encouraging disabled kids seemed so cliche
Makino/Itagaki II wasn't cool because of the story with the disabled kid, it was cool because Makino came back as a boxer and still got the living shit beaten outta him. The kid only served for comedic purposes, I think, going by his hair and all.
And I liked Eagle. Not many do, but it was nice to see a boxing match instead of a comicbook fight against some wacky alien.
@rice-a-roni:
Im really disipointed that they put Itagi in the series, he just seems like a replacement for Geromichi,who in my opinion is much cooler than Itagi. Plus he doesnt have a interesting fighting style, wow an outboxer, original. And Geromichi retireing just disipointed me, in fact the cool boxers retireing (Sanda, Kobashi, ect.) made me sad. I really enjoy the fact that Hajime no Ippo isnt all about the main charecter, the author allways makes time to focus on the other charecters. And to me it just seems by retireing the boxers the author is taking the easy way out, instead of having to do all of their side stories and fights.
You…gotta be kidding me. Like, really. Itagaki's dad's toupee is a cooler character than Nao ever was. Not that I hated him (or the other yawns, Kobashi and Sanada), but come on. Itagaki was really needed. Who wants another infighter KO-man like Ippo or Sendo or Imai or Nao or Shimabukuro or whoever. Even if there were more boxers than fighters, Itagaki is still exciting. The decision over Imai was a bit annoying, but hey, it's working out.
As for retiring characters, eh. With so many out there, it's suprising some even got as far as they did. Sawamura seemed a bit too early, but realize that Itagaki, Ippo, Aoki, and Kimura haven't even fought outside of the Japanese rankings yet.