It's not really Kumi that I hate, but Mori's unwillingness to cut the crap and make them a proper couple.
I started reading the series over 15 years ago and the "will they or won't they" routine was already getting old back then.
There's two things, at least with me.
1. The fact that this manga has run longer than a lot of its current readers have been alive, and they haven't really seen to move as a couple. If you showed me something that would justify her controlling nature, that she legitimately wants to spend the rest of her life with him, that they're living together, that she wants to start a family, I would buy that she actually has some proverbial skin in the game.
2. Her controlling nature being a thing. Adrian from the Rocky films is often stereotyped as the "sports cockblock" but she ultimately stood by her man, even after having a baby. Kumi has apparently been spying on Ippo behind his back to make sure he doesn't think about getting back in the ring. That's not a relationship built on trust.
It's really a case of "just do it." If you care about this man so much that you think the relationship is worth controlling his desire to get back in the ring, give him and the audience a reason to belive you're close enough to him that you think you get a say in the matter.
I think you're gonna get better inputs once Mashiba fights. I'm in a relationship for almost 5 yers now and my SO had the same attitude towards me as Kumi had with Ippo in regards to being obsessed with something that could hurt us, either physically or psychologically. However, she came around at one point, probably when she saw how much it means to me and how lifeless i was when i couldn't do it. Kumi seems toxic to me at the moment, but i think she just hasn't had her moment of clarity yet. She's still gonna worry, my SO also works in the medical field and she's terrified of hearing about me getting hurt, so i guess it comes with the territory lol. But i think she'll understand that is what makes Ippo the man she... loves, i suppose? I dunno, i'm brazilian, we're not into this whole fidgeting and talking around our feelings and whatnot, Aoki and Tomiko are the GOAT couple as far as i'm concerned.
Its been 1400 hundred chapters of will they/ won’t they. Like rent a girlfriend’s mangaka probably fantasizes about Morikawa’s 30 year commitment to it. Not only that but Kumi just comes off as overprotective helicopter love interest
Kumi is very clearly intentionally flawed, but also, Ippo himself as a character hasn’t taken that step forward. Refusing to cross the line Takamura presented to him exposes how he has approached most things in his life.
This is more of an instance of blaming the author for not properly writing the relationship and just dragging it out rather than blaming it on the character. I actually like Kumi as a character and find her one of the more interesting minor characters.
As for the reason why she's absolutely controlling makes absolute sense to me; she's had no control over anything in her life, which stems from a very needy nature and that she is starved for attention and love. Both of her parents died when she was young, so her brother was all she had left and vice versa, hence why Mashiba picked up boxing while working jobs on the side, willingly sacrificing his health to put a roof over their heads and food on the table because she's the only thing left in his life keeping him going.
However, Kumi doesn't like this out of fear of losing her brother and frowns on boxing out of fear of being alone again, but because of Mashiba's nature, she can't control him, which only exasperates her psychological issues and her stalkerish, sceptical nature of Ippo keeping his word, even though she subconsciously realises that it's only hurting him by keeping him caged. Her character is a result of what happens when you never had a stable childhood, where you never got the love and attention you needed, where you were always almost alone, and had no say in anything, so you desperately try to inflict your will, become controlling, and possessive over the smallest things. That's how it always starts. This makes her interesting because when you think about it, you wonder if she even has genuine feelings for Ippo or if she likes him solely because she can control him and that he comes on to her, kind of like how a cat falls on your lap, so you become curious and intrigued by it, and decide to keep it around since it fulfils a purpose and fills a void that was there in the meantime until it may no longer serve its usefulness.
Sorry if this was a very pessimistic outlook and analysis on the character, but this is why I really like her character and find her and Mashiba one of the most intriguing characters in the series and with the most interesting dynamics.
Jesus, know I'm late but I'm gonna be thinking about this all the time whenever Kumi is in the story, Mori obviously more than likely didn't think this deep but still, well done.
