DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

ANIME ActionAshita no Joe
MOVIE ActionAshita no Joe (Movie)
ANIME ActionAshita no Joe 2
MANGA ActionMegalo Box: Shukumei no Souken
ANIME ActionMegalo Box
ONE SHOT ComedyMagazine Ohanami!!
SPECIAL ActionAshita no Joe Pilots
ANIME ActionNOMAD: Megalo Box 2
MANGA ActionGrappler Baki
MOVIE DramaAshita no Joe 2 (Movie)
MANGA AdventureAshita no Ojou
MANGA Slice of LifeAshita no Joe ni Akogarete

REVIEWS

• 

  VNSalesman

  100/100
  Ashita no Joe isn’t just an old boxing manga…

  It's a fantastic character study.
  This is a work that may seem outdated from an outsiders perspective. Let’s be honest here it's a battle shounen made in 1968. It's not necessarily spring chicken by any means. But Joe offers far more than what meets the eye despite all these seemingly understandable fears that other works that came after it exceed its value.
  I'm here to say this. Nothing before or after Joe could ever replicate what it did within the context of a shounen. Joe is a classic in the truest sense. Its influence on other works is very evident but its style is completely unique to its own.
  Unconventional MC
  Joe is the farthest thing from a prototypical shounen MC in terms of how his arc is structured and how he is characterized. Throughout at least one third of the manga he is portrayed as arrogant, rude, impulsive and downright sinister. Obviously, there's a context to why he's like this, he did not have the best upbringing being orphaned and poor. But that's more subtext than something explicitly told to you.
  You have to be able to not necessarily forgive all of Joe's actions but at the very least empathize with him and desire for him to improve. This is where the strength of Joe's arc comes from. He primarily shows development through action. Joe isn't open to sharing his feelings on things and because of this every time he does something that isn't typical of what we usually see, it's very noticeable.
  You see this distant and troubled person improve gradually throughout the years slowly, coming a long way from where he initially was at. Due to how immature Joe's character is he becomes extremely susceptible to change.
  This choice to make Joe unlikable initially only served to further strengthen Joe's character and I wish more shounens would make an effort to adopt this style of characterization. Because I feel this slow burn makes Joe's character very special with how negatively he is portrayed in the beginning of the story. It promotes a desire from the reader for change within him. Something I do not get with other battle shounens where the MC is usually portrayed in a more positive light throughout. Joe is true to himself for better or worse. That's the strength of his character.

  

  Show Don't Tell
  No this is not merely an element of Joe's story. This is a core part of it. Without it Joe wouldn't be nearly as effective as a work of fiction.
  When I think of Joe, I think of actions speaking louder than words. Joe to me is a story composed of stares. It is a boxing drama first and foremost, but the story it tells with the stares is far more effective than any eloquent speech a character could ever tell me or any punch they could throw. A cold stare speaks volumes in this series and its used throughout. Piercing glares that could see through any facade.
  With so many shounens giving exposition dump after exposition dump, the use of visuals to tell a story is a huge asset for Joe to have. Especially with how it's implemented within its story, it's not something that you merely forget and say...

  Wow how neat

  Joe constantly challenges the reader with the scenarios it throws at you. Sometimes it may seem that a character is slightly underdeveloped, or an arc didn't reach its full conclusion, but that's purposeful. Joe is concise and earnest. It does not want to waste your time with meaningless details. Instead it shows you how a character is impacted by an action and lets you decide if it was enough. The confidence of the mangaka to write a story with these type of visual motifs (which I've dedicated to discussing the stares primarily, there is more subtext to unravel but I rather let you see for yourself) speaks volumes of his skill. If you want to see something that doesn't spoon-feed you all the answers without necessarily leaving you questioning everything. Please read this work. It's storytelling 101.

  

  Fantastic Structure
  With many shounens nowadays seemingly ending on wet farts or stagnating due to fear of experimentation or backlash there exists works like Ashita no Joe. One of the best things about Joe is that it's a complete vision and because of this is fully finished. Yes, I get what I said was redundant, but that's for emphasis of this point.

