| Ring ni Kakero | |
Cover of the first manga volume (reprint) |
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| リングにかけろ (Ringu ni Kakero) |
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|---|---|
| Genre | Sports (boxing) |
| Manga | |
| Ring ni Kakero 1 | |
| Written by | Masami Kurumada |
| Published by | Shueisha |
| Demographic | Shōnen |
| Magazine | Weekly Shōnen Jump |
| Original run | 1977 – 1981 |
| Volumes | 25 |
| Manga | |
| Ring ni Kakero 2 | |
| Written by | Masami Kurumada |
| Published by | Shueisha |
| Demographic | Seinen |
| Magazine | Super Jump |
| Original run | 2000 – 2009 |
| Volumes | 26 |
| TV anime | |
| Ring ni Kakero 1 | |
| Directed by | Toshiaki Komura (Season 1) Yukio Kaizawa (Season 2) Toshiaki Komura (Season 3) Hiroshi Ikehata (Season 4) |
| Produced by | Hedwig Schleck (Season 1) Atsushi Kido (Season 2) Shōsuke Okada (Season 3) Yoshihide Moriyama (Season 4) |
| Written by | Yōsuke Kuroda |
| Music by | Susumu Ueda |
| Studio | Toei Animation |
| Network | TV Asahi (Season 1-2) Animax (Season 3-4) |
| Original run | October 6, 2004 – June 12, 2011 |
| Episodes | 36 |
Ring ni Kakero (リングにかけろ Ringu ni Kakero), or Put It All in the Ring, is a manga created by Masami Kurumada. A total of 25 volumes were published in Weekly Shōnen Jump between 1977 and 1981.
Contents |
The story centers around the life of a young boxer named Ryuuji Takane and his sister Kiku, who is also his coach. Their father had been a famous boxer but is now deceased. Ryuuji and his sister both inherited their father's talent for boxing: Ryuuji inherited his strength and techniques, while Kiku picked up his talent for analysis and strategy. Ryuuji and Kiku leave home to train and become famous in order to help their lonely mother. On the way to stardom, they have to defeat the strongest challengers all over the world.
In Ring ni Kakero 1, the characters are briefly introduced, telling the story from the moment Ryuuji and Jun Kenzaki, his eternal challenger and supposed best friend, achieve stardom and fight for the National Boxing Title. Ryuuji's sister then tells the story from the beginning, when Ryuuji was the finalist in a local youth championship and had to compete against Kenzaki, the latter winning in a close K.O. one-to-one fight.
Afterward, most of the series depicts Ryuuji as being Kenzaki's successor after Kenaki was terribly injured and almost crippled. Ryuuji competes in the Japan National Boxing Championship, where he encounters strong and deadly opponents, including:
Ryuji also fights opponents from the United States (Black Shaft) and France (Napoleón Baroa). He fights an opponent named Führer Skorpion, who orders a fellow member of the Boxing Team to spy on Kenzaki and Ryuuji as possible threats to the World Championship.
The story arc about the Junior Japan team facing Black Shaft's team was adapted into an anime, with Ryuuji, Jun, Ishimatsu, Kazuki, and Takeshi representing Japan. As Black Shaft had no intention of taking Japan seriously in a boxing match, he recruits Mick, the leader of the New York branch of the Great Angels (originally portrayed in the manga as the Hells Angels, a real-life biker gang). He also recruits Monster Jail, a deathrow inmate, and Miss Charnel, a mysterious female boxing champion known for her unhealthy, boundless obsession with her own beauty, who savors reducing the "pretty" faces of her opponents into mush, using hypnotic powers to leave them helpless to her high-speed punches and fancy footwork. Black Shaft also recruits N.B. Forrest, also known as the Emperor of the South, and in the manga, a member of the Ku Klux Klan. The second season ends with Team Japan being targeted by a mysterious group called the Shadow Clan.
The Shadow Clan capture Kiku in an attempt to test the Junior Japan Team's skills. Ryuuji fights a number of Shadow Clan members and is able to save Kiku. The Junior Japan Team then fights the 5 strongest members of the Shadow Clan, led by Jun's younger twin brother, Shadow Jun. Before the 2nd to last match, Shadow Jun uses all of Team Japan's special moves to where he overpowers Ryuuji but then they both clash with the Boomerang Hook that knocks both of them out. They then have their official match at the end, to where Shadow Jun accepts defeat even though the result of the match is more or less a draw. Shadow Jun becomes a recurring character in the manga during the 12 Olympic Gods arc.
The Junior Japan Team enters the Junior World Tournament to challenge the current world champions, Team Greece. The first opponents are Junior Italy Team, led by Mafia ruler Don Juliano. They next fight Junior France Team led by Napoleón Baroa. Their third opponents are the Junior Germany Team, led Führer Skorpion and his assistant Helga, who are able to reflect their opponents' attacks back at them. Surprisingly, Ryuuji doesn't fight the last match, as Kenzaki unleashes his Galatica Phantom against Führer Skorpion. Finally, Team Japan takes on Team Greece, led by Apollon. But a big stipulation is that if each member of Team Japan hits their respected member of Team Greece with their finishing move, they will die. Not surpisingly, all of Team Japan die.
But it turns out that, they weren't really dead but got transport to the Realm of the Gods to challenge the 12 Olympic Gods. Each member of Team Greece represents one of the 12 Olympic gods of Greece. Leaders of various other world teams join Team Japan, including Napoléon Barona, Führer Skorpion, Krüger Helga, and Shadow Juhn. The leader of the gods is Zeus, who helps Team Japan take on the organization known as Asura, which Kawai temporarily joins.
