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Masaru Aoki

(青木 勝, Aoki Masaru?) is Ippo's senpai and Kimura's best friend. Aoki provides much of the gym's comic relief and exercises one of the world's most unusual fighting styles. A few of his signature techniques include the fan-favorite Frog Punch, double punch, an untorqued (ineffective) corkscrew punch, and the utterly ridiculous Lookaway (which has also been adopted by Takamura). In the past, he and Kimura were the toughest high-school thugs around, but now Aoki's real job is at a ramen restaurant. Due to the numerous times being dumped by the pretty girls in high school, he's developed a taste for women with unattractive faces. He has fought for the Japanese lightweight championship and shares an apartment with his girlfriend, Tomiko, a friend of Kumi Mashiba whose nice personality and good body more than compensate for her less-than-stellar face. Aoki seems to be based on either former world champion Jorge Paez, or hardcore fight fan hero Emanuel Augustus for their offbeat fighting styles and records. His current record stands at 20 Matches 10-6-4 (W-L-D), with 6 KOs, and the best rank he reached is 1st in Lightweight. His signature "Look Away" technique is based on a skill former World Middleweight Champion Jake LaMotta had used in his career.

Aoki is ranked 7th in JBC Lightweight rankings.
Voiced by: Wataru Takagi (Japanese), Jim Taggert (English)

Mamoru Takamura

(鷹村 守, Takamura Mamoru?), voiced by Rikiya Koyama (Japanese) and Eddie Frierson (English), is a strong boxer that has never lost a match. He has an incredible athletic ability that manifests through his strength, speed, stamina, and reflexes. Takamura also has an insatiable appetite for women, which is only overshadowed by his obsession for victory. At one point, he single-handedly knocks out an adult bear while sustaining gashes on his arm, and more notably on his chest. The weakened bear is eventually killed, and he is dubbed "The Bear Slayer". He honors the moniker by wearing the Bear pelt, bear-ing (PUN intended) his scars proudly.

He originally was a delinquent that often got into fights. Because of his strength, he often left his victims with serious injuries. He was disowned by his family due to a brawl initiated by himself which happened during a rugby match where his older brother was competing and fans booed. By the time the brawl was over, at least 20 people were injured. After the incident, Takamura continues to fight until he meets Coach Kamogawa. After weeks of training, and without a single sparring session, Takamura defeats his first opponent 25 seconds into the first round. He works his way to becoming the JBC Middleweight Champion, and then moves on to become the WBC Junior Middleweight Champion, and then the WBC Middleweight Champion (which makes him the only current World Champion from Japan). His current aspiration is to conquer the next 4 classes up through heavyweight, but first he must win his upcoming fight for a Super Middleweight Championship. Takamura's character resembles former Middleweight Champions Sugar Ray Robinson, Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Roy Jones Jr. for his versatile repertoire of punches, his ability to box and brawl at any range, and his uncanny physical giftedness.

As a two-time World Champion and former Japanese Middleweight Champion, Takamura is the former WBC Jr. Middleweight Champion, and the reigning WBC Middleweight Champion.

Ippo Makunouchi

(幕之内 一歩, Makunouchi Ippo?), voiced by Kōhei Kiyasu (Japanese) and Steve Staley (English), is the main protagonist of the series. He lives with his mother, Hiroko Makunouchi, and helps with the family charter boat fishing business. When he was young, Ippo use to get bullied and picked on by others in his school. As fate would have it, Takamura came upon Ippo as he was getting a beating from a couple of bullies and decided to help him. Takamura saw something in Ippo and introduced him to the world of boxing. After seeing a video of Mike Tyson, Ippo becomes inspired to take up boxing to feel reborn with strength, as a sort of therapy and asks Takamura to get him into Kamogawa Gym. Immediately after arriving at Kamogawa Gym he impresses Takamura and Kamogawa with his explosive punching power and guts in the ring. Like he has with Takamura, Kamogawa personally takes on Ippo as his pupil and starts him on the path to being a pro boxer. Since then, Takamura has treated Ippo like a younger brother and has taken him under his wing.

