Joe made it pretty clear that he didn't care if he beat Mendoza by points. I'm not really sure if he ever cared about winning in any way, shape or form. Joe may have only wanted to fight against Mendoza for fun. Joe at this point didn't have much of a point to prove. He always had some point to prove against Rikishi, Carlos, and Kim. But I'm not sure if he had one against Jose. Maybe he did want to beat Jose, but he never cared about becoming world champion. But whenever he died, he was more focused on being happy he atleast fought him
Honestly, I think the anime did better than the manga for the entire Jose fight. The usually cliche flashbacks during a fight just didn't feel cliche at all. It felt like a dying man's dying will slowly drawn out, as his life is shown before his eyes. Everything was just made so much more impactful, even more than the manga.
I agree; the manga didn't have the scene where Joe hallucinates to be fighting Riikishi or the scene where he sees Riikishi in his blind eye + In general the anime added a lot of "filler" scenes which gave a lot more screentime to characters like Goromaki Gondo and Jose which are barely there in the manga until the final arc.
Honestly this is the reason why i dont want a remaster of ashita no joe. The anime did it better than the manga cuz it added more scenes that added to the enjoyment. If they made a remaster they would probably follow the manga but i want them to follow the original anime direction. idk thats just my opinion
Joe's ending in the anime IMO better shows how after such a long life of pain and inner turmoil, he finally reached some form of "Nirvana". Joe died fighting Jose, the Man. It certainly may not have been a peaceful way of dying, but it's the death Joe expected, and fought for. Him giving the gloves to Yoko signifies how he's finally learned to stop hating the person he arguably hated the most throughout the show. Joe has let go of all the hate and spite he harbored throughout his life, and decided to die a man with no more hate. Then there's the cut of the crowd. The crowd is everyone who had become good friends or acquaintances with Joe. Carlos, Nishi, Danpei, Yoko, Noriko, etc. They each impacted Joe's life in a positive way, helping him grow as a person. Joe died with all the people he appreciated around him. After living his life as a loner, Joe gets to die in a room filled with people that all loved and respected him
I aactually like the ending of the AnJ movie more than the anime. It's pretty much the same as the anime except instead of "Midnight Blues", they play a song called "Joe Forever" and I think it fits way more.
I love the soundtracks, the colors and the improvements/improvising they did for the 2nd Season (Anime). You have some very valid points. The shot of the audience before we see finally Joe leaves a much bigger impact because we see everyone's reaction.
@@NeelamYadav-tm8zvWatch the 1st season for 53 or 54 episodes (since after 54 or 53 eps is retconned by the 2nd season) so after that hop on the 2nd season Ashita No Joe 2. Thats the order I watched the anime.
im so sad of how little great anj and osamu dezaki content there are like this video, this was awesome and i truly agree with you that joe not being able to take down jose as much is a way better approach for the story and sets a realistic tone just like how joe couldnt actually beat rikiishi either, its elegant!
ANJ will always be timeless but that's only to the people that have watched it since it becomes more obscure by the day which is why not many videos are made on it. I'm glad you liked this video :)
personally in the ending I would have preferred Joe's sorta tranquil whistle that he does in season 2. I saw this in a fan made manga animation video of Joe's last moments and I felt like out of all of the music it fit best
Yea there are plenty of great songs that fit this scene perfectly and they all give different tones. S1 ep1 whistle ost is fitting and gives his death a very dark and grim tone. S2 whistle isnt anywhere near as dark but is very similar in tone. Ballad is my favorite ost of all time and gives a satisfied and similar vibe to midnight blues. Joe forever gives the longest lasting impact and truly immortalized Joe but isnt my favorite song for the ending.
i have only read the manga and i couldn't believe what i saw at the turn of the page. definitely, 100% one of the most impactful endings in media that lives rent-free in my mind to this day. Joe forever, and nothing else.
To me its the contrary, if the manga goes about the cruelty of the world of Boxing and the final pages clearly show how everyone are more interested in the winner rather than the loser, and to add the mistery and mysticism of the final page, to know what happened later, what were the reaction of those who noticed, what happened with the rest of the characters after Joe's death, all that is practically anulated here by putting some reaction instead of letting it stay as an open finale as it was intended originally. I respect that you love more the anime ending, the OST fits great (tho I think could've been put in a much better way), but tbh from a narrative standpoint it would be very hard to improve that finale, to me this just killed that mistery and up to imagination purpose the ending has.
even though i knew about the final scene i went to watch the whole show and when i arrived at the final episode, i covered my mouth with both my hands in shock of how crazy that scene was even though i knew about it, 4 years ago i finished ashita no joe and never in my life ive watched an ending as amazing as this one. We miss you joe you weren't just a fictional character we laughed,cried and felt pain while watching this guy, one of the best and realistic character ever
Great video! I just watched ashita no joe a little bit ago and the ending in the anime is so impactful. I didn’t know about all these changes that ultimately enhance the story. This is why I love anime! Also, I thought midnight blues felt right as the ending song, but I thought and some others thought the ending theme to ashita no joe 2 would be better. After your explanation, I can definitely see the intention more from the director.
