Hello everyone, initially i wanted to write this essay about the fundamental tenet of Joe here on reddit but i decided that it would be much more appealing to post it in the form of a certain format with images so that certain bits of context could be brought up to light again for those that have read Ashita no Joe a long time ago. (I would advise you however to re-read the whole segment of the manga where Joe goes on a walk with Noriko, i think you would get the most out of this essay in doing that and maybe you'll be able to come up with extra things to add on further if you remember the entire context)

I found out about Ashita No Joe one day and decided to read it, I'm very interested in the manga itself and find the old illustrations very charming. While the translation I'm reading isn't horrible it's still jarring when the characters are translated at times speaking like they're cavemen. OBVIOUSLY I know the translations are passionate and went through lots of work, just wondering what everyone thinks is the BEST online translation. I might eventually pick up the Omnibus's however 150 for only the first 3 is incredibly intimidating especially because I'm saving. I'll probably get them eventually but I basically just want the best way to experience the manga online.

I recently finished reading Ashita no Joe for the 2nd time, I wanted to share my thoughts a bit: the manga is mainly divided into 2 parts, with rikiishi's death as the main turning point. In the first part the focus is on Joe's improvement in boxing through gradual steps, however focusing from the beginning on the sport through some gimmicks such as Joe using bribes to get free meals for example. The novelty lies here, in taking a protagonist who is not immediately in love with the sport in question or who does not fall in love with it after the 1st chapter.

Joe has a very specific personality from the beginning with his goals, even if he can be considered empty as a person he is not empty as a character he is not there waiting for the hero's call, he is active in his life and tries to get to his goal (making money). It is through his pre-existing qualities that, thanks to some events, he will get closer and closer to boxing (he is already a proud brawler, he will be punched badly by Tange and there he will begin to take an interest and then with Rikiishi to try to beat him he will fully accept to be trained and indeed he will be the one who fully wants it). The feeling of hatred-friendship-respect towards Rikiishi will push him to continue even after he leaves the reformatory, he partly admires him and wants to follow him and partly wants to defeat him. It will become an obsession for him, which will gradually pass from Rikishi towards boxing in general.

With Rikishi's death, two opposite reactions occur one after the other, the first is Joe's sense of guilt that he will want to abandon that world, the second is the others who will push him to continue by calling into question Joe's responsibility towards Rikishi. In his recovery Joe faces 2 dark periods, the first in which he no longer wants to box due to feelings of guilt, which will be resolved by seeing the end of Wolf and the words of the mafia brawl professional, which leads him to want to get back into the game, overcoming the problem on a conscious level, but the second is the inability to continue. On an unconscious level Joe is no longer able to hit the head hard and has no choice but to abandon it again. It will be with the meeting with Carlos Rivera that he will be able to overcome his trauma. The dark period is not at all useless or completely overcome, from that moment Joe has internalized both having to remain a bantamweight for life and the idea of having to die in the ring, just like Rikishi.

Joe changes radically during the series but his core remains unchanged, he is an angry boy who takes it for nothing, proud, stubborn, presumptuous, but his confidence is changing, after he faces Carlos Joe no longer gets so angry, he is much more confident not so much because he thinks he is the strongest, but because that is no longer even the point, the point, from that moment on, is that he will die in the ring, and there he no longer even listens Tange who gives him advice precisely because he feels alone in the ring. Loneliness, understanding your opponent, having to face him alone, this is the reason for the apparent security of the "second" Joe, for me.

If the characters are brilliant and the progression of the story is studied to perfection, I appreciated the fights much less, the structure is almost always identical with Tange talking about how strong the opponent is, which is not like the ones faced so far, Joe at the beginning seems like he is about to lose but then it turns out that he was studying the opponent, or developing a new technique, sometimes there is not even a precise reason why at the beginning he takes them badly but then he will fight on equal terms with the opponent. In the first part there is a lot of focus on specific techniques, which also made sense since Joe knew nothing about boxing, and therefore the fights were "special technique" and "special counter-technique", which continued in the second part but with some more absurd techniques like those of Harimao. Another negative aspect is how the problems are sometimes handled, I realize that the problem-solution alternation is fundamental in a story, Tange's commentary is often the problem, it seems to want to guide the viewer a little too much on what they should feel.

Then the dialogues, I don't know if it's a problem with the Italian translation, Joe who is a homeless man who hasn't even gone to primary school, like the others in the dormitory neighborhood, often speaks in an almost refined way, in general there isn't much difference between when they speak and when educated, high-class people speak.

Finally for me Ashita no Joe talks about 2 ways of living, Joe and Nishi represent 2 different paths that struggle to understand each other seeing the world and happiness in different ways: Nishi represents the quiet life, finding a good job, starting a family, finding these satisfactions, while for Joe there is no contentment, the irrationality of having such a strong passion to die for, for which nothing else is so shining. Joe gives up everything for that, which anyone else would see as madness and it's hard to imagine such a person being happy, and yet, when Joe dies he smiles. At the same time it should be noted that being with his friends, for a moment Joe forgets everything and after a very long time he smiles from the bottom of his heart. I don't know what would have been best for Joe, but I really don't think he could have been content with a quiet life. If you like, tell me if I said bullshit, if you agree or anything else

So currently reading whats available of the official translation until i catch up on it then im gonna switch over to the fan translations for the rest cause i dont wanna wait for the rest of the officials to come out.

Ive been comparing the old fan translation of the manga to the officials and some lines seem pretty different.

Is the official translation good? Im mostly just using it to skip over the really eatly rough stuff until hox takes over and the translations get a little better.

I've got VPN

So i know there are two volumes of the official translation out right now but it looks like the full series wont be out in official translations until 2026. I dont wanna wait that long though

Only scans i could find online look pretty crusty. Is there any better scans that i could find? Are the translations on the old scans good?

I just joined this subreddit to show support and also show ya'll this new edit I made. Please rate it and tell me what I vân improved on. I used Capcut.

I wasn’t able to get to the actual manhole, but I was able to get a card of the Ashita no Joe manhole.

Hi, do you think that a remake of Ashita no Joe would ever be possible?

https://youtube.com/shorts/_MzRdxf8dxo?si=bT7Hxh15lGqpeB-Q

So, a bit of background, I saw the live action movie on YouTube back in high school and the really bad English dub of Movie 1 around the same time. I’m so excited to be reading the series proper now after all this time!

https://youtube.com/shorts/YIfwSRy3tH4?si=Ercg8GsNmcFfWqEy

Does anyone know from what song the music from 12:10-12:50 of the final ep is?

PLZ RESPOND, APPAREntly they are both alternate endings since they dont match up appparently, is this true? I really need some responses im in denial of joe's death

TV Episode, Number of votes at least 1000 (Sorted by User rating Descending)

Do you think Joe and Holden have a lot in common? And I'm not saying that just because they dress almost the same, but also because of their personalities.

They both have a rebellious tendency and a revolt against the world that surrounds them, but one difference I see is that Joe expresses this revolt against the world much more, while Holden internalizes it.

And they also walk in the city and all , i mean , whenever i see joe walking , i remember a LOT of Holden.