 2014
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
Makunouchi Ippo stands atop the Japanese featherweight division after another successful title defense, powered by his fearsome Dempsey Roll. But as his reputation grows, so does the opposition—new contenders emerge one after another, each convinced they’ve found a way to neutralize the technique that has carried him this far. Facing opponents who study him as closely as they fear him, Ippo must confront not only tougher fights, but the pressure and pride that come with being champion as he continues searching for his own answer to what it truly means to be strong.
Back at Kamogawa Gym, the grind never stops. Alongside Ippo’s battles, Aoki Masaru inches closer to a shot at his own belt, aiming his sights at the Japanese lightweight champion with his unorthodox “Frog Punch” in tow. With the familiar crew pushing each other forward, the road through professional boxing remains as punishing as it is defining.
Otaku Consensus
Fighting Spirit: Rising lands as the veteran-contender version of Hajime no Ippo: leaner, harsher, and more technically focused, with Jun Shishido steering MAPPA and Madhouse toward fights that read as tactical breakdowns rather than simple willpower contests. Critics and fans continue to single out the franchise’s character investment, boxing detail, and emotional payoff as its strengths, while the most persistent complaint is that this 25-episode season compresses material more aggressively than the earlier long-form TV run, making some transitions feel brisk.
Why You Should Watch
Watch Fighting Spirit: Rising if you want a sports anime where experience matters as much as talent: opponents scout habits, signature moves become liabilities, and victories leave tactical consequences. It scratches the same competitive itch as Haikyu!! but with heavier bodily stakes, and it delivers the escalating shounen pressure of older battle anime without turning boxing into superpowers. This season is especially rewarding for viewers already invested in Kamogawa Gym’s ensemble, because it gives space to side ambitions like Aoki’s unorthodox title chase while keeping Ippo’s champion status under scrutiny. The appeal is not “underdog learns to fight” anymore; it is watching a long-running cast survive the point where everyone in the ring has studied them.
Key Characters
- IIppo Makunouchi
Fans value Ippo here less as a rookie inspiration story and more as a champion forced to confront the danger of being solved by opponents who know his boxing identity.
- MMasaru Aoki
Aoki’s appeal is that his comedy-ring awkwardness never erases his professional hunger, turning the Frog Punch into both a gag and a real expression of his stubborn style.
- MMamoru Takamura
Takamura remains the franchise’s chaos engine: a crude gym presence whose elite boxing credibility keeps his absurd humor from becoming disposable comic relief.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
Rising is a rare collaboration credit between MAPPA and Madhouse, linking the franchise’s older Madhouse identity with MAPPA’s early-2010s rise as a major action studio.
- 2
The season’s boxing is built around adaptation and counter-adaptation: the drama often comes from how fighters prepare for known techniques rather than from discovering a hidden power mid-match.
- 3
Yoshihisa Hirano handles the music, giving the season a more forceful orchestral and dramatic backbone than a simple training-montage sports score.
- 4
The show preserves Hajime no Ippo’s unusual tonal mix: locker-room slapstick, bruising ring violence, and earnest masculine vulnerability occupy the same episode cycle rather than separate subplots.
- 5
Its reception numbers show unusually durable approval for a later sequel season: an 8.61 MAL score from over 165,000 votes and an AniList score of 85/100 indicate that the fanbase did not treat it as a disposable continuation.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- The opening theme is performed by Wasureranneyo, with Shigekazu Aida credited for arrangement and Takahiro Shibata for composition.
- Fun fact 2
- Pay money To my PAIN both performed and composed the insert song used in episode 12, giving that episode a distinct rock-performance credit within the season.
- Fun fact 3
- Takuji Miyamoto is credited for in-between animation on the opening and episode 1, a small but concrete production detail from the season’s animation pipeline.
- Fun fact 4
- George Morikawa, the original creator, is also closely associated with real boxing culture, which helps explain why reviews so often emphasize the series’ boxing specificity rather than treating it as generic sports drama.
- Fun fact 5
- Rising aired as a two-cour TV season from October 6, 2013 to March 30, 2014, finishing at 25 episodes rather than the much longer 75-episode structure of the first TV adaptation.
Studios
- MAPPA
- Madhouse