After Asura is defeated, the members of Team Japan retire and Kenzaki decides to pursue a professional boxing career now that he is 17. Kenzaki fights the reigning world champion, Jesus J. Christ, known for using the strongest technique in the world, the "Neo-Bible." On the way to the title fight, Kenzaki is confronted by Katori, who is enraged because of Kenzaki's recently distant attitude toward Kiku. The two fight and Kenzaki manages to win, but thanks Katori for giving him his fighting spirit. Despite his injuries, Kenzaki manages to prevail over Jesus J. Christ.
Ryuuji also enters the professional circuit and after a year of successful title defenses, Kenzaki issues a challenge to Ryuuji to end their rivalry. The fight is a brutal death match. Ryuuji manages to defeat Kenzaki, but both Ryuuji and Kenzaki's bodies reach their limits during the match; both are on the verge of death. After Ryuuji wins, he falls over and is unable to stand. Meanwhile, Kenzaki and Kiku are preparing to marry that same day. Wanting to show Kiku the victor, Kenzaki helps Ryuuji over to the church where Kiku is waiting. When they arrive, Ryuuji is unable to stand and falls into his sister's arms. The rest of Team Japan and Shadow Jun rush to the church, but find Ryuuji lying dead with a smile on his face and his title on his waist. Both Kenzaki and Kiku proudly smile at him. The ending was a tribute to the ending of Ashita no Joe, except Ryuuji was the winner while Joe was the loser.
Ryuuji's main fighting skills are his left-right jabs, his stubborn courage, and his special techniques: "Boomerang Hook," "Double Boomerang," "Boomerang Square," "Boomerang Telios," and "Winning the Rainbow".
After B't X, Kurumada created Ring ni Kakero 2, which was published in Super Jump, a seinen magazine. Ring ni Kakero 2 tells the story of Kiku and Jun's son, Rindo Kenzaki, who is raised by Katori Ishimatsu after losing both of his parents. The manga ended in 2009 after 26 volumes.
27 years after the first chapter debuted, the manga was finally adapted into an anime series by Toei Animation. The series premiered October 6, 2004 and was broadcast on TV Asahi. It covered the first story arc of the manga. Since Ring ni Kakero 2 was being serialized in Super Jump at the time, the anime was titled Ring ni Kakero 1 to distinguish it from the more current manga (the original manga was later republished under the anime title).
In order to fulfill their dead father's wish, the siblings, Takane Kiku and Takane Ryuji aims for the champion title of the boxing arena. The sister, Kiku, will act as the trainer while her brother, Ryuji, will concentrate on the role of the boxer and learn the Boomerang. His battle with many rivals has led to the growth and maturity of Ryuji. The junior high boxing tournament has began and Ryuji will be fighting with his arch-rival, Kenzaki Jun. The battle begins.
Immediately after Ryuuji Takane won the Champion Carnival, the U.S. Junior Champion Black Shaft appeared, and challenged the best Japan has to offer, just before the World Tournament is about to happen. Now Ryuuji, Takeshi Kawai, Kazuki Shinatora, Ishimatsu Katori, and Superstar Jun Kenzaki have to prove to not only Black Shaft, but the world, that they are truly world-class boxers before the World Tournament starts. But Shaft is not recruiting boxers for his challenge, but instead gets a life-timer criminal from Death Row, the leader of the Great Angels, one of the toughest gangs in America, a mysterious woman, and the "Dark Emperor of the South".
After defeating Black Shaft's makeshift Team America, the Golden Japan Jr. team returns to training for the World Tournament that will be held in Tokyo. But during training the Shadow Clan, who was written out of Japanese boxing history due to its deadly use of the style, kidnaps Kiku in order to lure Ryuji and the others into a fight to see who's truly the better representatives of Japan's junior boxers.
| No. | Total | Title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 25 | "The Shadow Clan" "Shadow Ichizoku" (影道一族) |
April 2, 2010 |
| 02 | 26 | "The Tower Of Shadow" "Kage no Tou" (影道の塔) |
April 2, 2010 |
| 03 | 27 | "Gathered again! Golden Japan Junior" "Saishuuketsu! Ougon no Nippon Junior" (再集結!黄金の日本ジュニア) |
May 7, 2010 |
| 04 | 28 | "Bloody fight! Thousand miles' slope" "Kessen! Senri Kyuuryou" (血戦!千里丘陵) |
May 7, 2010 |
| 05 | 29 | "The leader appears" "Sousui Toujou" (総帥登場) |
June 4, 2010 |
| 06 | 30 | "Farewell Shadow" "Saraba Shadow" (血戦!千里丘陵) |
June 4, 2010 |
After defeating Black Shaft's makeshift Team USA and proving their worth to the Shadow Clan, Team Golden Japan Jr. will finally enter the World Jr. Boxing Tournament. In order to fulfill their goal of a perfect victory they'll have to take on teams from countries like Mexico, Italy, France, Germany, and the mysterious and godlike Team Greece.
| No. | Total | Title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 31 | "It's Name is Square" "Sono na wa Square"" (その名はスクエアー!) |
April 10, 2011[1] |
| 02 | 32 | "The Grand France" "Kareinaru Furansu" (華麗なるフランス) |
April 10, 2011[1] |
| 03 | 33 | "Vollkommenheit" (フォルコメンハイト) |
May 15, 2011[2] |
| 04 | 34 | "Hero vs. Genius" "Eiyū vs. Tensai" (英雄VS天才) |
May 15, 2011[2] |
| 05 | 35 | "The Flag of Oath" "Chikai no Hata" (誓いの旗) |
June 12, 2011[3] |
| 06 | 36 | "Farewell, Golden Japan Jr." "Saraba Ōgon no Nippon Jr." (さらば黄金の日本Jr.) |
June 12, 2011[3] |
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