Hajime no Ippo

Manga


This manga, created by  Jōji "George" Morikawa and ongoing since 1989 (!), is one of the best I've read so far which is really something coming from me as I'm usually not all that fond of sports manga. This particular manga however, was able to keep me interested for a very long time, 945 chapters to be exact.


It's about a young boy named Makunouchi Ippo, who starts out as a weak character. He's part of a single parent family and spends his free time helping out the family business. Because of this he often gets bullied after school until one day he's saved by a professional boxer. After this fateful meeting, Ippo enters the world of professional boxing facing his enemies head on one at a time.


The supporting characters are also worth mentioning, they provide comic relief for the series. Where Ippo is a bit gullible and sometimes even plain boring, the supporting characters are always up for some mischief causing many hilarious situations.


Anime

The anime adaptation is called 'Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting' and started airing in 2000. The series consists of 76 episodes which stay true to the manga. Apart from the first season, 2 OVA's were also published, 'Fighting Spirit: Champion Road TV Special' and 'Kimura vs. Mashiba'. In 2009, 7 years after the conclusion of the first season, the second season called 'Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger' aired. One of the voice actors confirmed in 2009 that a sequel to 'New Challenger' is being planned, but so far, no official news has been published.

Manga Sites

So when OneManga got shut down (R.I.P) I was getting fairly desperate. OneManga was by far my favourite Manga site, as it contained almost every manga I ever read. I've tried many other sites, but in my opinion, none of them were nearly as good as OneManga. A lot of them didn't host every manga I was reading and I really didn't want to hop from one site to another just to keep track of every manga I follow. What's more, most sites used an interface that kept bugging me, not to mention their navigation, it was downright horrible in most cases.

When I finally had given up and decided to stick with one of the sites I used before OneManga captured the first spot, my friend gave me the following link:

Manga Fox: Read Manga Online for Free!

It still isn't as good as OneManga of course, but it has almost every single manga I follow. The navigation is slightly better than all the other sites out there, but more importantly, it has an incredible amount of manga. The only thing it doesn't have are the smutty manga, though some do contain sexual content to some extent.

In case the manga hosted on MangaFox doesn't satisfy your otaku needs, you could always give MangaTraders a try:

MangaTraders

This site hosts every single manga you can imagine, even the disturbing ones. There is only 1 downside: you have to dowload the manga per chapter or volume, and you can only download 1 piece at a time.

The last site I would like to share is mangastream:

mangastream

This site does not host many series, but they do host my favourite manga and they are the first to upload it every single week. If you're looking for fast and accurate updates on Bleach, Naruto, Hajime no Ippo, Fairy Tail, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, One Piece, Claymore, D.Gray-man Skip Beat!, and Toriko, this is where you want to be.

PUDDI PUDDI - Sugoi ne!

This is simply amazing. Who can resist the urge after having seen this incredible ad, I sure can't!
Must... have... PUDDI PUDDI!! xD

The Art of Video Games

At last! Video games == art! Of course we knew that already, but the world of art seemed to have picked up on the idea as well. The Smithsonian American Art Museum will host an exhibition called: "The Art of Video Games" and will feature the games that changed the gaming world.

To decide what games to put on display, games were divided over 5 eras and the best games for each genre per console or platform were chosen from 240 candidates. Personally, I was very happy to see Zelda winning in every applicable category. The voting resulted in a great list of great games portraying the evolution of video games and you can find it here.

I can't agree with all the games that won no matter how great they are. While Minecraft is one of my personal favourites, I do not think it deserves to win over StarCraft II nor Ages of Empires 3. It isn't even a full game yet. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love Minecraft, but wouldn't calling Minecraft superior to StarCraft II be the same as calling Duke Nukem Forever superior to a game that actually has been released?

 Another minor disappointment was the fact that Chrono Trigger didn't win in the category 'Adventure' on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. I really love that game and even now I still play it on my Android phone. I visited the local game shop last week, they actually had Chrono Trigger figurines! I nearly went crazy! The insanely high price as well as its sheer awesomeness are to blame. Right, so even though I was bummed about Chrono Trigger losing in the adventure category on the SNES, I did find some comfort when I saw the winning game. It was Zelda: A Link to the Past. Figures...

I was most excited about Zelda: Ocarina of Time winning in category N64, Adventure. This is probably one of the best games ever made and it totally deserves to win. Its enticing tunes still accompany me on a  daily basis as ringtones and such and still manage to make me happy each time I hear it. No other game could do what Ocarina of Time did and still does for me. I've actually bought a N64 recently, just so I could play Ocarina of Time again. Pity I won't be able to play for a while, breaking your arm isn't good for teh gaming...

Another one of my favourites won in a different category namely XBOX, Action: Halo 2. For me, this is the precious sequel to the game that kicked off my gaming era. Having been brought up quite rigidly, allowing no games or whatsoever to enter the household, my first actual gaming experience was on the XBOX. The first console I ever owned, was my precious XBOX. Do note, by first actual gaming experience, I mean the experience of being able to play a game long enough to actually complete it. Sure, I had played the Mario's and whatnot at friends, but I wasn't actually allowed to own a console at home and therefore had never really experienced the joy and excitement of playing and completing video games. I had and still have quite an awful lot to catch up with. At least this list will give me some idea of where to start!