A slugfest story of an underground boxer, no-ID, no-name, not-civilian, from the slums who wants to win a robotic arms boxing tournament in the sci-fi city that anyone may enter, proper civilians only, and show everybody what's the real deal about boxing.
It's like Redline, but with boxing instead of racing, with a touch of Cowboy Bepop. The fights aren't as good as those in Hajime no Ippo, it seems to focus more on the journey. Also, Megalo Box commemorates the 50 year anniversary of Ashita no Joe, so it's probably like a sci-fi spin-off of that.
13 episode anime original.
8/10★ - A cool story with a boxer.
Strengths: hype, artwork, soundtracks, rap, grittiness.
Weakness: boxing.
A boxing anime that gets you worked up, with gorgeous art, music, and some pretty dark plot. Enjoyable from start to end. But ironically, despite great-looking, the fights don't feel that special.
Like virtually every sports anime since ever, it's the tale of the underdog character: a guy so underdog he isn't even allowed to compete in boxing because he isn't a proper civilian in the sci-fi high-tech city; he lives in the slums, without an ID. It's then a journey just to rise up and stand on the same ring as the champion.
On that aspect, it's excellent. The shadiness of the slums, a place filled with rigged fights, mafia, child thieves, totally-not-drugs, and so on, is depicted perfectly, as is the low-class folks reaction to one of them fighting his way up in the tournament. It really gets your excited for what's next, and whether they'll manage to emerge victorious in this impossible task.
The problem is... the fights are lackluster. Sports' MCs being nothing more than sandbags for the most part is to be expected. But usually their victories are normally depicted as heroic, amazingly epic moments. Like in Hajime no Ippo for example. In Megalo Box, the fights feel more like devices to advance the plot than the main focus of the series. That is, you just have to have these fights, because it's a boxing anime.
Added to that, the shortness of a single-cour, conclusive original means there's little room for the character development, common in most sports anime. Indeed, it's nearly nonexistent in this series, save from characters flipping their opinion on something altogether. Training scenes are just inserted in there because it's a boxing anime, in a way they might as well not be in the anime at all.
Overall, extremely enjoyable. But it feels like just a glorification of boxing anime, a celebration for the 50 anniversary of Ashita no Joe. I mean, that's what it was meant to be from the start. But you can't help but feel it could have something more to make it special on its own, rather than just a festivity, as it had all the pieces it needed to achieve that.
For example: Busou Shoujo Machiavellianism is a different fighting anime where fights, and everything else, have less technical quality than Megalo Box. Still, Busou Shoujo feels like a better anime, as it surpasses your expectations, instead of hyping you for up a weird "not that great" let-down.
AniDB - MyAnimeList - IMDB
It's like Redline, but with boxing instead of racing, with a touch of Cowboy Bepop. The fights aren't as good as those in Hajime no Ippo, it seems to focus more on the journey. Also, Megalo Box commemorates the 50 year anniversary of Ashita no Joe, so it's probably like a sci-fi spin-off of that.
13 episode anime original.
8/10★ - A cool story with a boxer.
Strengths: hype, artwork, soundtracks, rap, grittiness.
Weakness: boxing.
A boxing anime that gets you worked up, with gorgeous art, music, and some pretty dark plot. Enjoyable from start to end. But ironically, despite great-looking, the fights don't feel that special.
Like virtually every sports anime since ever, it's the tale of the underdog character: a guy so underdog he isn't even allowed to compete in boxing because he isn't a proper civilian in the sci-fi high-tech city; he lives in the slums, without an ID. It's then a journey just to rise up and stand on the same ring as the champion.
On that aspect, it's excellent. The shadiness of the slums, a place filled with rigged fights, mafia, child thieves, totally-not-drugs, and so on, is depicted perfectly, as is the low-class folks reaction to one of them fighting his way up in the tournament. It really gets your excited for what's next, and whether they'll manage to emerge victorious in this impossible task.
The problem is... the fights are lackluster. Sports' MCs being nothing more than sandbags for the most part is to be expected. But usually their victories are normally depicted as heroic, amazingly epic moments. Like in Hajime no Ippo for example. In Megalo Box, the fights feel more like devices to advance the plot than the main focus of the series. That is, you just have to have these fights, because it's a boxing anime.
Added to that, the shortness of a single-cour, conclusive original means there's little room for the character development, common in most sports anime. Indeed, it's nearly nonexistent in this series, save from characters flipping their opinion on something altogether. Training scenes are just inserted in there because it's a boxing anime, in a way they might as well not be in the anime at all.
Overall, extremely enjoyable. But it feels like just a glorification of boxing anime, a celebration for the 50 anniversary of Ashita no Joe. I mean, that's what it was meant to be from the start. But you can't help but feel it could have something more to make it special on its own, rather than just a festivity, as it had all the pieces it needed to achieve that.
For example: Busou Shoujo Machiavellianism is a different fighting anime where fights, and everything else, have less technical quality than Megalo Box. Still, Busou Shoujo feels like a better anime, as it surpasses your expectations, instead of hyping you for up a weird "not that great" let-down.
AniDB - MyAnimeList - IMDB
Details
It's a sports anime with some action and sci-fi added on top.
It's not a romance. Not ecchi. And the most of female skin that gets exposed is a tattoo on a random woman's leg. Zero fanservice. Just bare-chested guys punching the blood out of each other.
It's very violent. It's a boxing anime, so you should expect a lot of punching, but added to that there's a lot o bruising, blood, blood spitting, and more. Furthermore, the dark plot means you get even worse stuff added in it that's not even related to boxing. It's not extremely graphic, but full of grim scenes.
Names
メガロボクスScreencaps
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