Mamoru Takamura is the deuteragonist from the Hajime no Ippo anime and manga.
Big, loud-mouthed, perverted and mean, Takamura is a jerk. He is also undefeated two-time world champion and the idol of everyone at the Kamogawa gym. Because despite his bullying behaviour, he is something of a big brother to the other boxers: he is the one that got all of them into boxing and occasionally uses his vast knowledge to give them advice. Due to his status as the golden champion, he's also their idol. As much as he looks like someone with a giant ego and nothing to back it up, Takamura is something of a guile hero, rarely being defeated in anything even unrelated to boxing. He used to be a delinquent feared by everyone on the streets, until coach Kamogawa discovered him and got him into boxing, for which Takamura is very thankful. And despite his normally dirty behaviour, he is honest and serious about boxing. Despite being a natural genius, he is also a hard worker.
In the AWA fics, Mamoru is a student at the AWA Academy.
Appearance[]
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.
His basic attires consists of tank-tops and shirts 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. His boxing match attire consists of burgundy and dark azure boxer shorts with the name Mamoru written on it, it also has tags such as a label that has KB in red print, Takamura's hawk logo, and a flag of Japan. He also wears burgundy boxing shoes.
When ever 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.
Personality[]
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 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.
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 also had a very Umezu Kazuo-like face when Tomiko used tarot cards to accurately guess how many times he had masturbated after a fight. There was also an occurrence where Takamura challenged Yagi to a fishing competition, resulting in a "No Takamura" sign to be put up next to a "No Yagi" sign. These are all indications of Takamura's deep belief in the supernatural and fear of the unknown.
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 peaks 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 has a sister complex with his older sister, Kyōka and is tender towards older women such as Yamaguchi.
He can be a rather big bully to his fellow boxers and kouhai. He is fairly childish and egotistic, considering himself the best (which is in fact true) 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).
Even during important matches he has a tendency to play around, such as by using Aoki's "Look Away" technique, labeling 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 Boxing Gym. Even though he constantly looks down on and ridicules their achievements, his unrivaled strength and rare moments of kindness have earned him respect from his fellow boxing juniors. He has also occasionally shown concern for Miyata Ichirō and seems to genuinely look forward to Ippo's rematch with him.
While Takamura says that most boxers are "small fries" and talks about them with patronising contempt, Takamura seems to be genuinely fond/proud of Ippo. He teases him less than the others and in more than one occasion has asserted that he and Ippo are on a different level than the rest of the boxers from the Kamogawa gym. Also, while he usually seems aloof and derisive of his coaches, it's shown (particularly during matches) that he thinks very highly of Kamogawa and his methods. Takamura seems to have unwavering trust on Kamogawa's teachings.
Despite pulling pranks on his gym mates, he is highly-respected, and is a reason Aoki, Kimura, and Ippo started boxing.
Abilities[]
Takamura is a right-handed Boxer-Puncher with the genius stat. He's the strongest known fighter in the weight classes he's in. He possesses a genius-level boxing talent, to such an extent that 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 Kamogaawa's teachings. In his title matches, Takamura showcased incredible power, speed, and durability through the guidance of Kamogawa. 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.
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.
He has also shown that he has the ability to mimic any move he sees or experienced like Bison's Flicker Jabs, Flicker Counter and Ippo's Tornado Jolt.
Techniques[]
- Orthodox Boxing Style
- Brawling Style
- One-Step Straight Punch
- Counter
- Sway
- Bear Slayer Punch
- Look Away variation: Full-Body Look Away (Used once)
- Beetle's Uppercut
- Liver Blow
- Speed Hell
- Flicker Jabs
- Flicker Counter
- Hitman Style
- Tornado Jolt
Weaknesses[]
Takamura's one weakness is his arrogance and temper, as he is able to be easily provoked by many of his opponents, he also has in two occasions felt the compulsive need to finish his fights with 1-Hit KOs (Due to Miyata getting too much attention, and Ippo scoring a 1-Hit KO), which led to him almost losing against opponents a lot weaker than him.
Like Miyata, Takamura is constantly struggling with weight control, so he is prone to losing stamina slightly quicker due to fighting in weight-classes below his natural weight, which is approximately 195 pounds. Aside from that the only times Takamura has been in trouble is when an opponent reads his attacks, but he just keeps trying until he finds a way to connect.
In both his matches with Eagle and Bison, Takamura's right eye (or at least his field of vision on his right side) played a key role in his opponents gaining the upper hand. This suggests he may have a detached retina in his right eye, though this is not confirmed by the manga; Ippo confronted him about it at one point, but Takamura was able to convince him that he had no problems.
Trivia[]
- "Taka", means "hawk". Hawks have been a common theme in Takamura's matches, having a costume based off of a hawk. His match against Bryan Hawk contained the self-generated pun Hawk vs Hawk, hence the official title being the "Battle of Hawk".
- 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 after being punched and both boxers got injured. Injuries being Durán's hand and Takamura's chest.
- Aside from knocking out a bear, Takamura has also defeated a troupe of wild monkeys and lifted a small truck without breaking a sweat.
- Takamura's opponents after Bryan Hawk, have names that has something to do with animals; most likely in contrast with his name, which means "Hawk".
- Some of his opponent's names are a pun to famous cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Peter Rabbit, etc.
- Takamura has no prominent love interests in the series, but on one occasion Ippo visited his house and overheard numerous women berating him on his answering machine about previous dates and engagements.
- In Chapter 944, Takamura single handedly took down Date, Sendō, Mashiba, Saeki and Okita in the bar right after his match against Peter Rabbitson.
- Takamura is technically responsible for inspiring every professional boxer in the Kamogawa Boxing Gym(except Miyata) to join. Revenge against Takamura was the reason for which Aoki Masaru and Kimura Tatsuya joined the gym. He was also the person who brought Ippo (who was the reason for Itagaki Manabujoining) to the gym.
- It is stated by the commentator that Takamura had his first down in his first title match.
- Takamura normally does his roadwork around 6 a.m.
- Takamura's pro debut opponent hasn't been shown in the manga, only in the anime in Episode 76 - Boxer's Fist. Making Takamura's pro debut fight against Sakura Kiyoshi the only filler match in the series.
- As of Round 1253, Takamura is so far the only Japanese Boxer that has been able to win a World title match. All other Japanese Boxers that try for it, end up losing instead.
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