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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaz8PIx--0s&feature=youtu.be

It's okay Skye, it's the price we pay for freedom

probably repost but fuck I love this pic

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Hi, it's me again. I just wanted to chime in because I finished Hajime no Ippo a few days ago and recently watched the movie that accompanies it. I should mention before I continue, that there are quite a number of sequel seasons to the original Hajime no Ippo, but I've only watched the "original" series and the movie as mentioned. Now, even though it may seem like it, I usually don't write these long essays on all anime I've watched. I tend to do it on the ones I watched and really enjoyed, which luckily for me have been the case for my two most recent series: Legend of the Galactic Heroes, followed by Hajime no Ippo. Now LOTGH was a whopping 110 episodes long, which is a lot for me. Hajime no Ippo the original series was also relatively long, clocking in at 75 episodes total. It took me two weeks to finish Hajime no Ippo and considering the pace I usually watch anime at, that is breakneck speed. I absolutely adored Hajime no Ippo. I was honestly concerned when I started watching it, because Hajime no Ippo is a sports anime... I've never really been all that into sports in my life and especially not boxing, which is the main theme of this series. Sure I could name you Mike Tyson and Muhammed Ali, but beyond that I know little of boxing. The thing about Ippo is, that it eases the viewer into boxing as a sport. We follow our protagonist, Makonouchi Ippo, a freshman in high school, who is a very shy and timid young man. When he is not in school, he helps his mother out with their local fishing business. His father died a long time ago. Ippo is a regular target for bullying, as he never really retaliates and just caves in with even the slightest amount of pressure. He is regularly shaken down for lunch money and/or slapped around by his bullies. This has been his life since middle school, a friendless and bullied outcast. His life takes a different turn however, as one day he is approached by a tall and bulky man named Takamura Mamoru. Takamura spots him as he is being beaten up badly by his bullies, after trying to stand up for himself for once. Takamura quickly chases the bullies off and helps Ippo to his feet. Ippo learns that Takamura is a professional licensed boxer and is in awe over his strenght and confidence. Ippo vows that he will change his own life and begs Takamura to teach him boxing, but Takamura is reluctant. He gives Ippo a challenge to complete: To catch ten leaves falling from a tree, before they hit the ground, without dropping even a single leaf. He gives Ippo one week to finish this task, after demonstrating it himself. The truth of the matter is that Takamura never expected Ippo to be able to do it and never really wanted to train him, but when the young boy works tirelessly day and night on mastering this ability and manages to actually do it in front of Takamura on the seventh day, he ends up reluctantly keeping his promise and introduces Ippo to the trainer of Kamagowa Boxing Gym. That is the beginning of Ippo's journey as a boxer and it is an insane ride. You follow Ippo as he learns the basics such as Jabs and Straights and eventually you watch as Ippo develops his own personal style of boxing and his own techniques and special attacks he pulls off in the ring. Where Hajime no Ippo really shines is in three places: Characters, Pacing and Action. There is not a single character in the anime that ever felt out of place. Of course some characters are highlighted and fleshed out more than others, but I did not ever experience a character that annoyed me because it was poorly written or totally unnecessary. The characters aren't just flat stereotypes, but feel like real people, with actual depth. That becomes more apparent as the series goes on. One thing I have to mention are the "antagonists" of Hajime no Ippo. For the most part they boil down to Ippo's opponents in the ring AKA other boxers. The series does a great job of establishing these other boxers as characters and as people too. They don't feel like Sunday morning cartoon villains, that are just there to increase Ippo's powerlevel. They feel like genuine obstacles for our hero, but at the same time they have noble and relatable reasons for being in the ring, to the point where it gets hard to know who to cheer for at times. The show follows a very formulaic pace. Downtime which gradually increases in suspension and hype, culminating in a boxing match which releases all that tension and hype with some great action, followed immediately by more downtime and subsequently another rise in hype and suspension into the next boxing match. Don't misunderstand though, the downtime is not boring or unecessary by any means, I just call it downtime because the tension and excitement can't quite compare to the boxing matches. Finally there is the action. The boxing fights in Hajime no Ippo are beautifully animated and with the thick outlines and rough looking animation, it makes the boxing matches feel that much more impactful and heated. You have to understand that the boxing matches are exaggerated a bit in Hajime no Ippo. They use various effects and animation tricks to make certain punches look almost supernatural, but it is more to highlight the nature of the punches and their dangers, than it is anything else, like this for example. Obviously that is not what a barraging punch looks like in real life, but those effects are there just to indicate the power behind the punch. Overall, Hajime no Ippo had me hooked from episode one. I got really invested in the characters and their struggles and the show didn't ever feel contrived or stupid. The pacing is excellent, the characters are excellent and the action is top-tier. If all sports anime are of this quality, I don't think I'll be watching much else. I won't say that Hajime no Ippo is without flaws, which should become apparent to anyone who watches the show, but they are not glaring flaws that detract from the overall enjoyment of the series, at least not for me. I should probably mention at the end here, that Hajime no Ippo is a Shounen anime and thus has some Shounen tropes in it, which becomes especially apparent during the less serious and more comedic moments. So if you're an avid hater of anything Shounen, you might be turned off by this. That being said, this show is not very offending at all in terms of relying on and overdoing Shounen tropes. /blog

Realism.

Thomas Was Alone is now free to play in-browser https://8355811c82a8fe2b7674ed09646f174e157c51a4.googledrive.com/host/0B8Qz88jTfzpnLVJWc293blN6Zlk/index.html

There are still heroes left in man

Darude - Sandstorm

I'm in the weird part of SPUFpowered again XDDDD!! Thumbs up if you agree!!!