Megalo Box (Review)
Megalo Box is Fun, but Lacks Any Real Punch.
One of my favorite sub-genre of anime is the fighting tournament series. There are a lot of anime out there that make use of it as a story arch (Yu Yu Hakusho, Dragon Ball Z, etc), but not many that build series around that premise (Baki the Grappler, Kengan Hashura, etc). Now, I don’t consider myself an expert on anime by any stretch of the imagination (just a HUGE fan), but I’ve never seen anything quite like Megalo Box before. At this point, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. It’s a special blend of action-packed absurdity, cliched sports sentimentality, and just a dash of blunt “homage” to fan-favorite characters of the past. This concoction allows Megalo Box to hit some pretty high highs, but I couldn’t help feeling like I’d seen this all somewhere before…
Megalo Box takes place in an alternate reality, where boxers wear exoskeletons on their torsos to augment their matches (yet strangely wear no headgear to protect them from these enhanced punches). The rich live in a giant city watching the best of the best clash for their amusement, while the lower classes have to make do with underground brawls. The kind of these brawls is Joe (Kaiji Tang), a boxer that’s so good he has to throw fights just to get opponents to step in the ring with him. He’s a big fish in a small pond until he’s taught a painful lesson by the reigning champ, Yūri (Lex Lang). Determined for a rematch, Joe sets out to fight his way into the ultimate megalo boxing tournament set to begin in 3 months. That means he’s got a lot of punches to throw and take if he wants another shot at his newfound rival.
First time director Yō Moriyama puts the primary focus of Megalo Box on the fight sequences, which are pretty impressive. It’s complemented by the gritty animation that TMS Entertainment uses. Most notably in the loose, sketchy outlines around the characters. Megalo Box almost feels as though it was drawn in pencil rather than inked. At the same time, the colors used to flesh out the characters is solid giving them enough a feeling of mass that really packs a punch. It’s also clear that Moriyama did his due diligence when it came to studying boxing techniques and matches. Of course, the fights are exaggerated plenty for the series, giving it that special anime flair with the characters using inhuman speed and power. This makes the boxing matches pretty impressive and easily the best part of the series. I only wish that the rest of Megalo Box was as well thought out.
It’s hard not to look at Joe and see Cowboy Bebop’s, Spike Spiegel. From his stubborn nature which seems at odds with his laid back attitude to the hair on his head, Joe is very clearly meant to invoke memories of that iconic character. Unfortunately, in reminding us of better characters from better anime, Megalo Box opens itself up to a subconscious comparison between the two. Considering that Cowboy Bebop is one of the greatest anime of all time, there was never any hope that Megalo Box could live up to that comparison. Pushing that aside though, it’s hard not to feel like the series struggles outside of the ring. There are plenty of interesting plot points that deal with back alley deals, the politics of the sport, and the criminal underworld sinking its hooks into Joe and his gang, but they’re hindered by Megalo Box’s insistence when it comes to beating metaphors to death. Primarily, there’s the comparison of Joe to a junkyard dog (or stray) and his manager, Gansaku Nanbu (Jason Marnocha) to a scorpion. Over and over, the series feels compelled to remind us of this to the point that it beings to border on obnoxious.
I’m all for suspension of disbelief when it comes to anime, but Megalo Box asks a lot. I mentioned that the fighters wear exoskeletons to augment their punches, but there’s nothing additional protecting them from said punches. That means that the punches certainly don’t seem to cause much more damage than regular punches since characters actually seem pretty capable of just taking them. At the same time, Joe can’t afford augmented gear, so he fights without it for much of the series. This begs the question, “what’s the point of megalo boxing in the first place?” Sure, the gear looks cool, but it doesn’t seem to do anything of value for the fighters. Even without enhanced punches, Joe manages to take down plenty of opponents just fine. Megalo Box tries to explain this away by claiming that Joe is faster without it, but that doesn’t justify how he’s able to take so many punches to the face without his head flying off. A minor issue, but one that proved much more distracting at times than it should have.
Despite all my knit-picking, I still really liked Megalo Box. It’s fun, filled with action, and has some top-notch animation. Sure, it’s cliched and pointless at times, but I definitely don’t watch anime because it’s realistic or even remotely makes sense. Because of that, I’m going to warn folks that this is one series you definitely don’t want to start thinking about because the plot holes are big enough to drive a mac truck through. It’s not a series I found myself overly invested in, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t binge the hell out of it, and at only 13 episodes, its easy to knock Megalo Box out over a weekend.