  

  You will not read many series that go past the 100+ chapter mark that retains the quality of when it initially started and peaks at the end. Joe once again breaks traditions and in my opinion peaks at its final chapter. The author had a long term goal for what this story was initially set out to do and whether or not if Joe dying was a stroke of genius or a happy mistake is neither here nor there (final chapter spoiler).

  Now I may sound like I'm providing fellatio to the ending of the series moreso than the structure of this series. But the ending is only effective because of the authors long term storytelling. It takes two to tango. Due to him building to the climax of the series gradually throughout several arcs in Joe's life. The story is thematically cohesive and tells so much with minimal tools. It's an exercise of fantastic writing when the climax is actually the climax. Oh, dear I did it again...

  

  Joe doesn't offer a great structure from just an ending standpoint (even if it is the best example of it), it also offers a fantastic structure in general. The manga rarely if ever actually wastes your time. Every arc is relevant in some way to Joe's growth as a person and because of this story being mostly a character study, that's all you need. Of course, there are some fights with higher stakes than others, but each one is integral to Joe in some form or another. He learns from his opponents and never comes out the same from all the main fights. The mark of a truly fantastic structure is if all parts contribute to growth for the characters or narrative and Joe provides both and more with its arcs.

  

  Conclusion
  Read Joe. It's great and worth your time. It's highly influential and aged magnificently. It's a work with a lot of aspects to discuss and despite it never reaching the west officially is still very much loved in Japan. If you love character dramas, there are very few that I've read that are better than this. Even fewer sport manga's that read so far ahead of its time like this one.

  

  Negative Thoughts
  Perfection doesn't exist.
  A masterpiece to me is fantastic IN SPITE OF THAT!
  So yes. Joe has some flaws.
  It's rather slow in the beginning despite being very unique initially. This is due to the character growth of Joe taking longer compared to the average shounen MC along with the lack of boxing within a professional setting for a while. This slow build to me wasn't an issue at all due to me being a patient reader, but I can see people being frustrated with this slower form of storytelling.
  The story is very grounded in tone and structure for the most part. But there is a fight in volume 19 that leaves a lot to be desired. Going from this consistent stream of realistic boxers with very real motivations to a joke fight. Despite this, think the growth of Joe from this fight was strong and the aftermath of this fight had a massive impact on various characters (which might not have been gained if it didn't happen). Though, I'm willing to admit that it could have been handled slightly better.
  Fight sequences are outdated. But to me this has a far bigger appeal to drama fans. Which is why I praise it so highly. If I wanted great action sequences, I would read something like Ippo, Naruto, Jojo, or Hunter X Hunter. What these fights get accomplished is that they all have massive stakes associated with them. Not the actual fight choreography itself (which still isn't bad though very simple).
  If you don't like Joe. There is zero chance you will like this manga. If you don't want to see him grow and just hate him from the get-go while not being able to accept that he will grow. Please don't read more. You will only disappoint yourself.

  

  Extra Thoughts
  Joe anime is far less subtle than the source and overstays its welcome with some lackluster filler arcs and breaking the rules of "show don't tell" which Joe perfected. The benefit to it is that the animation and directing is breathtaking. Along with strong voice performances and music, otherwise I wouldn't recommend it at all over the source material. I am of course talking about the 2nd season of Joe. The first season is much slower paced than the source material. Also it's very dated with some really bad audio mixing and lazy animation throughout. It does have its moments though, which I would honestly just watch through internet videos rather than watching the whole show. The second season is fantastic (I personally gave it a 10, but that's WITH context of the source material). Though the criticisms I gave still apply to it.

  

  Ippo has a lot of neat references to Ashita no Joe. Sendo being the most obvious example (being a homage to Joe Yabuki). If you want to read a completely different take on boxing that emphasizes the sport aspect, I would recommend Ippo. Even if it's very inconsistent.

