this review will contain spoilers ____

Ashita no Joe's a legendary piece of art that has an unmistakable presence within japanese pop culture, its influence is akin to other giants like Akira and Ghost in the shell, and references towards it's many iconic moments are seen throughout many great shows all over the years. What makes Joe special though? What sets it apart from other sports shonen series that have come and gone throughout the past few decades?

Ashita no Joe is a pretty delicate series at its core, it takes a lot of time to set up it's main setting and main characters so you'll have a good grasp of who they're as people before the story takes time do deconstruct and develop them. Osamu Dezaki's brilliant directing makes it so you can truly understand what the characters are feeling through their micro-expressions and clever directing decisions that show just how much love was poured into this anime. Instead of rushing through the slice of life to get to the important fights, the anime really takes its time to show the lives of Namidabashi's citizens (and even some of the more important fighters get a lot of screen time as well), making these characters feel like real humans, even secondary characters have their time to shine.

There's nothing i could possibly say about AnJ's story that hasn't been said by people way more capable than me, this awfully bittersweet tale of a boy striving for the top is one of the most influential works of fiction ever for a reason. seeing Joe slowly grow into an adult was so beautiful, and thankfully he never lost his youthful charm that made him such an interesting protagonist to watch. It's really fun to watch him sparring against his rivals since most of them are really well done foils to Joe as a person, their interactions inside and outside of the ring were always interesting. Riikishi was the star of this show alongside Joe, his unwavering presence and sheer force of will are the core of this show, and seeing Joe carry Riikishi's embers to the end was beautiful.

I can't stress enough over how much i love Joe as a character, his love for boxing and the will to surpass himself even in the most dire of situations really brings home how beautiful it is to truly love something. Seeing him slowly rising through the ranks and going from a nobody to someone known throughout the world makes you feel like you're part of namidabashi and you can't help but root for Joe's success, which makes things even more tragic during the final stretch of the anime.

Jose is set up as this impossible obstacle who's completely ruthless towards his opponents, being the one who permanently crippled Joe's strongest adversary up to that point, every time he's on screen the anime makes sure to show how he's on a whole another level than Joe, his presence being extremely daunting. Despite that, he's also shown to be a compassionate father and husband that truly loves his family, which is an interesting juxtaposition to Joe being this person with a cold exterior who actually deeply cares for the people around him, Despite being horrible at showing it, Joe carries the dreams, burdens and aspirations of all the boxers he defeated as a shinigami.

In the end, despite the match's outcome being a win for Jose, Joe's journey was complete, he was able to avenge Carlos by bringing this almost godly presence that was Jose down to his level through sheer determination (despite being incapable of sight with one of his eyes), completely breaking the menacing presence that was Jose Mendonza, permanently scarring him and even making him becoming desperate during the fight. He truly did fight until there were no embers left...