Forum - View topicMegalobox (TV) (all seasons).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Season 1 - Megalobox (TV) Season 2 - Megalobox 2: Nomad (TV) Genres: drama, science fiction, tournament Themes: boxing, future, sports Plot Summary: In the not too distant future, boxing has become a sport enhanced by “Gear,” machine exoskeletons worn over the shoulders and arms to allow boxers to punch farther and harder than before. Known as “Megalobox,” the sport is popular as both a regular sporting event and as one during which underground bets are laid, with dramatic differences between the fanbases. Junk Dog, a young Megaloboxer, is struggling both to make a name for himself in the underground fights as well as with whether he's really happy with his current situation. When he hears that the upscale Shirato Group is sponsoring a worldwide Megaloboxing tournament in a special arena, he's largely ambivalent, seeing it as both not worth it and beyond his grasp. But he's getting tired of the rigged fights he's forced to participate in. Then he encounters Yuri, the reigning champ of the sport, and might change his mind. |
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TexZero
Posts: 591 |
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So far its pretty. Not the Ufotable/Micheal bay lensflare effects pretty either.
The animation is surprisingly good at re-creating and recapturing older methods while giving them a some modern touches. However once you get past the paint of the first episode, there's not much plot here yet. They 've set up the possibility of exploring a few routes and i'm hoping they really go deeper into the socioeconomic one as opposed to be the best one. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 1
I am not really one to get interested in sport anime, especially ones like wrestling or boxing. I have really had no interest in some of the type before, pretty instantly, and the sports anime that did catch my interest, was probably because it was just Haikyuu, which is awesome, and generally looks distinct to this show. I also have had little interest to watch shows of yore, where my experience of such is Cowboy Bebop, and the animation type of that era is something I don't really care for. So this show should instantly be dead to me. But, can someone explain why this episode got my attention so much? Maybe it partially comes down that I saw a theory by MatPat fairly recently, where he laid out the fairly interesting nature of boxing, but the sports here actually had me interested, and I don't think it was just because there are exoskeletons. And I actually found myself really charmed by the retro styled animation, at least in this episode, where it had me actually paying attention to it, which I would have thought would have distracted me instead. This is really weird, that even though the main character was not exactly a character that feels the most exciting, and I would normally find annoying in being brooding, but I am kind of into this. I think that I might just be interested to watch this. Hopefully I don't find myself annoyed that got hopes up or something. |
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TexZero
Posts: 591 |
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I can think of a few things that might do it. Most people like underdog stories, or at the very least david vs goliath scenarios and this show has that going for it. It may also help that the main character isn't a generic self insert, but has morals and the desire to improve, while also being with faults of his own (prone to fits of rage). It could be the man vs machine factor showcasing itself and a cause to rebel against common rationale. It may also just be that there's something to be said for a sports anime being self aware of economic situations influencing success and that J.D is somewhat of an anomaly in that regard. He has talent, but he realizes the system is working against him and rather than directly confront it he does what he can in the moment to get by. If it's non of the above then no, from a story perspective i cannot help you. It could just be one of those shows you come by once or twice a year and go there's no way i'll.... and before you can finish your sentence or episode one you acknowledge you were wrong the show was something more than you gave it credit for. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11600 |
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Jesus, this series is good! From the music to the world-building by show-don't-tell to the characters and animation, I love it all. They're also really good at ending episodes to keep you hungry without being insanely frustrating.
Man, that dude was totally ripping those kids off, though I guess I don't know the street value of Red Candy, so maybe not as bad as it seems. Was crushing the apple because he was thinking about Yuri or was it a muscle spasm? I was thinking it might be the latter since they had a shot of his hand kinda twitching, so maybe the gear is affecting him? "Dios aprieta pero no ahoga." God squeezes but doesn't strangle. 
