The fourth volume of Fighting Spirit continues the story of Ippo Makunouchi and his dream to become a proffesional boxer.  This time around Ippo goes to the beach with his friends for an intensive training camp and his best friend, Takamura, fights for the championship.

In case you've missed the previous volumes, Ippo Makunouchi is a high school student who is constantly harassed by a group of bullies.  When a professional boxer, Takamura, saves him from a beating, Ippo decides that he wants to be a boxer too.  Spending just about all of his time doing manual labor at his families boat rental company, Ippo is quite strong, but untrained and awkward.  He's taken under Takamura's wing though, and it is soon discovered that Ippo has a good amount of natural talent and the stamina that is needed to become a great boxer.

In the course of his training, Ippo gets a rival, the up and coming star Ichiro Miyata.  They are both strong fighters, and promise each other that they'll meet in the final round of the Eastern Japan Rookie Championship Tournament to determine who is really the best.

In this volume, Ippo and his friends from the gym go to the beach for an intensive training camp.  Of course, part of the training is laying on the beach looking at women, but when the sun sets the real training starts.  Ippo, Takamura, Aoki, and Kamogawa work themselves really hard.  While they are working, Takamura spots a critical weakness in Ippo's style: he doesn't have much strength in his toes so he can't dodge from side to side as fast as he should.

Ippo works on his deficiency, but he also has match coming up.  Before Takamura's fight for the champion of Japan, Ippo has a bout with a weaker opponent who has an interesting style.  He grapples a lot to upset the stronger fighter's rhythm and then wins by points. Ippo kknows that he's the stronger fighter, but if he can't land a punch, he'll never win.

The disc ends up with Takamura's title bout.  Though Mamoru isn't the main character, his fight is more exciting than Ippo's, even though it's much shorter.
 
This series continues to grow on me.  The creators do a great job of building up suspense.  They make the bouts that Ippo is entered in even and fair.  Ippo is usually the underdog and has troubles in his fights which makes the series interesting.

The show also takes the time to explain the fine points of the sport of boxing.  These explanations are short and concise so they don't become monotonous, but they are easy to understand even for someone who doesn't know anything about the sport like myself.

In addition to the drama in the ring, the show has just the right amount of humor to lighten the mood without making the show silly.  There are a few running jokes that become more amusing each time they are mentioned, including Takamura's kidding Ippo about his larger than average manhood, something that turns the young fighter red every time.

Sports based series haven't received a lot of buzz in the various on-line communities, but this is one show that deserves a wider audience.  You quickly get caught up in Ippo's dreams of becoming a good boxer, and his enthusiasm for the spot is infectious.  Even if you aren't a boxing fan, this series deserves a look.

This volume includes an ample five episodes on a single sided DVD.

Audio:

I viewed this DVD while listening to both the English stereo dub and the original stereo Japanese soundtrack. I preferred the original track, but only slightly. The dub was very good, with the voice actors not overplaying their rolls as they often do when dubbing anime. Both audio tracks sounded a little thin, but otherwise very nice. There was limited use made of the soundstage, but when there were directional effects they were very effective. Hiss and distortion were nonexistent, making this a pleasure to listen to.   There was also a Spanish dub in stereo.

Video:

The full frame image was very clean and clear. The colors were bright and varied. The picture has a good amount of detail with the lines being tight and clean. Digital defects were minimal, though there was some light aliasing.  A very good-looking DVD.

Extras:

Unfortunately, this disc doesn't have any extras on it aside from a few previews.  I really wish they had included a blooper reel like the first two volumes had.

Final Thoughts:

The more I watch of this series, the more I like it.  There's a lot of excitement, drama, and just the right amount of humor.  Though I'm not a boxing fan, I really enjoy this show.  Highly Recommended.