Megalo Box is back

Megalo Box is back. The beloved boxing series of 2018 is returning in these days with a second season called Megalo Box 2: Nomad. Let’s get ready to watch the new episodes, remembering the events of the first season.

What’s Megalo Box

Megalo Box is a manga of only two volumes, writted by Chikara Sakuma in 2018. The same year the manga was adapted into an anime series in commemoration of the 50^th anniversary of the manga Tomorrow’s Joe. Basically, Megalo Box is a futuristic version of Tomorrow’s Joe, this last is considered as “the” boxing manga par excellence and one of the most influential Japanese cartoon of all time. Megalo Box is not completely reviving Tomorrow’s Joe’s story step by step, but most of the elements are present even if a very peculiar way. The anime sets in a futurist Japan where only licensed citizens can live in the city, unlicensed citizens have to live in the outskirts, in poverty. In this world is very popular a sport similar to boxing, called “Megalo Boxing”, where the boxers wear a metal frame to enhance their attacks.

Gearless Joe

The protagonist of the series is a Megalo boxer known as “Junk Dog” in the underground circuit, who is forced to lose matches in order to make money, because of his crooked manager. After rebelling to his manager and show him is true talent, the Yakuza managed to give him a fake Citizen ID in order to take part in Megalonia, the official Megalo Boxing Tournament. Moving up through the rankings, Junk Dog will be known as “Gearless Joe”.

At first Gearless Joe is seen as a bold underdog boxer, but over the series he will become a true symbol of determination and courage, as the nickname “Gearless” suggests: in the one hand he did not wear any gear because he cannot afford one, in the other hand he puts his life in danger challenging Megalo Boxers, continuously demonstrating  his value as real fighter.

A worthy opponent

The only person, who seems to understand Gearless Joe from the very beginning is the Champion of Megalonia, Yuri. The famous Megalo Boxer is equipped with a unique Gear, which is surgically “integrated” to his arms, representing the ultimate prototype of this technology as well as the Megalo Boxing per se. But, Yuri is first of all a true boxer and his dream is that of Joe, to fight against another true boxer… So in the end of the first season, Yuri will renounce to his Gear in order to be able to fight at the same conditions as Joe and prove his value as a fighter.

Tomorrow’s Megalo

Megalo Box is really a boxing story, all the elements of the genre are fulfilled: the training, the motivation, the retaliation and of course the boxing. Yes, Megalo Box takes up Tomorrow’s Joe story, but really with its own style. The futuristic Japan represented in the series remembers a lot Cowboy Bebop environment, also the style of draw and the rhythm of the scenes seem coming to the masterpiece of Watanabe, and I have to say that Megalo Box could fits fantastically in the Space Cowboy universe! So it is not a surprise, if this 50^th anniversary tribute to Tomorrow’s Joe is screening its second season, taking even more its independence as anime. And I promise you, the show is worth it!

Megalo Box is back, are you ready to see Joe fight again? Who will be his opponent this time?