Ring ni Kakero 2

Ring ni Kakero
Cover of the first manga volume (reprint)
リングにかけろ (Ringu ni Kakero)
Genre	Sports (boxing)
Manga
Written by	Masami Kurumada
Published by	Shueisha
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Jump
Original run	1977 – 1981
Volumes	25
Manga
Ring ni Kakero 2
Written by	Masami Kurumada
Published by	Shueisha
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Super Jump
Original run	2000 – 2009
Volumes	26
Anime television series
Ring ni Kakero 1
Directed by	Toshiaki Komura (Season 1) Yukio Kaizawa (Season 2) Hiroshi Ikehata (Season 3–4)
Produced by	Hedwig Schleck (Season 1) Atsushi Kido (Season 2) Shōsuke Okada (Season 3) Yoshihide Moriyama (Season 4)
Written by	Yōsuke Kuroda
Music by	Susumu Ueda
Studio	Toei Animation
Original network	TV Asahi (Seasons 1–2) Animax (Seasons 3–4)
Original run	October 6, 2004 – June 12, 2011
Episodes	36

Ring ni Kakero (Japanese: リングにかけろ, Hepburn: Ringu ni Kakero), 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. It is one of the magazine's best-selling manga series of all time, with over 13 million copies sold its first publication.

The story centers around the life of a young boxer named Ryuuji Takane and his sister Kiku, who is his coach. Ryuuji and his sister both inherited their father's talent for boxing with Ryuuji inheriting his strength and techniques while Kiku picked up his talent for analysis and strategy. In the past, their father was a famous boxer. Ryuuji and Kiku went away from 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 supposedly best friend) fight for the National Boxing Title and having both achieved stardom. Ryuuji's sister then tells the story from the beginning which starts from when Ryuuji is the finalist in a local youth championship and had to compete against Kenzaki, the latter winning after an almost tie and K.O. one-to-one fight.

Afterwards, most of the series tells about Ryuuji being the successor of Kenzaki (as the latter was terribly injured and almost crippled), who competes in the Japan National Boxing Championship, where he encounters strong and deadly opponents, including Ishimatsu Katori (a comic relief, but also a strong fighter), Takeshi Kawai (who specializes in the upper jab technique; he is also a pianist and also likes to cheat) and Kazuki Shinatora (who specializes in the Rolling Thunder technique; he is a former kendo practitioner, who retired when he challenged his father due to his cruel training).

It should be noted that other opponents make cameo appearances, such as the USA (Black Shaft) and France (Napoleón Bara) Champions. Also Führer Skörpion had an appearance, who ordered a fellow member of the Boxing Team to "follow" (i.e.: spy on) Kenzaki and Ryuuji, as possible threats to the World Championship.

Later on, the Jr. Japan team facing Black Shaft's team was adapted into an anime. Ryuji, Jun, Katori, Kazuki, and Takeshi represented Japan. Black Shaft had no intention of taking Japan seriously in a boxing match so he recruits Mick, leader of the Great Angels New York Branch (originally the Hells Angels in the manga), a deathrow inmate Monster Jail, Miss Charnel, a mysterious androgynous boy boxing champion known for his unhealthy obsession with his own beauty that knows no bounds (even in the ring) as well as that in which he savors reducing the "pretty" faces of any opponent he faces in the ring into mush, along with hypnotic powers that he casts upon his opponents to leave them as sitting ducks for his attacks and high-speed punches and fancy footwork, and N.B. Forrest, also known as the emperor of the south and a Ku Klux Klan member (in the manga). The second season ends with The Shadow clan, formed by a boxer who used the sweet science as an assassination art, aiming after Team Japan.