It’s kinda unfair that Nomad is so good, because it’s making a lot of really good shows look ordinary.  I’ve watched enough anime to know when I’m in the presence of greatness – not just year-end Top 10 type stuff, but genuine timeless classics – and Megalo Box 2 is it.  We’re only halfway home and the deal is by no means closed, but the standard of these first six episodes has been exceptional.  I really haven’t seen character writing on this level since the second season of Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu.  Maybe you could make a case for Vinland Saga being as good or better taking everything (like visuals) into account, but it’s no slam dunk.

There’s just no sugarcoating it – this is magical stuff.  The pathos is off the charts, the emotions are powerful and utterly believable, and the self-assuredness in the presentation seals the deal.  Ultimately Megalo Box comes down to the relationship between Joe and Sacchio and that’s indeed what this main arc is clearly about, but the others are not bit players, here to facilitate the main story.  It’s not the “every character written as if they’re the protagonist” effect of Golden Kamuy, but rather that everyone (including the major players in the prologue) have a clearly defined role that’s essential to holding the entire story together.

Sacchio, though I’ve no doubt he’d bite your face off for suggesting it, is the proverbial apple who hasn’t fallen far from the tree.  He’s on a dead-end road whether he knows it or not (I think he does), but he – like Gearless Joe – remains himself.  He refuses to fix fights, even though he’s too ineffectual a fighter to make the boss any money.  Meanwhile Bonjiri (Ochiai Fukushi) has made something of his life.  His Chinese restaurant may be a dive but it’s his dive, and he’s busting his ass to make it a success.  He’s also the one of the original Bowery (mostly) Boys who clearly has the most sympathy for Joe – as witness his heading out to the dump on a delivery run to get a glimpse for himself.

Coming into focus this week are the kid reporter Santa (now voiced by Kanze Noriaki) and especially Oicho (Kambe Mitsuho).  Maybe I’m the only one but I actually had no idea she was a girl through the whole first season, but she definitely is.  It’s clear that she looked at Joe both more knowingly and more adoringly than the boys did – maybe she even fell in love with him in a first crush kind of way.  Now she’s deeply wounded by what happened, and by what Joe’s return has done to Sacchio (with whom there may now be some mutual feelings).

Oicho is at the center of yet more tragic developments here, as one of the local underground boxers comes into the diner and threatens Bonjiri into comping his beers.  He’s also rough and crude with Oicho, which pisses Sacchio off severely.  But what Sacchio does next – bash the guy over the head with a bottle after his manager had already reined him in – was undeniably stupid.  Sacchio’s sense of justice is admirable, but his judgment is not – and picking an unnecessary fight when it’s his friend who’s going to suffer for it is a selfish act.  Would Sacchio have slipped this way if he wasn’t emotionally thrown off by Joe’s return?  Who knows – but the damage (and it’s considerable) is done, and the lowlifes effectively steal the deed to Bonjiro’s place.

Joe’s defense of his return to town is reflective of a beaten man who’s left idealism in the rear view mirror – “I didn’t come to get back what I lost.  I just want to protect what’s here now.”  But even that is still denied him, as Sacchio has no desire to be protected, least of all by Joe.  He’s taken it upon himself (in very Joe-like fashion) to get the deed back, which means he’s forced to fight “Butcher” Ushiyama.  But he only gets the deed back if he wins – and Joe arrives before that can happen, interfering uninvited and putting himself forward in Sacchio’s place.

Sacchio drinking beer alone as Joe fights to undo his mistake is a pretty bleak moment, to be sure.  And that’s not the half of it, as Joe does the unthinkable – he takes a dive, though the Butcher would have been dead meat if he’d fought seriously.  Maybe the lesson he’s learned from Chief’s life is that protecting the family is more important than anything else – including his honor.  So far the dominant theme of Nomad is capitulation to the unfairness of life – or accommodation, at least.  If you’re not one of the lucky few you do what you have to do, not what you want to do.  This stands in stark contrast to the first season, which was really about staying true to your ideals in the face of all that unfairness.

You wouldn’t think you’d ever have been calling Megalo Box upbeat, but compared to Nomad it really was.  The question is, where do we go from here?  The truth is now fully revealed: Joe decided to fight Liu rather than go to Nanbu’s dying bedside (Oicho stayed to watch him lose), and Sacchio never forgave him.  In fact Sacchio told Joe to leave – and while Joe certainly could have said no, that new information does put a different shade on those events.  Mistakes were made, serious ones – most seriously by Joe, who should have known better, but not only him.  Maybe five years is long enough, and it’s time to forgive and move forward.  The problem is that Sacchio is still married to his idealism, and it’s an open question whether we should be rooting for that to change when reality will make it happen soon enough anyway.