I love boxing movies so when I heard about Megalo Box I was pretty hyped to begin with, and this anime lived up to my hype. The story was great, an underdog tale that tugs at my heartstrings and makes me want to restart my life and become a boxer. It is straight and to the point without any fillers. The art is pretty great though their is some pretty noticeable lazy animation in the boxing scenes that could have been a lot cooler and the backgrounds which seemed too still at points. The score was good, it was simple but got the job done.
Most of the characters were awesome but a couple were my biggest grievance with the show and the only thing keeping MB below a 9. I really liked most of the characters Yuri, Mikio, Yukiko, Aragaki, etc... They all showed growth and had defining characteristics that made them original and interesting. The only ones that dragged the show down were Joe and Nanbu. I enjoyed Joe's tenacity and his backstory but he is one of those characters who always seems to be losing but then has an epiphany moment and then wins, a trait that is way too common in anime and is very lazy. My biggest qualm about Nanbu is that he seems to flip his perspective a couple times per episode between being self-centered or selfless. It felt lazy and plot serving to me and was very distracting.
