Well, this is an interesting one, certainly.  A project commemorating the 50th anniversary of the legendary boxing manga, Ashita no Joe – one which has no direct connection to the original in terms of personnel and, as far as I can tell, story.  Part of that is understandable, as the writer of the manga, Kajiwara Ikki, passed away three decades ago (the original illustrator, Chiba Tetsuya, is alive and well).  As best I can make out Megalo Box is what I would call a thematic spinoff – a work tonally inspired by Ashita no Joe, but otherwise existing in its own independent mythology.

Ashita no Joe, you may remember, was cited as the personal favorite of Moritaka Mashiro, the protagonist of Bakuman who was certainly one of the biggest manga geeks in manga history.  To be honest it’s never totally absorbed me – the two main anime adaptations were almost 40 and 50 years ago, and maybe it’s just too far removed from my time as a sports anime fan.  But I don’t doubt that if I sat down and gave either the manga or anime a start-to-finish treatment I might feel differently – most series which build this kind of reputation don’t do it by accident.

All of that is neither here nor there when it comes to Megalo Box, I suppose, but it does offer a bit of context for what TMS and director Moriyama You are trying to do with this new “AnJ-inspired” reboot.  And I would say based on one episode that they’ve largely succeeded – this was a very solid premiere indeed.  It had an air of timelessness to it despite the sci-fi elements, one which derived from both the look and the cinematic storytelling style You adapts here.  He’s a Madhouse veteran and there’s a very old-school Madhouse vibe and look to Megalo Box in every respect, but most of the key staff is almost totally unknown – so much so that it makes me wonder if pseudonyms might be in place for some of them.  This premiere did not have the feel of an episode put together by a bunch of newbies – quite the opposite in fact.

The premise finds young Junk Dog (Yosaya Hoshimasa) living in a depressing cycle of futility and depression.  He’s a gifted fighter in the new style of “megalo boxing” – basically boxing assisted by various degrees of technology worn (or implanted) on the body.  But because he’s not a citizen, he’s not eligible to enter official competitions.  That means that in order to make a living he has to throw fights for a sleazy promoter, regularly taking dives against inferior competition (which causes him to go out and wreck his motorcycle over and over in frustration).

There’s an essential truth to this scenario – in the world of underground fighting, a guy who’s so good that he’s basically unbeatable is pretty much useless, so throwing fights is the only way to make real money.  Thus JD’s frustration is quite understandable even without knowing the world-building details (which may or may not be forthcoming in future episodes), and he’s a likeable enough underdog protagonist.  The wrinkle in all this is the Megalonia (which number Trump wife was that?  I’ve forgotten), the boxing tournament a rich tycoon (Murase Michiyo) is throwing basically as a showcase for her showpiece fighter, Yuuri (Yasumoto Hiroki, who seems to be in everything lately).  A chance encounter on a rain-slicked private road causes JD’s world to intersect with theirs, and his life (surely) will be changed forever.

All in all, this works pretty flawlessly for at least an episode.  If you take away the “meaglo” part of the equation you basically have an archetypal sports series premise here – the ragged underdog from the slums trying to prove himself in the rich man’s (or woman’s) world.  The production quality is good, but apart from that the experience of Megalo Box is very much that of watching an anime of 20 or 30 years ago – and one assumes that’s very much the intent. If so, mission accomplished – and, I think, so far at least the product is something fitting as a legacy for Ashita no Joe.