  

  Joe is a very important work to me. It made me realize that a story can be amazing and ageless no matter what time period it's from. It even holds the distinction of being the only manga that made me cry. A feat very few works of fiction that aren't visual novels have done to me. It's a work of passion.

  Hey hey hey blues.
  Nothing but rollin' the blues.
  The attitude of this guy is unforgettable.

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• 

  Joe

  100/100
  An immaculate masterpiece.

  ___This review is spoiler free___

  Over 50 years old, Ashita no Joe by Asaki Takamori and Chiba Tetsuya is one of the very first few sports manga and almost certainly the first to ever revolve around boxing with both the manga and anime being noted for being pioneers of the genre as a whole, and both considered classics. Even though it was an immense success in the land of the rising sun it definitely wasn’t overseas, which is truly a shame considering how masterfully crafted this manga actually is.

  Story

  The story follows the life of Joe Yabuki, a short-tempered, nonchalant 16 year old drifter who by chance meets a former boxing coach turned drunkard: Danpei Tange, who spots his potential as a boxer and agrees to train him. But it manages to go far beyond being just another inspirational story about one stubborn teenager's rise to the top. it is a superb story about the entire course of the life of its protagonist, pitifully detailing all of the hardships, pain and suffering he has to go through. It goes beyond being just your average Shonen. it is a piece of work that differs from the lot and manages to pull of this staggering feat with splendid writing and character development. One of the very few pieces of media to focus both on the action and psychological aspect of the characters, highlighting the struggles that each one of them has to go through in order to survive in a constantly ever changing Japan.

  Boxing is more or less just a petty "excuse" to describe the life of this one unconventional protagonist. Being someone who has never achieved anything, his fists are the only thing that he has and that has allowed him to fight for an existence tailored for him, a path that he consciously knew that he was destined to. The matches are not imposed by the memories of hard training, but by lessons that life has taught and consolidated in the depths of his soul. Joe's arrogance and impulsive nature reflect perfectly his grumpy personality, and his coach, Danpei, knows it too well. Although they do not understand each other very well, the two look alike for the willingness to redeem themselves in a society that does not accept them. They show that if you fight with all your heart, in spite of the difficulties and sacrifices, if you still have the strength to go on and push harder, a better tomorrow will await you.

  Characters

  There's something about the characters that deeply fascinate me, and that's how realistic they are: I have never seen characters as deep and as complex as the characters in Ashita no Joe, ever. The sheer amount of detail that has been put into the characterisation of each, individual character is jaw dropping. Each one of them are all unforgettable, there're so alive, so selfish and so grandiose that they seem incredibly realistic, too real at times.

  Joe is our hero, less wise, not at all mature, a little melancholic at times, but strong, determined, courageous, with a violent, unpredictable instinct. A protagonist and an anti-protagonist at the same time, continuing on a path not of redemption but of self-awareness. Joe will always be violent, reckless, wild, and a wrangler at times...but the inner fire, the "complete combustion", will be the true leitmotif of his majestic journey. Danpei, Joe's coach, will be the guardian and promoter of this fire, a guardian angel willing to do anything to manifest the pure talent that holds Joe.

  And then we have Rikisshi, one simply cannot not love Rikishi. His opposite way of approaching life, his constant desire to challenge himself to become a better man, the positivity with which he faces his past and the honesty with which he approaches life. The meeting between the two characters is particularly exciting not only because of the strong rivalry; the two will learn (albeit in their own way) to look at boxing no longer solely as a mean of punching, but as a noble art with which to assert and ennoble oneself as individuals. Rikishi will eventually lose dozens of pounds to face his rival in the ring, despite the countless health risks. Joe on the other hand will be serious about something for the first time and will began it’s his journey to affirm his position in a society that has yet to accept him.

  And at last, we have Yoko, rich and spoiled, even Yoko under the appearance of an innocent girl hides her petty nature, which pushes her to always want look better in front of the others and to indiscriminately judge anyone. It is thanks to this subtle dualism that Yoko becomes the heroine of the story, in many ways, as a counterpart and at the same time similar to Joe, up to that unforgettable ending.

