Mari Īmura

Intro Mari is slim, has long, sleek black hair, and is bespectacled. She usually wears a jacket of some sort, pants (she was only seen once in a skirt), and heels. She has a pearl earring in each ear which seems to vary from hanging from her earlobe to being in her earlobe.Mari is one of the more sophisticated female characters in the series. When she is first introduced, she comes across as a polite and cheeky woman, which misleads her co-workers into thinking she was not prepared for her duties as a boxing reporter. As Mari has stated, however, she is quite an aficionado of the sport, and has rarely been impressed by Japanese boxing. She has some experience reporting on boxing in other parts of the world, such as America and Mexico, where she claims to have seen some spectacular matches (presumably those of Ricardo Martinez). In many ways she is even more of a fan of boxing than Fujii. Like Kamogawa and Takamura Mamoru, Mari possesses a keen eye not only for boxing, but for the character of the boxers themselves, which is where her real passion lies. She is the only character to have figured out Itagaki Manabu's secret challenge to Ippo and is usually the first to question the motives of other boxers, such as Sendō Takeshi and Kojima Hisato.