Fighting Spirit: Champion Road (2003)
Original title: はじめの一歩 -Champion Road-
Fighting Spirit: Champion Road is a 2003 Japanese-language animation movie directed by Satoshi Nishimura, with a running time of 1h 30m. It stars Kohei Kiyasu, Rikiya Koyama and Kenji Utsumi.
Makunouchi Ippo is the new Featherweight champion of Japan and is now ready for his first title defense. His opponent, the former Jr. Featherweight champion and a medical student, Sanada Kazuki. In addition to this feud, Sanada is being coached by Kamogawa's former rival, Hama Dankichi. What makes things worse is that Sanada works at the same hospital where Kumi is a nurse at and everybody at the hospital wants Sanada to win. Not only does Ippo have to defend his title, he has to reclaim his love.
Where to watch Fighting Spirit: Champion Road
Stream: Crunchyroll Amazon Channel
Cast
- Kohei Kiyasu as Ippo Makunouchi (voice)
- Rikiya Koyama as Mamoru Takamura (voice)
- Kenji Utsumi as Genji Kamogawa (voice)
- Masaya Onosaka as Takeshi Sendo (voice)
- Tomokazu Seki as Ichirou Miyata (voice)
- Wataru Takagi as Masaru Aoki (voice)
- Masahiro Tanaka as Ryo Mashiba (voice)
- Keiji Fujiwara as Tatsuya Kimura (voice)
- Koichi Yamadera as Kazuki Sanada (voice)
- Sanae Kobayashi as Kumi Mashiba (voice)
- Toshihiko Nakajima as Haruhiko Yagi (voice)
- Mitsuaki Madono as Masahiko Umezawa (voice)