Nomad: Megalo Box 2

Megalo Box is an advanced form of boxing where competitors wear metal frames called Gear. When the first ever Megalonia tournament took place, "Gearless" Joe became its champion and known to all as a legendary fighter. However, soon after, he lost an exhibition match against the second champion and vanished from the public eye.

Seven years later, Joe now goes by "Nomad" and keeps a low profile, occasionally fighting in a few underground matches to get by. He is haunted by hallucinations and relies on a set of painkillers to numb his mind.

During a match, Joe wins against an opponent, Chief, who purposefully loses for some extra cash from gamblers. Subsequently, Joe discovers that Chief is from a community of immigrants called the Casa. Chief is gradually trying to make enough money to purchase the land where they live illegally. At first, Joe hesitates to get involved, but eventually decides to lend the Casa a helping hand.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Joe Main

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

Chief Supporting

Tanaka, Miou Japanese

Nanbu, Gansaku Supporting

Saitou, Shirou Japanese

Yuuri Supporting

Yasumoto, Hiroki Japanese

Sachio Supporting

Murase, Michiyo Japanese

Shirato, Yukiko Supporting

Mori, Nanako Japanese

Aragaki, Tatsumi Leonald Supporting

Tamura, Makoto Japanese

Shirato, Mikio Supporting

Suzuki, Tatsuhisa Japanese

Marla Supporting

Farahnaz, Nikray Japanese

Rosario, Mac Supporting

Miyauchi, Atsushi Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Abe, Kengo Producer

Tsuchiya, Junichirou Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Reviews

Jul 16, 2025

Pete_Athlete

Recommended

When Megalo Box came out, in my mind it instantly established itself as one of the best sports anime of all time, and it was a great nostalgia trip for fans of Ashita no Joe like myself.

By contrast, Megalo Box: Nomad is neither about sports, nor would calling it an anime do it justice. It is much more significant. Almost like a Shakespearean tragedy in reverse, it picks up not from the end of season 1—with our hero on top of the world as the Megalonia champion by upset—but instead is set six years later, after he has lost everything.

Joe has become Nomad, a traveler ... staying afloat through clandestine fights in underground boxing rings. His talent and experience still show, though he refuses to fight as “Gearless Joe,” seemingly both to fly under the radar and, more importantly, because Gearless Joe is a product of the family he has left behind, which he no longer deserves. His self-loathing is established by his addiction to illegal painkillers and general alcoholism, which he uses to forget his past.

Things pick up when he meets Chief, an immigrant boxer who has lost even more than Joe has, yet keeps trying to find a home for his people. Much like the hummingbird in the children’s story, it is through the one who has truly lost everything that the traveler remembers he still has a home to return to, even if it has to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Nomad touches on a lot of deep themes. More than about loss, it’s a story about hope. Of getting back up from a hole that seems inescapable. Of stubbornly keeping on living in a world that’s unjust, unequal, and unfair. Of seeing not just the things one has lost—even if that includes that which is most precious to you in the world—but realizing there is always something left to fight for, and finding meaning in that.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 15, 2024

LemonadeSamurai

Mixed Feelings

Megalobox II Nomad is a difficult pill to swallow

The story takes place 7 years later after Gearless Joe became the megalobox champion.

We find out that Joe has vanished from the public eye but we the audience know he is back on the underground circuit as "Nomad"

He somehow ended up a drug addict addicted to painkillers after Megalobox and is dependent on them to function after his body took all those beatings.

the kids are all grown up now and everybody has left Joe.

A series of events happened that we didn't get to see but are told in flashbacks involving Nanbu and ... Joe occurred with Joe leaving in disgrace.

Joe is all alone, it's a sad tragic tale. He ends up meeting a mexican immigrant boxer named Chief fighting to save his land and eventually becomes his coach.

I won't spoil the rest but it's a very sad story compared to the 1st season. Truth be told I didn't like it that much given how depressing it is.

Joe isn't the hero. He's the most popular boxer in the world however to his loved ones he is a coward and disgrace.

He's a broken man whose glory days are gone. If Megalobox was about the glory of Boxing, this is about the repercussions and redemption that follow.

Thoughout the show we're told of a Nomad and a Hummingbird, ironically chief wears a Hummingbird symbol on his gear and Joe's name is Nomad.

The story is of Nomad who meets Hummingbird and Nomad just wants to die. Which really encapsulates Joe and his saga.

Joe isn't the angry lone wolf anymore..he's just a wanderer with no goal except to die. He's lost everything.

The main issue with Megalobox 2 is that while it's got a beautiful somber theme and story of redemption..it's also very depressing and often boring.

We watched Joe rise to the top only for it to come crumbling down. We don't see much boxing in an BOXING anime. Instead we're shown flashbacks of what happened in 7 years and given an emotional drama.

There's boxing but it doesn't happen until later. Most of the episodes involve Joe being depressed and flashbacks of the past.

It feels like a big middle finger to the fans who wanted Joe to have a good life and to be happy. That's the core issue with Nomad.

