Common Name: Megalo Box
Score: 8/10, 5/5
Length: 13 Episodes
Genre: Action, Drama, Sports, Shounen, Slice of Life
Summary: Appearing as if from nowhere, the boxer known only as Junkyard Dog has made a name for himself in illegal boxing circuits precisely because he lives up to that name. Rabid, hard to put down, and determined to get in a few good bites, this enigmatic nobody gets a real glimpse at what Megalo boxing is when he's given the change to take on the official league's No. 1 champion, Yuuri, and break free from his cage. Paired with a young street urchin and his scorpion of a coach, the boxer known only as Junkyard Dog has decided to toss away his old name and history of illegal, rigged matches in a bid to reach for the top--dubbing himself "Joe."
Review: Simplicity is not necessarily a bad thing. Used well, it can ensure that the vast majority of people can and will understand everything that a show is trying to express. Used poorly, however, it can render a title unwatchable just because its bore to watch. Either way, a show like Megalo Box finds itself highly restricted by its simplicity but, again, that's not exactly a bad thing. At its core, Megalo Box's story is highly derivative and one that has been told time and time again. Yet, in spite of needing to adhere to the well-known ups and downs of this kind of Hollywood story, this show manages to wholly own its content through the sheer artistry of its creation. Where it might be difficult to tell the difference between two, different Hollywood boxer films, there is nothing else Megalo Box can be confused with, even though it's down in the dirt, underdog story is no different from a Hollywood film. Through its memorably desperate characters, kinetic action, and soundtrack as irreverent and grungy as the slums that Joe calls home, this show sets itself apart from the herd while still being of the same ilk. Yet, on the other hand, certain things are lost along the way in the adherence to that simple story that might have carried this title up to the level of masterpiece. Had it not lost a certain amount of character depth, in particular, I have no doubt that this show might have been able to stand alongside the monolith of sci-fi grunge/punk so many people compared it to as it aired, Cowboy Bebop. Instead, we just got yet another fantastic title that is forced to stand in that monster's shadow.
Granted, it's one of the hypest CB shadow-dweller we've ever had.
Now, don't get me wrong, this title is as different from Bebop as Lucky Star is from Gakkougurashi!. The comparison between the two lies almost solely in the vague similarities in terms of both the genre and setting. It is, without a doubt, its own thing and I have no intention in judging it in comparison to anything else--including the Ashita no Joe series that Megalo Box is an homage to in honor of AnJ's 50th Anniversary--due mainly to the simple fact that I've never seen/read Ashita no Joe. That said, there is no moving past the fact that this show, beyond all its nominal sci-fi trappings, is little more than just another boxing movie brought to the anime world. The ups and downs, highs and lows follow precisely the same lines as any other underdog fighting to the top of a tournament story, leaving me very little to talk about. There are subtle shades of difference here and there in character relationships and motivations, but it is, by no means, anything new. To reiterate, though, as derivative as Megalo Box might be, it is a fantastic title I'm already willing is say is worth the watch. So, if you want to give it a shot without any spoilers or know that you won't care no matter how much nuance I drudge up, now's the time to drop out.
Oh boy, for anyone who wants to stick around, though, we're only just getting started.
To finally get into the show itself, Megalo Box exists primarily as a fairly standard underdog story filled with dramatic action and make unique in its own way with a cool, if impractical sci-fi twist. Now, I say that this show features a sci-fi twist but we already have technology like this in development in the military. Regardless, the twist of this world is that the traditional sport of boxing has been made all the more intense and bloody through the use of robotic arm braces--giving birth to the sport known as Megalo Boxing. These braces, known simply as Gears, have a wide range of uses depending on the model and the boxer using it. Some feature state of the art AI-technology that alters and works in concert with the boxer's skills to make them ascend beyond certain human limits. Others simply feature generators and pistons that let the boxer punch harder or various supports to ease the strain on the boxer's body. For the boxer later known as Joe, however, his Gear is little more than unnecessary baggage to get him in the ring and a tool he can use to parry blows and go in for the kill. After all, he's fought with flesh and bone for most of his boxing career. All these fancy robots bits do, for him anyway, is raise both the risks and rewards, a fact that just makes the sport all the more fun and exciting for him. Unfortunately, that drive to brawl, compete, and put his life in jeopardy without fear of the consequences is basically all there is to Joe's character. He's brash, crude, and not the brightest tool in the shed but he lives for connecting with people emotionally and psychically once he's got them in his sights because that connection stabilizes him and proves that he exists.