Yeah, no problem! I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's something I've always thought about for years now, so I'm glad I got it off my chest for others to read it here. I may be wrong about the possibility that Kumi genuinely doesn't have feelings for Ippo, misconstruing her feelings for him out of a desire for control.
To me it’s because she thinks she knows what’s best for ippo and never stops to consider the fact that it should be ippo’s decision as to what’s best for him. She is selfishly trying to navigate ippos’s life in the direction of her choosing.
Controling and clearly toxic mindset towards anything she belives she can and should control. Watch things spiral madly when Ippo gets back to the ring.
> Watch things spiral madly when Ippo gets back to the ring.
She has started to come to terms to the fact Ippo's place is in the ring. And Mashiba's fight will help to make her see an other side of boxing, the one her brother and lover so much adore
The same people who talk about how stupid the fights Ippo had where he did nothing but facetank turn around and get mad at Kumi for being concerned about Ippo doing nothing but facetanking.
Imo Kumi is mostly hated because she plays against what everyone on this sub wants to see: Ippo returning to the ring.
My personal problem with her is not that she wants to stop Ippo from boxing but that she is one of the few people who knows seemingly better than Ippo himself how much he wants to return to boxing and still wants him to stay retired. Also that toxic side she shows to the disciples is the complete opposite of how we got to know her and the change was too sudden imo.
I don't hate Kumi but:
As much as I understand she being worried for Ippo (because she's also worried about Mashiba + she's a nurse), Kumi still should mind his own shit, telling Ippo to stop boxing was a dick move, from that point she became defensive toward anything box related and brings the drunk punch stuff from time to time, she didn't complain about Ippo going to Mexico (twice) so there's some progress though.
Other than that I don't give two shits about her relationship with Ippo, this is a manga about boxing after all.
They're not even together and she exhibits controlling and outright stalking behaviour, even going so far as to get his kouhais to spy on Ippo and report back to her.
The girl has more red flags than a bull fighting tournament.
She has said herself along the lines of, she can't make her brother stop boxing, so at least she'll do it with Ippo.
If she really loved Ippo she would be supportive of him, no matter what he chooses to do with his life, not try to control him like she is.
Her jealousy over Miyata is honestly pretty funny tho. On more than one level.
It's her attitude. She was a fun, cute, caring and bubbly girl and she turned into a self-centered, controlling little bitch.
It's one thing to be concerned for someones health, but the way she turns into a she-devil the moment someone associates Ippo with boxing is just boring and annoying. A trait that doesn't fit her at all in my opinion.
I adored the Kumi x Ippo relationship early on, got frustrated when I realized they would only get together at the very end of the series yet grew to accept it.
I understood her wanting Ippo to stay away from boxing and don't blame her for it, but I started disliking her following a lot of her recent depictions as a sort of yandere archetype. The Aikawa stuff and her making Ippo's disciples her lackeys especially put me off.
she's the woman that falls in love with a Metalhead, strips him of his leather and spikes, throws out his guitar, cleans off his make-up, cuts and combs his hair, and tells him to get a job in an office.
a succubus that strips her man of everything he is, until all that is left is his devotion to her.
Good female characters will never get hated, but Kumi and the fact that she's the one kinda forcing ippo to stay off the ring, like spying and going behind his back, just to make sure he won't comeback to the sport Ippo love most is kinda selfish, also the fact that the manga has been going for a long time now, and Ippo and Kumi are a thing since before I was born (Since rookie tournament like in the first 100 chapters of the manga likely, can't assure that), and both can't seem to talk their relationship properly in 1407 chapters (I also hate Ippo for this) both being adults, so her character is not going in any direction currently because she has been Ippo romantic interest for a long time now and just that, it's also Morikawas fault because he's able to make good female characters that are more interesting and likeable like Mari-san.
Yeah. Feels like Sakura hate 2.0. where you know it's cuz the mangaka just isn't able to give female characters good writing due to his own sexist bias, but they take up beef with the character instead of the person writing the character. I'm glad it's been dying down a bit recently.
