This Week in Anime

Joe's Rough Road to Megalonia

Steve
Hey Nick, I need a second opinion. So, there's this boxing tournament I want to enter, except all of the boxers have their arms and punches enhanced by a robot exoskeleton. Now, my idea is to enter this tournament, but WITHOUT a robot exoskeleton, so that if one person punches me even one time, I'll most certainly die. Is this a good idea?

Even though we're nine episodes in, I am so worried for my boy Joe every time he enters the ring.

I mean, the messed up part is that he IS having fun, and that also worries me! But I love how endearingly bratty he is, even when his life is quite literally on the ropes.

As a literally no-name boxer from the slums, the "Gearless Joe" gimmick was his only way of making enough of a name for himself to reach the final round of Megalonia. But it also fits not only Joe's image as a scrappy junkyard dog, but later his status as a kind of folk hero among the poor and downtrodden—Joe, perpetually the underdog, is still triumphing over any Megaloboxer who challenges him.

Also, gearlessness gives us a better view of his tight body, which is good.

Yeah! And each boxing match has been structured smartly as well. The challenges inside and outside the ring intertwine, and Joe and his team have grown after each one. The first match was the most basic, since it was just about Joe proving that he could get away with the whole gearless thing in the first place. But it was also about the ever-cocksure Joe learning how to accept his own fear, along with the guidance and friendship of Nanbu and Sachio. The show is heavy on classic tropes and cliches, but those are just a convenient shorthand that lets it hone in on important character moments and knock them out of the park.

Which in turn lets Joe knock his opponents out of the ring...

Aragaki's arc blew away even my high expectations for the show. Like, I knew I was in for bloody, brutal, and thrilling boxing times, but Aragaki's story gave us a somber and unflinching look at how PTSD and other veterans' issues shaped this boxer into a sympathetic but ruthless adversary.

And in any of those stories, Aragaki would be the protagonist! Even within the context of Megalobox, he seems to have the nobler reason for boxing, both helping his fellow veterans and closing an important but painful chapter of his life with Nanbu. Joe just really wants to punch Yuri again.

Of course, it's not that black-and-white, and in the ring both Joe and Aragaki recognize in each other the eternally burning desire to improve and win.

Yeah, Aragaki wasn't some single-minded villain out for revenge. He wanted to find some closure on his history with Nanbu, and he didn't need to win the fight to do that.

Speaking of which, one of the most surprising things about Megalobox is how much Nanbu has turned into a compelling character in his own right. He spends most of the first two episodes as a bumbling, adversarial coach who only seems to get in Joe's way. But over the course of the season, we've gotten to see new depths to him, and on multiple occasions he's been the anchor keeping Joe on his feet.

also he's a pretty good dad when he wants to be

even if sometimes it's tough love

Sachio hasn't been as fully developed yet, but he's a cute and earnest presence that adds more color to what could easily be an oppressively grim story.

And now that Joe has finally beaten the half-man, half-computer menace that was Mikio Shirato, he's finally in Megalonia.

Totally not an '80s action movie villain, no sir.

I was pleased with that too! It was a much more nuanced and interesting way to conclude the fight than I expected at first. And outside the fight, I was also impressed by how quickly the show made me care about the familial infighting at the Shirato corporation. It's all painted with familiar tropes, but it still does a good job of laying out Mikio and Yukiko's relationship and contrasting points of view. Mikio leaves the stage not as a villain, but as yet another complex character tied up in the world of Megaloboxing.

Plus I'm impressed that he was able to fight Joe at all, because I would have needed weeks to recover from the stone-cold stunner Yukiko threw at him on live TV.

I imagine we'll learn more about her deal as we move into this final arc. As with Yuri, who once again looks up at Joe in the ring after all this time.

Yeah, and we've also gotten all these little moments teasing at Yuri's animalistic kinship with Joe. They are ready to pounce at each other's throats, and I can hardly wait for the beautiful bloodbath that's going to ensue.