Ring ni Kakero
Encyclopedia
, or Put It All in the Ring, is a manga
created by Masami Kurumada
. A total of 25 volumes were published in Weekly Shōnen Jump
between 1977 and 1981.
In Ring ni Kakero 1, the characters are briefly introduced, telling the story from the moment Ryuuji and Jun Kenzaki, his eternal challenger and supposed best friend, achieve stardom and fight for the National Boxing Title. Ryuuji's sister then tells the story from the beginning, when Ryuuji was the finalist in a local youth championship and had to compete against Kenzaki, the latter winning in a close K.O. one-to-one fight.
Afterward, most of the series depicts Ryuuji as being Kenzaki's successor after Kenaki was terribly injured and almost crippled. Ryuuji competes in the Japan National Boxing Championship, where he encounters strong and deadly opponents, including:
Ryuji also fights opponents from the United States (Black Shaft) and France (Napoleón Baroa). He fights an opponent named Führer Skorpion, who orders a fellow member of the Boxing Team to spy on Kenzaki and Ryuuji as possible threats to the World Championship.
The story arc about the Junior Japan team facing Black Shaft's team was adapted into an anime, with Ryuuji, Jun, Ishimatsu, Kazuki, and Takeshi representing Japan. As Black Shaft had no intention of taking Japan seriously in a boxing match, he recruits Mick, the leader of the New York branch of the Great Angels (originally portrayed in the manga as the Hells Angels
, a real-life biker gang). He also recruits Monster Jail, a deathrow inmate, and Miss Charnel, a mysterious female boxing champion known for her unhealthy, boundless obsession with her own beauty, who savors reducing the "pretty" faces of her opponents into mush, using hypnotic powers to leave them helpless to her high-speed punches and fancy footwork. Black Shaft also recruits N.B. Forrest, also known as the Emperor of the South, and in the manga, a member of the Ku Klux Klan
. The second season ends with Team Japan being targeted by a mysterious group called the Shadow Clan.
The Shadow Clan capture Kiku in an attempt to test the Junior Japan Team's skills. Ryuuji fights a number of Shadow Clan members and is able to save Kiku. The Junior Japan Team then fights the 5 strongest members of the Shadow Clan, led by Jun's younger twin brother, Shadow Jun. Before the 2nd to last match, Shadow Jun uses all of Team Japan's special moves to where he overpowers Ryuuji but then they both clash with the Boomerang Hook that knocks both of them out. They then have their official match at the end, to where Shadow Jun accepts defeat even though the result of the match is more or less a draw. Shadow Jun becomes a recurring character in the manga during the 12 Olympic Gods arc.
The Junior Japan Team enters the Junior World Tournament to challenge the current world champions, Team Greece. The first opponents are Junior Italy Team, led by Mafia ruler Don Juliano. They next fight Junior France Team led by Napoleón Baroa. Their third opponents are the Junior Germany Team, led Führer Skorpion and his assistant Helga, who are able to reflect their opponents' attacks back at them. Surprisingly, Ryuuji doesn't fight the last match, as Kenzaki unleashes his Galatica Phantom against Führer Skorpion. Finally, Team Japan takes on Team Greece, led by Apollon. But a big stipulation is that if each member of Team Japan hits their respected member of Team Greece with their finishing move, they will die. Not surpisingly, all of Team Japan die.
But it turns out that, they weren't really dead but got transport to the Realm of the Gods to challenge the 12 Olympic Gods. Each member of Team Greece represents one of the 12 Olympic gods of Greece. Leaders of various other world teams join Team Japan, including Napoléon Barona, Führer Skorpion, Krüger Helga, and Shadow Juhn. The leader of the gods is Zeus, who helps Team Japan take on the organization known as Asura, which Kawai temporarily joins.
After Asura is defeated, the members of Team Japan retire and Kenzaki decides to pursue a professional boxing career now that he is 17. Kenzaki fights the reigning world champion, Jesus J. Christ, known for using the strongest technique in the world, the "Neo-Bible." On the way to the title fight, Kenzaki is confronted by Katori, who is enraged because of Kenzaki's recently distant attitude toward Kiku. The two fight and Kenzaki manages to win, but thanks Katori for giving him his fighting spirit. Despite his injuries, Kenzaki manages to prevail over Jesus J. Christ.