Yea these changes ultimately add to the ending in many ways. I can only image what Ballad would have sounded like as the final song since it's my favorite ost but atleast we got a great song to end it off with
I think the manga does it in a better way because of the sheer granularity of it, the absence of Nishi because his presence here would be thematically conflicting, the white ashes flashback, Youkos sequence in the taxi is done a lot better but I can see either take
midnight blues being bittersweet isn’t a good thing imo ; the entire point of AnJ is that the ending is something we must see as beautiful and positive
@@sentii8131 It is meant to be bittersweet in my opinion; It was sweet for Joe; true, but it was bitter for everyone else in the story that knew him as a person.. and I guess its supposed to be bittersweet for us as viewers since Joe does reach his "tomorrow" but at the cost of his life. I disagree with the analysis of the viewer having to interpret the ending in a certain way; the entire anime had a documentary like narrative; it showed us Joe's highs and lows, likeable and dislikeable traits & such; similarly it shows us Joe's end as it happened; it is not glorified as being gallant nor is it vilified as a selfish act; it simply is what it is hence Midnight Blues.
@@elmo4672 I mean you can interpret it another way but it would be pretty illogical and disrespectful to blatantly ignore its content like this. It makes a profound effort to portray living life the way you want to at all times and facing terrible consequences as a result, even death, as something beautiful. Imo it is pointless to do mental gymnastics to bend what is in front of you
@@sentii8131 how did you make it this far in life and not yet grasp the concept of "death of the author"? Also the sorrow of youko can't in any way be interpreted as a happy thing LOL
When ya read the manga you see the sorrow. When watch it. It gives the realism and sadness that comes from it. But the peak of the scene is the music and VA just beautiful
Didn't realise it was the 55th Anniversary, I was wondering why Joe was being promoted all of a sudden (Not that I'm complaining) Glad to have found your channel, I agree with a lot of what you said here, it's only recently I noticed that Sendo from Ippo shared so many similarities with Joe and they happen to be all the traits that make Sendo such a fan favourite. Subbed.
To me the manga has a better ending being so sudden and not being dragged out feels perfect for ashita no joe. No waiting, barely anytime to realize what happened, just pure emotion, It was a masterpiece.(but also im a dumbass so maybe dont listen to this idiot)
The flashbacks were a great addition indeed.I kinda disagree with the part about the final page ,it's something that the previous pages built up pretty well ,for me extra time is not needed,also yoko dropping the gloves is a scene I'm not a fan of. Nonetheless I can understand why one would prefer the way the anime handled it ,it kinda makes it easier to savor the situation
Yea seeing as how the anime chose to add some filler scenes to the end I'm not surprised some people would feel like it dragged on a bit. But yea while I prefer the anime the manga still is a perfect ending
Not sure, but I did read somewhere that his death was implied but not confirmed. Regardless of if he’s dead or not, I think the heavy implication of it instead of outright confirmation adds to the ending. He is forever, Tomorrow’s Joe
In the italian anime they cut the Joe's death and make him speak with his wife and trainers with a image on their faces so it seems that everything ends good
it's not the question of what was better, but was it made better and we can all see to say that the anime did improve from the manga by a mile as it should do
In a way, the Super Famicom game of Ashita No Joe is also nicely done. To get the manga ending, you are not supposed to win against Jose and instead try to hold out until the timer runs out. If you beat Jose, there is basically not much of an ending
Though I love the extra filler scenes in the ending, I do think that I still prefer the way the manga ended. The manga was originally supposed to end with Yoko taking care of a punch drunk Joe. However when the ending was changed it left this intended ambiguity to it. Hell depending on which interview you read from the two creators one says they did kill Joe while the other says that Joe didn't die. It leaves this intended ambiguity that lets the reader decide whether or not he died. This question still rings today too. Meanwhile with the anime it doesn't feel close to that. The filler scenes make it seem like his death is more solidified while still sending an impactful message at the same time. Sure you can still make the argument for him living in the anime version but in a way it feels harder to argue for that side because of how it played out and sort of takes away from the ambiguity. I liked someone else's take on the matter from a video that animated the manga panels. That Joe closed his eyes not worrying about whether or not he would wake up or not tomorrow. He was burned out and satisifed that he got to fight against the World Champion.
