Fighting Spirit 3 –
Test Of Endurance (Animé TV)
Picture: C+ Sound: B- Extras: C Episodes: B-
Ippo
Makunouchi is back and is now facing his first professional boxing match in the
latest set of episodes from the Animé TV series Fighting Spirit, which
may be one of the best of the last thirty years in the genre. The right mix of great fights, fun
storylines and humor that has great timing continues. The episodes this time around are:
11) Obsession
For Victory
12) Becoming
A Bully’s Buddy
13) The
Eastern Japan Rookie Championship Tournament Begins
14) Powerful
Arms! Hook vs. Uppercut
15) Test
Of Endurance
Instead
of falling into a simple formula, while the fun and surprise comes from the way
the show continues to take the high road on boxing. Instead of going the Raging Bull or Rocky route, it
continues to portray it as a fun sport that is cleaner than it tends to be in
real life. In the process, it creates
its own world of boxing as sport that is refreshing and yet has just enough
realism to suspend one’s disbelief in watching as the storyline unfolds. I wish more Animé TV were this clever.
The full
frame, color image continue to offer the intentional bit of softness, but is
still one of the better 1.33 X 1 Animé titles we’ve seen from any company to
date, but I continue to wish it were a tad sharper. This is based on a comic book and is done in the good spirit of
such. The sound continues to be
available in Dolby Digital 2.0 English, Japanese, and Spanish language with
some Pro Logic surrounds. Credit should
go to Tsuneo Imahori for an exceptional music score. I should note that the English subtitles are more bluntly written
than the spoken English. Extras include
the Spanish end credits again and three new trailers for three other Geneon
DVDs. That is par for the course for
such releases, but that is good. Be
sure to start with the first DVD and if you are enjoying it enough, you will
want to see the whole series. On some
ways, I can say this is one of the best since the original Speed Racer.
- Nicholas Sheffo