Ippo is a classic in-fighter and is well known for his Peek-a-Boo style of boxing and hard punches including three signature punches: a rib-cracking Liver blow, Gazelle punch (an uppercut variant), and the Dempsey roll technique. During his match with Sawamura, he modified the Dempsey roll to prevent it from being countered. He also modified the Dempsey roll into a "smash" version when he fought against Jimmy Sisfa, a.k.a. "Scratch J". His signature punches are modeled after Mike Tyson, Floyd Patterson, and Jack Dempsey respectively. Although he is not a technical boxer, Makunouchi makes up for it with his superb fighting spirit. His nickname is the God of Wind, coined after the force of his powerful blows. Ippo is based on Mike Tyson.

Ippo's current record as a professional boxer with 22 matches is 21–1–0 (W-L-D), with 21 KOs, he is the reigning JBC Featherweight Champion, having defended his Japanese title 7 times, and holds a single digit ranking in the WBC.

Fighting Spirit - Hajime no Ippo

(はじめの一歩, "The First Step" in Japan) is a boxing manga and anime series created by Jyoji "George" Morikawa which is serialized by Kodansha in Weekly Shōnen Magazine.

The manga has been running since 1989, spans 84 tankōbon. A 76-episode anime adaption, titled Hajime No Ippo: The Fighting! 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. 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. Geneon released it as Fighting Spirit. It was called Knockout in the Philippines.

On September 15, 2008 it was announced in Weekly Shōnen Magazine, that a second season of Hajime no Ippo would begin airing on January 6, 2009. The second season is called Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger and is currently ongoing.

Story
Ippo Makunouchi is a very shy high school student who never had the time to make friends because he was always busy helping his mother with the family charter boat fishing business. Because he kept to himself, a group of bullies led by Umezawa got into the habit of picking on him. On one particular day these bullies decided to give him a rather serious beating, but a middle-weight professional boxer who was passing by stopped the bullies and took the injured Ippo to the Kamogawa Gym (鴨川ボクシングジム, Kamogawa Bokushingu Jimu?), owned by retired boxer Genji Kamogawa, to treat his wounds. After Ippo awoke to the sounds of boxers training, the boxer who saved him, Mamoru Takamura, tried to cheer Ippo up by letting him vent his frustrations on a sandbag. It was then that they had their first glimpse into Ippo's talent for boxing. After that incident, Ippo started his regular training and began his path in Japan's professional boxing.

The story focuses heavily on character development, even during the matches something is learned about the fighters. Ippo and his friendly rivalry with Miyata is the main draw in the early part of the series. That later changes to Ippo's path towards the Japanese Featherweight Championship and eventually the world championship. Along the way we are given glimpses into the other side character's pasts, motivations, relationships to others and current boxing trials.

The anime series has two spin-off movies that were actually part of the manga. Champion Road, which takes place after Ippo becomes the Japanese Featherweight Champion and showcases his first defense of the title, and Kimura Vs. Mashiba, which pits one of Ippo's upper classmen (Kimura) against the Japanese lightweight champion Mashiba (the brother of Ippo's love interest).

Chara

• Ippo Makunouchi (幕之内 一歩, Makunouchi Ippo?)
• Ichiro Miyata (宮田 一郎, Miyata Ichirō?)
• Genji Kamogawa (鴨川 源二, Kamogawa Genji?)
• Mamoru Takamura (鷹村 守, Takamura Mamoru?)
• Masaru Aoki (青木 勝, Aoki Masaru?)
• Tatsuya Kimura (木村 達也, Kimura Tatsuya?)
• Manabu Itagaki (板垣学, Itagaki Manabu?)
• Kumi Mashiba (間柴 久美, Mashiba Kumi?)
• Ryo Mashiba (間柴 了, Mashiba Ryō)
• Takeshi Sendou (千堂 武士, Sendō Takeshi)