By now we have all heard of the “dark horse” of anime out this season, Megalo Box has taken the community by storm, giving us a magnificent boxing anime with a fresh, but also a nostalgic take on the sports genre. It’s no surprise why this anime has been so warmly welcomed by the community considering the “Old-School” factor it brings in, showcasing a raw and grungy art style while balancing it well with modern animation techniques in order to bring us a “Fresh Old-School”. The art style of Megalo Box closely reminds you of anime like Ghost In The Shell, Trigun and Akira, certainly, a positive thing as this anime is also paying homage and celebrating the 5oth anniversary of Ashita no Joe. However, there is more to this anime than simply some nostalgic art that keeps me hooked and coming back for the newest episode every week. It is without further ado that I give an analysis of why this anime has gotten so much attention this season, sit back and enjoy the ride!
The Story and Plot of Megalo Box
The plot of Megalo Box is nothing special really. It follows the underground Megalo Boxer known as Junk Dog who is tired of throwing his matches for money until he eventually meets the world champion Megalo Boxer known as Yuuri, who finds his way into one of JD’s underground matches and challenges him to a fight, beating JD who then changes his name to Joe (in a magnificent homage to Ashita no Joe) in order to participate in the Megalomania boxing event. Now some of you may be thinking that this is really nothing special and not worth the hype that has been built up around this gem of an anime, however, that is where the greatness of this anime comes from. By building a small and contained world with a minimal amount of supporting characters, this anime manages to properly explore and develop the personalities of each and every one of them, given the episode limit, all the while following the classic story of the underdog rising through the ranks in an attempt to become the very best like no one ever was. However, although this anime seems to follow a very predictable structure to its story, this series manages to deliver some incredibly unpredictable twists and turns, where the main cast either go through immense amounts of pain in order to achieve their goal or fail to do so entirely. Although the fact that Joe would have his revenge fight against Yuuri, the anime makes it clear that the outcome is not something we can predict until the very end of their fight, making for a complex story that follows the simple narrative of the underdog.
The Characters of Megalo Box
One of the most important aspects that makes this series fantastic is its well-written cast of characters. The way this anime manages to make its cast so engaging is the way in which it makes complete use of character stereotypes in sports anime, however, giving them a unique twist to their personality, on the one hand you have coach Nanbu who is the inspiring instructor who believes in the potential of his athlete, Joe, although he hides his personality within the anime’s metaphor for him as a “scorpion” who will always sting a victim for the simple fact that it’s his nature to do so. Then we have Joe (Junk Dog) who used to be an underground Megalo Boxer who would throw his matches for money, however, his desire to have a real fight leads him to meet the world champion, Yuuri, seeing him as a rival, Joe attempts to climb through the ranks in order to have a “real” fight with him, however, just like the metaphor for him being the “stray dog” Joe doesn’t always think about the others around him, instead being blinded by his desire to fight for the better part of the anime. Furthermore, we have the world champion Yuuri, who despite being represented as the “tamed wolf” shows that there is more to him than simply obeying his master’s commands as he often shows that he has more reasons to continue fighting than being a mere lab-rat and as for his master, Shirato Yukiko, who first comes of as a cold and heartless businesswoman, interested only in her company, the anime constantly shows that deep down she is not the cold-hearted woman she tries to convey herself as being, instead showing her compassionate side as she (SPOILERS) takes in Sachio, a boy who’s father is suspected to have been killed by her family, treating him kindly (END OF SPOILERS) as well as the way in which she constantly undermines her own bbrother in order to allow Joe to have a fair fight against him. This anime takes all of the best qualities seen in stereotypical sports anime characters and gives them a twist by adding intriguing motivations as well as more engaging personalities that help drive the story forward in a natural and organic way, creating an old-school story filled to the brim with some fresh ideas and character traits.
The Art Style and Animation of Megalo Box
The art and animation of this anime is truly a spectacle to behold, using modern day animating techniques along with the raw looking experimental art style of older anime series such as Akira and Ghost in the Shell. By using this combination of modern animation and old-school art, the anime manages to have a fresh take on the old-school themes of the gritty and unforgiving world which is portrayed masterfully by the art and character designs used. However, this is not a perfect homage to old-school anime, this series has many faults in the quality of its animation, especially during some of the less important fight scenes where the animation doesn’t manage to achieve a fraction of what it is capable of, instead making these scenes look slow and dragged out as opposed to it’s more memorable fights where the animation creates a fast-paced and intense fighting sequence that gets you on the very edge of your seat cheering for Joe as he destroys his opponents with perfectly animated punches and wonderful slow motion shots of the fight. Overall when it comes to art and animation, Megalo Box has the potential of becoming a modern-day classic, however, what is stopping it from achieving this is the low-quality animation that is put into some of the less important fights, although one thing is clear about this anime, it is setting a new standard of original and experimental art and animation for the industry and you can look forward to some new anime that may come out in the future with a similar feel to its art style.
Is Megalo Box Worth Your While?
Put simply, absolutely. This anime manages to capture the same elements seen throughout some of the fan favorite old-schools anime, from Akira to Cowboy Bebop to Trigun to Ghost in the Shell, while making full use of modern animation methods in order to deliver one of the most visually pleasing anime to come out this year as of yet. Although, keep in mind this anime will not be for everyone as it does contain some very mature themes of gang and mafia violence as well as copious amounts of blood (no real gore though) if you don’t mind seeing this in your sports anime, then by all means, give this anime a go, it will surprise you how amazing it is.
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