  There's so much I'd like to talk about of each and every character but I feel like I'd end up spoiling for the ones who have yet to experience this masterpiece.

  Art

  Now, the art style. It sure is outdated and may not please everyone but the level of facial expressions and background detail puts to shame many modern series and we're talking about a manga made in the 60s, over 50 years old. I presume many people who are thinking about reading this are probably being put off by the old and outdated art style which may not be up to the standard of more modern series but that's just something that you need to get used to and give a try reading.

  Overall

  Simply put, Ashita no Joe is hands down one of the best manga to ever be created and probably one of the best that will ever be created; a hidden gem that has yet to be discovered by the mass.

  But it can also be appreciated at a more superficial reading level, as a simple training manga with a strong sport component full of challenges, sacrifices and drama that, very simply, can be read beautifully all in one breath throughout all of its 20 volumes. And even so, it remains one of the most exciting, enthralling and touching works of fiction that have ever been made.

  I believe it shouldn't be avoided just because it is old, in fact, that's exactly the reason as to why it should be read. Anyone with even a speck of genuine admiration to the medium we all call manga should at least consider reading this work of beauty at one point or another. Absolutely and unquestionably a must read and that, like all masterpieces, can be read and appreciated even in a hundred years and when it's narrative and drawing style further has aged like wine, we'll get an even more full-bodied aftertaste to this great metaphor of life which is Ashita no Joe.

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• 

  ToonEnthusiast

  90/100
  The most influential sports manga ever created

  After 2 months of reading it off and on again, I have at last completed Ashita no Joe. I can easily say it was completely worth every single page turn. The story is definitely one of the best written sports story I've ever read in any type of media, and also probably the most human. Let's start off with its strongest point.

  __Characters__

  The characters in Ashita no Joe are never stagnate. But that doesn't mean they're all over the place. Quite the opposite, as they build upon their already established character arcehtype into becoming more realistic and multifaceted. Take for example the titular character of this series, Yabuki "Brawler" Joe.
  

  Joe starts off as your average delinquent runaway orphan who's completely aimless in life. He's extremely quick to get in a fight with anyone who even looks at him funny and is a general nuisance to everyone around him. Then he meets a washed up drunkard boxing coach, Danpei Tange, who will change his life forever. Not before Joe gets sent to jail for tax fraud(it was just regular fraud don't worry 1960's japanese IRS). While in jail Joe recieves letters from Danpei titled "For Tomorrow Lessons" which teach Joe crucial fundamentals of boxing. A prideful but painfully bored Joe caves in and starts practicing these lessons that Danpei sends him and instantly falls in love with boxing. As the story progresses, Joe goes from a directionless orphan who wanders the slums like a stray dog, to one of the greatest boxers in the world. But thats not where his development lies. Throughout the story, we start to unravel Joe as a person, and see exactly what the inner workings of his mind are and why he acts the way he does. Then we see him grow as a person and eventually mature into strong willed boxer who will go to unbelievable limits to fight for his pride as a brawler. Joe learns and grows from every match he fights, and he gains something emotionally from them too, whether that be to his betterment or detriment. The other boxers are also beautifully written, such as Rikiishi Toru, who is probably the most crucial character to Joe's development. When his official match with Joe is nearing closer and closer, Rikiishi hits the extreme limits of the human body and completely shatters them in order to secure a match with Joe, as he is a lightweight boxer and Joe is a bantamweight. I want you to go look up both those weight classes right now and see the difference between them with your own eyes. Rikiishi's reason for doing this is because he sees Joe as the only thing stopping him from achieving his lifelong dream of becoming a world class boxer, so he will stop at nothing to make sure that he is dealt with before he moves on up in the ring, or else Joe will crawl on up to shatter his dreams. But during the fateful match between the two, they both realize that they are each others true equal in life, a rival they would never have encountered if they didn't chose to pursue a life as a boxer.

