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Takamura is definitely disappointed with Ippo, and I definitely remember him asking why the coach was making such a sad/hurt face on one of Ippo's losses. Ever since Ippo retired I feel like we rarely see them even conversing, mostly only the usual Takamura banter, or Ippo cheering on Takamura. Kind of pains me when I remember how they were before.
Takamura and Kamogawa have the closest relationship but Ippo was the one carrying his spirit. If Ippo knew he hasn't done his best, he'll probaboy want to come back just to fulfil Kamogawa's hopes. No doubt, his mother will be the emotional support he will need to make his decision.
- Overview
- Background
- Appearance
- Personality
- Boxing Abilities
- In Other Media
- Creation and Concept
Mamoru Takamura (鷹村 守, Takamura Mamoru) is the deuteragonist in Hajime no Ippo. He is a multi-weight class professional boxer and the WBC super middleweight champion affiliated with the Kamogawa gym.
Takamura has a personal quest to conquer six weight classes, from junior middleweight to heavyweight. His quest began after becoming the JBC middleweight champion, where he moved down and became the WBC junior middleweight champion. He then moved back up to the middleweight class and became the unified WBC and WBA middleweight champion. After many defences, Takamura advanced to the super middleweight class, becoming the WBC champion of the class.
Early Life
Takamura was the estranged middle son of the famous Takamura Enterprises, supported by his older sister Kyōka and younger brother Wataru. His eldest brother, Suguru, a former rugby standoff, constantly belittled his vast boxing accomplishments and carried on the stigma that Mamoru is simply a thug that thrives on beating up others. One time during Suguru's rugby game, his team was crushed and fans were insulting him, and that was when Takamura injured about 20 of the fans, making Suguru's team penalised with a year suspension. Despite his family's impressive wealth, Takamura would later live off of his own earnings as a pro boxer.
Becoming a Boxer
As Genji Kamogawa was walking the streets of Tokyo one night, he witnessed a brutal beating being dealt to a number of delinquents by Takamura. Kamogawa took it as nothing but a senseless fight between delinquents until Takamura unknowingly executed a pro-class punch right in front of him. Takamura is then stopped by Kamogawa before proceeding with the fight as he did not want him to kill anybody. After being body checked by the coach, Takamura is then offered to box at the Kamogawa gym. Takamura did not like the idea of fighting with rules, but decided to do it to "kill some time." In the anime, Takamura was taken to the gym and immediately began working the bag, leaving Miyata's father, Haruhiko Yagi, Shinoda, and Kamogawa in awe. He is then taken to run a course as guided by Kamogawa. Takamura had only desired to hit people and bailed on the Kamogawa gym shortly after. Kamogawa, not sure if Takamura would show up of his own free will, showed up at his house for several days ready to train him. Along with roadwork and pulling his scooter, Kamogawa forbade Takamura from using his right fist and to only work the bag with his left fist, going so far as to tape his right fist to his body. Kamogawa ended up getting sick from waiting on Takamura in the rain one day and did not not show up the day after, much to Takamura's pleasure. He, however, decided to train himself of his own free will after being forced to do it prior to Kamogawa's absence. After days of training, Takamura had his first match set up for him in three months. Takamura had a hard time dealing with this as he faced against a pro straight out of high school. However, once in the ring, Takamura realised how the training has affected him and knocks out his opponent in under a minute. It is then that Takamura declared to take Kamogawa to the world. While Baron Kurita was in the Kamogawa gym, Takamura was the only one around his weight class to spar with since Baron was a junior middleweight. Takamura gleefully waited in the ring to spar with him every day until Baron quit boxing before his debut match, complaining of a stomach ache.
Encounter with Aoki and Kimura
After his second match, Takamura met a delinquent from the south high Masaru Aoki in an arcade where Takamura was attacked by getting his head smashed through an arcade screen. Takamura quickly retaliated and defeated Aoki with wrestling moves. Takamura later quit the Imanishi North High School and was supposed to be taken home with fellow gym member Ichirō Miyata to avoid getting into fights. However, Takamura heard fighting near by and inspected the scene where he saw delinquents Aoki and Tatsuya Kimura getting beaten up by a group of Takamura's former class mates. Takamura made the group flee to stop them from attacking the two. Takamura was then drawn into fighting Aoki and Kimura due to them being angered that he stopped the brawl. Takamura quickly defeated the two delinquents despite promising to not use his fists in the street. When Aoki and Kimura joined the Kamogawa gym with the goal to hit Takamura at least once, Takamura decided to let them spar against him everyday, making them train harder to achieve their goal, resulting in them getting stronger and eventually, they land a scratch on Takamura's face. Takamura then helped them win in their debut matches, with Takamura being the only one who could bring Kimura back to his senses when he was nervous. Despite Takamura teasing them about barely winning their debut match, his influence on the two made them continue boxing with the goal of one day defeating him.
