Hajime No Ippo - Best anime ever.

I use to enjoy anime for what is was as a kid and as a teenager. Starting with Tekkaman: The Space Knight, Dragon Ball, and Voltron. I still remember having Voltron underwear with the holograms on them. As I grow older, I can’t seem to be able to find the same spark that lit my interest when I was younger. It may be due to the quality of anime dying out or because of my age and interests. As I was a teenager, I made that mighty shift from anime to dramas. Dramas just seem a bit more suitable for my tastes. It’s not true to only say that Obachans and Ojisans are the only people that enjoy a delicious j-dorama (I don’t want to take the chance of saying jdrama.) Keeping that in mind, I have always had an older mind state for my age. I can experience and soak in more things from a Japanese drama than an anime.

Anyway, I’ll save the topic for another post. Now that I am 22, I didn’t think I could follow an anime to begin with. I recently read on a forum that if you ever had to watch an anime, to watch Hajime No Ippo. The anime follows the life of a kid that use to be bullied, and then soon becomes a professional boxer. The emotion and feeling put into this anime is incredible. The post on the forum originally said, “This anime will make you a better person!” I can’t do nothing but agree with this comment. If you haven’t had the chance, please at least watch the first 5 episodes. As the fights are more serious, the skill and emotion gets more intense and at times, I found my self teary eyed because of their hardships. I don’t want to spoil anything so I leave it to you. It’s one anime that you can ignore.

And as a man, you have to enjoy boxing.

From Wiki:

Hajime no Ippo (はじめの一歩, Hajime no Ippo^? lit. “The First Step”; in full, Hajime no Ippo: THE FIGHTING!), is a boxing manga series created by Jyoji “George” Morikawa which is serialized by Kodansha in Weekly Shonen Magazine; its anime adaptation being known in the US as Fighting Spirit.

A 76-episode anime adaption was produced by Madhouse, the Nippon TV Network and VAP, directed by Satoshi Nishimura and ran on the Nippon TV Network from October 2000 to March 2002.^[2] One OVA and a movie were also produced. It was announced that the anime would be licensed in North America by Geneon at the end of 2003.^[5] Geneon released it as Fighting Spirit. It was called Knockout in the Philippines.

In 1991, the manga won the Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen.^[6]

1. The design of the logo for this anime is pretty decent.
2. Ippo is welcomed at his gym by a dashing カンチョー, kanchō: it is performed by clasping the hands together so the index fingers are pointing out and attempting to insert them sharply into someone’s anal region when the victim is not looking. And believe me, it stings but I could have never imagined myself making a face like this.
3. 千堂 武士, Sendō Takeshi dashes to the inside of the challenger, ready to unload a devastating punch to the stomach.
4. Ippo practices his weight shifting for defense but remembers that he shouldn’t separate the two into different categories/thought patterns.
5. Ippo shifts his weight so that the power of his punch is backed up by his body weight.
6. 千堂 武士, Sendō Takeshi unleashes his killer punch to the stomach.

Crisis Core: FFVII

I kind of wished I would of imported this game earlier but it would of just taken out of the some fun of playing the U.S. release since I would of only been able to understand some of the story line and then have to piece everything together. The game seems as if it has many hours of game play and I say this due to it having so many side quests that have to be accomplished. You can easily still play the game and follow the story line but you don’t have free based map areas where you can sit for hours and level up so they give you the option to complete missions at any local save point. From there, the missions are ranked from EASY to VERY HARD. It’s a pretty good idea because just like in FFVII, I can level my Zack/Cloud to Sephiroth mode and easily rape every creature/boss that tries to get in my way. It’s a very good feeling^^. Other than that, the music is upgraded and then some. All the CG is based off of FFVII:AC so each and every scene is beautiful and leaves you in aw.

I totally recommend you pick this up if you have a PSP. I actually forgot I owned a PSP and then got my hands on Crisis Core: FFVII. Now I cannot put it down.

DEAR PSP OWNERS,
BUY CRISIS CORE: FFVII.
KTHXBAI
BEST REGARDS,
STEFAN

Though, I am trying my hardest not to play too much because it will be my best friend on the flight to Japan. Extra batteries are a must.