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REVIEW: Ashita no Joe: Fighting For Tomorrow Volume 1 Manga Review




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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15614
PostPosted: Fri Dec 27, 2024 1:18 pm Reply with quote
I haven't seen the original anime, other than the first movie, and the free YouTube episodes onTMS's tube[Don't forget that the anime is on Crunchyroll if you're new to Joe.]but I think it toned down Joe a bit to make him more likeable. Joe's a gutter punk who needs to be more like a team player. Hopefully, he'll develop more in later volumes.

Last edited by GATSU on Fri Dec 27, 2024 2:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2700
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Fri Dec 27, 2024 2:35 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
The bigger barrier to entry, however, is actually Joe himself, and how much mileage you get out of this series is gonna come down to whether or not you can get behind him as a character. Joe is egotistical, rude, hot-headed, and extremely cynical, often to a fault, as his tendency to provoke others usually makes things worse for him....

The question of whether Joe will be able to seize the better tomorrow he's searching for, or fall victim to the consequences of his actions makes for a solid hook, and even when he's at his worst, it's hard not to root for the possibility of him turning his life around. At the same time, the series' age makes it hard to determine how many of his traits are meant to be viewed as negative, versus painting him something of a loveable rogue (particularly his comments about women). While this mostly doesn't take away from the story, it is where it tends to feel the most dated.


Having experienced the wide majority of the Ashita no Joe story via the first compilation movie & all of the Joe 2 TV anime, the answer is a bit of "Yes" & "No", but that's what makes Joe such an interesting character. He clearly does become a better person who cares for others beyond himself, but at the same time he still remains more than a bit cynical about himself & his future, fully cognizant of what means to him psychologically.

While Tetsuya Chiba himself certainly didn't shy away from "Asshole who (VEEEEERY) slowly learns to be a better person", as seen in the 2014 anime Rowdy Sumo Wrestler Matsutaro (who everyone in the old ANN anime previews back then actually tried deriding the show for trying to glorify Matsutaro's initial behavior, when the point was to show how bad he was before slowly learning how to be better over the course of the story), Joe himself is definitely a product of Asao Takamori, a.k.a. Ikki Kajiwara.

For those unfamiliar, Kajiwara was (to put it bluntly) not a good person & had a history of violent behavior (that he tended to keep under wraps), but eventually it caught up to him & resulted in him being mostly blacklisted from the manga after getting arrested in mid-1983 for assaulting an editor from Kodansha; he also nearly died around that same time due to how poorly he took care of his own body. In the end it wasn't until the mid-90s, years after his eventual passing in 1987, that his works were re-evaluated as iconic classics. In some ways, Joe's cynicism towards Japan in the late 60s & early 70s) could likely be seen as Kajiwara's own cynicism at the time, but with Chiba being able to help sand down the worst elements, not to mention the boxing itself being an outlet for Joe's anger to be released in a more healthy & positive fashion.
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Triltaison



Joined: 03 Jul 2011
Posts: 800
PostPosted: Fri Dec 27, 2024 4:22 pm Reply with quote
I've seen the original TV series, Ashita no Joe 2, and both movies. Joe is just a really interesting character. He's self-absorbed and more than rough around the edges, but also really embodies the post-war attitudes of many people living in the run down slums. I loved seeing this small community rally around Joe, and the transformation that hope instills in people like Danpei and Rikishi. But Joe himself isn't swept away in the same way, and he also isn't a reluctant hero archetype either. He's reliably unreliable, but not a loose cannon.

I've been a tremendous fan of the anime versions for a long time and insta-bought the Discotek blurays for the movies, so I'm quite excited to finally get to read the manga after all this time.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15614
PostPosted: Fri Dec 27, 2024 5:19 pm Reply with quote
Anyway, just be glad no one was crazy enough to bet on Cyborg 009 again, with its crazy panels....
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tintor2



Joined: 11 Aug 2010
Posts: 2178
PostPosted: Fri Dec 27, 2024 9:51 pm Reply with quote
I think the manga started publication in 1968 but the artwork surprisingly aged well when showing fights. Not only that, but the art is quite well detailed when consantly showing bruises in Joe's hands and clothes probably to imply his poor status in society. From what I read, the mangaka studied Japanese boxers when deciding how to write the protagonist in a similar fashion to how Takehiko Inoue studied the Chicago Bulls when creating the Shohoku from Slam Dunk so the sports section is well detailed. Joe's personality is really reckless but I think it permanently changes the more he meets Rikishi and fights him.
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