The ideas on display here are brilliant and could have made a really fresh/exciting anime. Very rarely do we see shounen protagonists after their ultimate victory they often become essentially gods once its done. But here he falls back down to earth struggling with real issues like poverty, racism, drug addiction, even hate crimes are touched upon. But all of this is thrown away as the series progresses like an immense gravitational force is pulling it back to the its origins of shounen.
There's just so many dropped ideas. So spoilers. For example, the Nomad in the title doesnt make sense. 80% of the show isnt Joe travelling but instead going home, the absolute opposite of a Nomad. But its weird for the first 4 episodes it really embraces the Nomad side. A man travelling aimlessly with no home. Then its dropped. Same for the drug abuse, that is solved in one episode. The racism is again solved in an episode. The kid is commiting hate crimes then he smiles and everyone is chill again. And its even weirder but Joe isnt white but never experiences any racism, the show just ignores the non-white main character in a show with racism??? Or why does it have a south American style/vibe going for 4 episodes for it to be dropped out of nowhere. All the promotional images, trailers and a 1/3 of the show has it but then its gone.
Then the rest of the show just becomes season 1 again and ends with the fight of the century. Never mind Joe is 10 years older and his body should be fucked from years of heavy drug abuse. At the start Joe is a Nomad, no real identity since he has left boxing. The show sets up him trying to find an identity post boxing only for him to become the same man he was at the end of season 1. I guess it was nice seeing the kids all grown up.
Overall it was ok. Im going to continue to keep an eye on this director because I do think he has talent, he just needs more experience.
