Tale of the Nomad

Nomad: Megalo Box 2 (NOMAD メガロボクス2) is the sequel to 2018’s Megalo Box anime. I liked the original season, but I think Megalo Box 2 is actually better. And I’m not the only one who thinks that — this season has a higher average rating on MyAnimeList than the first.

Something you should know about Megalo Box 2 is that it’s very different from the original season. The story it tells is different, as is the structure of the season as a whole. But, that’s actually what made me like it more.

Megalo Box 2 takes place multiple years after the end of the first season. We also get to see how Joe and Yuuri’s final match ended. You may recall it was left kind of ambiguous at the end of the previous season.

I believe it was implied that Joe won, but we never actually saw it happen. This time around, we see that he did win. Yuuri then went on to become a trainer for a new up-and-coming Megalo Boxer named Liu, who eventually fought against and defeated Joe.

As for Team Nowhere, Nanbu (Pops) died and Joe left to travel on his own after basically being kicked out by Sachio who felt Joe wasn’t there for Nanbu in his final moments. That’s a whole thing I won’t get into here.

But, what this season is really about is how Joe comes back from the lowest point in his life. He learns about the importance of family, how your home is wherever your family is, and that megalo boxing isn’t all there is to life.

If you want to see Joe really develop as a character, Nomad: Megalo Box 2 is definitely worth a watch.

Life After Team Nowhere

After leaving Team Nowhere, Joe wanders around on his motorcycle and enters low-level megalo boxing matches under the name Nomad. However, he doesn’t do this because he wants to keep boxing. Rather, it’s all he knows how to do and he needs money.

What does Joe need money for? Well, aside from gas for his motorcycle (probably), the main thing he spends his money on is painkillers. Joe’s become dependent on painkillers, as do many megalo boxers, apparently.

However, when he meets another megalo boxer who goes by the name Chief, Joe’s life begins to turn around. Chief teaches Joe the importance of his own life by telling him the story of the Nomad and the Hummingbird.

The gist of the story is that there’s a nomad on a journey to end his life, and he keeps getting bothered by a hummingbird. The nomad tells the hummingbird that he has nothing, to which the hummingbird responds that he has eyes to see, ears to hear, legs to carry him, etc.

Then the hummingbird dies and the nomad realizes how special the fact that he’s still alive really is. After burying the hummingbird, the nomad then travels back home.

Throughout the season, we’re told the story of the nomad and the hummingbird multiple times. In fact, I’d say we’re told it almost too many times. But, this story is important because it represents the journey Joe is currently on.

Joe, who goes by the name Nomad in the ring, has effectively been on a journey to either die in the ring or from a drug overdose because he feels his life is worthless. But Chief, who has a hummingbird on his gear, teaches Joe how important life is.

The dynamic between Joe and Chief in this season is pretty refreshing after the first season.

Return of Gearless Joe

There have been some spoilers in this review so far, but now is when I’m going to get to some of the more major spoilers. Specifically, this section of the review is going to be looking at the end of Joe’s journey and what led him there.

So, as you may have guessed, Chief dies just like the hummingbird in the story. The gear Chief used in the ring was built by both him and his dead son, and he leaves the gear to Joe upon his passing.

Moving away from Joe for a moment, remember how I mentioned that Yuuri has a student, Liu, who previously defeated Joe? Well, he was defeated and hospitalized by another boxer named Mac who has a chip implanted in his brain that increases his capabilities.

While this chip has given Mac his life back, previously having been paralyzed, it also causes issues with his brain and makes him go on rampages. Because of this, he was in danger of losing his family, and his character arc runs parallel with Joe’s.

Now, at the end of the season, Joe gets in the ring with Mac. And this is where Chief’s gear becomes relevant again. Joe is no longer “gearless” Joe. He fights using Chief’s gear in honor of Chief and his son and everything Chief taught Joe.

Before the fight, Joe also makes up with Sachio, who only agrees to let Joe enter the ring if he can throw in the towel whenever it looks like the fight isn’t going to go Joe’s way. Sachio doesn’t want to lose Joe again.

In the end, after a few rounds of fighting, Sachio throws in the towel. Even though Joe doesn’t win the fight, I think this was a great ending. Boxing isn’t everything. Joe understands that now.

Conclusion

I give Nomad: Megalo Box 2 a 7/10, which is the same score I gave the first season. But, I do think this season was the better of the two. So you can think of it as a higher 7/10 than the original Megalo Box got. I’m not going into decimals or a 100 point scale, though.

