Ashita no Joe

What is there to hate about the art? The faces maybe? Even still it has more details and shadows than most popular recent manga

Still such a good read,

and it's really great to see that the author isn't avoiding the hard subject of neurological damage in boxing, and that very hard fights can have long term consequences.

Thank you, based Hox.

Been a while since Ive read a manga continuously without any stop. Brilliant manga. Was a bit hard to get over the artwork at first but sooner or later you tend to start to love it. Seems to suit a boxing manga perfectly. 

I would definetely have read this manga if the artwork wasn't that crappy.
Too bad..

I'd enjoy this a lot more if Joe wasn't an insufferable jackass. I stopped reading after 50 chapters or so when it became apparent that Joe's particularly annoying flaws weren't going anywhere any time soon and I couldn't empathize with him as a character.

This is definitely a classic manga, but historical significance doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be enjoyable for everybody today. It's worth a look just to see what it's about, although the art really is pretty bad by today's standards. In a mixed text/art medium like manga, art matters; complaining about bad art in a manga isn't the same as judging a book by its cover because the art itself is important content; a book's cover is not.

 

I like this series.  It's old, the art style is behind the detail of most manga today,  many characters including Joe are hard to sympathize with, few people legitimately care about him, but this series is great overall.

 

The author portrays Joe's unstable mind believably, and he made this hard-to-sympathize world, which like Death Note, has few truly good people influencing the story. We get to see this world and experience it.  The action is intense, especially the fights including and after Joe's professional fight with Rikiishi.

 

Even though this series is old, it's world is dark and we can see possible effects of boxing, like a more serious Hajime no Ippo. 

Oh! It diverge a little from the anime and the movies! I loved them like hell. Even if some episode were not translated, I watched them anyway which is very rare for me. I'm more than happy to be able to read the manga now.

 

Hox & HappyScans, I can't thank you enough for your good work!

agreed i love both as well i cant wait for the next chapter

Oh! It diverge a little from the anime and the movies! I loved them like hell. Even if some episode were not translated, I watched them anyway which is very rare for me. I'm more than happy to be able to read the manga now.

 

Hox & HappyScans, I can't thank you enough for your good work!

The art reminds me of those newspaper comics and a dash of doraemon.

 

And If you actually look at the background drawings rather than just the characters, you can see the art is actually really good.

Does anyone know if theres a subbed anime for the parts that's mirrored into "left to right"

@DOUBLEMIBBER I re-read the individual chapters for v10, looked at the entire volume. I went to the scanlator’s website, and there was no part 9 for volume 10.

where is volume 10 part 9

Oh look, new chapters. Merry Christmas to you too.

The art can be criticized (though I personally enjoy the art), this series makes up for it with shounen spirit. Oh, and the plot and character development are decent as well. But mainly, shounen spirit.

Bakuman bought me here.

Ashita no Joe is a story from the end of the sixties/beginning seventies, and has its art to what was used in that era, though it's a bit sloppy in the beginning, but it gets progressively better, so don't let it take you out of what is a great book and story.

The fight between Joe and Rikkishi was completely awesome and you really felt it being the turnpoint of the whole story, the conclusion is really what will define Joe out of his earlier gimmicks.

As old as it is it's still a great manga.

yes! beat up joe until he becomes bloodthirsty again!

The thing about art is, it's not simply "crappy" versus "good". It's about how the art expresses the artist's message, even in mangas. I loved the art from Ares, and it was god-awful ugly. It also fit perfectly with the tone of the manga, and worked really well (in my opinion). Once you get used to a style of drawing, it can be great despite being "less pretty". So yeah, saying "I can't read this, the art is ugly" IS judging a book by its cover. Manga drawing are, like the text, there to convey a story, to convey character emotions. Not to make you go "ooh! pretty".

@Art Haters

i think the art is decent, it is clean (in part thanks to scans), each character you can see expressions clearly on their face, backgrounds are drawn well.

it might not be top notch but its definetly not fugly, it has flavor and you can clearly tell what is happening in each panel and character proportions are consistent from image to image.

So i wouldnt say the art is bad, for technology at the time this art is good and even by todays standards it is decent, though clearly not the best art today.

plus i would say art is becoming too streamlined in many manga. take The Breaker for example (manhwa) the art in the beggining is gritty and nicely done, but as series goes on the art loses its edge and it starts to look like a main stream manga. it really seems like its lost its character.

Rikiishi ;_;

He gets better. It's a story about character growth.

I'd enjoy this a lot more if Joe wasn't an insufferable jackass. I stopped reading after 50 chapters or so when it became apparent that Joe's particularly annoying flaws weren't going anywhere any time soon and I couldn't empathize with him as a character.

This is definitely a classic manga, but historical significance doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be enjoyable for everybody today. It's worth a look just to see what it's about, although the art really is pretty bad by today's standards. In a mixed text/art medium like manga, art matters; complaining about bad art in a manga isn't the same as judging a book by its cover because the art itself is important content; a book's cover is not.

you gotta remember how old this manga is, the art is great considering it was started in the 60's but the story is amazing (from what i've read) imo. its the original sports manga
and im really happy some ones continuing scanning it

Guys, Joe is a classic. Nearly all modern manga owe something to Joe, either directly or indirectly. So what if the art isn't pretty by today's standards? You can't judge a book by its cover.

Really now, I am a girl, and I pick storyline over art any day, but to each its own I guess.