Ryuuji also enters the professional circuit and after a year of successful title defenses, Kenzaki issues a challenge to Ryuuji to end their rivalry. The fight is a brutal death match. Ryuuji manages to defeat Kenzaki, but both Ryuuji and Kenzaki's bodies reach their limits during the match; both are on the verge of death. After Ryuuji wins, he falls over and is unable to stand. Meanwhile, Kenzaki and Kiku are preparing to marry that same day. Wanting to show Kiku the victor, Kenzaki helps Ryuuji over to the church where Kiku is waiting. When they arrive, Ryuuji is unable to stand and falls into his sister's arms. The rest of Team Japan and Shadow Jun rush to the church, but find Ryuuji lying dead with a smile on his face and his title on his waist. Both Kenzaki and Kiku proudly smile at him. The ending was a tribute to the ending of Ashita no Joe, except Ryuuji was the winner while Joe was the loser.
Ryuuji's main fighting skills are his left-right jabs, his stubborn courage, and his special techniques: "Boomerang Hook," "Double Boomerang," "Boomerang Square," "Boomerang Telios," and "Winning the Rainbow".
magazine. Ring ni Kakero 2 tells the story of Kiku and Jun's son, Rindo Kenzaki, who is raised by Katori Ishimatsu after losing both of his parents. The manga ended in 2009 after 26 volumes.
series by Toei Animation. The series premiered October 6, 2004 and was broadcast on TV Asahi. It covered the first story arc of the manga. Since Ring ni Kakero 2 was being serialized in Super Jump at the time, the anime was titled Ring ni Kakero 1 to distinguish it from the more current manga (the original manga was later republished under the anime title).
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
created by Masami Kurumada
Masami Kurumada
is a Japanese manga artist and writer, known for specializing in fighting manga featuring bishōnen and/or mahō shōnen. He is famous as the creator/author of popular manga, such as Ring ni Kakero, Fūma no Kojirō, Saint Seiya and B't X. His male protagonists are a reflection of the classical and...
. A total of 25 volumes were published in Weekly Shōnen Jump
Weekly Shonen Jump
is a weekly shōnen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of July 2, 1968, and it is still circulating. One of the longest-running manga magazines in Japan, it has a circulation of 2.8 million copies...
between 1977 and 1981.
Plot
The story centers around the life of a young boxer named Ryuuji Takane and his sister Kiku, who is also his coach. Their father had been a famous boxer but is now deceased. Ryuuji and his sister both inherited their father's talent for boxing: Ryuuji inherited his strength and techniques, while Kiku picked up his talent for analysis and strategy. Ryuuji and Kiku leave home to train and become famous in order to help their lonely mother. On the way to stardom, they have to defeat the strongest challengers all over the world.In Ring ni Kakero 1, the characters are briefly introduced, telling the story from the moment Ryuuji and Jun Kenzaki, his eternal challenger and supposed best friend, achieve stardom and fight for the National Boxing Title. Ryuuji's sister then tells the story from the beginning, when Ryuuji was the finalist in a local youth championship and had to compete against Kenzaki, the latter winning in a close K.O. one-to-one fight.
Afterward, most of the series depicts Ryuuji as being Kenzaki's successor after Kenaki was terribly injured and almost crippled. Ryuuji competes in the Japan National Boxing Championship, where he encounters strong and deadly opponents, including:
- Ishimatsu Katori, a comic relief character but also a strong fighter
- Takeshi Kawai, who specializes in the upper jab technique; he is also a pianist and is handsome
- Kazuki Shinatora, who specializes in the Rolling Thunder technique; he is a former kendo practitioner who retired when he challenged his father's cruel training
Ryuji also fights opponents from the United States (Black Shaft) and France (Napoleón Baroa). He fights an opponent named Führer Skorpion, who orders a fellow member of the Boxing Team to spy on Kenzaki and Ryuuji as possible threats to the World Championship.
The story arc about the Junior Japan team facing Black Shaft's team was adapted into an anime, with Ryuuji, Jun, Ishimatsu, Kazuki, and Takeshi representing Japan. As Black Shaft had no intention of taking Japan seriously in a boxing match, he recruits Mick, the leader of the New York branch of the Great Angels (originally portrayed in the manga as the Hells Angels
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a worldwide one-percenter motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Their primary motto...
, a real-life biker gang). He also recruits Monster Jail, a deathrow inmate, and Miss Charnel, a mysterious female boxing champion known for her unhealthy, boundless obsession with her own beauty, who savors reducing the "pretty" faces of her opponents into mush, using hypnotic powers to leave them helpless to her high-speed punches and fancy footwork. Black Shaft also recruits N.B. Forrest, also known as the Emperor of the South, and in the manga, a member of the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
. The second season ends with Team Japan being targeted by a mysterious group called the Shadow Clan.
