If you're a
fan of dark, intense, and emotionally charged sports stories, get ready for a
direct punch to the face. During its panel at New York Comic Con, Crunchyroll
surprised everyone by announcing that the acclaimed boxing webtoon The Boxer,
written and illustrated by JH, will make the official leap to television with
its own anime adaptation.
The
animation will be in charge of an interesting alliance between the new Japanese
studio breccia (founded by Muneki Ogasawara, former producer of Kinema
Citrus) and the South Korean studio Studio Jemi. The co-direction falls
to Takehiro Kubota (recognized for his work in My Happy Marriage) and
Won Yeong Kang. To ensure a top-notch narrative, script oversight will be in
the hands of Toshiya Ono, an industry veteran who has worked on flawless
productions such as 86 and The Promised Neverland, while Masahiro
Suwa (The Rising of The Shield Hero) will be in charge of character
design.
The voice
cast brings together some of Japan's best talent. The great Koki Uchiyama
will lend his voice to the apathetic protagonist Yu, while Kensho Ono
will play Ryu. Meanwhile, veteran Tomokazu Seki will play legendary
trainer K, and Toshiyuki Toyonaga will take on the role of boxer J. The
plot follows K, a trainer who desperately searches for boxing's greatest talent
and ends up finding Yu, an indifferent boy who is bullied but possesses inhuman
reflexes and precision. When trying to recruit him, the young man with a blank
gaze responds with a question that triggers the whole story: "Is it fun to
hit people?"
About
The Boxer
The
Boxer is one of the
most prominent and widely read works in the South Korean digital format, having
begun publication on the Naver Webtoon platform in 2019. Created by author JH,
this title has amassed more than a billion reads worldwide thanks to its raw
portrayal of human psychology, hyper-detailed combat sequences, and emotional
undertone. The work was awarded at the World Webtoon Awards in 2024,
consolidating the author as a benchmark in the medium along with his other
works such as The Horizon and his most recent series Umbilical.