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Overview

Megalo Box was one of the best anime of the Spring 2018 season and would have been the best if not for My Hero Academia season 3. The story follows an underground Megalo boxer, who goes by the ring name Junk Dog, as he rises through the ranks to participate in Megalonia.

Unlike modern boxing, Megalo boxing involves the use of exoskeletons on the upper body to increase the power behind the boxers’ punches. This is supposedly to make the sport even more intense and entertaining, but I feel like that’s just a good way to kill someone.

The series is heavily influenced by the 1968 anime Tomorrow’s Joe and serves as a 50th-anniversary project. While the story may be a modern retelling of one from the ’60s, the art is styled to look like the series came straight out of the ’90s.

I’ve heard that the series was originally made in 1080p, then downscaled to 480p, then upscaled to 720p to give it a crisp ’90s look. That said, there are certain scenes that showcase a much more modern style such as the 3D views of the boxing rings, which I found to be out of place.

Characters

“Gearless” Joe, formerly Junk Dog, is the series’ protagonist whose name is clearly just one of many references to Tomorrow’s Joe. He originally participated in fixed matches in an underground ring as a way to make a living due to not being an actual citizen.

However, all Joe really wants is to be able to have real matches against opponents who are worthy of his skill; not just those who are as skilled as he is, but even those who are more skilled. Joe wants to see how far he can push his boundaries in the ring.

If I had to pick one character from another anime that Joe reminds me of, it’d be Spike from Cowboy Bebop. They both have similar character designs, but they’re also both cool characters who are driven by their individual motivation to accomplish their goals.

Nanbu is Joe’s coach who has been with him since his underground days. He’s the one who originally talked Joe into throwing fixed matches as a way to make easy money and is known as a con artist to many in the Megalo boxing world.

While Joe’s character doesn’t really change throughout the course of the series, that isn’t the case for Nanbu. Over the 13 episodes of the series, we see Nanbu gradually change from a con artist who wants to continue using Joe for his own profit, to an actual coach who believes his boxer has a chance at winning Megalonia.

Sachio is the third and final member of Team Nowhere. He’s an orphaned boy who seems to be roughly 11 or 12 years old despite his small stature. He primarily serves as the analytics technician during training and the water boy during fights.

The final character I want to mention is Yūri of Team Shirato. Yūri is the current Megalo boxing champion and the primary antagonist of the series. Despite this, he and Joe are actually extremely similar characters.

It may actually be better to think of Yūri as Joe’s Rival instead of the antagonist of the series. Both of them want to fight against each other because they see each other as the ultimate challenge. Joe wants to fight the champion, and Yūri wants to have a “real” fight which he believes Joe can give him.

Conclusion

Within the series, I found there to be three major turning points. The first was when Joe becomes “Gearless” Joe and starts fighting without any Megalo gear. This signified his move forward and out from the constraints of being a fighter who throws matches in an underground ring.

The second came much later in the series when Joe puts his gear back on in his fight against Burroughs. This signified the low point of the series when Team Nowhere is temporarily disbanded and the three members go their separate ways.

The third case of this is when Yūri decides to have his implanted gear removed for his final match against Joe. Like with the removal of Joe’s gear, the removal of Yūri’s gear signifies him breaking free of his shackles, in his case, the Shirato corporation.

Out of the entire series, my least favorite part was the ending by far. This is something that should never be the case, especially for a series with a lot of intense action scenes and a great plot like Megalo Box.

Early in the season, I predicted that Joe was going to win Megalonia, but later on, I changed my mind and thought a tie was going to occur. Instead, Joe did win, but we didn’t really see it happen. Also, the way the announcement of his victory happened left a lot to be desired.

The final scene of the fight that we see is of both opponents hitting each other at the same time, which leads us to believe a tie occurred. Then, during the following scenes, Yūri is spoken about as if he died in the ring, and Joe is nowhere to be seen.

Further, it’s mentioned that the champion’s seat has been vacant in the year that’s passed since their match, which makes the viewer believe both fighters died in the ring and Megalonia ended with a tie.

While this would have been an ending I accepted, that’s not what happened. In fact, Joe won, which we see as text on a black screen at the very end of the episode, and Yūri is now in a wheelchair. Both are alive, and both appear to now be friends.

This isn’t the ending I signed up for when I started watching a gritty ’90s themed anime. Where’s my Cowboy Bebop ending?

In the end, I gave Megalo Box a 7/10 which is the rating I had it at for most of the season. I thought the final episode may be able to push it back up to an 8, which is where I originally had it, but no such luck.

My review of the second season is available now.