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 13 (finale)
While I do think its style stayed charming up to the end, I leave feeling a little disappointed with this series. Part of it to me is that it feels like it lied to me, it is called Megalobox, and artwork for the series has Joe with the gear, but he pretty much spent the entire series doing normal boxing instead of the promise of cool marchanical assisted boxing, I guess while at least his opponents had gear. But the finale did not even have either of them with a gear, I can see that it was maybe saying something about the greatness of normal human ability, but should have just been normal boxing if that is what it wanted. I think it would have made more sense if Yuri needed the gear to even move his arms, that felt like what it was saying, but in the end he was pretty much matching Joe for plain boxing. He was in a wheelchair at the end, but I don't know what that really means if he was so great in the fight. Sure characters grew, how else could one explain the big turning point where the manager rips his eye out. But it does really feel like productive growth, because that was totally unnecessary, and for the sake to make him a man, because that is what men are supposed to be like. Well, before that the show was kind of having me lose my interest, I was following it, but nothing really felt that interesting. It just became a man against machine thing, like it really needed to be that when there are things like a character with a missing leg or eye, that maybe could be helped by a little bit of tech help. Was there a point to that, because the kids are all playing with gear at the end, if there was something about not needing the machine? It kind of just fell on tired cliché of its period piece like style, that lost the freshness that it started off with. I give a rating of So-so (5/10), not actively bad, but I think overhyped for the attention that it has been getting. |
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Bento-Box
 Posts: 1049 Location: Florida |
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Episode 13 (end)
Well. It ended about how I thought it would. There were a few twists and turns along the way that surprised me spoiler[(the little boy's dad's involvement with Shirato and Nanba gouging his eye out)], but they really shouldn't have given all the foreshadowing. I just kept telling myself "nah, it won't go that far". And then it did. I signed up for a throwback boxing series and that's exactly what I got. But I also wanted to see more with the gear. I felt that it was a bit disappointing for Joe to go gearless for most of the series. Although, when I think about the alternative (a learning arc for new gear, upgrades, sponsors forcing new tech on him, etc.), maybe it wasn't such a bad thing? He went into the ring betting on himself and only himself. That, to me, was what the series was always about. That being said, Madhouse did an awesome job with the animation. It really did feel like a 90's anime. Definitely a throwback that was tugging at my nostalgia strings. However, it all feels like gimmick now. Would I have paid any attention to this series without that shtick? No. I'm not into boxing. I wouldn't have picked this up. But I was curious about the animation. In that regard, it was a brilliant marketing and artistic decision. Megalobox felt like a 90's anime to me. While it had better pacing (at 12 episodes compared to what be a typical 26 run), I feel like it was still very much a "monster of the week" pace that I was literally raised on. At least they didn't dilly dally with it. They got to the point of each episode, and kept moving, even if that meant it didn't fit into that perfect cookie-cutter episode template the 90's had. And I'm thankful for that. Unfortunately, the series didn't mean anything to me by the time it was over. It didn't redefine its genre nor was it an exemplary work of the genre. It was fun and moderately enjoyable, but I was never on the edge of my seat like I was with Haikyu. It didn't get me thinking about humanity or life or anything deep. It was just there. It was about boxing and living in the moment. I can't say that it's a masterpiece for that reason alone. Sure, it was stylized and cool to look at, but the content wasn't anything special. I can't see even a high re-watch value in this series. It definitely lived in the moment. Rating this slightly higher than I normally would just for the animation style and good pacing. Rating: 7/10 |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Season 2, Episode 13 (finale)
And I found that a much better season. For things I complained about before, there actually was some megaloboxing, with Joe giving up some of that pride that might hurt him, and it doesn't actually mean that he is alone or something. To further take on the themes I said about man vs machine that I thought was too much without nuance, the opponent that Joe fought could really only move thanks to technology. There was a sort of theme that technology can be good, can help, but also the personal safety of people should always be considered, with Mac's technology having been found to be dangerous as is and his team were going to throw in once it looked liked would be dangerous. Just as the match actually ended with Sachio throwing in the towel for Joe, after taking it that it was too dangerous to continue on. That was kind of an interesting point to this season, that the sort of beating coming from this level of boxing was super dangerous, and prioritising the health should be better. Especially from the first part of this season pretty much having Joe be a drug addict stuck on poor pain pills, and Joe had to climb out of there. Even losing a friend to a match. And then a good chunk of the season was with Joe needing to reconnect with the family he built from the first season, after aspects of the boxer pride of trying to solve things through boxing had torn it apart. It was rather tough to see Joe coming back to something so broken, and nice in seeing them try and put the pieces back together. My rating is going to be Decent (6/10), I didn't lose my time, and I think that it was surprisingly watchable for me despite how I kind of came down on it with the first season. |
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