Megalo Box is many things – a sports anime, a tragedy, an homage to Ashita no Joe.  But if it were a musical composition, it would definitely be an opera.  Not Verdi or Mozart, necessarily, but a modern opera – a story of the streets with a musical style to match.  This is one of the most operatic anime I’ve seen in a long time – perhaps even more s0 than the excellent 91 Days, which is the recent series it most reminds me of in literary terms.  But if you go back a few years (well- quite a few) operatic anime were a lot more common – and in that sense, Megalo Box is very much a throwback.

No gloating from this corner, but I’ve been musing for a while that Yuri might in fact decide to remove his gear for the final fight.  It just made so much sense narratively that the possibility was hard to ignore – and it’s not as though Joe putting on gear would have had the same effect.  In order for Megalo Box to conclude in a manner consistent with any of its structural underpinnings – tragedy, opera, sports anime – Joe and Yuri had to fight each other on level terms.  I wasn’t sure how it was going to happen, but I was pretty convinced it was.

I like the way the series went about making that happen – but then, I liked pretty much everything about this week as a setup episode for the finale.  Yuri’s pride as a fighter was ultimately the driving force – it was stronger than his loyalty (and love) for Yukiko and Shirato.  Frankly, Yuri has pretty much been the Shirato stand-in for this entire series – and it seemed clear he would want to fight as and for himself in the end.  I have no doubt Yuri would have defeated Joe if he’d fought him in gear, and he might still beat him even without it.  But what would that have proved, in the end?

The poetry of the moment virtually demanding it, then, it was up to Megalo Box to figure out how to remove Yuri’s integrated gear within the bounds of realism in the mythology.  Again, high marks from me, because the seriousness of what he was attempting to do was never dismissed or taken lightly.  Getting Mikio to assist was an interesting twist, but I guess he’d be as knowledgeable about the process as anybody.  Why did Mikio have an operating theatre at a shack in the middle of the woods? Perhaps that’s a question best left unasked…

Meanwhile Joe continues to train with abandon, even as Yukiko’s lawyer looks into the ID that Sachio left behind in the arena.  Another old friend re-enters the picture here, as Nanbu has called in Aragaki to act as a sparring partner for Joe so as to avoid his fighter destroying himself relentlessly punching the bag.  Tastefully inserted here is a flashback to when Nanbu first encountered Junk Dog – surely a fateful moment in hindsight, if bittersweet for both of them.  Having Aragaki has part of Team Nowhere definitely adds a shot of extra poignance to this sequence – it was a good dramatic choice.

The stage, then, is quite literally set.  Kudos to Yukiko for sitting on the information she’s discovered – her dreams have turned to sand before her, with Yuri’s choice having rendered her revolution a lost cause.  She could and perhaps should have kiboshed the whole thing, but she doesn’t – at not inconsiderable risk to herself and the company, she decides to let the fight go on and even returns Joe’s phony ID.  Was it out of love for Yuri or simple ethical integrity?  In the end I suppose it doesn’t matter, but it reflects well on her either way.

All of the accounts are going to be called in next week, in what should be an exciting and harrowing final episode.  There’s an enormous weight of history arrayed against the idea of a good end here – the tradition of Ashita no Joe, sure, but not just that by any means.  Megalo Box has taken us down a fascinating and riveting path, but it’s one that’s been largely predictable – and all of the series’ DNA screams out for a conclusion that’s bittersweet at the absolute best.  It’s going to be a tough finale to watch, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world.