Guy's as simple as the story and determined as the artists that made it.
Luckily, Joe does not fight for himself. At this relatively simple character's side is a cast of characters whose futures have become entwined with Joe's, for better and worse. Most notably among these characters is that of Joe's coach, Nanbu Gansaku. Serving as both a kind of mentor and mentee for Joe, it is generally understood that Nanbu isn't exactly a good person. Due to a series of unfortunate events that are mainly his own fault, Nanbu starts the show already well in over his head in debt to the slum's local mob boss, Fujimaki. Joe, a two-bit nobody fighter with no name at the time, is his meal ticket and lifeline that earns him just enough money to keep Fujimaki off his back. As these two put together their plan to pull off their greatest/riskiest plan yet, one that'll clear Nanbu's debts and give Joe the fair fight he's always wanted, something starts to give though. Terrible person though he might be, Nanbu does legitimately start to believe in Joe's dream to fight to the top, changing what he's willing to put on the line to make that happen--going from rigged matches with little on the line to a literal do-or-die gambit for Joe's sake. As crazy as that escalation of trust might sound when simplified like that, the show goes into great and fantastic detail about how Nanbu became the cynical, self-obsessed, sniveling drunk he is today and how his old self and dreams, snuffed out years ago, rekindle in the wake of Joe's ambitions. By show's end, Nanbu stands as probably the most thoughtful, emotionally compelling, and tragic character this show has to offer.
At show's start, that might have been an insult. By the end, it's the highest praise I can offer.
Alongside Nanbu on the do-or-die train of Joe's bid for the top, there is the street urchin, Sachio, who joins the team as a supporter and for his own purposes. In some ways, Sachio is very much Nanbu's equal in the structure of what eventually becomes Team Nowhere. Though he lacks experience, he has the skills and rationality to do basic logistics for Joe's fights and keeps both Joe and Nanbu grounded as Joe tries to break himself and Nanbu tries to run away when things get hard. Strange as it might sound, half the reason I love Sachio's character is that I know he would have been terrible but just isn't. All too easily, he could have been thrown aside as a mascot character--the insufferably cheery young ward that keeps things light and happy and puts a smile on everyone's face. Yet, Sachio manages to be the total opposite of that archetype. Some of the show's darker moments actually come from his story, rather than Joe or Nanbu's. In spite of his young age, he's very much the team's anchor, following that young ward pattern, were it not for the trauma's born of his own past and where it could easily lead him. Sachio's early and patchy kind of maturity is, as one might figure, due to his needing to grow up fast and adjust to the cruel realities of the world after the deaths of his parents. Yet, beneath all his survivalist skills and defensive cynicism, Sachio is still very much a child. Like many children, he is obsessed with his own self-centered ideas of fairness. But that childish nature has already been warped by something inherently un-childlike, the hate he feels toward the company that killed his father. Like Nanbu, though, Sachio's story is one that has a great deal going for it as he tries to battle his sense of right and wrong and his battle to see Joe make it to the top to validate his own feelings, even though he doesn't fully understand what those feelings are, and prove his worth as well as that of his deceased parents.
What a weirdly appropriate team these two make.
Last, but not least, there's the antagonistic forces of the show, of which only two of any real import. I mean, I could include Fujimaki in this section, but there's little to note beyond his stereotypically evil gangster routine. Granted, there's also similarly little to mention regarding one of this show's key antagonists beyond the position he holds. The king of the Megalo boxing world, Yuuri, serves primarily as the physical embodiment of Joe's goals. More than reaching the top, more than his doing so without any Gear to back him up, the one thing Joe values above all else is the dream of getting to fight Yuuri. Yet, like Nanbu, Yuuri finds himself oddly swayed by Joe's suicidal determination to face him in a fair fight. In the rabid but free "Junkyard Dog" that is Joe, Yuuri sees some of the noble wolf he used to be and maybe still is, albeit one that has been caged, semi-domesticated, and kept as a trophy by the Shirato Group. By show's end, Yuuri dissolves into being Joe's mirror image in his unwavering determination to take on this new dog in his territory. Still, though, before he totally gives into Joe's bizarre charisma, he manages to help his "Owner" see her own dreams accomplished.
