See this guy in the mirror? That’s your toughest opponent.



OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Excitement for Joe’s fight against Glen “Bloody Lion” Burroughs reaches a fever pitch, but no one on Team Nowhere is feeling it, knowing they’ll have to throw the match to please Fujimaki. Joe, seemingly resigned, arrives in the ring wearing his old Gear from his previously thrown fights, with it planned for him to go down at the end of the third round. Nanbu coaches him from the stands, though Joe takes punches on purpose, almost as a way of defying Nanbu for his betrayal and self-imposed punishment for giving up. Sachio, despite settling in well at Yukiko’s house, can’t stand to look at Joe while he’s like this, but also knows he was using Joe for his own ends this whole time anyway. So, naturally, the only way to emotionally reconcile is to throw down some freestyle rap lyrics!

The third round arrives and Nanbu assures Joe that once this fight is over, he’ll be a free man. Only…Fujimaki corrects him, revealing that he plans to make use of Joe just as he always has, throwing fights in his ring forever, just in time for Joe to get almost knocked out right on time. But when all seems lost, Sachio returns to cheer Joe on. Yuri also arrives to remind Joe of the talk they’d had about why they fight. And finally, Nanbu tells him to get up because his tomorrow is coming and he won’t be taking falls anymore. With this encouragement, Joe snaps out of his funk and knocks Burroughs out easily, winning the match.

Nanbu, however, has to settle affairs with Fujisaki, and the only way to do so is cutting out his only working eye. Ironically, while Nanbu had wanted to see Joe become the champion, he’s given up his chance of ever seeing that happening.

That night, Yuri begins furiously training for his final round with Joe.

OUR TAKE

While there was a brutal physical fight going on in front of us, the true battle of this episode was an internal one, this time involving all of Team Nowhere. Joe battled his doubt about being anything more than a stray dog who took orders and threw fights. Nanbu struggled against his urge to support Joe all the way to the championship and his fear of Fujimaki, which he had to cut out his own eye just to see clearly. And even Sachio wrestled with whether or not he was helping Joe for the right reasons or for something selfish, then recommitting to his friends when the moment counted. As much as we face day to day struggles, sometimes against other people directly, we all are facing ourselves along the way. Our dreams fighting against our nightmares. Our ambitions fighting against our anxieties. Our hopes fighting against fears. In the end, it’s a battle we’re all constantly fighting that we sometimes win and sometimes lose. And in this case, it looks like Joe and Team Nowhere won this round.

Though despite how much I enjoyed that, there was a minor downside. That being how Burroughs, Joe’s actual opponent, basically got shafted in terms of establishing his own character. After Aragaki and Mikio turned out to be fully fleshed out antagonists and with Yuri on the horizon, I guess I got spoiled by having these fighters feel like people who I’d love learning about why they fought as much as how. But with all that going on, this was probably the right move for this particular match. It shouldn’t overshadow Yuri and the fight was really about breaking off from Fujimaki and the mob connections that were holding them back in the first place. In that sense, Burroughs is kind of like Samejima from Joe’s first match, acting as a metaphor for the abstract danger of what Joe might be losing himself to if he didn’t have help from his friends to hold him up, whereas Aragaki and Mikio were partially about helping to develop other characters.

I feel like I’m running out of ways to describe how much I’m loving this show right now, but it looks like that’s right on time since we only have two more episodes to go. We’re headed to the much anticipated final fight with Yuri next, which I have confidence will be fully worth the wait.

Score 9/10