Fighting Spirit (Seasons 1–3)

Fighting Spirit (はじめの一歩, 2000) — watch the classic boxing anime online on iFILM. Three seasons, 126 episodes across Nippon TV, produced by Madhouse and MAPPA. The show follows Makunouchi Ippo, a Japanese high schooler who spends his afternoons at the family fishing dock and his lunchtimes getting beaten up.

One day a pro boxer named Takamura stumbles onto a beating in progress and pulls Ippo out. No motivational speech follows — just a heavy bag and a dare. Ippo takes it. What starts as a desperate search for confidence turns into a grinding climb through the ranks: his first proper fight, his first knockdown, his first win. Gym mates Aoki and Kimura each carry their own ambitions, which keeps the training hall from feeling like wallpaper.

The series turns every match into a character question rather than a scorecard, which is why it still holds up decades after its October 2000 debut. Kohei Kiyasu voices Ippo; Rikiya Koyama voices Takamura. Stream all seasons of Fighting Spirit online on iFILM.