A movie sequel to the Hajime no Ippo series, Champion Road continues right at the Sendo match at the end of the series and follows him through his first title defense match. This means that in order to enjoy this movie, you MUST watch the series first, or else you probably won't understand anything that's going on.

Featured in the movie is everything that made the TV series so great: a unique brand of humor that never fails and action sequences that'll make you drool with pleasure. Also featured in Champion Road is just a little bit more development for Miyata, something that the series really should have had but totally disregarded following his defeat to Ippo.

The animation in this movie is quite an improvement over the TV series. It's all much more fluid and clear, and the matches are even more amazing to see. I really liked how they redid the last couple of rounds of the Sendo match in the beginning of the movie, and it was easy to see right from the start how much better the movie looked.

The main match in the movie, Ippo's match versus a doctor named Sanada, is very well done and is a lot different from the matches in the series. Although it's still the usual great action sequence, there isn't much monologue at all during the fight so it flows far more smoothly than the fights in the series. It was also interesting to see how Ippo reacted to all of the strange punches that Sanada threw at him, but that happens in almost every match.

One thing that really bugged me in the movie is that Ippo and Kumi's relationship still doesn't get any closure. They're just barely further in the movie than in the television series, even though much of the movie is centered around the two of them. Miyata also fails to get any closure, even though much of the first thirty minutes or so are about him and Ippo's rivalry. Just a few minutes after him leaving the screen, the movie just forgets about him and moves along its way. I just don't understand why he would be shown at nearly every one of Ippo's matches and yet never be developed beyond us knowing that he's still chasing after Ippo.