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There is a place, a place where those who have few more things than their fists use them to make a living. That place is an Underground Boxing (or rather, Megalo Boxing) Arena.

And it's in this place where we find our main character, enter Junk Dog, a.k.a Joe (he doesn't have a 'real' name, but I won't go further into that because, uh, spoilers), Joe is partnered with his coach of sorts, Gansaku Nanbu, to throw their matches and so get some money from local Yakuza. Joe is increasingly tired of this situation and one day the Megalo Boxing Champion, Yuri. This encounter will ... lead Joe to find his new purpose: to get into the Megalo Boxing championship, Megalovania, and fight Yuri. It won't be easy though...

This anime was created as an homage to the overwhelmingly succesful manga (in Japan) Ashita no Joe (which started publishing 50 years before this show started airing) and as such, we can see characters in this show serving as tributes to characters in the original Ashita no Joe: MB Joe resembles (quite clearly) AnJ Joe, Yuri resembles Rikiishi, Nanbu resembles Danpei Tange, Yukiko Shirato resembles Yoko Shiraki and so on.
As for the actual characters, they all come from different backgrounds and this is something you can see in their behavior: Nanbu is an alcoholic because he is pretty poor (and alcoholism is something that has typically haunted the lower classes), Yukiko speaks in a very refined way because she comes from a wealthy family, Sachio speaks quite brashly because he is a kid from with a difficult past, etc. That said, someone may find these characters bland in some way, and I don't blame them. But eventually I did find myself attached to them, so I guess they work for some people, but not for others.

Now for the art. If you watch this show for like 5 minutes you will notice something weird on the art. That is, characters (and sometimes backgrounds) are hand-drawn, this is again, done as a tribute to the old Ashita no Joe anime series from the 70s-80s. This traditional artwork looks fine, but it is nothing compared to old cel-animated shows, but it gives the series some originality over others from its same season.
Digital backgrounds look super nice, especially scoreboards and everything that has to do with technology, it really looks like it's the real deal.

The music in this show is phenomenal, techno beats (I'm not a music conoisseur, so if forgive me if it isn't really techno) surround many of the best moments in the show and so the viewer feels hyped and impressed by the atmosphere. Truly amazing.

Overall, this is a damn good show, a real surprise this season. Whether you like boxing (or sports in general) anime or not, or if you have watched the original Joe's misadventures or you haven't I would really recommend this show to you. Truly a strong contender for anime of the year.