History Manga / AshitaNoJoe

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1d8654b0e58624c0feada7f03cac53b6.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''[[SigningOffCatchPhrase For Joe, which way is tomorrow?]]'']]

->''"Tokyo, one of the largest cities in Asia. At the outskirts of Tokyo, there exists a small place where the winter wind blows vastly, piles of dust cover the walkways, garbage and logs pile up alongside the river and stop its flow. Have you ever seen a place like this? This story starts from such a place..."''
-->-- ''Opening narration''

''Ashita no Joe'' is a boxing manga created by Creator/AsaoTakamori and Tetsuya Chiba that was serialized in ''Magazine/ShonenMagazine'' from January 1, 1968 to May 15, 1973. After the end of its serialization, it was collected into 20 volumes by Kodansha Comics.

The manga tells the story of a young man named Joe Yabuki and his boxing career, beginning from when he meets the man who would later become his trainer, Danpei Tange, in the Doya slums.

''Ashita no Joe'' has been adapted into various media, including ''Anime/MegaloBox'', which was made to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2018.
----
!! This manga contains examples of:
* AdaptationalAlternateEnding:
** The first anime ends with [[spoiler:Joe giving up boxing after fighting Carlos Rivera.]]
** The second anime [[spoiler:implies Joe dies, unlike the original.]]
* AdaptationExpansion: The two anime adaptations expand the original manga's story by adding new details and characters.
* TheAlcoholic: Danpei at first. He gets better.
* AntiVillain:
** Yoko. She antagonizes Joe mostly during the first half of the series, then organizes most of Joe's fights, and, as he puts it, toys with his fate like a demon. She is however a good person, [[spoiler: and grows to fall in love with Joe, who likes her back in his own way]].
** All Joe's rivals, [[spoiler:except for Harimau,]] are honorable fighters that he respects in some way, despite being his opponents.
* AmbiguousEnding : [[spoiler: The manga ends with Joe slumping down in his ringside corner and passing out, and does not confirm if he lives or dies.]]
* ArtEvolution: The manga's art starts out simple before becoming more and more detailed over time.
* BarbieDollAnatomy: Unlike the manga where everybody is drawn with nipples, nobody is drawn with nipples despite having visible muscles in the first and second anime.
* {{Bishonen}}: Joe and Carlos.
* BilingualBonus:
** The foreign characters mix English with Japanese in the original manga, to the point the second anime features foreigners speaking completely in English.
** The English {{Scanlation}} features a lot of Spanish and a couple of sentences in Korean.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Joe fails to defeat Jose in their final match, but put up such an incredible fight that the prideful Jose is shocked to the core at the sheer tenacity Joe exhibits and considers him a WorthyOpponent. Unfortunately for Joe, we last see him being carried out of the arena in the arms of his trainer, and the manga leaves it ambiguous if Joe was actually killed. Even if he did, Joe died doing something he loved and has proved himself to the world, at the very least allowing him to die happy.]]
* BookDumb: Joe, which comes back to bite him ''big time'' when it turns out there's a theory portion of the boxing license exam.
* BoringYetPractical: Basic boxing techniques. They're boring, seem pointless, and the moment Joe first tried out a jab after ''reading'' its description he discovered his punch was much faster and stronger. And then there's footwork and defensive techniques.
* ByronicHero: Joe Yabuki goes through many hardships... and he brings almost all of them on himself.
* CannotSpitItOut: [[spoiler: Joe cannot tell Yoko that he likes her, to the point he only confesses after she reveals she was in love with him at the end.]]
* CasualtyInTheRing: Several characters die like this.
* CharacterDevelopment: Nishi goes from a JerkAss leader of a group of delinquents to a GentleGiant.
* CrossCounter: TropeMaker. It's also Joe's specialty.
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Ashita no Joe 2'' is this for the manga. Boxers die or retire a lot more often.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: If the player defeats Jose Mendoza, the final boss in the ''Ashita no Joe'' arcade game made by ''Creator/Taito'', Joe becomes the World Champion and marries Yoko.]]
* EiffelTowerEffect: Both the manga and the first anime's opening scenes feature the TokyoTower to establish that ''Ashita no Joe'' takes place around the Tokyo area.
* EyepatchOfPower: Danpei.
* GameBreakingInjury: It's a frequent trope in the series. For instance [[spoiler:Joe's triple cross-counter fractures Wolf's jaw so badly that he has to retire.]]
* {{Gekiga}}: Has the detailed art and the mature themes of a typical gekiga, and is one of the most famous works of Asao Takamori, a famous gekiga writer.
* GentleGiant: Nishi post CharacterDevelopment.
* GoodOldFisticuffs: Quickly {{Deconstructed}}: Joe was established early as a capable fighter even if he only had brawling experience - and then he had a serious fight with Danpei and [[CurbStompBattle went down hard and fast]], with Danpei being tired from his hard work. That's when it starts becoming a manga on boxing.
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:Rikiishi dies with one on his face in the clinc.]]
* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler: Joe, after accidentally causing Rikiishi's death in their fight.]]
