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Whether or not you'll enjoy this show heavily depends on how negative your worldview is. Most People are shown as immoral, illogical or brain dead. Politicians are uncaring and stupid, exhibiting psychopathic tendencies. Soldiers are pawns that only listen to orders even in the face of extreme violence etc.

Mind you, I don't exactly disagree with this representation. I myself am a misanthrope and to put it bluntly I hate most people. But even for me this worldview is overexaggerated. Sure, politicians bad but there's a reason why humanity wasn't wiped out during cold war. The people at the top care too much about their ... money and their own safety to just wage war on an alien species they don't know ANYTHING about. Plus even if they do, the other countries won't let japan have all the fun unlike what is shown here.

Now it can be argued that asano intentionally made an overexaggerated version of society in his book to really get the main theme of the story across. And I have to admit this is probably the best interpretation of that theme "I don't care about the world as long as you're by my side" I've ever seen due to how likeable the characters are and how realistic they act. But if that's the case he probably should have finished dead dead demons dededededestruction on episode 16 cuz personally I wasn't satisfied with the direction of the conclusion.

If you've come far enough see this review you're probably wondering whether bokuyaba is actually a great romcom worth watching or just another overrated mess that won't have such a high rating in one or two years. Answering that question is surprisingly pretty easy. It comes down to one thing and one thing only : how much escapism do you want in your anime?

Throughout both S1 and S2 there's a shit ton of moments when ichikawa just goes around the school or even OUTSIDE the school, following yamada's ass because he's "worried about her" in a manner that is nothing short of stalker behavior. ... And what happens when he's finally caught in the act? Ichikawa rambles on about how he's so disgusting for doing this(which is true duh) but yamada just thanks him for worrying about her and some other anime bullshit that I don't remember cuz anime bullshit always sounds the same. Obviously not the reaction you expect from a real person. In the real world your girlfriend would want you to just tell her that you wanted to come with her or she'll say that she has her own privacy and you don't have to follow her everywhere. And there are LOTS of illogical stuff like this happening in every episode of this show that are played off as sweet or comedic. Now I can hear you practically screaming my imaginary friend that " THIS IS ANIME IT DOESNT HAVE TO BE REAL WORLD" and you know what? You're absolutely correct.

Anime as a whole is a medium about suspension of disbelief. There's a reason why we have words like anime logic because (excluding outliers like monster) only by accepting that the logic existing in anime is different from the real world you can start to enjoy the plot and characters presented to you for what they are. Problem is bokuyaba doesn't present you with anything too crazy in any area.

I will admit the animation can be stellar at times and it's pretty cool overall. Music is passable. The plot...well romcoms are never about their plot so let's skip this one and then we have the characters...ugh.

The characters here are either pretty generic or one dimensional stereotypes without any exception. I've seen a lot of praise for ichikawa's character development and I just don't agree. He gets some development sure. But There are so many other characters with the same premise that are done way better (like hachiman and gintoki imo) and compared to them ichikawa is just average. And that's the main character. Yamada is paper thin and her whole character is based on her feelings for ichikawa and her love for modeling. None of which are well explored. The remaining cast is also trash but I don't remember their names and don't care enough to look them up just to explain why they're trash so you'll have to forgive me for that. But if you've watched your fair share of anime there's nothing here you haven't seen before. There's the gyaru, the silent girl who actually cares about her friends, heroine's childhood friend , the womanizer senpai who is MC's rival and get this... THE PERVERT BOY WHO TALKS ABOUT BOOBS ALL THE TIME! IN A ROMCOM ANIME!! HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

So with all that out of the way. Why this show has become so beloved despite its flaws? It's the escapism. The male fantasy. And romantic moments so sweet they will give you diabetes. The most popular girl in the class who is also a model Falling for the edgy unattractive loner is a pretty sweet fantasy but everything else about this show is so half baked that I didn't really understand the hype surrounding it.(and yeah it won't have such a high rating in two years)

Talking about old anime is always a pain in the ass. Especially if nostalgia is involved or a certain show is highly regarded on a certain website. Not many people will actually watch something like ashita no joe and the ones that do are usually fans of 80's anime or weebs who are really passionate about sports anime. So of course the opinions are going to be biased, elevating the show to a legendary status and creating high expectations that will not be met for everyone.

To be honest i dont really care if this is supposed to be the first masterpiece anime medium has produced. ... But most reviews here only point out the good parts of ashita no joe 2 without mentioning the very obvious list of flaws it suffers from.

Sure this show has some Great parts. So Great i cant belive Its made in 1980. The animation is amazing for the time. Joe's character development is pretty good. The first and last fight of this season are easily among the best anime fights of all time. However the arcs in between these fights are the problematic ones.

These arcs just feel like filler to delay the final confrontation with Jose. Each match's result is predictable and the fights themselves arent that good. The reason why rikiishi vs joe is considered as one of the anime fights of all time is because despite being long it never feels boring. The fight starts before their actual match with rikiishi trying to lose weight and joe training to counter rikiishi's uppercut . As a result i was already at the edge of my seat when the match began and wasnt let down by the way it progressed from there on. Because rikiishi's techniques are hidden to the viewer you dont know what will happen next or who will win the fight. Which is why the whole thing is such a joy to watch. Even after the match ends it can shock you yet again and that's how you write a legendary fight.

Unfortunately the middle arcs of ashita no joe 2 have none of that. Joe's weight loss is dumb on so many levels and isnt brought up ever again. Kim yong bi's back story was interesting at first but then it finishes with him not ever getting haungry ever again which is just anime bullshit and it really feels forced as a result. The fight itself isnt very good either with him only having one secret move and joe surviving on spirits alone. The same is true for the rest of the matches in the middle part. Harimao, the afro guy that was so imporant i forgot his name and the other boxers i dont remember enough to even describe all have one gimmick at best that beat the fuck out of joe in the first rounds but then he finds a way around them and wins the match. There are no pre match trainings before these fights and no new techniques are developed unlike the first season which means joe will go in the ring and randomly throws fists until he wins. This works in the final fight because Its such an imporant moment in the story but the fight with that afro guy? You cant tell me it has the same build up.

The other major flaw with ashita no joe 2 is how it treats its characters. Joe and yoko are the only ones that get any proper development while danpei and nishi dont change at all through this season. It doesnt help that most of joe's oponnents are completely one note and for the ones that arent i only liked carlos mainly due to his personality. Jose and the korean dude were interesting at first but fell flat to me by the end.

There are also some problems regarding the script dragging on the story with unnecessary flashbacks and monologues and yeah i havent read the manga but after watching so much anime you can feel this kind of shit trust me. Also soundtrack sucks. Absolute garbage.

With that said im still not sure if i can just recommend the manga and be done with it. Truth of the matter is with all its flaws ashita no joe is a beautiful story and you should definitely watch it anyway if youre a fan of sports anime but if youre not, well i hope this rant of mine helps you make your decision.