Megalo Box is a 2018 anime television series created in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the manga Ashita no Joe. It is produced by the studio TMS Entertainment and 3xCube, which also produced the second Ashita no Joe anime in 1980. The head of production is director Yō Moriyama, working with screenwriters Katsuhiko Manabe and Kensaku Kojima, with music composed by hip-hop artist Mabanua. The series was broadcast in Japan from April 6, 2018 to June 29, 2018 and was simulcast on Crunchyroll. The series was licensed by Viz Media for an English release and began airing on Toonami in the United States from December 8, 2018. A second season has been announced that will take place several years after the events of the first season.
Plot
The series takes place in a futuristic setting where licensed citizens live in a wealthy city while, on the outskirts of this city, there is a slum town where unlicensed citizens live in Japan. Megalo Boxing is a popular sport in this world similar to boxing, except the boxers fight while wearing a metal frame which makes their attacks much more lethal. Junk Dog is a young man who fights in underground illegal rings in fights that have a fixed result where his coach Gansaku Nanbu directs him on when to lose a fight. One evening he almost crashes his motorcycle into Yukiko Shirato, who is the head of the wealthy Shirato Group which oversees the Megalonia tournament. Junk Dog picks a fight with her bodyguard Yūri who is also the top ranked Megalo Boxer. Yukiko stops the fight but Yūri seeks out Junk Dog and meets him in the underground ring where he easily beats the less-experienced fighter and tells him to fight him again in Megalonia, which Junk Dog would need a place at the top of the official Megalo Box rankings to qualify for, as well as a proper citizenship ID to enter the rankings in the first place. After Nanbu persuades the mob boss Fujimaki to forge Junk Dog an ID under the name Joe, the two are given 3 months to achieve their goal of working their way to the top of the Megalo Box rankings in order to have a chance of fighting in Megalonia.
Characters
;Joe/Junk Dog ;Gansaku Nanbu ;Yūri ;Yukiko Shirato ;Sachio ;Fujimaki ;Tatsumi Leonard Aragaki ;Miyagi ;Mikio Shirato
Media
Anime
The series was announced on October 12, 2017 through a video uploaded to TMS Entertainment's official YouTube channel. Yō Moriyama, who previously worked as a concept designer on Attack on Titan and Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, serves as series director and concept designer. The opening theme is "Bite" by LEO Imai and the ending theme is "Kakatte Koi yo" by NakamuraEmi with insert songs performed by rap artist COMA-CHI. The series was simulcasted on Crunchyroll; it aired for 13 episodes and the Japanese Blu-ray release contained a new short anime. During their Anime Expo 2018 panel, Viz Media announced that they have licensed the anime. Anime Limited announced that they had acquired the series for home video release in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Madman Entertainment acquired the series for distribution in Australia and New Zealand, and streamed the series on AnimeLab. The series premiered on Adult Swim's Toonami block on December 8, 2018. During Anime NYC on November 16, 2019, the staff announced that the series will receive a second season.
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Original air date
English air date
Manga
Chikara Sakuma launched a manga adaptation of the Megalo Box anime titled Megalo Box - Shukumei no Sōken which was serialized in Kodansha's Shōnen Magazine Edge from February 17, 2018 to August 17, 2018 with 2 published volumes.
