SOUTHPAW FIGHTER
Sesho | Pasadena, TX USA | 12/18/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"As Volume 14 of Fighting Spirit opens, Ippo and company are wrapping up their training in the woods. Takamura evens gets to go one on one against a man-eating bear with hilarious results, which further adds to his legend and ego as he gets a chance to go for the world title. When Ippo gets back to the city, he has no time to rest as he spars with the guy that's going to fight Sendo, a fighter named Shigeta, and gets roughed up because the guy is a southpaw. The guy is so strong that Ippo wonders if Sendo will be able to defeat him. Ippo takes a break from training and goes out on his first full-fledged date with Kumi, the girl he's had a crush on for most of the series.
This next to last volume of Fighting Spirit is nothing new under the sun for this excellent and exciting show. We get to see a lot of the humanity of the characters like Sendo and even the Chief as his old pal and rival Nekota comes to visit. Takamura comes off smarter than usual as he uses the bear incident to mythologize himself and scare opponents. But probably my favorite episode on this disk was the one about Ippo and Yumi's date at the zoo, which was a welcome peace before we start the last arc about the fight between Ippo and the winner of the Sendo/Shigeta bout. This is a great show."