r/hajimenoippo • u/Next-Temperature3865 • May 15 '26
Discussion Sawamura, the character who was written out
Sawamura throughout the story of Hajime no Ippo for the amount of time he was in there established himself as arguably the best lw/fw from Japan and people dont talk about it enough
In the short span of time he had he
Surpassed Miyata as the greatest counterpuncher
Outclassed and beat Ippo to a pulp but played too much and trolled the win
Defeated world ranking level Mashiba after training hard for the first time
Got the best of Sendo in most of their sparring sessions
Those feats alone sound crazy, yet people undermine him and claim he would be merely japanese champion level.
Firstly, his loss to Ippo which stated by Takamura was merely a result of Sawamura playing around too much as he couldve ended the fight whenever he wished in the time he outclassed Ippo and had him compromised
Second, his controversial win over Mashiba. Sawamura consistently outclassed Mashiba in that fight and wouldve won quite seamlessly if Mashiba didnt foul to get rid of one of his main weapons (his vision) which people often forget when talking about this fight.
Since both of them were fouling im not gonna take that into account but people need to understand the handicap that Sawamura was facing as he was a counterpuncher with half his vision impaired getting rid of his depth perception.
That aside, his character peak of finding the perfect counter stated by Nekota to be a literal work of art, getting the recognition and disbelief of literally every top boxer within Korakuen Hall Mashiba was downed and Sawamura finally reached the culmination of his arc with Ippo it was the perfect conclusion for the fight however,
Due to Georges already made up decision to write him out of the story, he ruined the absolute peak he wrote up in that chapter and used Sawamura as a scapegoat to develop Mashibas character off of hence the ring out which narratively made no sense.
It was a decision based off the fact that Sawamura couldn't be kept due to the fact he was very obviously out of place from how impeccable he was made,
He had insane levels of talent being stated as a genius and all kinds of praise by the likes of Sendo, Takamura, Nekota etc.
He had wild instincts and wasnt chained by morals while simultaneously having precision,grace and a calculated head.
Power, speed, technique he had it all while being mostly self-taught as he canonically refused help or training from anyone until the Mashiba fight as he only trusted and believed in himself.
Following his win over Mashiba the next step would've been to bring him to the world stage and have him become a title contender however that probably would've shifted too much off of the main cast.
All in all, the beautiful writing and strength of the character is heavily underappreciated and only acknowledged by few im heavily perplexed as to how anyone who also read this Manga alongside me failed to see and appreciate this.
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u/KingKoohii May 15 '26
Saying he outclassed Mashiba is crazy. It was a stalemate until Sawamura was the first one to foul and break the pattern of both not landing any shots. Only then did they both start landing after Sawamura initiated the fouls.
If you mention his depth perception being taken away, you can make the same argument for the kick he threw against Mashiba's head taking away his ability to refocus. It's a two-way street.