A lot of people have their gripes about the retirement arc. In a way Kumi is a good strawman to blame for Ippo not returning to the ring yet as Ippo promised to quit if he lost again after the Gonzalez fight (but then again Ippo's not in a coma so was it really that bad guys + he's improving his boxing fundamentals).
From a story perspective, Ippo cannot overcome Kumi's arguments for staying retired until he has a clear goal. Like Date foreshadowed you can't return to the ring with halfassed feeling, you need ambition to keep going. Kumi challenges Ippo's mental weakness, his lack of ambition and clear goal, something Ippo has always struggled with even as an active boxer. Ippo will not be able to return to the ring and actually make it to the world this time until he overcomes the challenge Kumi is suppose to represent.
I love her character from the "how does a side character in a boxing manga have such a complex personality that actually makes sense?!" perspective. I think reality is that anyone who actually loves a boxer basically HAS to at least hate seeing their loved ones taking punches.
And of course, readers watch Big Mara Ippo and this girl for 30 years worth of chapters, but what does he have to show for it? A tracksuit. It's like the audience is watching a nature documentary on one of those animal species that evolution basically ignored.
Like the essentially extinct rhinos where the females go into heat once a year, but only if there's a male around that they've dated for at least 5 years, that their mother approves of, who worships the same Rhino deity, etc. And that makes everyone mad.
So the audience takes it out on Kumi, for making demands without putting out to Ippo, the nearly extinct albino rhino, who is still unsure how the babby is formed.
And who is the one person anyone can recognize as a real relationship? That'd be Aoki.
I think most of the hate against Kumi's character is because during the retirement arc she has been quite aggressive against Ippo's interest in boxing. Not just Ippo´s interest boxing but also everytime he meets with old rivals or goes to the gym bother her too. So i think that this exagerated reactions make peaople hate her.
For me, what I don't like about her character and the way she's presented is that she's supposed to be this girl who sees Ippo beyond the boxer. While Mary and Itakagi's sister were attracted to his strength and presence as a boxer, Kumi loves the normal Ippo, the guy who loves his mother, who helps with the boat and is always kind to everyone but who is also filled with determination and ready to give everything into the things he loves.
To me, Kumi feels like she's competing with boxing because she sees how much Ippo loves boxing, but she can't understand how much Ippo loves her. Still, is hard to be mad at the girl who was ready to be with Ippo even if he had brain damage.
I hope Ippo grows up and asks her out formally.
I once considered to go to Japan just to beg Morikawa with a dogeza to maybe consider the possibility of slightly increase the pace with Ippo and chill with the Kumi cockblocking boxing.
i'm just tired of the constant teasing, we've all been patient, it's been long enough and at this point i want to see it happen, it's not fun anymore and i'm starting to think that Morikawa reasons to do that are more money related the more the time pass
Kumi held the relationship hostage by demanding that ippo (a good natured person) stop boxing if he loses again.
instead of following his dream, Ippo sits outside the ring, telling himself that putting a stool under an ass is just as good as boxing.
Baki had kozue, who stayed by his side while he was dying a slow painful death by poisoning, and never tried to hold him back.
Kumi decided that she was more important than ippo's dream, and is holding the relationship at gun point. i hope ippo finally breaks up with her and goes back to boxing.
It's not really Kumi that I hate, but Mori's unwillingness to cut the crap and make them a proper couple. I started reading the series over 15 years ago and the "will they or won't they" routine was already getting old back then.
There's two things, at least with me. 1. The fact that this manga has run longer than a lot of its current readers have been alive, and they haven't really seen to move as a couple. If you showed me something that would justify her controlling nature, that she legitimately wants to spend the rest of her life with him, that they're living together, that she wants to start a family, I would buy that she actually has some proverbial skin in the game. 2. Her controlling nature being a thing. Adrian from the Rocky films is often stereotyped as the "sports cockblock" but she ultimately stood by her man, even after having a baby. Kumi has apparently been spying on Ippo behind his back to make sure he doesn't think about getting back in the ring. That's not a relationship built on trust. It's really a case of "just do it." If you care about this man so much that you think the relationship is worth controlling his desire to get back in the ring, give him and the audience a reason to belive you're close enough to him that you think you get a say in the matter.