The musical score is fantastic, especially the Hispanic guitar theme of Hummingbird and Nomad.

The animation is once again gorgeous.

But this is a very depressing anime to watch.

It's too realistic and sad for me. Joe deserved way better.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 12, 2025

Supersonic_Pain

Not Recommended

I thought it was the worst of Megalo Box 1 combined with some weird, disjointed decisions.

As mentioned in S1's review, I haven't seen Ashita no Joe so I have no idea how much, if any of this, is the fault of its predecessor and it's just following the script but having an excuse doesn't absolve you of poor writing decisions.

In the previous season, I said I didn't think the majority of the boxing matches were well-written and S2 solves this issue by making the boxing matches even less prominent and having even less memorable boxers.

For what it's worth, the boxers that DO matter feel less ... like battle shounen/sports anime opponents and more like characters but on the other hand, there are only really 2 outside of Joe himself that I thought were really all that relevant (3 if you want to count Liu but idk, man, are we really counting LIU?).

And, ironically, the 2 boxers represent the big characters of the, like, completely different 2 arcs that are in this show. The first few episodes feel like a sucker punch, especially if you're fresh off S1 like me.

You're kinda thrown in the deep end and Joe's in deeper shit than he ever was in S1, even if he doesn't have the Mafia breathing down his neck.

And there's this distinct Hispanic flavor to the show which is cool but it's weird that the first few episodes are Joe helping a group of immigrants (speaking of which, is this show not set in Japan? I guess I assumed it was considering all of the scientists are Japanese and there are quite a few Japanese characters in the boxing world including Aragaki, Samejima, and Nanbu and this trend continues into S2... is there a wave of Hispanic immigration into Japan that I didn't know about?) and they just become background characters for the rest of the show.

I guess it was the best part of the season even if I didn't like Joe's arc this season but, like, it didn't even feel like the same show to me personally. Even Chief, the one character who actually matters from this arc, he just dips and like, okay, sure.

If this were the entire season, maybe I'd give it a point or two back, but it's such a weird place for the story to go.

And then they just go back into Megalo Box S1 world and I feel like we should talk about Joe's arc now.

We see Joe and he's Da Nomad(: Megalo Box 2) and he's on cheap pain pills and he's fighting with Gear in underground fights again because he's such a Tortured Soul and the kids from the first season hate him because he did something stinky and like, what the fuck, dude?

You would think crippling his opponent/rival, apparently for life since he's still in the wheelchair in S2, would be the catalyst for this downfall but no, apparently that's all peaches and cream. Obviously not going to say what triggered this downfall because that's a spoiler but idk man, it wasn't that big a deal. In fact, Sachio being such a dickhead dweeb about it only served to make me strongly dislike him this season. Really, I don't like any of the kids this season. There's one who is just "the freelance reporter" and that feels like his whole gimmick. I guess I was feeling kind last season for not criticizing Bonjiri for being Fatass: The Character but he still is that but now he's a chef because he's fat.

We also get arguably the biggest new character in Mac Rosario and it leans into the more technological aspects of Megalo Box (and brings back the Shirato siblings, Yukiko getting a stylish hair cut) and this arc also has interesting things to say about brain damage and CTE but because they spend a few episodes on the immigrant thing and a couple more unrelated episodes about Joe and his relationship with the kids from S1, they only get a few episodes to do ANYTHING with it and it's more "oh, this new guy [not the Shiratos, a different guy] who is responsible for the brain chip in Mac is actually a big dickhead and the brain chip is making him crash out."

They even tease Joe having health effects from his boxing + pain pill abuse but other than leading to the wet fart of an ending for the one somewhat decent boxing match in the season, they don't get enough time to do anything with this either since they introduce that concept way too late.

I get why they wouldn't want to write Mac pulling a Chris Benoit but it's a victim of the biggest culprit of this season (and given a different issue, Megalo Box in general).

Similar to S1, this show is also 13 episodes. Maybe they could have given both arcs more time to breathe if it wasn't 13 episodes but as is, they should've cut one and let the other one cook. I would've respected the show more if it was all about the immigrant arc and we got to see Chief and the others for more than 4 episodes because I think that is by far the stronger arc. It would have been more tonally consistent if we just stuck with the latter arc.

As is, I did not really care for any of the new characters, I thought a lot of the older characters were either just There (Aragaki, Yuri, I guess Yukiko?) or made actively worse (Joe, the kids), the show feels like 2 different shows glued together (or, arguably, clickbait since it keeps the Hispanic theming post-immigrant arc despite not really doing a whole lot with it after E4), and the boxing is even less prominent and good than it was in S1.

I'm probably being generous giving it a 4 but, like, I don't know man, it didn't piss me off or anything. Maybe it's because I didn't end up caring for Megalo Box S1 that much in the end but this one was just kind of not very good and that's about it.

I don't really see why you'd feel the need to watch this. The first 4 episodes are kind of intriguing so you can watch those maybe but it's just kind of for the best to imagine it doesn't exist and the show ended with Joe vs. Yuri.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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