* HeroicRROD: [[spoiler: Rikiishi's death is from the brain damage that Joe accidentally dealt to him with a too-well-placed cross counter in the sixth round, which kicks in ''[[DeusAngstMachina right after the fight is over]]''.]]
* HotBlooded: Joe Yabuki.
* IdenticalStranger: Freelance journalist Kiyoshi Suga looks confusingly like Joe's first rival Rikiishi, albeit with more handsome features.
* JapaneseDelinquents: Joe, Nishi and Rikiishi. In fact, all of them met in a juvenile prison.
* {{Jerkass}}:
** Joe, through and through. His Jerkass tendencies rise to the point where you have to wonder why Nishi continues to put up with him. After the Juvenile prison arc, he is more of a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
** Nishi himself used to be quite the asshole.
* JerkassHasAPoint: At first, the boxing club presidents composing the Japanese Boxing Commission refuse to reinstate Danpei, openly call him mad for thinking they'd even consider doing so, and tell him to his face he's a cancer and a threat to their sport, a remnant of the time boxing used to be considered little better than street fighting that they'd rather forget about. As a boxing club owner, Danpei was constantly drunk, mistreated his boxers, and assaulted opposing boxers, referees, JBC officials, and even the public, for anything that could vaguely be considered an offense, up until they had to disbar him, and they were genuinely scared he'd resume his antics - and right after being refused, Danpei got drunk, marched back to the JBC building, and attacked them.
* JerkassVictim: The sports journalists often harass Joe and put him in hard situations just to have something to write about. Every time the people of the slums rob them is quite deserved.
* TheLancer: Nishi becomes this to Joe after his CharacterDevelopment.
* LanternJawOfJustice: Rikiishi has this.
* LockedIntoStrangeness: [[spoiler:The ends of Jose's hair turn white once he beats Joe in the finale.]]
* MoralGuardians: They claimed that the manga was "teaching young children to be rebellious and anti-social towards Japanese family values" back when it first came out. They soon changed their mind, however. When the anime was aired in Spain in TheEighties, people complained about exactly the same thing.
* MyGreatestFailure: Danpei Tange became a drunkard after the boxer who he spent years training for the championship threw the fight for money.
* NiceHat: Joe's newsboy cap, and Danpei's fedora.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Not so much as stupidity as an act: [[spoiler:Carlos Rivera purposely struggled against his first Japanese opponents because no matter what country he goes to, nobody is willing to fight him once they see how powerful he is.]]
* TheOjou: Yoko Shiraki is a girl from a rich and well-known family. Lampshaded by Danpei, who refers to her as "ojou-san" rather than by name.
* PeekABangs: Joe's hair always covers one eye.
* RealityEnsues: Serial user.
* RefusalOfTheCall: Joe's initial reaction to Danpei's pleas to train him in boxing. Eventually, Joe gives in.
* TheRival: Rikiishi, for the majority of the series.
** PrivilegedRival: Unlike Joe, he already had experience in professional boxing before they met and has the financial support of the Shiraki family.
* SayMyName: Joe's name is screamed dramatically by Danpei several times in the series.
* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler:OFBF Champion Kim Yongbi killed a man over food. The man he killed was his father.]]
* ShoutOut: As ''Ashita no Joe'' takes place in TheSixties and TheSeventies, there are numerous references to celebrites and boxers who were famous at the time, most notably UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli, to the point Joe quotes his ''iconic catchphrase'' while sparring the Hawaiian boxer Chiko Stainboard while his time in Hawaii.
-->Joe: You reporters, said I was just blowing my horn, didn't you... Can a horn-blower emulate, The Great Muhammad Ali like this? Float like, a butterfly. STING! LIKE A BEE!
* SpiceUpTheSubtitles: Although there was swearing in the original Japanese dialogue, it was mild by Japanese standards. The English-language {{Scanlation}} and {{FanSub}} features a lot of vulgar swearing, even in scenes where there was no swearing in the first place.
* StockShoutOut: The final scene of the series is culturally ingrained enough to be called to in all forms of Japanese media.
* TakeThatAudience: Part of the manga can easily be seen as a take that aimed at boxing audiences who want to see bloody slugfests and K.O's and don't care how dangerous and damaging these kinds of fights are to the boxers, or about the technical and strategic aspects of the sport. This is even explicitly brought up during one fight when the audience starts to complain that the fighters aren't at each other's throats every second, and justify it with "they paid for a ticket".
* TheSixties[=/=]TheSeventies: The manga takes place in the 1960s and the 1970s.
* TitleDrop: Multiple times in the anime.
* TrainingFromHell: The training regimen Danpei puts Joe and Nishi through is brutal even by pro athlete standards, and especially difficult for Nishi, as he needs to drop and maintain a certain weight to qualify for Middleweight, even though he's a natural Heavyweight.
* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"I'm in love...with ''you'', Yabuki!"]]
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: [[spoiler: Because he accidently killed his father, Yongbi is very scared of blood.]]
* WorthyOpponent: Rikiishi and Joe seem to see each other as this.
* {{Yakuza}}: What [[spoiler: Wolf Kanagushi]] turns to, after his boxing career ends. It doesn't end well.
----