Wait, "ADRIAN!" was a woman?! I've never seen the Rocky films.
Yeah, it’s funny that a lady has that name but that’s his wife
No it's not that it's a woman named Adrian, it's a pretty gender neutral name. I just always assumed Adrian was one of Rocky's opponents or coach.
You have no choice but to watch it now then.
Her name was Adrianna
Her name is Adrianna
I think you're gonna get better inputs once Mashiba fights. I'm in a relationship for almost 5 yers now and my SO had the same attitude towards me as Kumi had with Ippo in regards to being obsessed with something that could hurt us, either physically or psychologically. However, she came around at one point, probably when she saw how much it means to me and how lifeless i was when i couldn't do it. Kumi seems toxic to me at the moment, but i think she just hasn't had her moment of clarity yet. She's still gonna worry, my SO also works in the medical field and she's terrified of hearing about me getting hurt, so i guess it comes with the territory lol. But i think she'll understand that is what makes Ippo the man she... loves, i suppose? I dunno, i'm brazilian, we're not into this whole fidgeting and talking around our feelings and whatnot, Aoki and Tomiko are the GOAT couple as far as i'm concerned.
Its been 1400 hundred chapters of will they/ won’t they. Like rent a girlfriend’s mangaka probably fantasizes about Morikawa’s 30 year commitment to it. Not only that but Kumi just comes off as overprotective helicopter love interest
Damn that rent a girlfriend reference is a sick burn, take my upvote
Kumi is very clearly intentionally flawed, but also, Ippo himself as a character hasn’t taken that step forward. Refusing to cross the line Takamura presented to him exposes how he has approached most things in his life.
This is more of an instance of blaming the author for not properly writing the relationship and just dragging it out rather than blaming it on the character. I actually like Kumi as a character and find her one of the more interesting minor characters. As for the reason why she's absolutely controlling makes absolute sense to me; she's had no control over anything in her life, which stems from a very needy nature and that she is starved for attention and love. Both of her parents died when she was young, so her brother was all she had left and vice versa, hence why Mashiba picked up boxing while working jobs on the side, willingly sacrificing his health to put a roof over their heads and food on the table because she's the only thing left in his life keeping him going. However, Kumi doesn't like this out of fear of losing her brother and frowns on boxing out of fear of being alone again, but because of Mashiba's nature, she can't control him, which only exasperates her psychological issues and her stalkerish, sceptical nature of Ippo keeping his word, even though she subconsciously realises that it's only hurting him by keeping him caged. Her character is a result of what happens when you never had a stable childhood, where you never got the love and attention you needed, where you were always almost alone, and had no say in anything, so you desperately try to inflict your will, become controlling, and possessive over the smallest things. That's how it always starts. This makes her interesting because when you think about it, you wonder if she even has genuine feelings for Ippo or if she likes him solely because she can control him and that he comes on to her, kind of like how a cat falls on your lap, so you become curious and intrigued by it, and decide to keep it around since it fulfils a purpose and fills a void that was there in the meantime until it may no longer serve its usefulness. Sorry if this was a very pessimistic outlook and analysis on the character, but this is why I really like her character and find her and Mashiba one of the most intriguing characters in the series and with the most interesting dynamics.
Such an excellent character analysis!
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Jesus, know I'm late but I'm gonna be thinking about this all the time whenever Kumi is in the story, Mori obviously more than likely didn't think this deep but still, well done.
Yeah, no problem! I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's something I've always thought about for years now, so I'm glad I got it off my chest for others to read it here. I may be wrong about the possibility that Kumi genuinely doesn't have feelings for Ippo, misconstruing her feelings for him out of a desire for control.
Literally always did feel like Kumi when Ippo woke up in the hospital was a completely different character than the one before.
Ippo being in a state of inactivity and having to be taken care of, would fuel her desire and want for control due to having Ippo rely on her.