Now there's a face you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.
This, of course, leaves us with the big bad of the series, the owner of the Shirato Group and handler of Megalo boxing's reigning king, Shirato Yukiko. Now, I say she's the "big bad" of the series, but that's only true insofar as she is the one who orchestrated this entire tournament for her own gains. What those gains are remains fairly vague since they have little to no bearing on the rivalry between Yuuri and Joe but there is the general understanding that they hinge on proving the efficacy of the Gear that is welded to Yuuri's nervous system. The Megalonia tournament, the wrestlers, and the nature of Gears matters little to her beyond the corporate gains she might see once her plans see fruition. While this high-minded, corporate motivation is what drives her and sets her apart from the rest of the cast, making her a prime "final boss," there's little she actually does that can be called "bad." If anything she is a generally good and caring person who has, for good reason, isolated herself from others. As that barrier she created starts to crumble around her in the aftermath of all of Team Nowhere's drama, it's generally revealed that she cares deeply to those she does become attached to. While her connection to Yuuri, for example, is generally unhealthy for the both of them as they border on being codependent, she does ultimately give everything she can to support him so long as it doesn't jeopardize their shared dream. The same can even be said of her "enemies" as she eventually comes to care for Sachio, for a time, and even supports Joe's bid for the top when it's well within her power to ruin their dreams for the sake of her own. All said, she's a generally good person who has a legacy and dream to uphold that forces her to be less kind than she might like.
Come on, there's no way someone so nice could possibly be evil!
With this cast of amazingly nuanced and morally gray characters, their collection of different but entwined dreams, and the level of detail given to the world they live in, it's hard not to see why this show has gotten so much critical acclaim. It hearkens back to an older time in anime, one that could be called simpler and more artistically driven, but remains something perfectly engaging for a modern audience. That may be due, in large part, to the various narratives that run throughout the series or it might be simple nostalgia and the recognition of a real work of art. To be fair, I'm inclined to say its all those things for all kinds of different people. The artistic aspect I don't think can be argued at this point, given how much attention the style used to create it got after the first few episodes. The nostalgia is also definitely there too, given the comparisons to Bebop and its similarities to all manner of boxing and underdog stories. Personally, though, I'm a bit biased toward the narratives that run throughout, namely those regarding equality and innate human dignity in a world that is disposed to shirking off those things. On the one hand, you have the story of a no-name punk infiltrating a glittering utopia that came at the cost of untold thousands that are forced to live in tin-roof slums just to prove that anyone can achieve greatness, regardless of their circumstances. On the other, you have a tale of a pair that sees each other as equal in spite of their differences, both economic and racial. Heck, even the aggressively masculine homoeroticism underlying a good portion of the series is an interesting through line to examine given the final scene's implications. So, in the end, while I have no issue calling this show's story simplistic, there's a lot to dig into under the surface that makes the work unique and memorable.
Who knew that Megalo Box would become the best romance of the season?
Still, even with all that narrative nuance and artistic mastery to consider, it cannot be ignored that a certain something is desperately from this series. I am, of course, referring to any level of characterization on Joe's part. As intriguing as it is for the show's main character to have absolutely no history or character beyond his desire to fight, there really needed to be something more to Joe than all that. Yet, as far as the series is concerned, it's perfectly fine for Joe to be an absolute nobody since he's determined to make it have no bearing on who he is for the purposes of the show. Now, sure there are little things that point to him possibly being in the army or perhaps he's an immigrant with literally no connection to this place, but even those things should have some level of influence on his character. Since we're given no real answers, though, we're left with no explanations for Joe's more solemn moments, the source of his fighting spirit, or why he occasionally invests himself into helping out his fellow boxers.
I mean, at least this show's main character is a racially diverse lamp this time.
Still, that one, little nitpick is just what I think this show needed to bump it up to the rank of "masterpiece." In its own right, Megalo Box is a perfectly serviceable show. It's action-packed, compelling, does exactly what it sets out to do, and looks fantastic doing it. It's the perfect show to just veg out to and experience if that's what you're into. If you're like me, though, and want that little extra, there's plenty to sink your teeth into. So, on the off-chance that you haven't jumped on the bandwagon with this show, I'm just going to say you should. Simple as it might be, this is probably going to be one of those shows that defines a genre and will be remembered well into the future.