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Joe fails to defeat Carlos in their final match, but put up such an incredible fight that the prideful Carlos is shocked to the core at the sheer tenacity Joe exhibits and considers him a WorthyOpponent. Unfortunately for Joe, we last see him being carried out of the arena in the arms of his trainer, and the manga leaves it ambiguous if Joe was actually killed. Even if he did, Joe died doing something he loved and has proved himself to the world, at the very least allowing him to die happy.]]

* AmbiguousEnding : [[spoiler:The manga ends with Joe slumped himself in a corner, leaving his fate unknown.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Ashita no Joe 2'' is this for the manga. Boxers die or retire a lot more.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Joe fails to get the world title from Mendoza. ''Ashita no Joe 2'' implies Joe died.]]

* BarbieDollAnatomy: Unlike the manga where everybody is drawn with nipples,nobody is drawn with nipples despite having visible muscles in the first and second anime.

''Ashita no Joe'' is a boxing manga created by Creator/AsaoTakamori and Tetsuya Chiba that serialized in ''Magazine/ShonenMagazine'' from January 1, 1968 to May 15, 1973. After the end of the serialization, it was collected into 20 volumes by Kodansha Comics.

The manga tells the story of a young man named Joe Yabuki and his boxing career, beginning from when he meets the man who would later become his trainer, Danpei Tange, in the slums.

[[caption-width-right:350:''For Joe, which way is tomorrow?'']]

->''"Tokyo, one of the largest cities in Asia. At the outskirts of Tokyo, there exists a small place where the wind blows vastly, piles of dust cover the walkways, garbage and logs pile up alongside the river and stop its flow. Have you ever seen a place like this? This story starts from such a place..."''

* {{Gekiga}}

* SceneryPorn: ''Ashita no Joe'' features a lot of detailed and shaded backgrounds, and man, is it ''beautiful''.

* ShoutOut: As ''Ashita no Joe'' takes place in TheSixties and TheSeventies, there are numerous references to celebrites and boxers who were famous at the time, most notably UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli, to the point Joe quotes his iconic catchphrase.

* SpiceUpTheSubtitles: Although there was swearing in the original Japanese dialogue, it was mild by Japanese standards. The English-language {{Scanlation}} and {{FanSub}} features a lot of a swearing, even in scenes where there was no swearing in the first place.