Megalo Box - Manliest Anime This Season!

I like it, the atmosphere and style is still there, and it felt like a second season really is necessary. Def following this season.

What a fantastic season premiere. Joe worse than he's ever been, but reaching towards the light. RIP Nanbu.

I'm enjoying the nods towards Mexican culture, particularly with the beautiful ending song (the same one Chief sings).

Interesting point people have brought up is that the song talks about a lost wanderer wanting to die, who a hummingbird that rouses him back to life with a song (but the hummingbird never returns). The wanderer is obviously Joe and the hummingbird is obviously Chief. Apparently, they have a deep history in Mexican culture as symbols of death, rebirth and perseverance.

Episode 2: I'm really loving this. Seems almost tailor-made for my tastes: Dark and Troubled Past, Mexico, immigrants, downtrodden poor struggling against the racist/classist/xenophobic establishment, organized crime, kickass music.

Now we have Gearless Joe, the trainer of Chief, though I'm sure some order of events will conspire to put him back in the ring sooner or later. Could even see this season ending with Chief vs Joe for all the marbles.

I love that an anime is tackling those themes, with respect and flair. The Mexican influences in particular are wonderful. Excited to witness Joe’s tenure as boxing instructor.

Also good for Shark Samejima, he’s still going strong in the ring.

Episode 3: It’s not the boxers that need a solid punch to the face. The harassment of Chief’s community is actually getting on my nerves. Looking forward to the day Hikawa and his goons get their smug grins wiped off their faces.

Joe is doing better. It helps that Chief serves as living proof that no matter the tragedy, people have the strength to move on. The way they’re teaching each other things is really nice.

The Chief is getting hurt isn't he? Now to see whether he can fight or Joe has to step in or something.

Edited by MagnumForce on Apr 20th 2021 at 4:12:06 AM

Yeah I'm quite liking Joe acting as trainer to Chief and their symbiotic relationship against xenophobia and classism. It's great. I love Joe confronting more the ghost of Pops.

I am pretty sure some cosmic set of events will conspire to put Joe in the ring again as I mentioned. The fire might be it, but who knows.

Well with that we conclude the first storyarc of this season.

Goodbye, Chief. You were the goddamn best. Triumphed over xenophobia and racism and gave Joe his will to live once again. Now Joe continues his journey home (to meet what I'm sure will be a boxing Sachio, maybe become his trainer), as hummingbirds fly by...

This season continues painful, but in a good sense. It's the good pain.

Screw Hikawa and his crony. Seriously. Every rabbit punch had me raging.

RIP Chief. You saved your community, and Joe’s future.

Edited by fillerdude on Apr 26th 2021 at 7:56:00 AM

So Many pain filled stories this season. This, Vivy Flourite, 86, To Your Eternity, Tokyo Revengers...

Starting to see what happened all those years ago, Nanbu was dying, Joe refused to accept it and took one final match to get some money for treatment, but after loosing seems to have abandoned all the kids who relied on him.

Very heavy episode. I imagine next episode will show the final piece of the puzzle with Yuri, Edison Liu and Joe's downfall in the past. Possibly as Joe meets Yuri in the present given his conspicous absence so far.

A part of me almost feels like the original pitch for this season was the bout with Edison Liu and the death of Pops, ending in a sort of Empire Strikes Back vibe, but with Joe's "Nomad" era being season 3. But they decided to condense it into this one for whatever reason (presumably a season 3 being far from a guarantee).

I wonder if Joe will become Sachio's trainer.

One of the likelier paths the story can take.

It was sort of sad to see how the kids have grown up so bitter. They’ve lost a lot of faith in Joe.

I somewhat feel like Joe isn't training Sachio because Aragaki said he could instantly tell Sachio wasn't fit for boxing. It's possible Aragaki is wrong but if we take his opinion at face-value the most likely alternative would be Sachio vs Joe, instead.

Episode 6: The past comes to light. And Joe has a rigged fight. Oof.

Caught up on both episodes tonight.

Joe rigging the fight was a clever development of his character given he loathed doing this before. Good character development. Mac Time's introduction (fairly sure he's the guy in the very first episode watching Joe k.o Yuri and going "maybe I don't belong in that ring after all") makes me think they're actually gonna do a switcheroo here and he's gonna demolish Edison Liu. Think Mac Time is going to be a Carlos Rivera-Jose Mendoza hybrid and Edison Liu will play the part of Tiger Ozaki.

Not a fan of rigging the fight, but at least Joe knows what is important to him.

And yes, I double-checked, Mac does seem to be that rando from the first episode. What a comeback, I’m already sold on his story. I suppose his Mac’s Time is some sort of athlete’s zone.

Love the spar between Joe and Liu. Just one intense spar between friendly rivals. Also pleasantly surprised that Mac and the Rostco people are just decent people, no sketchiness involved.

The animation of that spar was also some of the best the show has to offer. Incredibly smooth stuff.

Episode 8: Liu vs Mac commences, and the hero of the people wins. Liu is in critical condition after the match.

Of course things can’t be that simple, because now Mac’s neural chip looks like it has a serious defect that makes him regress to a primal state. Good for winning matches, not so good for daily living. I seriously feared he was gonna punch his kid. This also unfortunately casts some suspicion on Sakuma… maybe he’s not hiding the issue per se, but it does seem like he’s writing it off as “nothing to worry about”. Excuse me, a person with a brain implant is having personality problems, maybe look into that microchip a bit more.

Wow, looks like I'm a goddamn prophet.

I still dread that Mac is gonna end up attacking his kids. And Japanese Elon Musk here is definitely shady as shit after that episode, cares more about his "dreams" at the expense of everyone else.

It’s not just you. I get stressed every time Mac is hanging out with his kid, and I despise Sakuma for brushing off a potential psychotic break for the sake of his dreams or whatever.

The English dub debuts Sunday.

Episode 10: Joe decides to fight Mac Time for one last hurrah (to honor Chief's memory) in what will definitely end with either him or Mac fucking dead (particularly now that Joe's brain damage seems to have shown up). Joe vs Sachio happened as I expected and it ended with Sachio being fucking murdered in the ring.

Also, fascinating interview with the three main creators of Megalo Box where they go into detail about themes and inspirations like immigration and toxic masculinity.

I choose to believe Joe will survive the series, because it’s more thematically appropriate for him to continue living in order to make amends for his past decisions. I can definitely see him getting some sort of Career-Ending Injury though.

I’m still apprehensive about Mac, the poor guy has no idea about how faulty his neural chip is. I’m really hoping he’s not gonna die. And also really hoping he’s not going to accidentally kill anyone.

It is super interesting to see an anime, of all things, tackle issues of immigration and discrimination with tact, elegance and heart.