There’s no question about it – Megalo Box has something special going on. Its unlikely and unusual existence as a 50-years later non-sequel sequel to a beloved but mostly forgotten classic does nothing to prepare you for what’s to come – because how could it? Series with Megalo Box’ pedigree really don’t exist – it’s a unicorn in that sense. Almost nothing this show did would surprise me in that I had almost no idea what to expect – but that said, it manages to surprise me every week.
The cold open this week was really something else. In fact I was doing a double-take for a while, trying to figure out if it was a joke encode or I’d dialed up the wrong file. No, this was Megalo Box – taking us in a direction I can safely say I didn’t see coming. The introduction of Aragaki (Tamura Makoto) – the fighter we saw briefly at the end of Episode 4 – was a leap back in time, to a war one which was eerily reminiscent of something out of Iraq or Afghanistan. I wasn’t immediately sure where Megalo Box was going here, but it certainly became clear soon enough.
What I find most remarkable about this arc is how Aragaki’s story – his life, and how it interconnects with that of Nanbu and Joe – was so comprehensively told in a single episode. This is exposition in the hands of real masters – there’s not even that much dialogue. We learn what we need to know through a few carefully chosen words, through reaction shots (you’ll rarely see those used as well as this in anime or anywhere else), and through powerful imagery. Aragaki isn’t the main character in this show, but a show where he was would sure as hell be an interesting one.
Aragaki’s tale is told unsparingly. How he was almost killed by a suicide bomber, how he almost took his own life. The fate of returning veterans is not a common theme in anime to say the least, but it’s portrayed here in all its brutal despair. It seems as if losing Aragaki (who was in fact reported KIA) was what set Nanbu on his downward spiral to losing his gym and become a boxing hustler in service of the mob. But that’s little consolation to Aragaki, who thought Nanbu would be waiting for him when he finally did return home.
If I have an issue here, it’s that Aragaki didn’t try harder to find Nanbu – at least once he started to get his life together – or that Nanbu never noticed Aragaki in the Megalonia rankings (even Sachio calls him out for that). But I suppose despair will dampen a man’s curiosity, and both these men felt plenty of that. The sense of betrayal runs deep for Aragaki, but I don’t get the feeling he’s become a monster. The fact that he has the butterfly he saw in that ruined building tattooed on his chest says a lot about him – I don’t think he’s savage so much as indefatigable. As for Nanbu, his sense of guilt is clearly profound – but he feels a sense of responsibility for Joe that’s stronger even than that.
Aragaki fights on artificial legs with light gear. But it’s still gear, which gives him an advantage over Joe, and those legs don’t seem to have slowed him down in the slightest. Maybe “destroying” Joe is in a sense exorcising his demons – even his new trainer remarks that he acts like “a dog who was abandoned by its owner”. But he knows all of Nanbu’s tricks, which means he knows Joe’s tricks too. And whatever his other motives, for Aragaki this is a damned important fight too – as the 17th-ranked fighter he can’t be losing to some low-ranker with a gimmick.
This is an episode of confrontations, and the one in the ring is only the last (and not the most riveting) of them. When Joe confronts Aragaki and tells him “You wanna destroy me, right? Go ahead – just don’t expect it to be easy.” I think this is Joe’s own butterfly moment. The immovable object is meeting the irresistible force, and one of them has to give. Early returns say it will be Joe, but he’s pretty indefatigable himself. He may or may not get up off the canvas before the 10-count this time, but he’s not going to be destroyed either way – and that’s what makes him who he is. As foe Aragaki, he’ll just have to figure out how to live with that reality.
Water Imp
May 4, 2018 at 2:41 pmYeah, had the same feeling. Wondered if I’d clicked on the wrong link. Seemed like Ghost in the Shell.
In Aragaki/Nanbu’s first meeting after the war, once the score started, I knew this was power. It’s collision. For me it’s Yorkshin all over again. If Megalo Box had a Galneryus-driven ED, I’d probably have it on repeat while doing anything, until there was no feeling left in it anymore.
I think the holes, in neither Aragaki/Nanbu trying hard enough to find one another, are the same sort of narrative oversight as Joe not really caring about Nanbu’s meeting with mob kingpin in ep2. At least for my definition of what’s naive (where it’s always fused with guilessness and blind trust), it seems that’s something Joe isn’t. His encounter with Aragaki is come what may. It’s Clive Owen saying “hang on tightly, let go lightly.”
Can’t praise this ep enough.
Kill City Thriller
May 4, 2018 at 3:06 pmI like this series. But I am with you on the major flaw. It is simply unbelievable that Nanbu would have no idea of Aragaki’s existence. He is a boxing promoter. Yet we are suppose to believe he doesn’t even know that one of the highest ranked megalo boxer’s is Aragaki? Come on. Seriously?
Add in the fact that Aragaki is all the more a curiosity cause he is climbing the ranks with prosthetic legs. Like anyone who is in the boxing industry wouldn’t know of a guy who is getting close to the top without legs!!!! C’mon.
leongsh
May 4, 2018 at 3:23 pmI was wrong in the comment for Episode 4. This is not Wolf Kanagushi. Aragaki is this series equivalent of Korean boxer/soldier, Kim Yong Bi, that Joe fought and who also suffered from PTSD as well in Ashita no Joe. He fought in the Vietnam War and was a refugee survivor of the Korean War. And yes, PTSD was brought up way back in Ashita no Joe manga (1968-1973) and anime (1980-1981).
I am loving this series a lot with how well the story is being told, the smart direction, the characters and the many callbacks to the original series that it is paying homage to. The soundtrack is spot-on too. It’s the best series of the season so far for me.
Michael
May 7, 2018 at 11:15 pmFor those of you arguing that it is unrealistic that Nanbu wouldn’t have tried harder to find Aragaki, I think Nanbu’s mental state can explain why. I think Nanbu’s was undergoing severe depression. Depression does not just make you sad; it disconnects you from the world and everything and everyone you care about. You completely lose motivation to do anything besides what is in front of you and what can distract you.
Nanbu was already well down this path when Aragaki went to war; the report of his death sent him over the edge. It explains everything up to the start of the series. Why was Nanbu so in debt? He probably absorbed himself in gambling and shut himself off from the world. I doubt he would have tried to read any boxing news, in fact, he probably avoided it like the plague to avoid triggering his feelings of despair over Aragaki. When Nanbu went to Megalo headquarters in episode 2, he looked awkward, as if he was saying hi to his boxing contacts for the first time in a long time. He probably cut off all contact with them after Aragaki’s reported death. Only when Nanbu’s signficant debts put him in serious danger did he attempt to pay them off by fixing matches. It also didn’t look like there was much overlap between the underground boxing world and the professional boxing world at all. Is it that surprising that a severely depressed man, self-medicating with alcohol, fixing matches instead of trying to win them wouldn’t have the will to keep up with news from the world he feels lost to him? In fact every scene Joe is watching something about boxing or the Megalo tournament, Nanbu turns the TV off.
Near the end episode Joe said that Nanbu has changed. Perhaps Nanbu is pulling out of his depression. His life has a purpose again, training Joe to win legit boxing matches. Also spending time with Joe and Sachiko has to be very healing for him. The return of Aragaki is both a huge relief for Nanbu and a problem he has to sort out. The story he has been telling himself over however much time as passed (a few months? a year? many years?) has been turned upside down. He will need to reckon with that and it will be fascinating to see how he does. Regardless, more and more I am sending a strong sense of tragedy from this series. We’ll see how Nanbu’s and Joe’s stories shake out when all is said and done.