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The first season had way more hype but season 2 felt far more impactful. I was a bit disappointed that everything just went fine but Sacchio saving Joe from his fighting thrill and getting him the happy ending was really nice. If Joe hadn't mended his bridges he would have died in the ring with Mac. Good rear end season.
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# ? Jul 1, 2021 06:58 |
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# ? Apr 27, 2024 15:13 |
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Yeah, I really admired how everyone that had a conscience got out pretty well. Mac remained a Hero, Joe remained a Legend (out of the ring for years, went toe to toe with Mac), Liu on his way to recovery.
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# ? Jul 1, 2021 14:17 |
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I'll be honest, even for a boxing anime the way boxing fixes everything bordered on silliness. Boxing fixes drug addiction, acquires two different land deeds from the mafia, throws a billionaire in jail, and heals a half dozen men's traumas and insecurities. That's something I'd expect from a balls to the wall shonen like Ring ni Kakero, and not a show that opens with the main character trying to kill himself on painkillers before puking with the best vomit foley used in anime.
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# ? Jul 1, 2021 14:46 |
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I don't want that to be taken like I don't enjoy the happy ending, though. I actually do enjoy how the writers have given Joe a happy ending twice now despite the audiences expectations that he'll die or be maimed. I know especially in season 1 a lot of people were almost salivating for someone to die in the final match, more than once I've talked to people who have said they would have liked it more were that the case. Stubbornly resisting that sort of fate because it was how people think a manga ended 50 years ago is the most Joe thing about this show, I feel
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# ? Jul 1, 2021 15:04 |
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Boxing didn't solve the problems, the friendships we made from boxing did.
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# ? Jul 1, 2021 20:58 |
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Sair posted:Boxing didn't solve the problems, the friendships we made from boxing did. Yeah, this is very important. If it were up to boxing alone, Joe would've gotten himself killed to get that rush from violence, and Mac would've fallen straight into Mac Time and likely gotten irreversible brain damage. What saved them from those fates were the bonds they learned to embrace - Joe with Team Nowhere, Mac with his wife and son.
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# ? Jul 1, 2021 22:14 |
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Sair posted:Boxing didn't solve the problems, the friendships we made from boxing did. That, and professional competitive boxing was heavily tied into the trap of toxic masculinity and exploitative capitalism that the protagonists needed to escape from before it destroyed them. There's a reason it genuinely didn't matter who won the final match. The first season showed the power and agency that boxing could give the downtrodden and the outcast, and the second season showed the limitations of that power and agency and the price it demanded in return.
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# ? Jul 1, 2021 22:18 |
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While I still have problems with the way the show used Joe's drug addiction, the way it handled his eventual return to boxing is a lot more elegant than Ashita no Joe, where his mid-manga turn from underground boxing hooligan to bantamweight champion contender is called unrealistic even by characters in the manga!
GorfZaplen fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Jul 2, 2021 |
# ? Jul 2, 2021 00:47 |
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Blaze Dragon posted:Yeah, this is very important. If it were up to boxing alone, Joe would've gotten himself killed to get that rush from violence, and Mac would've fallen straight into Mac Time and likely gotten irreversible brain damage. What saved them from those fates were the bonds they learned to embrace - Joe with Team Nowhere, Mac with his wife and son. Also, Yoshimura and Yukiko finding meaning and purpose to their lives outside the capitalist rat-race. Arguably, they and Mikio are the three most influential people in S2, and they don't punch anyone.
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# ? Jul 2, 2021 01:15 |
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# ? Apr 27, 2024 15:13 |
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I think all of the above things are what makes s2 such a great response to / refutation of Ashita no Joe. Yes we all love boxing but that’s not the most important thing in life, and it’s not worth it to throw your life away in the ring.
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# ? Jul 3, 2021 23:37 |