The Veteran Challenger is Round 635 of Jōji Morikawa's Hajime no Ippo manga series.
Details
- Characters Introduced: Keiko Take
- Title Page Character(s): Ippo Makunouchi, Hiroko Makunouchi, Wanpo
Summary
At the Makunouchi Fishing Boat, Ippo bows to the family picture that has his father on it before leaving his house to go to the Kōrakuen Hall for his match against Take. Take, Hide, and Keiko arrive to the Kōrakuen Hall. Before heading inside, Hide asks Take and Keiko if they could take him to the nearby theme park, however, Take mentions that he has an important job to do first. As Hide begins to look worried, Take puts him on his shoulders and insists that he will become champion tonight. At the Kawahara gym while Miyata is going through with his weight management, his father informs him that Ippo's match against Take is about to begin. When Miyata didn't respond, his father realises that Miyata is not in a position to worry about other people. After Miyata mentions that Ippo's not thinking about him either, and that he himself has to worry about the match ahead of him, his father agrees, wanting him to focus on the match ahead of him first. Miyata's father believes that if either him or Ippo fails to reach their destination, they might not be meant to fight again. At the Kōrakuen Hall's audience area as the match between Ippo and Take is about to begin, Aoki, having found out that Take faked being sick during the weigh-in, tells Kimura, Takamura, and Itagaki that Take to have surpassed him in levels of deception a few times over. Takamura notes that it is Ippo's first time fighting a veteran with this much experience, so there is no reason to think he won't have trouble. The announcer announces that the Champion Carnival is about to begin. Take and his seconds walk to the ring. Before heading to the ring, Kamogawa asks Ippo if he is going to be able to hit a guy he felt sorry for. Ippo replies that he will with everything he has, but wonders why his father's picture caught his eye while leaving his house. Ippo and his seconds begin to leave for the ring.
| Law of the Ring | |||||||||||||||||||
| Father's Back | |||||||||||||||||||
| Manga Volumes | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | ||||||||||||||||
| Manga Rounds | |||||||||||||||||||
| 625 | 626 | 627 | 628 | 629 | 630 | 631 | 632 | 633 | 634 | ||||||||||
| 635 | 636 | 637 | 638 | 639 | 640 | 641 | 642 | 643 | 644 | ||||||||||
| 645 | 646 | 647 | 648 | 649 | 650 | 651 | 652 | 653 | 654 | ||||||||||
| 655 | 656 | ||||||||||||||||||