Category: Megalo Box

Megalo Box: Nomad Anime Review 83/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama, Megalo Box, Reviews by Lenlo

Megalo Box first aired in the Summer season of 2018. Part of the 50 year anniversary for the legendary series Ashita no Joe it was… satisfactory. It brought anime fans back to a different time, an older time, in ways good and bad. Yet despite ostensibly being an “Original” Megalo Box was so heavily tied to Ashita no Joe that it couldn’t escape the comparisons. The story felt like a retelling of something we got 50 years ago, smashed into a 13 episode season. And while some, myself included, still enjoyed the series it felt like something was missing. In Nomad we find that something. While while watching Nomad I felt like I was watching Megalo Box for the first time. The real Megalo Box, more than just a copy of Ashita no Joe, what the series was always meant to be. And I love it.

Created by TMS Entertainment, jointly written by Katsuhiko Manabe and Kensaku Kojima, and directed by You Moriyama I give to you my Summer 2021 Anime of the Season: Megalo Box: Nomad. Let’s dive in

Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for Megalo Box: Nomad. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents.

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Megalo Box Nomad – 13 [El con alas lleva al sin alas, y el sin alas bendice al con alas]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Megalo Box

Welcome all to the finale of Megalo Box: Nomad! It’s been an interesting ride with ups and downs, both of which we will talk about in this weeks episode. If you’re looking for a final review just give me a few days, it’s almost done. So without further ado lets dive in!

First up lets talk about the visual aspects of the fight. By and large I would say it was… lackluster? Meh? I wouldn’t call it disappointing because the narrative beats were strongly delivered. But as far as fights go Nomad’s best action was still a sparring match. Its a really weird allocation of resources to me. Did they not want the spectacle to overrun or take away from the narrative of Mac’s fight? Or did they just decide that the simpler background and lighting of the sparring match was easier to handle? I’m not sure. Whatever the case though, this fight wasn’t a very “hype” fight and that was a little disappointing. Luckily for us that the fight wasn’t the main draw of the episode or even the show. That honor goes to the narrative.

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Megalo Box: Nomad – 11/12

by Lenlo, posted in Megalo Box

Welcome back to Nomad everyone! Apologies for missing last week but work and Wisconsin called. Lucky for us though that these two episodes feed into and fit so well together because we have a lot to talk about. So without further ado, lets dive in! And be ready because this is a long one!

Since I missed last week I wanted to start this post off by talking about where Nomad is going. I’ve talked a lot in previous posts about my dislike of the corporate angle, and I stand by that! I think it, Sakuma and Rosco as a whole, are at odds with the story Nomad is trying to tell. But credit where it’s due, Nomad has at least worked it in well. It has done the best with a bad situation. Nomad has taken Rosco and, while they are still antagonistic, removed them from the center stage. Making the focus not them, but their effects on Mac and his family. How corporations take advantage of, abuse and ultimately throw away the average person who is simply looking for a better life. Just like Chief. Just like the immigrants and their theme park home. And that’s kinda cool.

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Megalo Box Nomad – 10 [Las derrotas pasadas son acompañadas por señales de buena suerte]

by Lenlo, posted in Megalo Box

Hello all and welcome to another week of Megalo Box Nomad! This is late, I know, but I have a good reason. You see I will be out of the state for work starting Sunday and have been spending the week busily packing and prepping. This also means I will be unable post/writeup Nomad on Sunday as I won’t be able to watch it until Thursday. So yeah, expect this weekend and the week afters to be merged into one post before the final review. Sorry about that. Now on with the show!

And what batter place to begin than with exactly what I wanted to see from Nomad, the family stuff! So much family stuff this week. From Mac to Sachio, Joe to Yuri, the way Nomad managed to tie everything back into the 1st arc. This is exactly what I wanted from the series, up to and including minimal Rosco! While one reader might disagree with me on Rosco’s story overtaking Joe’s, I’m sure we can both agree that this episode benefited a lot from it’s family centric focus. And if I sound like I’m being purposefully vague here that would be because I am. I don’t wanna spoil non-watchers before the break but I also want to give a clear hook to make people read, oh the tightropes we walk. I’m rambling because I’m happy with the episode, I promise.

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Megalo Box: Nomad – 9 [Una sola mano no basta para vivir, pero aun así la forma de vivir prevalece]

by Lenlo, posted in Megalo Box

Welcome back to another episode of Megalo Box: Nomad! This week see’s the family come back together, Yukiko confront her business partner and Mac lay down a challenge. Exciting stuff! So without further ado, lets dive in.

Like the last few episodes Nomad continues to be split between the good, family oriented themes and… Rosco. For every scene of Mac with his family, of Mac realizing what’s happening and coming to terms with his memory loss, we get corporate espionage and military contracts. Every time Yuri or Joe get a heart to heart with their chosen friends it’s followed up with some bit between Sakuma and Yukiko, I just can’t stand it. Everything surrounding Mac is great! The way Joe once again inspired someone to get into the ring. Even Sachio was pushed towards boxing because of Joe, though in a different manner. How their struggles connect back to Joe and the overarching themes of the series. This stuff is all great and I love it when it’s on screen! But I don’t care about the corporate crap and I don’t know anyone who does.

