What is the real deal? Over the years as an anime fan, Modern anime has given me lots to cherish. I've seen some good ones, bad ones, great ones, instant classics. Looking back, anime this decade can even be argued to be anime's golden age considering how diverse and consistent the products are and in this digital era, anime production is at an all time high in terms of efficiency and animation can be enhanced through means such as CGI, 3D technology and particle effects and the market is diverse enough to sell anything from lust to gore. But how good is it really, when it is stripped off everything. In it's rawest form, does it still manage to deliver a level of quality set by classics and pioneers? Such is not the mockery but also the challenge taken up by Megalo Box, An anime original that was made to pay tribute to boxing classic - 'Ashita no Joe' on it's 50th Anniversary, And I dare say, it succeeds at doing just that.
Megalo Box has been one of the standout's of Spring 2018, which was crowded with anticipated anime and popular hits, But Megalo Box immediately managed to stand out and get the attention of the viewers, quickly becoming the #1 anime original of the season. An underdog in every way, this anime was not even released in HD (intentionally), there was no fanservice or any other desperate gimmicks for the show to gain viewership. You could argue that the vintage art style and sound were gimmicky enough to set it apart from other modern anime but just like "Gearless" Joe himself who started off as a bluff and became the real deal, anything that this anime started off as gimmick genuinely became an integral part of what the show is. It is not just a tribute to the older anime, but it's wants the viewer to know, making a strong statement - "I am the real deal".
I was sold within the first five minutes of watching Megalo Box. Upon starting this, in it's opening scene it immediately introduces us to three of it's biggest attributes - A badass underdog MC, The vintage SD art style and what is probably my most favorite thing about this show - The music. Me being a huge fan of Hip Hop, I could really appreciate how good these instrumentals were and it compliments the style of the anime and the superb editing and framework of this show. There were a few times where they actually rapped in Japanese as well, which I thought was fresh as fuck. The setting, music and art style reminded me of anime like Cowboy Bebop and Trigun. Apart from being a 50th anniversary tribute to Ashita no Joe, I think it can also be considered a tribute to Cowboy Bebop and Trigun as they celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2018.
The Story is a normal but gritty tale about the rise of an underdog boxer who is looking for a tough opponent to get serious with. What makes it so interesting are the characters and the way in which it is executed. They don't bore us with unnecessary backstory and flashbacks wasting precious screen time on it to drag the show. It's short and to the point, focusing more about what drives the characters and the interesting parallels between them. The second half of the anime features some good plot twists as well. The dialogues were solid, there were so many amazing quotables that you can find throughout the show. Even the fights, I guess some would have complaints in this area considering the fights were always pretty short, often anticlimatic and surely no the best choreography that you will see. Some might even say that the main character wore plot armors at times which I think can be argued but for the most part I was glad that they didn't go the usual route of extremely long, dramatic and dragged out fights. Instead we got fights that were short, meaningful and intense in the moment stuff that play well into the heart of the story. I look at it as something like Ping Pong the Animation, where the sport takes a backseat to the parallels and what it actually means to the characters. They were real, relatable, inspiring and well written, especially the character Aragaki, the soldier. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say his character really hits home. The amount of realness and emotion that they bring to the screen with him is simply one of the high points of the show.
Megalo Box is a combination of so many great things that play into why not a moment in this anime was boring to me. I think it certainly deserves all the success that comes along it's way. It was a very enjoyable short anime and I'm not sure when we will something in this format again, something that is of such high quality in it's rawest form, I definitely hope it inspires other anime to do so. I usually like to give my thoughts about an anime as soon as I finish it, but with this, I decided to just sit with thoughts for a couple of days and deeply appreciate what I had witnessed, cause I know what I had witnessed was the real deal.
9/10
