Forum - View topicBuried Treasure - Ashita no Joe
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ikky
Posts: 76 |
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The most recent reference to Ashita no Joe in a manga/anime I've spotted was in Ohba/Obata's Bakuman.
Really nice article. |
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trumpy13
Posts: 1 |
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where is Kamina's referance to Ashita no Joe, i watched the ending but didn't notice it. someone wanna point this out to me?
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leongsh
 Posts: 181 |
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Thank you, Justin S. for writing about Ashita no Joe. I love the whole series to bits. Have both seasons (both the DVD boxsets) plus the 2 movies which are condensations of each season - all on R2J DVDs. Double dipped too on the TV series - buying the 3 miniboxes of the first season before buying the 2 complete DVD boxsets of both seasons. The complete DVD boxsets are really not as expensive if you consider how much the per-DVD costs in either of those 2 complete season boxsets.
The first time I watched this series was when I was a kid in the 80s with the first movie on VHS. It was very much unlike most other anime shows that I have seen to-date then. This then led to the 2nd season and the 2nd movie. When the first season started coming out in the 3 mini boxsets in the early 2000s, I bought them eagerly to watch the first season in its entirety.
At the start, we're not actually supposed to like him. He's a thug. A ruffian. Always spoiling for trouble. Yet, he shows a more vulnerable side, the lost kid, in short sequences when no one is watching. In time, when you see him grow and change, he becomes a calmer and more mature individual as he challenges for the world title. Between all this, there's lots of blood, guts and tears. As you mentioned in your article, it set that standard for which a lot of shounen shows drew inspiration from. Furthermore, it was one of the earlier animation shows that did not fear showing physical violence and in the early 70s to boot. The stylistic choice of using dark pencil/charcoal shading gives it a gritty feel that gives the show a certain mood and character. People used to more modern anime fare will find the show ugly, clichéd (I question this as it was the first in many of the anime tropes that have come out as anime shows post-AnJ drew from it) and very slow going, especially the TV series. Strip away the prejudices and just watch it as is. It's also remarkable that the show celebrates the individual when Japan was all about group effort in the late 60s/early 70s then to climb their way up to the top. An individual that as a young kid was dumped at a children's home, grew up rebellious and lost, and becoming a boxer that eventually gets a world title challenge. It's a life's story there - a very different than normal life story but an exceptional one of redemption via blood, guts, and tears. Last edited by leongsh on Thu Nov 13, 2008 11:04 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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dabura16
Posts: 18 |
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yes, I certainly can agree about not liking him in the beginning; in fact, I downright despised him for the first 25-30 episodes. Of course as the series progressed, he grows on you, as he's supposed to, but I still prefer Rikishi and Carlos far more. Suprised no one's mentioned yet how damn annoying Nishi's voice was in the first series
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PlatinumHawke
Posts: 204 |
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Compare the 2nd last scene of spoiler[episode 8], to this. |
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Mr Adventure
 Posts: 1598 |
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Yeah, can someone explain the referance to someone who has never seen Joe but has seen Gurren? I get a feeling its connected to spoiler[Kamina's Death. Does Joe die at the end of the series?]
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leongsh
Posts: 181 |
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spoiler[Yes, he dies at the end of the 2nd season/2nd movie - the same as at the end of the manga. The picture linked in the post above is a small cropped part of one of the most iconic last shots in anime.] |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Another similar homage to the one in Gurren Lagann is the shot after spoiler[Yang Wen-li dies ]in episode 82 of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, which I was a lot sadder about than Kamina.
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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Joe and Ippo are so familiar, that they've even run magazines with nothing but Joe and Ippo. And I STILL haven't watched Joe yet, how pathetic of me.
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TokyoGetter
 Posts: 416 Location: CA. You can tell by the low moral standards. |
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That shizz RUINED MY WEEK. |
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Son-kun
Posts: 345 |
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Common mis-perception. Dragon Ball was inspired by mostly old kung-fu films (In specific Drunken Master)and Journey to the West. The fact that North Star has some of the same source material as inspiration and started serialization before then was entirely coincidental. Most Shonen Jump titles tend to have the same trend in epic battles and gags because that's what the magazine's generally about. I think Kinnikuman was more of a precursor for the trend of popular Shonen Jump battle type mangas while Dragon Ball was the big cheese. |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2559 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Actually, I think Ring ni Kakero would technically be the first, since it debuted about a year or two before Kinnikuman... At least, in terms of epic battles and how SJ battle mangas work. Kinnikuman probably brought the comedy aspect, though. |
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FinfoxAelia
 Posts: 36 |
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Ah, Ashita no Joe. Definitely one of my favorite series! I'll have to admit it was pretty hard to get into at first since Joe was so unlikeable. But I stuck with it and well...I love the series now. Watching Joe develop as a character is sort of like watching a child grow...sometimes it feels rewarding to watch him develop but at other times he just makes you want to tear your hair out.
Yeah, it was kind of annoying...but at the same time it sort of fits him. |
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MrAnimeSpecialist
 Posts: 124 |
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Really? I didn't know that! Shows what I know. Well, in defense of Fist of the North Star, it was mostly inspired by Mad Max and Bruce Lee flicks anyway (there's even a "saw in the head" scene in the series). I guess we a owe a lot more to boxing anime than we thought, huh? We probably wouldn't get any shonen anime here in the first place if it weren't for them. That said, it would be really nice if Animeigo could pick up that series at some point later on... |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2559 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Ring ni Kakero is generally considered the manga that put Weekly Shonen Jump on the map and paved the way for its future popularity boom in the 80s... Ring ni Kakero was Kurumada's homage to Ashita no Joe, who loved the manga when he was younger. So, if you want to push it a little, one could say that without Ashita no Joe, Weekly Shonen Jump wouldn't be where it is today. |
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