Trivia / Tomorrow's Joe

• Adaptation Overdosed: Ashita no Joe started as a manga before getting three anime (four counting Megalo Box as an Alternate Universe), four films, eight video games, a radio drama and a stage play.
• Creator's Oddball: Asao Takamori usually did not let the people who illustrated his manga touch his story, but Ashita no Joe is an exception because Tetsuya Chiba only said he would work on the manga if he had creative freedom over the project.
• Defictionalization: When Rikiishi died, he was given a real life funeral by fans. The baffled Tetsuya Chiba attended it and later said he felt that he lost someone precious to him in an interview years later. Joe was given one too, but this was before Chiba said the ending was meant to be ambiguous.
• Flip-Flop of God: Unlike Asao Takamori who said Joe died, Tetsuya Chiba cannot make up his mind on it.
• Overtook the Manga: The first anime follows the manga faithfully before Episode 55, which goes on to just be filler and ends with Joe giving up his boxing career for the drifter's life.
• The Other Darrin: Some Japanese voice actors were changed for the second anime, but Nishi in particular goes from sounding cartoonishly deep to sounding rather high-pitched.
• Tom Hanks Syndrome: Ryūsei Nakao as Carlos. Really.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Asao Takamori was originally going to end the manga with Danpei telling Joe "You may have lost the match but you won the fight." after seeing Jose winning by points, as it cut to the terrace at the Shiraki Mansion with Joe sitting by as Yoko tenderly gazed at him. However Chiba decided against this and asked Takamori if he could change, which Takamori agreed to. As the deadline approached, ^note Ashita no Joe was serialized in a manga magazine Chiba couldn't come up with an ending he liked and threw an ending he could quickly think of, which became the ending everybody knows about today.
  • The first anime was considered for an English dub and was going to be called Rocky Joe. The reason why Rocky Joe didn't come to be remains a mystery.
• Write What You Know: Takamori was a juvenile delinquent just like Joe.

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