  This is the part of the review where its going to be filled with spoilers so if you're still not convinced then either go about your day or continue reading

  After a long and arduous series of blows exchanged between the two fighters, towards the end of the match, Joe lands a powerful left hook to Rikiishi's temple, but it proves useless as he is KO'ed in the final round. His body exhausted from the extreme weight loss it went through, combined with Joe's blow to his temple, cause Rikiishi's brain to hemorrhage killing him. After the match with Rikiishi, Joe finally finds his purpose in life and decides that he wants to continue boxing until the day he dies on the ring, in honor of the sport his greatest rival Rikiishi gave his life for. This is just a small portion of the brilliant character writing of Ashita no Joe, writing that's inspired countless sports series of the like and will continue to do so for decades to come, and if you are a fan of fleshed out and complex characters, this is definitely the story for you.

  __Plot__

  

  What you just read is one of my favorite character monolouges of all time. This story is the original underdog rags to riches sports story where a stray dog from the Tokyo Slums makes it all the way into the world championships on equal footing with the best fighters on the planet. Ashita no Joe is really slow at the start, but once it get's going it becomes a well oiled machine. You genuinely never know how each match will turn out, all you know is that Joe will find any way he possibly can to perservere, until he either gets a KO or gets KO'ed. This adds more to Joe's character and leads him to getting the nickname the "Wild Boxer", because of his nature resembling that of an untamed beast. The plot structure is fairly simple. After Joe finishes a match he looks for another boxer to fight. In the meanwhile he's usually training and hanging out with the neighborhood kids making sure they don't get in trouble(but most of the time getting them into it). Then he finds a boxer he wants to challenge and starts training vigorously in order to defeat them. During the match the odds seem far too high for Joe to pull through, but in the heat of the moment he deduces an ingenious strategy to break through his oponnents defense. That or he just says fuck it and beats the everloving living shit out of them. That works out in his favor a couple of times believe it or not. It's not all over the place and very concise. This isn't Serial Experiments Lain or Evangelion, this is a boxing manga

  __Art__

  

  The art style in Ashita no Joe can feel dated at times, but what's most impressive is how immersed you will be in the story as to not really care, as I mentioned above how well written the characters are. Even so, there's a massive improvement in art as you continue reading through the story that you'll question whether this was actually drawn in 1968. Rather than tell you about the art, it'd be far more apropriate to just show you the art from one of my favorite matches. Spoilers obviously. Read right to left
  

  Now obviously this doesn't hold a candle to fight scenes from manga like Kengan Ashura or Hajime no Ippo, but you aren't reading Ashita no joe for the same reasons as you're reading those, so this is just unadulterated hype vs strong character writing lol.

  __Negatives__

  This is the part I dreaded and why I couldn't confidently give this a 100. This manga came out in 1968, so as of 2021, it has still yet to recieve a fucking english release, despite being one of the most influential stories in all of manga. Thankfully we have fansubs right? Right... except they're fucking unreadable from volumes 2-5. I'm just going to toss in the worst example to show you why I despise it so much

  

  Yeah. It doesn't help that those volumes specifically go by EXTREMELY fucking slow that it almost feels like a chore to go through. There were moments that shined through of course, otherwise I still wouldn't be done with this manga because of how GODAWFUL THESE FUCKING SCANS ARE! If you can read kanji I'd suggest just buying the volumes on ebay, or if you don't still do it because it'll be an oppurtunity to learn a new language or sum. Seriously, these scans were so fucking goofy they made otherwise serious and important scenes make me laugh out loud. Thank fucking god a different and infinitely better translation team picks it up in the middle of volume 5. It sucks dick that there are literally no good translations of volumes 3-5. And trust me. IVE LOOKED.

  __The Ending__

  The ending of Ashita no joe deserves its own damn section because it's one of the must fulfilling conclusions to any story I've read. The final showdown between the world champion Jose Mendoza, who has never lost a single match and boasts a completely perfect defense and deadly corkscrew punch, and our hero Yabuki Joe.

