Fourth season for Ippo?

Hajime no Ippo is a boxing manga written and illustrated by George Morikawa, which is serialised by Kodansha in Weekly Shonen Magazine since 1989. The plot follows the story of high school student Makunouchi Ippo, as he begins his career in boxing and eventually obtains many titles and defeats various opponents. The manga which is still running currently has roughly 1050chapters released and is still going strong with many fans across the world. Ippo has three anime series, a film, and a special. The latest season Hajime no Ippo Rising ended just recently.

The main question at hand though, is there going to be a fourth season? The first anime series had 76 episodes covering about 270chapters of manga. The OVA covered to around chapter289. The next part of the story is covered in the film also known as Hajime no Ippo: Champion Road this covers the manga from chapters 290 to around chapter 315. The next instalment of the anime series called Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger is 26 episodes in total and covers chapters 316 to 398 missing out on chapters 399 to 414. The anime then returns to chapter 414 and concludes around 418. Finally the most recent anime, Hajime no Ippo: Rising ended covering chapters 418 to 558, as well as the chapters that were not covered in New Challenger, those chapters being399-414.

The manga is still 500 chapters ahead of the anime. Yet, there has been no announcement of another season. Usually, it’s quite clear that there will be another series, the first anime series ended on a cliff-hanger as did the second one. However,  Rising left a bit of ambiguity. If it doesn’t have a continuation the question is why not? Rising only had two fights dedicated to Ippo, a bit strange considering the anime is called Hajime no Ippo. Perhaps it’s a sign that the animation isn’t as popular with audiences anymore? or the staff just can’t decide how to adapt this long-running series.

How do you feel about Hajime no Ippo? Lets us know!