The Shadow Clan capture Kiku in an attempt to test the Junior Japan Team's skills. Ryuuji fights a number of Shadow Clan members and is able to save Kiku. The Junior Japan Team then fights the 5 strongest members of the Shadow Clan, led by Jun's younger twin brother, Shadow Jun. Before the 2nd to last match, Shadow Jun uses all of Team Japan's special moves to where he overpowers Ryuuji but then they both clash with the Boomerang Hook that knocks both of them out. They then have their official match at the end, to where Shadow Jun accepts defeat even though the result of the match is more or less a draw. Shadow Jun becomes a recurring character in the manga during the 12 Olympic Gods arc.
The Junior Japan Team enters the Junior World Tournament to challenge the current world champions, Team Greece. The first opponents are Junior Italy Team, led by Mafia ruler Don Juliano. They next fight Junior France Team led by Napoleón Baroa. Their third opponents are the Junior Germany Team, led Führer Skorpion and his assistant Helga, who are able to reflect their opponents' attacks back at them. Surprisingly, Ryuuji doesn't fight the last match, as Kenzaki unleashes his Galatica Phantom against Führer Skorpion. Finally, Team Japan takes on Team Greece, led by Apollon. But a big stipulation is that if each member of Team Japan hits their respected member of Team Greece with their finishing move, they will die. Not surpisingly, all of Team Japan die.
But it turns out that, they weren't really dead but got transport to the Realm of the Gods to challenge the 12 Olympic Gods. Each member of Team Greece represents one of the 12 Olympic gods of Greece. Leaders of various other world teams join Team Japan, including Napoléon Barona, Führer Skorpion, Krüger Helga, and Shadow Juhn. The leader of the gods is Zeus, who helps Team Japan take on the organization known as Asura, which Kawai temporarily joins.
After Asura is defeated, the members of Team Japan retire and Kenzaki decides to pursue a professional boxing career now that he is 17. Kenzaki fights the reigning world champion, Jesus J. Christ, known for using the strongest technique in the world, the "Neo-Bible." On the way to the title fight, Kenzaki is confronted by Katori, who is enraged because of Kenzaki's recently distant attitude toward Kiku. The two fight and Kenzaki manages to win, but thanks Katori for giving him his fighting spirit. Despite his injuries, Kenzaki manages to prevail over Jesus J. Christ.
Ryuuji also enters the professional circuit and after a year of successful title defenses, Kenzaki issues a challenge to Ryuuji to end their rivalry. The fight is a brutal death match. Ryuuji manages to defeat Kenzaki, but both Ryuuji and Kenzaki's bodies reach their limits during the match; both are on the verge of death. After Ryuuji wins, he falls over and is unable to stand. Meanwhile, Kenzaki and Kiku are preparing to marry that same day. Wanting to show Kiku the victor, Kenzaki helps Ryuuji over to the church where Kiku is waiting. When they arrive, Ryuuji is unable to stand and falls into his sister's arms. The rest of Team Japan and Shadow Jun rush to the church, but find Ryuuji lying dead with a smile on his face and his title on his waist. Both Kenzaki and Kiku proudly smile at him. The ending was a tribute to the ending of Ashita no Joe, except Ryuuji was the winner while Joe was the loser.
Ryuuji's main fighting skills are his left-right jabs, his stubborn courage, and his special techniques: "Boomerang Hook," "Double Boomerang," "Boomerang Square," "Boomerang Telios," and "Winning the Rainbow".
Characters
Manga
After B't X, Kurumada created Ring ni Kakero 2, which was published in Super Jump, a seinenSeinen
is a subset of manga that is generally targeted at a 20–30 year old male audience, but the audience can be older with some manga aimed at businessmen well into their 40s. In Japanese, the word Seinen means "young man" or "young men" and is not suggestive of sexual matters...
magazine. Ring ni Kakero 2 tells the story of Kiku and Jun's son, Rindo Kenzaki, who is raised by Katori Ishimatsu after losing both of his parents. The manga ended in 2009 after 26 volumes.
Anime
27 years after the first chapter debuted, the manga was finally adapted into an animeAnime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series by Toei Animation. The series premiered October 6, 2004 and was broadcast on TV Asahi. It covered the first story arc of the manga. Since Ring ni Kakero 2 was being serialized in Super Jump at the time, the anime was titled Ring ni Kakero 1 to distinguish it from the more current manga (the original manga was later republished under the anime title).
| No. | Title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|