Read the manga till the end of Fall of Yabuki Joe arc (Volume 11) then watch Ashita no Joe 2 (1980); the first few episodes of AnJ 2 will cover what you would've already read but they cut out some content so best to finish the arc in the manga.
What Elmo said but I would still give the anime a try first to see if you enjoy it. If you are able to get your hands on the AnJ s1 remaster then I highly recommend the anime entirely over the manga.
I honestly what you mean by you like the fact that they didn't the cliche thing of if Joe had a minute to spar he would've beaten Jose but I don't think thats the point all Joe wanted to do was fight the strongest that was it and the authors wouldn't have went through with making him win since the point of his was for him to fight his hardest until there was nothing that remain which was probably why he had Jose on his knees in the end because his determination was too much. Also we didn't need to see all their faces as if he died I appericiate the people that stood to respect his fight but we have to remember Joe didn't die.
Happy 55th anniversary Ashita No Joe! Thank you for inspiring us and making us feel something we didnt know was possible!
joe's eyes closing right before hearing who won the battle is another detail that i love.
Joe made it pretty clear that he didn't care if he beat Mendoza by points. I'm not really sure if he ever cared about winning in any way, shape or form. Joe may have only wanted to fight against Mendoza for fun. Joe at this point didn't have much of a point to prove. He always had some point to prove against Rikishi, Carlos, and Kim. But I'm not sure if he had one against Jose. Maybe he did want to beat Jose, but he never cared about becoming world champion. But whenever he died, he was more focused on being happy he atleast fought him
@@crabohato4954 He did beat Jose, Joe lost the match but won the fight, Jose couldn't stay up after being beat so hard and was saved by the bell.
Honestly, I think the anime did better than the manga for the entire Jose fight. The usually cliche flashbacks during a fight just didn't feel cliche at all. It felt like a dying man's dying will slowly drawn out, as his life is shown before his eyes. Everything was just made so much more impactful, even more than the manga.
I agree; the manga didn't have the scene where Joe hallucinates to be fighting Riikishi or the scene where he sees Riikishi in his blind eye + In general the anime added a lot of "filler" scenes which gave a lot more screentime to characters like Goromaki Gondo and Jose which are barely there in the manga until the final arc.
Honestly this is the reason why i dont want a remaster of ashita no joe. The anime did it better than the manga cuz it added more scenes that added to the enjoyment. If they made a remaster they would probably follow the manga but i want them to follow the original anime direction. idk thats just my opinion
Joe's ending in the anime IMO better shows how after such a long life of pain and inner turmoil, he finally reached some form of "Nirvana". Joe died fighting Jose, the Man. It certainly may not have been a peaceful way of dying, but it's the death Joe expected, and fought for. Him giving the gloves to Yoko signifies how he's finally learned to stop hating the person he arguably hated the most throughout the show. Joe has let go of all the hate and spite he harbored throughout his life, and decided to die a man with no more hate. Then there's the cut of the crowd. The crowd is everyone who had become good friends or acquaintances with Joe. Carlos, Nishi, Danpei, Yoko, Noriko, etc. They each impacted Joe's life in a positive way, helping him grow as a person. Joe died with all the people he appreciated around him. After living his life as a loner, Joe gets to die in a room filled with people that all loved and respected him
I aactually like the ending of the AnJ movie more than the anime. It's pretty much the same as the anime except instead of "Midnight Blues", they play a song called "Joe Forever" and I think it fits way more.
hey its you
@@user-bg3yi4rk6l It's me
Personally imo, ballad fits way better
I love the soundtracks, the colors and the improvements/improvising they did for the 2nd Season (Anime). You have some very valid points. The shot of the audience before we see finally Joe leaves a much bigger impact because we see everyone's reaction.
ANJ has some of the greatest osts in any anime along with maybe my favorite animation out of any anime I've seen so far which is saying alot
Bro please tell the perfect watch order for anime
@@Mex-HNIplease tell the perfect watch order for ashita no joe
THIS
@@NeelamYadav-tm8zvWatch the 1st season for 53 or 54 episodes (since after 54 or 53 eps is retconned by the 2nd season) so after that hop on the 2nd season Ashita No Joe 2. Thats the order I watched the anime.
im so sad of how little great anj and osamu dezaki content there are like this video, this was awesome and i truly agree with you that joe not being able to take down jose as much is a way better approach for the story and sets a realistic tone just like how joe couldnt actually beat rikiishi either, its elegant!
