Ganbare Genki

がんばれげんき

Aired: 1980 - 1981

A television anime produced by Toei Animation, adapting Yu Koyama's boxing manga serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday. The story follows Genki Horiguchi, a boy who travels the country with his journeyman-boxer father Shark Horiguchi. When his father dies after a bout with the prodigy boxer Kenji Seki, Genki is taken in by his grandparents and resolves to inherit his father's unfulfilled dream. Moving to Tokyo to pursue a professional career, he rises toward the summit of the boxing world through encounters with rivals and mentors, enduring brutal weight cuts and grueling fights in pursuit of glory. With its themes of the father-son bond, fated rivalry, and the triumph and heartbreak earned in the ring, the series is rendered with sturdy drama and visceral fight scenes, and stands as a celebrated work from the golden age of sports manga.