Ashita no Joe

Such a masterpiece. Joe is truly boxing incarnate

Holy cow... the tears...

What a jaw-dropping and powerful ending to a fantastic manga.

Thanks a lot, Hox and Happyscans!

For anybody interested in the historical context, and other commentary about Ashita no Joe that the scanlator has written, go here: http://hoxtranslations.blogspot.com/2014/04/many-thoughts-on-good-manga-10.html

Hox and HappyScans, thank you so much for the work you've put into this. When I started reading this a year and a half back, I was prepared for a decade long wait for all the chapters. And then all of a sudden, you guys do like 4 volumes in a month. Jesus fucking Christ.

It's been a real fun ride.

Thank you very, very much, Hox and HappyScans, Project Bite Me! and Hox, ghrghr, and Dragon and Tigers Manga, for translating an amazing and influential series.

What a ride it's been. And even though the ending's been spoiled to hell and back, what an ending it was. Burnt to white ashes, indeed.

Thank you Hox, Happyscans and everyone else who worked on the series.

IT'S OGRE

Thank you to all the people who took part in scanlating/translating this masterpiece absolutely amazing manga definitely in my top 5 out of the thousands I've completed.

I'd give the decision to Mendoza too. He was dominating the majority of the rounds, even though Joe finished strongly.

But boy, what a ride. I began reading this in... I think it was Dragons and Tigers website some years back. The translations stopped for a while, and it looked like Joe was gonna be in juvie forever. But come 2014, I've enjoyed a rapid fire volley of whole volumes up to the finale... and another classic manga has been ticked off the list.

Now I find my thoughts drifting over to Hajime no Ippo, which has been suffering from a bout of being rather uninteresting for a while now... wonder how things will go with their own invincible Mexican champ.

What a great volume this last one was, what a fantastic storytelling the author converyed through the art and the sequences, one that take the readers by the guts to the very end.

Powerful indeed, a masterpiece.

Superb scanlation work too.

What a manga. If only more authors had the balls to end their manga like that. Those final few pages are so powerful. One of the best manga I've ever read.

Thanks to all the scanlators for letting me read this masterpiece.

Goosebumps every round. Thanks a ton Hox.

The goal of the Harimau arc was indeed, to trigger Joe's own wildness that had been toned down with time.

But i think it would have worked much better without the "spin-jump roll on itself-jump between ropes" silliness, i'm sure there are many ways the author could have introduced a brutal and savage character that have no care about boxing rules, after all its what Joe was at first before getting really into boxing, but i have no idea why he thought he had to go to such silly way.

Good that the arc wasn't long fortunately, and that the story got back to its previous great standard, and man it went straight to the reader guts once the sillyness was over, with Carlos revealed condition , the overall sadness and the very bad feeling about what's happening to Joe , the foreshadowing of what's going to happen next ...

Such a great story that slowly drag you in and keep you wanting more, thanks to Hox , HappyScans, Project Bite Me, ghrghr, Dragons and Tigers manga  for their scanlation work on it.

I don't care that everyone knows how the story ends, that's one hell of a way to end Volume 19

This Harimau arc feels like a misstep. Hajime no Ippo tried this silly wildman schtick too with Woli, and that wasn't any better.

 

It's like, you take a series nominally grounded within some semblance of reality and then try to add in jumping punches, ape-men, and balancing on the ropes... it just doesn't work. Well, for me at least.

I see and relate to what you say, that Harimau's actions don't seem to fit within reality and the rest of the manga, but if you see how his style is similar to Joe's ferocious, brawl-like style and the savage fight between him and Carlos, you may be more inclined to buy the arc.  Joe hadn't wildness subsided somewhat after his fight with Carlos until prepping for his fight with Harimau.

In another note, I loved the volume, especially that Tange's caring a bit more about Joe, and not focused on how good Joe makes him look.  Yoko's confession is in line with her actions, but months late if she wanted to stop Joe.

This Harimau arc feels like a misstep. Hajime no Ippo tried this silly wildman schtick too with Woli, and that wasn't any better.

 

It's like, you take a series nominally grounded within some semblance of reality and then try to add in jumping punches, ape-men, and balancing on the ropes... it just doesn't work. Well, for me at least.

I get the principles behind it at least, the whole trying to get Joe back to how he was shtick. Dunno if I like it yet though, didn't like Woli but that's because it went on forever.

I agree, so far the development toward the conclusion of the story was rather good, but this arc really feels out of place, fortunately it will not last.

This Harimau arc feels like a misstep. Hajime no Ippo tried this silly wildman schtick too with Woli, and that wasn't any better.

It's like, you take a series nominally grounded within some semblance of reality and then try to add in jumping punches, ape-men, and balancing on the ropes... it just doesn't work. Well, for me at least.

Chapter 30, page 13 - early cameo of José, the "final boss" of the series. I don't think that was in the anime.

Strange how much Rikiishi's look changed over the chapters, weight loss aside.