ANJ will always be timeless but that's only to the people that have watched it since it becomes more obscure by the day which is why not many videos are made on it. I'm glad you liked this video :)
hni and anj is one of the best animes ive ever seen
personally in the ending I would have preferred Joe's sorta tranquil whistle that he does in season 2. I saw this in a fan made manga animation video of Joe's last moments and I felt like out of all of the music it fit best
Yea there are plenty of great songs that fit this scene perfectly and they all give different tones. S1 ep1 whistle ost is fitting and gives his death a very dark and grim tone. S2 whistle isnt anywhere near as dark but is very similar in tone. Ballad is my favorite ost of all time and gives a satisfied and similar vibe to midnight blues. Joe forever gives the longest lasting impact and truly immortalized Joe but isnt my favorite song for the ending.
Wow I had never heard of this until now and I gotta say I'm glad to have been able to watch this I appreciate the great work and RIP Joe😭😭😭
Fs
i have only read the manga and i couldn't believe what i saw at the turn of the page. definitely, 100% one of the most impactful endings in media that lives rent-free in my mind to this day. Joe forever, and nothing else.
Best story out there. It’s one of my faves next to Berserk
Same here; along with Monster and Evangelion.
berserk is just a one arc show
@@raht9578 It isn't? The story is clearly divided into arcs (Black Swordsman, Golden Age, etc.)
@@elmo4672 and golden age being the only good one and rest average is what I meant
@@elmo4672bro can you tell me the correct watch order for ashita no joe , i couldn't find anywhere
To me its the contrary, if the manga goes about the cruelty of the world of Boxing and the final pages clearly show how everyone are more interested in the winner rather than the loser, and to add the mistery and mysticism of the final page, to know what happened later, what were the reaction of those who noticed, what happened with the rest of the characters after Joe's death, all that is practically anulated here by putting some reaction instead of letting it stay as an open finale as it was intended originally. I respect that you love more the anime ending, the OST fits great (tho I think could've been put in a much better way), but tbh from a narrative standpoint it would be very hard to improve that finale, to me this just killed that mistery and up to imagination purpose the ending has.
YES THIS IS WHAT IVE BEEN WAITING FOR !
You were the reason I thought about making a dedicated commentary video for Ashita No Joe😉
THANK YOU SO MUCH MAN!
even though i knew about the final scene i went to watch the whole show and when i arrived at the final episode, i covered my mouth with both my hands in shock of how crazy that scene was even though i knew about it, 4 years ago i finished ashita no joe and never in my life ive watched an ending as amazing as this one. We miss you joe you weren't just a fictional character we laughed,cried and felt pain while watching this guy, one of the best and realistic character ever
His swings were indeed unforgetable...
Great video! I just watched ashita no joe a little bit ago and the ending in the anime is so impactful. I didn’t know about all these changes that ultimately enhance the story. This is why I love anime! Also, I thought midnight blues felt right as the ending song, but I thought and some others thought the ending theme to ashita no joe 2 would be better. After your explanation, I can definitely see the intention more from the director.
Yea these changes ultimately add to the ending in many ways. I can only image what Ballad would have sounded like as the final song since it's my favorite ost but atleast we got a great song to end it off with
@@Mex-HNI truuu
At the end of Ashita no Joe 2, the theme song of the first movie, "Beautiful Wolves," would be perfect.
I think the manga does it in a better way because of the sheer granularity of it, the absence of Nishi because his presence here would be thematically conflicting, the white ashes flashback, Youkos sequence in the taxi is done a lot better but I can see either take
midnight blues being bittersweet isn’t a good thing imo ; the entire point of AnJ is that the ending is something we must see as beautiful and positive
Great take!
@@sentii8131 It is meant to be bittersweet in my opinion; It was sweet for Joe; true, but it was bitter for everyone else in the story that knew him as a person.. and I guess its supposed to be bittersweet for us as viewers since Joe does reach his "tomorrow" but at the cost of his life. I disagree with the analysis of the viewer having to interpret the ending in a certain way; the entire anime had a documentary like narrative; it showed us Joe's highs and lows, likeable and dislikeable traits & such; similarly it shows us Joe's end as it happened; it is not glorified as being gallant nor is it vilified as a selfish act; it simply is what it is hence Midnight Blues.
@@elmo4672 I mean you can interpret it another way but it would be pretty illogical and disrespectful to blatantly ignore its content like this. It makes a profound effort to portray living life the way you want to at all times and facing terrible consequences as a result, even death, as something beautiful. Imo it is pointless to do mental gymnastics to bend what is in front of you
@@sentii8131 how did you make it this far in life and not yet grasp the concept of "death of the author"? Also the sorrow of youko can't in any way be interpreted as a happy thing LOL
When ya read the manga you see the sorrow. When watch it. It gives the realism and sadness that comes from it. But the peak of the scene is the music and VA just beautiful
Didn't realise it was the 55th Anniversary, I was wondering why Joe was being promoted all of a sudden (Not that I'm complaining)
Glad to have found your channel, I agree with a lot of what you said here, it's only recently I noticed that Sendo from Ippo shared so many similarities with Joe and they happen to be all the traits that make Sendo such a fan favourite.
