Ah boxing, the quintessential manly man sport of beating each other unconscious. In anime, the sport was first forged in the fires of Ashita no Joe, and some would say later perfected by Hajime no Ippo. Both fantastic series in their own right. Both filled to the brim with epic clashes of wills, phenomenal characters and some of the best fight scenes in anime. Some would probably count Megalo Box among them, near the top of sports anime. I am not one of them. For you see, Megalo Box is not a boxing manly mans sports anime. Megalo Box is a character drama. With boxing.
Lets jump in!
Animation/Art
First off, the most obvious part of Megalo Box, the art and animation. Megalo Box’s art style is very striking compared to modern anime. It harkens back to old 90’s anime like Cowboy Bebop and Trigun. The rough lines, the bright colors and elongated bodies all remind the viewer of the days of cel animation. The only possible downside here is that Megalo Box didn’t go whole hog, instead keeping to digital animation and downscaling to try for the classic look. It still works, it still makes for a striking style. Especially in comparison to modern anime, which is often to clean, with thin lines. But at higher resolutions like 1080p the downscaling starts to become rather obvious. In motion its almost unnoticeable, but the still and artful freeze frames suffer for it. No, Megalo Box’s only failing in this category is fight animation.
Suffice to say Megalo Box’s animation leaves a lot to be desired. In low-movement scenes, walking or character shots, it’s fine. There’s nothing crazy, not to much arm or upper body movement, but Megalo Box gets by. No, where Megalo Box’s animation starts to fall apart is the fight scenes. Most involve limited movement, simple jumps between characters throwing weightless punches. That or the artful freeze-frames I mentioned before. That isn’t to say Megalo Box doesn’t have its moments. Episode 6 has a phenomenal rotating exchange between the two fighters, and episode 13’s final fight has beautiful combinations. Sadly these shots, usually the finale to each big fight, are few and far between. It is because of this, and the strength of the story, that Megalo Box is less a high adrenaline sports anime and more a character drama that features boxing.
Direction
Now there are two areas where Megalo Box does shine, and Direction is without a doubt one of them. It is simply filled with exquisite shots, interesting angles and well boxed/spaced scenes. For example throughout the season Yuri and Joe, our two leads, are constantly paralleled. Even when the two aren’t in the same scene together, Megalo Box finds interesting ways to show the connection they have. Not to mention what Megalo Box does with the side characters. It often manages to do an entire scene, to show what a character is thinking, without a single spoken word. Or, when the characters do speak, to say so much more. Megalo Box takes the advice “show don’t tell” quite seriously. Atleast… it does until the final 6 minutes of last episode.
Story/World
Oh boy, the story, here’s the contentious one. Let’s start with the good, so the first 12 and a half episodes. Most of this was simply gold. Joe was a compelling character with numerous obstacles. Yuri wasn’t same emotionless antagonist waiting to be defeated. They had chemistry. Excluding the first few fighters used to establish Joe’s strength, each opponent had at least some backstory. In fact one of the most compelling stories in the series, that of Aragaki, was a side character’s. And the best part is it all wrapped back together. Nanbu’s history with the Mafia, Sachio’s parents, Yukiko and her family. It all wraps back together in the end. Either resolving before, or resolving because of, the final fight between Yuri and Joe. There are, as far as I can remember, no lingering plot threads at the end. No, there is only one issue with Megalo Box’s story. The ending.
I mentioned that Megalo Box’s story was, for the first 12 and a half episodes, great. I mentioned the final 6 minutes. And boy are they a disappointing 6 minutes. Without giving anything away, Megalo Box anti-climaxes itself. It sets up this world of class imbalances, Mafia deals, blood debts and pit fighting. Yet in the final 6 minutes it throws all of this away for a wholesome, happy ending where everyone is content. Everyone, from the worst antagonists to our protagonists, are content. It is the most disappointing, letdown of an ending I have seen in ages. For the simple fact that it built itself up for a knockout of a finale. I understand the desire, as the 50th anniversary spiritual successor, to separate itself from Ashita no Joe. But Megalo Box strayed to far. There is a reason Ashita no Joe’s ending is remembered 50’s down the line.
Characters
Now I have been talking about the characters alot up to now, without going to in depth with them. That’s on purpose. As a character drama featuring boxing, go to deep into them sort of hurts your first viewing of it. Suffice to say, Megalo Box’s character great. Anyone who shows up for more than a single episode has a great backstory, established motivations and reasons for what they do. I have mentioned him before, but Aragaki is the perfect example of this. His side story, that of a soldier returning from war, was one of my favorites. Especially with how it relates to one of our leads, Nanbu. And this isn’t even mentioning how Aragaki parallels himself with Joe. Really I could gush about Megalo Box’s characters and their stories for paragraphs, spoiling every little thing. Suffice to say, everyone that matters is very well written.
Music
Finally, the music. I added a whole other category to these reviews just so I would have the chance to talk about Megalo Box’s music. This OST is, simply put, my favorite OST in years. It has become my new workout music. Every track fits the scene, gets your head bobbing. None of them overpower a scene, they all manage to accentuate it. Most of them don’t have any lyrics, mostly being background music for fights or montages, but those that do are still phenomenal. There is this one character rap in particular about our leads Joe and Yuri and their relationship that I love. I just wish it was longer. To make sure you understand just how much I enjoyed this soundtrack, I have already ordered a physical disk of it to go in my car for morning drives. Its that good. Seriously, just listen to this and this.
Conclusion
So to close out, Megalo Box, what do I think. I think it was an ambitious project, a love song to original cel-animated anime, that had no idea what it wanted to be. It couldn’t decide if it wanted to be this action packed sports anime, or this focused narrative drama. It couldn’t decide between sticking with what works, IE Ashita no Joe’s ending, or going off and doing its own thing. In the end, it tried for both. Megalo Box reached for the stars, trying to set itself apart, and in the end it ruined its own tone. Megalo Box shot itself in the foot right at the finish line. So my verdict?
Watch it. Watch it all, binge it, love it and enjoy yourself. Get hyped. But skip the final 6 minutes. Watch the fight, but don’t peek behind the curtain looking for anything deeper. If you do, Megalo Box will just ruin itself for you like it did me. I still can’t understand that ridiculous closing dance scene.
