Grazie a te per averla accettata, il motivo principale è perché mi faceva piacere avere altri italiani in lista amici, in un certo senso puoi considerarla a random, ma non del tutto.
I see, well I think Joe did grow a lot mentally, it's just not very noticeable or done purposefully subtly, so maybe you just didn't enjoy that approach very much (the art for example can communicate or imply a lot of Joe's state of mind at times through simply stuff like the look on his face, since we don't get a lot of his thoughts especially later when precisely due to his development, he becomes a bit more silent/tame than he was in the beginning).
You could see that he learned to accept and rely a bit more on people more over time (which is very heartwarming taking in account his background, and that was one of the few parts that the manga went out of its way to narrate in order to communicate just how much that meant to Joe, which is important since he put up a tough front). He also became a lot more tame/mature like I said, partially as a result of aging over the series as well besides all that he went through (I really enjoyed how it had the passage of time), while still retaining his hot bloodedness at the same time and not really diverting too much from the Joe we knew personality wise at least, since he definitely did change a lot psychologically. Just the Rikiishi stuff was already a huge/obvious indicator of those changes, with his conflicting emotions over the matter and how he dealt with it, since as he even says so, he wouldn’t have cared before and he felt conflicted over how he did, on top of everything else (that whole part in general was great and really emotional, it really hurt
to see Joe fall that far down ;__;
It also pretty much laid the foundation for the rest while also having been built up to a lot, and AnJ in general just feels like it’s well structured and consistently gripping in even while building up stuff, and almost every major match did matter a lot in influencing the whole in retrospect (unlike Ippo, but it's too long).
But anyways, the way Joe’s development was done in general was way more realistic/balanced and anything else would've felt forced or even potentially ruined his character imo, especially taking in account that the manga builds it on subtleties, the fact that Joe is a really flawed guy and how one of the appeals of the manga is how you can still root for him and other characters (because they are just ''raw'' people you can connect to). So with that said, it makes sense for the character development itself not to have been more ''idealized'' since the characters aren't, as it doesn't have (or need) a progression like say, Ippo, where you have it more clear that Ippo is getting ''stronger'' for example, which is done like that arguably because his character isn't very compelling by itself otherwise (or well rounded enough) besides HnI being too straightforward/not character focused enough to showcase his progression in any other way.
AnJ doesn’t do that (and it’s obviously more character focused than Ippo anyways so there is no real comparison in that department, even if AnJ did inspire Ippo’s mangaka). It instead basically chooses to show you the differences in the characters through their actions and smaller things, and Joe himself is fleshed out so much as a character through his actions for example that you wouldn't need many bigger differences to see that he has changed (and even then the manga gives you an insight on him through occasional narration when it's really needed like I mentioned earlier, it has a great grasp/balance on what it deems as important to show/tell), because you see it as you would in a real person aka through those smaller things, so it’s not necessary at all to try to alter his personality in a bigger way than that (especially because that in itself would go against the point of his character, I think).
One example of a more ‘’subtle’’ (and great) development is that, say, in Joe’s relationship with Youko, he was always wary of her since the beginning, but you can see even before the very last volumes that
he started to realize her intentions in trying to ''help'' him and how he kinda ''ran away'' from her because of it, yet in the end it shows just how much he grew to ''trust'' her more (while still not really opening his heart to her at all, as that would’ve felt forced/like a stretch and not very Joe-like), with how he ends up entrusting his gloves to her (which was still such a far cry from the start, where he pretty much utterly despised her). It also felt natural for him to do so, because while before he wouldn't have believed she cared about him at all except for the sake of appearances (like when she went to the jail and donated to poor people), he grew to realize she did legitimately care about him, enough to believe in her ''confession'' to him for example and ''accept'' it (just not completely, since he still prioritized his own goals and went to the match vs Mendonza), which is a pretty big deal and shows development from his part too, and in a way that is most ‘’himself’’ at that. That felt realistic to me to see him act like that, and AnJ in general manages to develop its characters without making them act out of character in the slightest, which is really impressive.
The ending also wouldn't have been nearly as great without the rest, since it really built Joe's character very well and his struggles with finding a ‘’purpose’’ in life (and eventually also coming to terms with himself, after he
I agree with you on the sport part being weak and Ippo being better if you want just that (Ippo handles technical stuff with more care in general), since AnJ just uses it more as a backdrop for all the drama with the characters and the matches did get a little too over the top at times. They were still pretty fun and added to Joe's growth like I said though, even the Harimao one (most ridiculous thing in the series lol), which had Joe
not commit any ''fouls''
when previously he wouldn't have cared about that either (so you can see he started caring more about boxing than before in order to reach his goal of
''burning to white ash''
too, which is also part of his development, since he obviously didn't care about boxing in the beginning of the manga.
TL;DR (sorry for the wall lmao) is, I think what I like is how he didn't become a ''good person'' through boxing, and rather just a ''better'' person, and the sports part wasn't handled with much care yeah (but that was okay, since it wasn't the focus).
I haven't seen any other titles, but I bet they are just judging on Joe's (the Italian opening for the anime is funny too)
All Comments (38) Comments
che genere ti piace?^^
Ahahah non hai tutti i torti XD
Anche io invio spesso richieste a caso xD
Io mi chiamo Ines,piacere di conoscerti :)
TL;DR (sorry for the wall lmao) is, I think what I like is how he didn't become a ''good person'' through boxing, and rather just a ''better'' person, and the sports part wasn't handled with much care yeah (but that was okay, since it wasn't the focus).
I haven't seen any other titles, but I bet they are just judging on Joe's (the Italian opening for the anime is funny too)
Slock told me you liked AnJ but didn't think it was great besides the ending, so that's surprising too (btw, the title ''Rocky Joe'' is pretty funny)