And here we go for the TV Special and the OVA serving explicitly as an extension of the season 1 and implicitly to show what will give the future season due to the switch to digital.

And what better way to show a foretaste of this transition to digital than by starting the movie with a remake of the end of the fight Ippo vs Sendo, Dempsey Roll included, and not only the technical gap is well felt for a movie released barely a year after the end of season 1, but the movie format (so bigger budget and animator having more time) definitely does justice to the boxing scenes, it sakuga in all the directions it's lively and it moves all the time, add the qualities that I had already stated in my review of the season 1 on all that is impact of the blows/readability in the setting/intensity felt and it's gold in power, even the scenes of everyday life have an increase in quality in the animation and "life" of the characters not really Ippo it's incredible the care that we carry to this manga in animation.

The arc adapted in the movie is interesting to follow on an aspect that is finally approached in the field of boxing, what does it change to my life to be the champion and to have the belt not only on the fact that now you are a target for almost everyone but also how you manage your private life, how you manage to potentially have a stable couple life while training knowing that one is scraping time on the other and that your time before the match is limited, again everything about the boxers life is so well represented no wonder we know that Morikawa has his own boxing club but the passion is felt in the writing that's for sure.
It's also always so funny during its scenes of everyday life including a big sequence in the club on go Ippo declares your love to Kumi not shy that ends in arm wrestling with always Aoki and Kimura negative IQ and faces over emotional characters to strengthen the delirium of the scene.

As for the opponent because actually there was never a bad guy in this manga Kazuki Sanada is an excellent character once again magnified by the scenes outside the ring, the scene where he gets stoned to a Tekken-like by the daughter of his coach is simple but enough to have an effect with the character even though his time of attachment is more limited by the film format, Likewise for his doctor's past, it's the kind of detail to show that the character had a life before his introduction that works well and that in general have always been good to take in fictions, same thing for his trainer Dankichi Hama or just the character is introduced with his head of demonic Santa Claus that we tell you: Rival of Genji and Ginpachi who never reached their level, broken jaw by Genji BAM you understood that it is a veteran who has the balls and that Sanada is going to be a strong man.

Not much more to say, this is Ippo: a solid manga served on a golden platter by Madhouse.