As of a stereotypical description of a Japanese delinquent, Takamura dons a curly pompadour while wearing his school uniform in a more laid back style with a few of the top buttons loose. His eyebrows are considerably thick and he has a tough looking face. Even before joining the Kamogawa Boxing Gym, Takamura had a very refined physique. Along with the Kamogawa training regiment, his body is even more refined, having bulging biceps, bulging pecs, and a hardened 6-pack stomach. While at the training camp at Nekota's place, he fought a bear, the encounter resulted in the three scars visible on his chest. Rarely, his hairstyle will change from his usual pompadour-style, to a messy hairstyle with his bangs dropped. Whenever Takamura struggles with his weight training, his appearance drastically changes. His stomach and ribs show through his skin, he gets chapped lips and wrinkles, and his skin begins to peel off.
His basic attires consists of plain shirts, t-shirts, buttoned-up shirts, tank-tops of various colours, sometimes under an opened coat, and pants of various colours. His attire when he's doing roadwork consists of a navy blue sweatshirt with a hoodie and a shirt underneath with navy blue sweatpants.
Takamura has a broadminded, arrogant, outrageous, and incredibly cocky personality. However, other dimensions of his personality have shone throughout the series, the culmination of which is a concerned, insightful, ambitious man. He dislikes people who pick on the weak, however, he hates the people who let it happen to them more.
He is one of the most well-studied characters in the series, having on numerous occasions identified strategies and traits of different boxers in tangent with and sometimes even ahead of; Kamogawa. He has never fallen into an opponent's trap. Despite this, Takamura does not invent his own tactics during matches, which further exemplifies both his straightforward nature and his boxing talent. Because of this, while he's usually brash and devil-may-care both in the ring and outside of it, he is surprisingly pessimistic and level-headed when watching other boxers' matches, usually anticipating the difficulties his partners are going to encounter.
Takamura has deep belief in the supernatural and fear of the unknown. When Nekota snuck up on him underwater as a joke while at the beach, he ran away in fear believing it to be a real ghost. He believed that he was cursed before his match against Hawk after finding a sea slater in his faeces, causing him to check his faeces every time for a while. He also had a very Kazuo Umezu-like face when Tomiko used tarot cards to accurately guess how many times he had masturbated after a fight.
Another less admirable trait of Takamura's personality is his perverted nature. He has a strong belief he is a ladies' man, despite rather obvious evidence to the contrary and despite fancying himself a ladies' man, rarely actually sees any action. This is due to his abrasive, perverted nature as he once made the newspaper by trying to force himself on a woman and her running away. He is not above spying on couples and groping women and getting peeks at women's panties. During his victory speech against Hawk, he says how the women of Japan should come to him so he may donate his sperm to him. In addition, he even often grabs the penises of his fellow boxers and makes inappropriate comments regarding them, particularly towards Ippo. He also is tender towards older women such as Yamaguchi. He dislikes certain types of women who he deems "ugly", making inappropriate remarks about them, and making fun of Aoki's taste of women, including his girlfriend, Tomiko.
He can be a rather big bully to his fellow boxers and kōhai. He is fairly childish and egotistic, considering himself the best and hates being left out of events or people forgetting to invite him. He can also hold grudges, once attempting to set fireworks against Ippo and the others at the beach because they were shooting fireworks without him and showed a good time and only stopped when they appealed to his ego and said he should come because it wouldn't be fun without him. He can be petty and somewhat a bad sport, as Ippo manages to dodge his punch and right when Ippo is about to land a punch on him during a sparring match, Takamura (in a panic) elbows him (which is illegal in a boxing match). Despite pulling pranks on his gym mates, he is highly-respected, and is a reason Aoki, Kimura, and Ippo started boxing.
