championship. Along the way the audience is given glimpses into the other characters' pasts, motivations, relationships to others, and current boxing trials. A colorful cast of supporting characters and opponents as well as side stories concerning their paths in the boxing world rounds out the series. Media Manga is written and illustrated by George Morikawa. The manga has been published in Kodansha's shōnen manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Magazine since October 11, 1989. It has run in the magazine for over 30 years, and reached its 1000th chapter in December 2012. It became the 8th longest running manga series with over 1300 chapters released in Japan as of 2021. Kodansha has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was published on February 17, 1990. As of November 17, 2022, 136 volumes have been published. In June 2021, it was announced that the series would get a digital release, for the first time in 33 years of publication, starting on July 1 of the same year. Anime has been adapted into an anime series franchise. The first 75-episode anime television series, produced by Madhouse, Nippon Television and VAP and directed by Satoshi Nishimura, aired on Nippon TV between October 4, 2000, and March 27, 2002. The episodes were collected into twenty-five DVDs released by VAP from March 16, 2001 to March 21, 2003. The last DVD includes a special episode which did not air in Japan, numbered 76. A television film titled : Champion Road aired on April 18, 2003. An original video animation (OVA) titled Mashiba vs. Kimura was released on September 5, 2003. A second series titled : New Challenger aired on Nippon TV from January 6 to June 30, 2009. In 2009, Rikiya Koyama, the voice actor of Mamoru Takamura, revealed on his blog that a sequel to the : New Challenger television series was being planned. At the end of his blog entry, he wrote, "Of course, a sequel is also being planned!!". In July 2013, it was reported in that year's 34th issue of Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine that a third season of would air in the fall 2013 season. The third season, titled : Rising, ran for 25 episodes from October 5, 2013 to March 29, 2014. : Rising was streamed on Crunchyroll. In North America, the first series was licensed by Geneon Entertainment in 2003, which released it under the name Fighting