Hajime no Ippo (はじめの一歩, Hajime no Ippo), also known as Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! or Hajime no Ippo: Fighting Spirit! in the English version, is a manga by Jōji Morikawa with an anime TV adaptation. It follows the story of the eponymous protagonist, Ippo Makunouchi, who started boxing to answer one question: "What does it mean to be strong?". Hajime no Ippo literally means "The.. Hajime no Ippo (はじめの一歩; lit. 'The First Step') is a Japanese boxing -themed manga series written and illustrated by George Morikawa. It has been serialized in Kodansha 's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine since October 1989, with its chapters collected in 145 tankōbon volumes as of January 2026. It follows the story of high school student Ippo Makunouchi, as he begins.
George Morikawa is a Japanese manga author known for the longrunning series Hajime no Ippo. Born in Tokyo, Morikawa was inspired to become a manga artist upon reading Tetsuya Chiba's Harris no Kaze in elementary school. He was previously an assistant to Shuichi Shigeno, while known mangaka Kentaro Miura and Kaori Saki were past assistants to him.. In 1991, Hajime no Ippo won the 15th Kodansha Manga Award in the Shōnen Category. By July 2023, the manga had over 100 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. The manga series would inspire a TV Anime adaptation produced by MADHOUSE that consisted of 76 episodes, airing from 2001 to 2003.