No chapter next week is going to be hard…

Chapter 1242 - The birth of "monster" Ippo

@Seafarer33:

Good chapter indeed. Now the coach has noticed Ippo's improved speed I can't help but think this may not yet be the end of his boxing days. At the same time however, the sorry display of the glass-jaw guy did give a rather final ring to "persisting against apparent odds is not a good idea", so I don't know what to think. I'm fine with either way, provided the explanation isn't too silly (consider "d'oh, I was eating those punches because I should have worn glasses all along" ).

I believe that the explanation was already given. What the doctor said (that there was nothing definitely "broken" for now, just a dangerous situation), plus the whole Hayami thing, tells us that Ippo was definitely in a very dangerous spot, with a lot of accumulated damage, but not irreversible. I believe it was even stated during the Hayami chapters that Hayami could have recuperated from his damage but he didn't give himself the chance to fully heal before it was permanent.

The fact that Ippo lacked motivation and was weighted down with all the responsibility of meeting his coach's expectations (including the perfected Dempsey roll) just exacerbated the issue.

Now, in chapter 1240, we see a relaxed Ippo, that isn't weighted down at all by the responsibility of meeting any expectations or even winning… just an Ippo that truly enjoys boxing while taking it even more seriously than before in some aspects (since he has now started to learn more about all these other aspects of boxing, like being a second, and coaching, and since he has faced himself the possibility of getting a broken body).

I think that all that and even his retirement has helped with Ippo's focus and has helped Ippo mature and become stronger mentally. Eventually, enough time will pass for his body to be fully healed and his improved focus, maturity and stronger mentality will remain. And then, when Ippo regains the will to get back on the ring, his motivation, thanks to all those factors, will be much stronger.

And I believe this is all coherent with this manga's theme of "the meaning of strength" and its ramifications and questions.

@Hajro:

Morikawa could have done that in these 100 chapters of comeback training we just had but i guess he plans to go for first manga to reach 2000 chapters :blink:

That's true, yeah, but we are already used to the pacing of this manga lol

@themick:

The only reason the last few chapters went that direction is because the author was ending the manga. If he wasn't intending to end the manga he should have played out the fight differently.

If that was the case it wouldn't make sense for him to immediatly state on Twitter that the manga is continuing, antecipating the question.

My theory is that this is all the setup for Ippo to really discover his motivation, his need to box, and wanting to box even if he is punch drunk, risking everything, even his life and health, and his love interest (due to breaking his promise of quitting). Hence becoming a true MONSTER and finally cross the line. And Ippo will thus return.

As for him being punch drunk, he might really be punch drunk or maybe not. So far there's no medical confirmation so whatever he is feeling might be something similar but not truly permanent and Ippo, due to his lack of motivation, is latching on that as an excuse in his heart of hearts.

Regardless, my theory is that he will return while actually being punch drunk or we will find out later that he isn't really punch drunk but something else.

Either that or he really retires and doesn't come back but in that case I don't understand the point of the author's Twitter message.

@Maju:

please tune in next time for the series to continue with a new name,hajime no takamura

I have my doubts it will just shift to a new protagonist.

The author said on Twitter that the manga will continue. We'll have to see where it goes.

I judge the work for itself. I don't care about what the author does in his personal life or how he is, I just care about the work. This will obviously affect any future of the Kenshin franchise, but it's been very much over for a long time. Hopefully the author gets help and straightens his life out, but it will very hard for him to make a comeback.

@Nilitch:

I like how the cover itself is ironic, since they both get trashed in this volume.

Actually, they were very dignified in these latest chapters, showing Suiryu what it means to be a hero without hesitation despite lacking the necessary power.

@algebro:

This is not what I expected for the first time the strawhats interact with a yonkou crew. Big Mom's crew has been all sorts of inept throughout. I really hope that they have a strong showing in these next few chapters because so far they have underwhelmed and its disappointing considering how hyped the yonkou have been.

This arc is not about a full open fight with a Yonkou crew. It's just hit and run strategies. The only real full open fight we had was with Cracker and Luffy had a really bad time with him.