Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: "Ippon" Again!
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gumbaloom
Posts: 311 |
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Nicholas - if you've not already you NEED to watch Yawara.
This is the Yawara for the 21st centry - although the initially high school arc is about just Yawara as soon as she gets in to college Fujiko joins and things get a lot more fun. I'm getting those same vibes about Ippon Again as I got for Yawara. Half comedic / half serious. I'm pretty sure when we get to the matches they will be intense - for Yawara it was about Jigoro sensei being in the commentator box being the "peanut gallery". |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5514 Location: Iscandar |
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Ippon Again is my pleasant surprise of the season. Hopefully these reviews motivate more people to watch it.
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gumbaloom
Posts: 311 |
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I'll be interested to see how they handle a full competitive fight scene - if they can match the thrill that Yawara has.
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meiam
Posts: 3450 |
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It's really well done with a good cast that strike a nice balance between feeling like believable people and interesting character. But, man, judo is so boring to watch! They just squirm around on the ground and every match feel like they're just about technicality rather than an actual fight between two athlete.
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gumbaloom
Posts: 311 |
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Sorry to harp on about this but you ain’t seen anime judo till you’ve seen judo fight scenes done by Yawara Classic fights such as - Yawara vs Jody Rockwell - Yawara vs Sayaka - Yawara vs Teleshkova Yawara had fights spanning multiple episodes and they always left you on the edge of your seat wondering when Yawara will get the Ippon Zepi. But moreover the way it handles the technicality. Such as style and moves That’s why a lot of how I judge Ippon again will be how it does the proper tournament fights and hope it can liver up to its very venerable predecessor. It’s just such a crying shame that Anime Eigo could release the full series and I hope at some point Discotek will but a 124 episodr series plus film is a big ask |
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Piglet the Grate
 Posts: 799 Location: North America |
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Watching people fish is even more boring, but I loved Slow Loop. |
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Blortle
Posts: 22 |
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I enjoy Ippon Again immensely, so much so that once I hit the point where the English TL drops off (as, let's face it, a 20+ volume sports series isn't something most American publishers are going to pick up when not even Adachi's legendary series like Touch or H2 can get licensed) I went to MTLing the Spanish translation and skimming raws just to keep up with what's going on.
It really is the characters that carry this series. As the review for these episodes points out, the characters are fairly archetypal but that doesn't mean that they're shallow. Michi's genki goofiness would typically get her cast in the "annoying fool" role in a lot of series but here, it means she's actually something of a social beast who has little problem making friends with others (be it judoka or classmates; there's little flashes here and there of Michi's healthy social life outside of the club) because she's passionate and fun to be around. As is said she's not good at reading the mood but that's not necessarily a bad thing when she knows how to lighten it and get people to enjoy themselves. Sanae has maybe the best and most compelling storyline of anyone in the main cast with her "slow and steady" style of growth both in skill and confidence. By this point in the series, 200+ chapters in, there's quite a number of schools and a few dozen characters of importance and relevance and all of them feel very well done. I can't think of any characters I actively dislike and the human side of even the best judoka is always emphasized. As is pointed out a number of times, at the end of the day even the judoka from the best schools are all just girls worrying about and doing the same things that girls do. All of the schools have their own storylines going on and it makes it easy to want to root for any of them or see how they progress, be it underdogs like Aobanishi or powerhouses like Tachikawa. |
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pi8you
 Posts: 197 Location: Minneapolis |
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Really enjoying the show so far, but it also gave me cause to laugh last night. I finally started in on Patlabor TV and all of a sudden in the second episode I'm getting more women's judo... with giant robots.
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anime_layer
 Posts: 58 |
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Not sure I agree. Both series are about women's judo but that's also where the similarities kind of end for me. Yawara has much more focus on comedy and slapstick humor, Ippon Again is more a character drama with more well-rounded characters. Yawara's also mostly set in professional Judo whereas Ippon Again is about school Judo. And Yawara's fights were more over-the-top while Ippon Again seems to try to depict school Judo more faithfully. But I agree that both are good series and anyone enjoying Ippon Again should give Yawara a try. |
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meiam
Posts: 3450 |
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I really hope they don't have her switch to Judo, having one of the regular cast not being in the club is one of the interesting thing the show does. At the same time, it seems like team competition are 3 members for judo, so I guess maybe they won't just for that.
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Beltane70
 Posts: 3981 |
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Unless it’s a red herring, in the closing animation it seems pretty clear that she will switch to the judo club. |
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AQuin1904
Posts: 270 |
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I don't currently have HIDIVE, but these reviews convinced me to pick up the manga, and I'm absolutely loving it so far.
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Blortle
Posts: 22 |
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Fair warning, the English TL was dropped a long time ago and nobody seems interested in picking it up so you better be willing to read or MTL the Spanish one if you want everything after the Kinshuki which is where the anime looks to be leaving off barring a bunch of anime original filler being added. |
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AQuin1904
Posts: 270 |
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Thanks, but I'm reading the JP ebooks. Rakuten/Kobo had them all on sale for the anime at the start of the month. The Kinshuki was great (apart from all the intersecting character stories, it showed that the series can get technical and show the ins and outs of a match, even if it often chooses to focus elsewhere), so if the animation holds up for it, I might buy a month of HIDIVE and watch through the whole show next month. |
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Blortle
Posts: 22 |
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As a Magic fan... low blow. We beat the Bulls with Jordan and the best version of the Pacers that year, at least.
Thankfully you'll be seeing more of them if this gets enough seasons to get to the second year Kinshuki. It'd probably be season four or a two cour season three to do it though. |
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