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Megalo Box Nomad – 8 [Al principio del fin, la trayectoria del arcoíris dibuja un soportal]

by Lenlo, posted in Megalo Box

That’s right, I’m late on this weeks Nomad. But you know what? I’m still weeks ahead of some other writers on this site so I think I get some leeway. Burning my fellow authors aside, how about we get started?

The best place to begin is with my feelings on Nomad as a whole right now, because they are conflicted. You see I’m concerned with where Nomad is going. On the surface everything is… fine? The fights are fun and I do like Mac. But it feels like Nomad has lost sight of the themes and messaging of the first half. That it in it’s efforts to raise the stakes it has gotten lost in this larger than life story. Do we really need to be involved with Megalonia again? Does Nomad need another rich tech giant sticking their nose into the story? What do these things contribute to Joe’s journey to become a better person and to reestablish his connections with those he loves? I can see a possible future where all of these fit together. But I can’t help but be disappointed after the stellar first half.

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Megalo Box Nomad – 7 [El tonto que muestra su carta no es un payaso estúpido]

by Lenlo, posted in Megalo Box

Rwaaaarg I’m back with another episode of Megalo Box: Nomad! I know it’s late, blame the State of the Season and work for being busy. Do you know how annoying interfacing with a dying protocol like XMPP is? Anyways without further ado lets dive in!

And like usual what better place to start than with production? Except this week we actually have something cool to talk about! That’s right Nomad actually gave us a well animated fight for once and I loved it. It shouldn’t be, it makes perfect sense why, but it’s incredible how much good animation can elevate a sports series. Seeing Liu and Joe go at with such clarity and speed really sells how far above the rest of the competition they are. Whether it be Chief’s fights or Joe’s underground matches, all of those look like child’s play compared to this. Just look at the way Joe’s hair moves in the clip below the break as he ducks and waves through punches. It’s a very different presentation of Boxing to Hajime no Ippo’s jet engines and explosive power. I hope Nomad can keep it up, I would love to see more.

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Megalo Box Nomad – 6 [Aunque estés consciente de tu impotencia, Dios te ofrecerá su imagen para que la pises]

by Lenlo, posted in Megalo Box

Welcome back to Nomad! This is a bit of a late post, I apologize for that. Busy busy weekend. So how about we skip the preamble just jump right into it!

This is a weird week for Nomad all things considered. There were no huge revelations, no big game changers, it just sort of… happened. Effectively acting as a check-in for the rest of our old cast so to speak. This isn’t bad! It’s all useful and important information. Nomad uses it to remind us who each of these characters are with their new designs and to remind us of their relationships with each other. The only person we haven’t yet seen is Yukiko, and technically Yuri I guess since he hasn’t talked yet. We get to spend some time with Oicho, Sachio, Santa and Bonjiri as they hang out and discuss Joe. Mulling over how they feel about him, how they still care for each other, etc. This is all good stuff but I wouldn’t say any of it was amazing or standout.

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Megalo Box: Nomad – 5 [La tierra prometida respondió que el mesías no se quedará]

by Lenlo, posted in Megalo Box

Another week another good episode of Nomad. It’s wild how a show ostensibly about boxing can be so good with so little actual boxing. But that’s just the nature of good character dramas huh? So without further ado lets jump into this weeks episode of Megalo Box: Nomad!

Starting off lets talk about the wonderous world of greyscale, because Nomad used a lot of it. Now I’m not inherently against greyscale. It can often be used to great effect in movies both new and old, 2019’s The Lighthouse for example. With proper or harsh lighting and no color to distract you it can add a lot of gravitas to a scene. In anime this is much more difficult though because you don’t inherently get any extra detail. You have to manually add it in and Nomad doesn’t. If that was my only problem however this wouldn’t be worth mentioning. Because in addition to this, the greyscale also robs Nomad of one of its greatest strengths: The coloring of its backgrounds. These backgrounds are often fantastic! But with over half the episode in greyscale we don’t get to see that this week. And I think that’s a damn shame.

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Megalo Box: Nomad – 4 [Si la flor del alma florece, el amor no se perderá]

by Lenlo, posted in Megalo Box

Hello once again, I am back with another episode of Megalo Box: Nomad! Apologies for the wait, I went to go and see Demon Slayer: Mugen Train this weekend and that sort of held me up. Eighty Six should also be coming out tomorrow for those looking for that. In the meantime though we have a lot to talk about with Nomad so lets get right to it!

Starting off let’s talk about the production troubles Nomad has. Just like the first season of Megalo Box, *Nomad’s fights don’t look good. Part of this of course is the weird upscaling, we’ve talked about that. But the other is that they just aren’t animated that well. A lot of the blows lack impact and characters move like stiff cardboard cutouts. In the first season this was a major hinderance, basically every episode was a big fight of some kind. But Nomad’s shift in focus is doing it a lot of favors here I think. The fights are no longer the important set pieces they were in season 1. Now they are closer to important character moments than action sequences. So as long as Nomad can nail the emotions of the scene, which it generally has, then the lackluster fights aren’t that big an issue. Hopefully it stays that way.

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