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The story
A post on X (formerly Twitter) questioning whether Jōji Morikawa, creator of the boxing manga “Hajime no Ippo,” really has the track record to be called a “big name,” racked up over 1.1 million impressions. That sparked a debate on 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo G” board, where posters cited hard numbers — first printings of 1 million copies with instant reprints in its heyday, versus just 20,000 copies in the first week now — and split over whether a long-running series automatically makes someone a “big name,” or whether only finishing a series earns “legend” status. The thread pulled in comparisons to 100-plus-volume series like “Higanjima” and “Kaitaiya Gen,” as well as writers like Yoshihiro Togashi who’ve completed multiple series, and eventually spiraled into a broader argument over what “big name” and “legend” even mean.
What people said
That old man's finished two whole series, hasn't he
Nah, that's three — Yu Yu Hakusho, Level E…
Even within boxing manga, if we're talking "national," that'd be Ashita no Joe anyway
It's only really known by people who were obsessed with it back in the day. Ask kids today and you'd be lucky if they even recognized the title
There's always Kibayashi, the monster of a legend (an internet meme figure, not an actual mangaka)
These days Hajime no Ippo doesn't even sell half as much as Blue Lock or Shangri-La Frontier…
Even Higanjima's past 100 volumes, so that alone doesn't prove much
Kaitaiya Gen's up to 118 volumes, but even I hesitate to call that one "legend" or "big name" territory
Higanjima's also past 100 volumes, you know
Kochikame isn't even over — they still pad the volume count out now and then. If that counts as "finished," then Hunter x Hunter also ended back when Gon met Ging, and it's just been padding volumes out ever since
Jump moving away from dragging series out seems to be backfiring honestly. Feels like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen would've kept the magazine selling better if they'd been stretched out longer
What's actually impressive about Kochikame is 40 years with zero breaks.
How many times has Hajime no Ippo gone on hiatus this year? It can't even manage a proper weekly schedule
It was god-tier up through around when the first anime season started
Up through the post-war arc, so around volume 48
Now: first week 20,000 copies, 50,000 total
Why'd you all stop reading Ippo?
Normal people don't read shonen manga forever, they grow out of it. Though on NanJ (a 5ch sports/hobby board) you get guys in their 40s and 50s still going on about One Piece and Hunter x Hunter, so your sense of normal gets warped
Is that really "recently" though?
Ippo's retirement was back around 2018. It's been about 3 years since Mashiba died
Dunno if he's actually dead, but he had brain surgery and he's done for good
No way… guess I'll find some free time and read it at a manga café
Too many legends lol
At the end of the day, 10 million copies sold total is huge. A manga averaging 100,000 copies per volume is rare for Young Magazine
Chinmi'll probably wrap up once he beats the current boss at least. Ryuu Rouden doesn't look like it's ending anytime soon though — sounds like they're still trying to fight guys like Sekihiko
Background and Key Points of the Debate
“Hajime no Ippo” began serialization in 1989 and now runs past 130 collected volumes, with creator Jōji Morikawa behind it for nearly 40 years. According to the figures cited in the thread, it has fallen from first printings of 1 million copies with instant reprints at its peak to roughly 20,000 copies in the first week and about 50,000 total today — and that gap is what sparked the “is he really a big name” debate. The disagreement really comes down to what standard to judge by, splitting into three camps: ① those who weigh volume count and years in serialization (though some pushed back, noting that “Higanjima” and “Kaitaiya Gen” are also past 100 volumes without being called big names), ② those who weigh the achievement of actually finishing a series (pointing to Yoshihiro Togashi’s completed “Yu Yu Hakusho” and “Level E,” alongside “Hunter x Hunter”), and ③ those who judge by current sales figures (noting it now sells less than half of what “Blue Lock” or “Shangri-La Frontier” moves). What readers can easily get wrong is that there’s no industry-wide, clear-cut standard for what counts as a “big name” or a “legend” — the ranking flips depending on whether you weigh volume count, sales, years of continuous serialization, or a completed track record, and the clash in the thread comes down to exactly that mismatch in criteria.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Sad News] X user: ‘Is the creator of Hajime no Ippo really a big name? Isn’t he more like someone who failed to become a legend?’ ← 1.14 million buzz“.
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