Hello everyone and welcome to Megalo Box, now with added 100% more feels. This week we have a story of disabled boxers, war and mutual mistakes, and I loved every second of it. Lets jump in!
So lets get this out of the way right now, I was not expecting anything that happened this episode. I was prepared for some backstory on Aragaki and some sort of grudge with Nanbu. What I was not prepared for was a more effective story of war and lost limbs than anything I got from Violet Evergarden. That might seem an exaggeration but over the next few paragraphs I will explain. Specifics of the war story aside, I am glad Megalo Box is taking the time to build up its boxers. We need more than the end boss Yuri to carry this story, so compelling or interesting opponents are a must. Not only do they let Megalo Box tell interesting stories, but we get to explore Nanbu and Joe through their opponents as well. It gives Megalo Box real breathing room for its character moments.
General notes aside, let’s get back to “Stayin’ Alive’ Aragaki. I said earlier that this was a more effective war story than Violet Evergarden, and the reason for this is simple. Aragaki has character. He has wants, desires, and most of all he’s just a normal guy. Unlike Violet, he’s not some emotionless supersoldier with nothing to do but war. He had a promising career as a boxer before it, he had friends and a father figure in Nanbu waiting for him. Only to come back with with no legs, his career shot, his gym shut down and Nanbu gone. That Megalo Box was willing to show him in the act of suicide of all things, just to stop at the last second, was more compelling than 90% of Violets characterization for me. And based on how he treats his fights, Aragaki is still stuck in the war. Good stuff.
Now I have seen some debate on how “justified” Aragaki’s anger is. That he should have sought Nanbu out, that Nanbu did nothing wrong. In my opinion, both screwed up, and here’s why. Aragaki, having just got back from a terrible war, was expecting someone who promised to be there for him. He was not in a good place mentally or physically and had no one to rely on. Man couldn’t even get around well on his own. It’s understandable he couldn’t find or want to find Nanbu, who ran underground. Meanwhile Nanbu just sort of… ran away, completely forgetting about Aragaki completely. He never visited a grave, he never asked what happened. Nanbu didn’t even care enough to notice his old student, Aragaki, was a top ranked boxer Joe might have to fight. So I think Aragaki has, at least a little, good reason to be angry at Nanbu.
The last thing I want to mention is the general fight quality for Megalo Box. For some reason, none of the fights have really impressed me as much as the first two. There’s no rhythm, everything feels slow. When zoomed in on our characters the punch’s feel good and snappy. But when we zoom out to the ring, or to get both characters in the same shot, it all slows down. Maybe this is a Crunchyroll playback issue, but so many punch’s just seem to lack weight. Compared to boxing anime like Hajime no Ippo, which Megalo Box will inevitably be compared to, the fights lack weight. Not emotional weight, Aragaki solved that single handedly, but physical oomph. Sadly I don’t see how this can be fixed, as at this point it’s a stylistic choice more than anything else. At least the music is still on point though.
So yeah, overall, Megalo Box recovered well from last week. It managed to take the 3 expedited fights and is using that extra time to really build up its boxers. Joe will of course win, but it doesn’t feel ham fisted. It doesn’t feel like a plot contrivance for Joe to quickly get up the ranks. Aragaki has good reason to accept Joe’s challenge and the fight means a lot to him. Since this week was mostly build up, I expect the next to be filled mostly with the fight itself. Hopefully this doesn’t end in a single punch or quick turn around like the Samejima fight last week. That would be pretty dang disappointing if Joe turns every fight around in a single moment. We will have to wait and see I suppose. See you next week, and tell me what you thought of Aragaki’s story!
