MEGALOBOX Ep 6 – Tomorrow Starts Today

• Genre : Cyberpunk, Sports!, action, cool
• Studio: TMS Entertainment

Watching the hype and fandom that is forming around this show is a form of entertainment all of it’s own. It’s very different form the big sports anime titles we’ve had in the past few seasons. Maybe one day I will try to put together a post analyzing fandom trends and will get absolutely everybody angry at me. Really I’m a little offended at myself already and I haven’t even written it yet.

No matter how you look at it, Megalo Box is a perfect storm of fanboy…girl…fanperson.. pandering. It has the smooth faux nostalgia feel hearkening back to the 80s, which all the cool kids seem to love now, thanks stranger things. It has just a bit of sports, a very realistic violent sport at that. A beautiful main character with a bliss inducing deep voice but enough rough looking side characters not to alienate people into thinking this is a pretty boy show. Enough drama to keep it realz and even a cute kid to keep it not too realz.

I’m not going to pretend this isn’t a well made show. It truly is and I’m enjoying it a lot. But to read the more “official” reviews, it seems the show can do no wrong. That’s never a good thing. You have to be able to acknowledge a shows weaknesses if you are to address them.

I don,t know WHAT you’re talking about, Steins;Gate is a perfect perfect butterfly rainbow unicorn that has never and will never fail at anything, I’m not listening to you, La La La – can’t hear you…

Ok I’m back! So what I’m trying to say is that Megalo Box is a good show, you should probably give it a watch. Is it perfect? Not by any means. Are you a dummy if you don’t see what all the fuss is about. Not at all. Don’t get tricked into thinking this is the flagship anime that all other anime should be judged against. Heck, I’m not even sure it’s the best example of its particular genre. It’s episode 6 and the only thing I can confidently tell yu about the main character, is that I wouldn’t have had the confidence to talk to him in high school. But it has a lot going for it and could still be remarkable.

Wait, you were here for an episode review? Really? You guys trusted me to stick to a point. Awww how adorably misguided. Well now I feel like I owe it to you, so, let’s see, they boxed! 🙂

Episode 6 just basically picked up exactly where episode 5 ended. It consisted almost entirely of the remainder of the match, inter-cut with flashbacks of Aragaki and Nanbu’s training days, before the former set off to war. I gotta say, they did effectively manage to convey a rather close and honestly sweet relationship between the two men without beating us over the head with it. Both cared about the other’s future and were working towards a common goal in a healthy mentor/mentee dynamic, that we rarely get to see.

What I found less effective, was the explanation of the strife that eventually boiled up between the two men. Admittedly I’m a bit of a dried up c-word and have no patience for dramatics. Some of the more “intense” moments, (violence against televisions, repeated shaky hand suicide attempts), had me rolling my eyes. But I’m also a doormat so the sweet story behind that betting stub we kept seeing, snap those eyes right back in place and made them tear up a little.

The boxing match itself was fine. I don’t know what Megalo boxing rules are but in standard boxing, I think Joe would have lost by TKO before c bowed out. It was not a bad match to watch, but not the best animation the series has offered, which is to be expected as it became essentially a stamina check. Also that kid really needs to go. Really! We see him for roughly 13 seconds and they are the worse thing in the episode.

I must say, I anticipated Joe to feel let down or somehow robbed of a proper victory, having won by default, but I was pleasantly surprised to see him savour the victory as he would any other.

A return to the Megalonia big shots, namely Yuri & co., in the final scenes was a pretty exciting in intimating that we are going to get back to the brainless fun of the first episodes.

If anything, this Aragaki mini arc did a good job of deepening and establishing Nanbu as a character, I hope the series capitalizes on that later on and these don’t just end up being dramatic, opponent of the week filler episodes.

So now that Joe has secured a fairly goo rank, he’s quickly becoming a favorite for the tournament. Good thing too because, well the show would be going off track otherwise. I do believe we set up our next rival-antagonist in the last few minutes of the episode. He sounds like your typical blowhard but I guess we’ll see next week!

when taking the screencaps, I realized how few different scenes there actually were and for some reason that was impressive. I mean the episode didn’t drag at all and felt rather action packed yet everything consisted of half a mach and a few flashback training scenes. It would have been a in the opening tag if this was Grancrest!