Air Date: Apr 6,2018 - June 29,2018 Studios: TMS Entertainment Episodes: 13 Welcome back friends! Alright we be back to the anime world this week. This time it will be a fairly recent anime that just finished two weeks ago. I know that this anime was particularly popular in circles that watch shounen animes. If you didn't already know, shounen is a genre that is targeted towards young men (age range varies but if we are being strict here, 12-18 years). This genre typically has lots of action and focuses on a strong male lead. Some examples include Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, etc. As popular as I think it is, I don't think many people actually watched it so I'm here to give me take on this anime. If you couldn't already tell by the picture above, it's about boxing (⌒▽⌒) Let's step into the ring and read more about Megalo Box! Synopsis: The story is set in a futuristic world where citizens are required to be licensed in order to live in the flourishing city. On the outskirts of town, the unlicensed individuals live in poverty and in slums. "Junk Dog" (who's real name is never revealed) is an unlicensed underground megalo boxer who, along with his partner Gansaku Nanbu, throws matches for money. Megalo boxing is boxing with the assistance of equipment called "Gear" that aids in either power or speed of the punches while helping with dampening the blows from the opponent. Junk Dog has always been wanting more for his megalo boxing and knows that he is better than throwing matches underground. His chance arises when the Shirato Group (largest conglomerate in the world) announces a tournament called "Megalonia" that pits the best megalo boxers against each other. There's one problem: the tournament is only for licensed citizens. After a series of events, Junk Dog and Nanbu made a deal with the mafia (the party responsible for the duo to throw matches for money) to receive a stolen ID and rewrite the information with Junk Dog's alias, Joe. Joe and Nanbu train for the tournament but are missing decent gear to fight with in the tournament. After a scuffle with a pawn dealer's body guard, Joe fights without gear and wins. This gives Nanbu the idea to market the name "Gearless Joe", a megalo boxer that fights with no gear. This is the start to the story of "Gearless Joe" and his quest to become the greatest megalo boxer. Storyline: This story is pretty standard and follows the typical rags to riches template. It essentially is a modified Rocky story set into the future with different characters and team members. Looking at it as a whole actually makes me see how unremarkable it is, but like they say, the devil is in the details. If you pay attention to the little details that they sprinkle in throughout the story, it makes you see the story is actually different than what is seems on the surface. At first, you think this story is about Joe and his growth as a megalo boxer, but I actually think it's really about Nanbu and his redemption story. In the anime, you could definitely sense that there is more to Nanbu than it seems. He tends to play the fool and act like he is helpless or not knowing what he is doing, but something is off and can sense that he kind of overreacts to fool his opponents. I'm not going to spoil anything, but when you watch this anime, try to look for those details. The character development in the main characters and even some of the side characters are pretty thorough. You can see that every character has a reason for fighting, whether it be in the ring or a moral fight. There are many situations where the characters are stuck between a rock and a hard place and have to make difficult decisions. These situations forces the characters to reflect on themselves and ask themselves what their true motives are and where their priorities lie. Even the head of Shirato group, Yukiko, isn't immune to this plot device. Although this anime is mainly about megla boxing, I actually loved the contrast between the internal fights as much as the actual fights in the ring. I enjoyed seeing how difficult it is for all of the characters outside of the ring and the events they had to go through to get to where they are in the ring. Seeing how each character fights their inner turmoils and overcome them is what kept me watching the until the next episode. Art: The art in this anime is simply fantastic. It has a more rustic look to its scenes and may not be as clean as the animes of today, but I think it was done on purpose. It adds to the characters in how none of them are perfect and are a little rough around the edges. There are points in the anime where it doesn't seem like they shot it in HD. The grainy feeling, I think, just adds onto the rustic aesthetics that a shounen anime brings. Besides the rustic feel this anime brings, it is also refreshing to see more of the old school kind of art that makes me get the feeling like I did when I watched Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo. This type of art is probably the form of art that represents the hip-hop culture in Japan. In a world where majority of their music is pop or rock, something like this will definitely be a head-turner and grab people's attention. Another thing I love about this series are their panoramic city shots. It gives you a sense of the divide between the rich city and the poor slums in the outskirts. They are mainly separated by a large river which is a nice touch to tell you how divided the city really is. The lighting also enhances the effects of these panoramic shots. The character's facial expressions are also something I had to comment on. The fierceness you see in Joe's eyes and determination is particularly the one that stands out to me the most. The other being Nanbu's sorrowful eyes or look of remorse for not being the type of coach that he wants to be due to other circumstances. Overall, the art is what initially got me to watch in the first place, and it just kept getting better as the series went on. Music: I did mention that this anime represents the hip hop culture in Japan so it is fitting that the music they chose is, well, hip hop (>y<). I'll just leave you two tracks for you to listen to and that's all you need to know about how good the music is. Enjoy!
Overall Impressions: I really enjoyed this anime. It isn't one of the most memorable ones that I have watched, but it is definitely a series that anyone can get into. It's a good watch and will definitely keep you entertained. The only caveat is the terrible ending. I'm not going to sugarcoat it, but it was probably one of the worst ways to end an anime. Maybe I missed something but I didn't like how it ended. It was really anti-climatic and kind of felt off from the tone from the rest of the series. It felt like they just slapped some stuff together to get some type of ending. If you looked online, I'm sure there are tons of other people out there that think the same way and said "WTF was that ending?" Up to that point, however, it was a pretty immersing anime. I honestly would just listen to the music all day because it was something different and I love the chill vibes it gave. If anything, the music was the best part of the anime. Thank you guys once again for reading! I really appreciate all of you guys taking part of this discussion and possibly sharing it with your friends. If you have thoughts on this series or disagreed with any part of this post, go ahead and leave a comment below or tweet at me! See y'all next week!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Coffee senpaiJust an Otaku who also loves his coffee. Grab some coffee and watch anime with me ٩(θ‿θ)۶ Posts for this blog every Friday!
Archives
March 2017
Categories
|