Subbed.
Thank you!
To me the manga has a better ending being so sudden and not being dragged out feels perfect for ashita no joe. No waiting, barely anytime to realize what happened, just pure emotion, It was a masterpiece.(but also im a dumbass so maybe dont listen to this idiot)
The flashbacks were a great addition indeed.I kinda disagree with the part about the final page ,it's something that the previous pages built up pretty well ,for me extra time is not needed,also yoko dropping the gloves is a scene I'm not a fan of. Nonetheless I can understand why one would prefer the way the anime handled it ,it kinda makes it easier to savor the situation
Yea seeing as how the anime chose to add some filler scenes to the end I'm not surprised some people would feel like it dragged on a bit. But yea while I prefer the anime the manga still is a perfect ending
I kinda like the manga last round knockdown since the theme of the last rounds of the match was jose not being able to die on there like joe
You forgot the fact jose used his elbow
Not sure, but I did read somewhere that his death was implied but not confirmed. Regardless of if he’s dead or not, I think the heavy implication of it instead of outright confirmation adds to the ending. He is forever, Tomorrow’s Joe
In the italian anime they cut the Joe's death and make him speak with his wife and trainers with a image on their faces so it seems that everything ends good
it's not the question of what was better, but was it made better
and we can all see to say that the anime did improve from the manga by a mile as it should do
Fiction peaked at anj ending for me 🙏🏽
Yeah Joe's Death Was Heartbreaking but what Hit me is When Carlos Rivera got Punch Drunk Syndrome.
Man I know this shit was amazing because I'm fucking salty as fuck he didn't get to win that fight even though I know that it didn't matter to him.
In a way, the Super Famicom game of Ashita No Joe is also nicely done. To get the manga ending, you are not supposed to win against Jose and instead try to hold out until the timer runs out. If you beat Jose, there is basically not much of an ending
Though I love the extra filler scenes in the ending, I do think that I still prefer the way the manga ended.
The manga was originally supposed to end with Yoko taking care of a punch drunk Joe.
However when the ending was changed it left this intended ambiguity to it. Hell depending on which interview you read from the two creators one says they did kill Joe while the other says that Joe didn't die. It leaves this intended ambiguity that lets the reader decide whether or not he died. This question still rings today too.
Meanwhile with the anime it doesn't feel close to that. The filler scenes make it seem like his death is more solidified while still sending an impactful message at the same time. Sure you can still make the argument for him living in the anime version but in a way it feels harder to argue for that side because of how it played out and sort of takes away from the ambiguity.
I liked someone else's take on the matter from a video that animated the manga panels. That Joe closed his eyes not worrying about whether or not he would wake up or not tomorrow. He was burned out and satisifed that he got to fight against the World Champion.
You understood everything
Finally someone smart. Anime away better
Would you recommend I watch the anime or read the manga? Btw love ur channel as I’m in the midst of reading HNI (just finished ippo vs Wally)
Read the manga till the end of Fall of Yabuki Joe arc (Volume 11) then watch Ashita no Joe 2 (1980); the first few episodes of AnJ 2 will cover what you would've already read but they cut out some content so best to finish the arc in the manga.
What Elmo said but I would still give the anime a try first to see if you enjoy it. If you are able to get your hands on the AnJ s1 remaster then I highly recommend the anime entirely over the manga.
Can you tell me the song at 2:50 ?
I honestly what you mean by you like the fact that they didn't the cliche thing of if Joe had a minute to spar he would've beaten Jose but I don't think thats the point all Joe wanted to do was fight the strongest that was it and the authors wouldn't have went through with making him win since the point of his was for him to fight his hardest until there was nothing that remain which was probably why he had Jose on his knees in the end because his determination was too much. Also we didn't need to see all their faces as if he died I appericiate the people that stood to respect his fight but we have to remember Joe didn't die.
y'all are on something. The manga ending is so much better.
Keep in mind that Joe never Actually reached his goals. He lost to Rikishi then didn't defeat carlos, it was a draw and he lost again to Jose
Wait joe died I thought he became punch drunk from fighting?
He was already punch drunk before the final fight for the World Title. He was already showing punch drunk symptoms.
@@Intenxsify was he damn