Even during important matches he has a tendency to play around, such as by using Aoki's "Look Away" technique, labelling a regular uppercut the Beetle's Uppercut in a fight where he wore a beetle costume, and arguing with the spectators when they mock him. In spite of all of this, he is the one who got Ippo, Aoki, and Kimura into boxing, he is well respected at the Kamogawa gym. Even though he constantly looks down on and ridicules their achievements, his unrivalled strength and rare moments of kindness have earned him respect from his fellow boxing juniors. He has also occasionally shown concern for Miyata and seems to genuinely look forward to Ippo's rematch with him.
Takamura is a right-handed Boxer-Puncher renowned for his offensive power and is widely considered a genius. He is the strongest known fighter in the weight classes he's in, and is suggested to rival even Ricardo Martínez in the "POUND for POUND" rankings. His natural talent is of such magnitude that Genji Kamogawa stated he was already stronger than the JBC middleweight champion when he was first found on the streets, and would've been capable of taking the world title with or without Kamogawa's teachings. In his title matches, Takamura showcased incredible power, speed, and durability through the guidance of Kamogawa. His physical attributes are described as super-human and monstrous, in particular his power and stamina. However, even his speed is on par with the fastest featherweight fighters. On top of that, his fighting instincts are on such a high level that feints are nearly useless against him, as he can intuitively discern whether a punch is real or not. His genius even extends to the theoretical aspects of boxing, as he possesses great insight that allows him to frequently teach others. He has proven capable of mimicking any moves he sees or experiences, such as Richard Bison's Flicker Jabs and Ippo Makunouchi's Tornado Jolt.
Takamura has an extremely destructive fighting style, focusing on constant huge swings that could KO any fighter, if not even kill them. Counters are ineffective against him because most of his swings must be either dodged or met in an exchange, an exchange nobody dares to risk. This fighting style goes hand-in-hand with Takamura's aggressive personality, his ego and his unbeatable arrogance. His anger in fact has such an influence on driving him in each of his fights that one could say anger is the core of his fighting style.
He has been shown to be the perfect combination of technique and instinct, being able to match world champion Bryan Hawk using both. However, brawling is noted to be his natural and most powerful style. Despite this, Kamogawa forced him to relentlessly practice an orthodox boxing style so that intellectual boxers wouldn't have an advantage against him. The fruits of this labour can be seen his fights against world champions David Eagle and Bison.
As a veteran boxer, Takamura (unlike many other characters) knows that aiming for the opponent's weakness is not a "dirty move". He has done and expressed it in several occasions.
Video Games
Takamura is a playable character in the following video games:
Real Fighting Hajime no Ippo: The Glorious Stage!!
Takigawa Kōdai plays as Takamura in this stage play adaption.
When the series was in the early phases where the story took place in a high school boxing club setting, Jōji Morikawa already had Takamura as a character in that setting. Takamura is modelled after Roberto Durán. Similar to Durán, who knocked out a horse with his bare hands, Takamura knocked out a bear with his bare hands. Both animals got back up...
Mamoru Takamura. Takamura was the very first boxer Ippo had ever met and also the person that had introduced him to the world of boxing. The relationship between the two can be described as a brotherly relationship. Ippo puts his trust in Takamura ever since the beginning, and takes what he says to heart.
I love this moment of Takamura and Ippo. These chapters after Keith's fight are great. I like how Ippo is becoming more confident and not backing down. We’re finally seeing some changes in his character that can help him going forward. It's like a couple's quarrel. What does everyone know Takamura Mamoru can do?
English. In this episode, which is special to me, we see the story of Takamura, the fighter who was able to keep the boxing gym alive, his beginnings and how all this began so that Ippo could fight in that same place. It is a fairly simple episode but effective in what is narrated, it may not be the most interesting story in the world but ...
People also ask
What is the relationship between Ippo and Takamura?
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Who are Takamura and Tatsuya Kimura vs Masaru Aoki?
In his father's absence, teenager Ippo Makunouchi works hard to help his mother run her fishing boat rental business. Ippo's timid nature, his lack of sleep, and the sea smell make him an easy target for relentless bullies who leave him bruised and beaten on a daily basis. Mamoru Takamura, an up-and-coming boxer, rescues Ippo from a violent after-school incident and takes him back to the ...