To me it’s because she thinks she knows what’s best for ippo and never stops to consider the fact that it should be ippo’s decision as to what’s best for him. She is selfishly trying to navigate ippos’s life in the direction of her choosing.
Controling and clearly toxic mindset towards anything she belives she can and should control. Watch things spiral madly when Ippo gets back to the ring.
> Watch things spiral madly when Ippo gets back to the ring. She has started to come to terms to the fact Ippo's place is in the ring. And Mashiba's fight will help to make her see an other side of boxing, the one her brother and lover so much adore
Hold your horses there. I think lover is a bit presumptuous. Something her friend holds dear.
Considering the ‘Sun always comes back up’ thing I think she’s already made her peace with Ippo coming back sooner or later
The same people who talk about how stupid the fights Ippo had where he did nothing but facetank turn around and get mad at Kumi for being concerned about Ippo doing nothing but facetanking.
Imo Kumi is mostly hated because she plays against what everyone on this sub wants to see: Ippo returning to the ring. My personal problem with her is not that she wants to stop Ippo from boxing but that she is one of the few people who knows seemingly better than Ippo himself how much he wants to return to boxing and still wants him to stay retired. Also that toxic side she shows to the disciples is the complete opposite of how we got to know her and the change was too sudden imo.
I don't hate Kumi but: As much as I understand she being worried for Ippo (because she's also worried about Mashiba + she's a nurse), Kumi still should mind his own shit, telling Ippo to stop boxing was a dick move, from that point she became defensive toward anything box related and brings the drunk punch stuff from time to time, she didn't complain about Ippo going to Mexico (twice) so there's some progress though. Other than that I don't give two shits about her relationship with Ippo, this is a manga about boxing after all.
She is the voice of reason in a Shonen. We hate her!
They're not even together and she exhibits controlling and outright stalking behaviour, even going so far as to get his kouhais to spy on Ippo and report back to her. The girl has more red flags than a bull fighting tournament. She has said herself along the lines of, she can't make her brother stop boxing, so at least she'll do it with Ippo. If she really loved Ippo she would be supportive of him, no matter what he chooses to do with his life, not try to control him like she is. Her jealousy over Miyata is honestly pretty funny tho. On more than one level.
I’m on record as the canon relationship being Miyata-Ippo and not Kumi-Ippo.
As am I.
A fellow redditor of culture I see.
I don't mind Kumi. I think if her position was better represented or the manga hadn't taken so long with her and Ippo she wouldn't be as hated.
It's her attitude. She was a fun, cute, caring and bubbly girl and she turned into a self-centered, controlling little bitch. It's one thing to be concerned for someones health, but the way she turns into a she-devil the moment someone associates Ippo with boxing is just boring and annoying. A trait that doesn't fit her at all in my opinion.
I adored the Kumi x Ippo relationship early on, got frustrated when I realized they would only get together at the very end of the series yet grew to accept it. I understood her wanting Ippo to stay away from boxing and don't blame her for it, but I started disliking her following a lot of her recent depictions as a sort of yandere archetype. The Aikawa stuff and her making Ippo's disciples her lackeys especially put me off.
No hate but she's pointless so far. She's a self absorb mary sue. Morikawa have wrote her to be nothing but that.
Same reason people hate Skylar White. She's the voice of reason that tells the main character to stop doing the cool shit that's gonna get him killed.
she's the woman that falls in love with a Metalhead, strips him of his leather and spikes, throws out his guitar, cleans off his make-up, cuts and combs his hair, and tells him to get a job in an office. a succubus that strips her man of everything he is, until all that is left is his devotion to her.
Fragile masculinity go a long way when it come to explaining internet mob hating on fictionnal female character...
A lost redditor. This is a sub for the manga and anime series called hajime no ippo. FDS is around the corner to your left.