  Sorry I kinda got carried away and summarized the whole fight but it's also some cool analysis of the fight too but it's def not for people who haven't read the last volume yet lol
  Jose Mendoza has already permanently crippled another friend of Joe's. Carlos Rivera, who was once referred to as the uncrowned emperor of Venezuela, was permanently crippled after Mendoza delivered his corkscrew punch to Rivera's skull, shattering it and leaving him permanently disabled and forced into retirement. Yabuki over his many matches has developed punch-drunk syndrome, or as its now known today as CTE which is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in people who have recieved repetitive blows to the skull. He knows that he doesn't have much time left as by his match with Mendoza he's already reached the latest stage of the disease before being permanently crippled. But he has nothing left in the world but boxing, and it is also what's pushed away almost everyone except Danpei because he couldn't maintain a relationship with anyone if it wasn't boxing. At the start of the match it was a one-sided beatdown as Joe tried to rush in and catch Mendoza by suprise, only to have all his punches miss as Mendoza methodically weaved through all his punches with no effort. Joe is severely punished for his brazenness as Mendoza lands several corkscrew punches to his temple. But even though Jose Mendoza was said to be a perfect machine, he froze for a moment when he saw that Carlos Rivera, the man that he crippled, was standing next to the ring watching him as he fought Yabuki. Yabuki manages to get multiple hits in and changes the tide of the fight as Mendoza's defense doesn't seem to be working anymore. This is because Joe's punches are tilted slightly off because he has gone completely blind in his right eye due to late stage punch-drunk syndrome, which allowed him to slip past Mendoza's defense. But Mendoza realizes this and starts going for Joe's blindspot, and as Joe tries to defend his blindspot he's severely beaten down by Mendoza. He goes down, but at the count of 8 Joe gets up. Mendoza beats on Joe, Joe gets some hits in himself, Mendoza beats him down, and Joe gets back up. Mendoza stares into Joe's eyes and is shook to his very core, as he comes to the realization that Joe Yabuki will never stop fighting until he dies as he has nothing tethering him to life except boxing, while Mendoza still has his family back in Mexico who he needs to return to. Mendoza knows that Joe will never give in, because at that point Joe Yabuki had already died. His body wasn't dead, but he resigned himself to keep fighting through sheer willpower alone until the last of his embers were snuffed out. And they were. At the end of the 15th and final round the judges decided that Jose Mendoza was the winner of the title match, but all his hair had gone completely gray at that point. Danpei turned to Joe to console him, telling him that he fought beyond his limits and was able to hold his own against the world champion for the entire match. Joe was already dead in his chair. There's this analysis of the ending of Ashita no Joe that is way fucking better than mine so I'm gonna quote it. You can read it here link "In the end, Joe was never the champion – he was always 'Tomorrow’s Joe'. Never happy with being static, always striving to become the best, trying to get the best of his trauma. In the end, he failed. But does this make him less of a hero? Surely a hero tries his hardest, despite the odds. And Joe, for all of his flaws, will certainly always be my hero." He had finally achieved his dream of fighting until the very last ember of himself was burned to pure white ash. He had finally beat Rikiishi at his own game. He was free. These are the final thoughts of Joe Yabuki after finishing the last round. "Burnt... It's all burnt away... burnt to white ashes..."

  Conclusion/TL;DR:
  Ashita no Joe is a timeless classic that will be remembered for many more years to come while continuing to inspire the genre it helped shape into what it is today. The characters are super well written and are enjoyable to read and also dissect why they are the way they are. The plot is engaging and straight forward but the first 5 volumes are a huge drag to read if you're an english speaker because the series was never officially released in english and the fansubs for the first 5 volumes are shit. The art can seem dated but if you're open minded you'll find super hype and well drawn fight scenes will come your way. It has one the best endings of all time that isn't super fucking hard to understand. It is a must read if you are a fan of manga. If you can completely forgive the horrible translation you will probably like it more than me. Thank you for reading.

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