Fighting Spirit poster

Fighting Spirit (2000)

Series · 24m episodes · Rated TV-PG · In Japanese

Action, Adventure, Animation, Anime, Comedy, Drama, Foreign (non-English), Sports

A bullied teen finds purpose and grit in the boxing ring, fueled by an earnest desire to be strong.

Uplifting. A comfort watch at a measured pace. Emotionally it is heavy.

Streaming on Netflix and Plex (free).

Fighting Spirit parents guide

Strong violence and light gore, which is more than most TV-PG titles carry. Beyond that, mild language and nothing scary.

Our estimate: fine from about 13, higher than the TV-PG suggests, because of the violence.

Scare
Not scary
Jump scares
None noted
Gore
Light gore
Some blood or injury, briefly.
Violence
Strong violence
Violence is frequent or intense.
Sex and nudity
None noted
Language
Mild
Mild words like damn, hell or crap.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

Three questions

How gory is Fighting Spirit?
Light gore and strong violence.
What is Fighting Spirit rated, and is it OK for kids?
Rated TV-PG, with more than the label suggests: strong violence.

What is Fighting Spirit about?

Makunouchi Ippo is an ordinary high school student in Japan. Since he spends most of his time away from school helping his mother run the family business, he doesn't get to enjoy his younger years like most teenagers. Always a target for bullying at school (the family fishing business grants him a distinct odor), Ippo's life is one of hardship. One of these after-school bullying sessions turns Ippo's life around for the better, as he is saved by a boxer named Takamura. He decides to follow in Takamura's footsteps and train to become a boxer, giving his life direction and purpose. Ippo's path to perfecting his pugilistic prowess is just beginning...

Cast and crew

StarringKohei Kiyasu, Rikiya Koyama, Wataru Takagi, Keiji Fujiwara, Jurota Kosugi, Hidenobu Kiuchi

More like Fighting Spirit

Fighting Spirit is on our Tweens (10 to 12), 2000s, Netflix, Comedy on Netflix and Drama on Netflix lists.

More like this feeling

Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.

Lists with the same feel: Comfort watches.

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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.