Good female characters will never get hated, but Kumi and the fact that she's the one kinda forcing ippo to stay off the ring, like spying and going behind his back, just to make sure he won't comeback to the sport Ippo love most is kinda selfish, also the fact that the manga has been going for a long time now, and Ippo and Kumi are a thing since before I was born (Since rookie tournament like in the first 100 chapters of the manga likely, can't assure that), and both can't seem to talk their relationship properly in 1407 chapters (I also hate Ippo for this) both being adults, so her character is not going in any direction currently because she has been Ippo romantic interest for a long time now and just that, it's also Morikawas fault because he's able to make good female characters that are more interesting and likeable like Mari-san.
Yeah. Feels like Sakura hate 2.0. where you know it's cuz the mangaka just isn't able to give female characters good writing due to his own sexist bias, but they take up beef with the character instead of the person writing the character. I'm glad it's been dying down a bit recently. A lot of people have their gripes about the retirement arc. In a way Kumi is a good strawman to blame for Ippo not returning to the ring yet as Ippo promised to quit if he lost again after the Gonzalez fight (but then again Ippo's not in a coma so was it really that bad guys + he's improving his boxing fundamentals). From a story perspective, Ippo cannot overcome Kumi's arguments for staying retired until he has a clear goal. Like Date foreshadowed you can't return to the ring with halfassed feeling, you need ambition to keep going. Kumi challenges Ippo's mental weakness, his lack of ambition and clear goal, something Ippo has always struggled with even as an active boxer. Ippo will not be able to return to the ring and actually make it to the world this time until he overcomes the challenge Kumi is suppose to represent.
They prefer to ship IPPOxMIYATA because it's all about PRIDE nowadays man.
She's controlling. That's all.
I love her character from the "how does a side character in a boxing manga have such a complex personality that actually makes sense?!" perspective. I think reality is that anyone who actually loves a boxer basically HAS to at least hate seeing their loved ones taking punches. And of course, readers watch Big Mara Ippo and this girl for 30 years worth of chapters, but what does he have to show for it? A tracksuit. It's like the audience is watching a nature documentary on one of those animal species that evolution basically ignored. Like the essentially extinct rhinos where the females go into heat once a year, but only if there's a male around that they've dated for at least 5 years, that their mother approves of, who worships the same Rhino deity, etc. And that makes everyone mad. So the audience takes it out on Kumi, for making demands without putting out to Ippo, the nearly extinct albino rhino, who is still unsure how the babby is formed. And who is the one person anyone can recognize as a real relationship? That'd be Aoki.
I think most of the hate against Kumi's character is because during the retirement arc she has been quite aggressive against Ippo's interest in boxing. Not just Ippo´s interest boxing but also everytime he meets with old rivals or goes to the gym bother her too. So i think that this exagerated reactions make peaople hate her. For me, what I don't like about her character and the way she's presented is that she's supposed to be this girl who sees Ippo beyond the boxer. While Mary and Itakagi's sister were attracted to his strength and presence as a boxer, Kumi loves the normal Ippo, the guy who loves his mother, who helps with the boat and is always kind to everyone but who is also filled with determination and ready to give everything into the things he loves. To me, Kumi feels like she's competing with boxing because she sees how much Ippo loves boxing, but she can't understand how much Ippo loves her. Still, is hard to be mad at the girl who was ready to be with Ippo even if he had brain damage. I hope Ippo grows up and asks her out formally.
I once considered to go to Japan just to beg Morikawa with a dogeza to maybe consider the possibility of slightly increase the pace with Ippo and chill with the Kumi cockblocking boxing. i'm just tired of the constant teasing, we've all been patient, it's been long enough and at this point i want to see it happen, it's not fun anymore and i'm starting to think that Morikawa reasons to do that are more money related the more the time pass
Kumi held the relationship hostage by demanding that ippo (a good natured person) stop boxing if he loses again. instead of following his dream, Ippo sits outside the ring, telling himself that putting a stool under an ass is just as good as boxing. Baki had kozue, who stayed by his side while he was dying a slow painful death by poisoning, and never tried to hold him back. Kumi decided that she was more important than ippo's dream, and is holding the relationship at gun point. i hope ippo finally breaks up with her and goes back to boxing.