What’s your name?

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Before the big fight, Sachio carves “Team Nowhere” into a pillar while Nanbu gives Joe the same betting ticket he gave to Aragaki for good luck. But now it’s time for the final round with only two outcomes: Win or lose. Rocky 2 or Rocky 1. Or Creed 2 or Creed 1. Or Rocky Balboa, where he lost but kinda won, or Rocky 5, where he won but also lost because the movie was bad. It all comes down to this.

The crowd is awestruck at Yuri’s decision to remove his Gear to fight Joe, but now at least they’re on equal footing. The fight itself starts out pretty standard, though it becomes clear that, while Yuri is holding his own, he’s so worn out from the surgery that he can’t rest for even a second. Joe lets him set the tempo, but eventually starts adding to the beat himself. As Yuri puts it, a man can’t dance on his own (though Billy Idol would beg to differ). Sachio gives Yuri some water to make sure he’s at his top game, while Nanbue gives Joe one more pep talk about the life and name he chose when he started on this path that led here (which luckily helps my Rocky/Creed tagline motif). The match goes all the way to its thirteenth round, apparently a first in Megalo Boxing.

While this is happening, Yukiko gives a presentation on Integrated Gear to the military for implementation there, but is apparently saddened by the results of the fight.

One year later, Nanbu holds a celebration for the anniversary of the fight, having apparently taken up gardening in that time. Yukiko isn’t able to make it, having just announced a second Megalonia Tournament, but Yuri shows up despite being confined to a wheelchair. The championship title has also been vacant for awhile and Joe is seemingly given up the ring for good, but we learn at the very end of the episode that Joe won the fight in the thirteenth round.

OUR TAKE

And so, one of anime’s more recent classics passes into legend. They did everything to make that last fight the hypiest it could be and I dare say they succeeded. With everything we’ve seen Joe go through just to get here and what Yuri drove himself to in order to fight him on the same level, the actual fight itself, even the outcome, seems like just a formality. Whether either of them win or lose, the outcome would probably be the same. They’ve both been brought here by the love of the brawl and just want to fight each other the hardest they could.

…but we still need to see the actual fight, obviously! And it’s as jaw-droppingly, knuckle-bustingly, pants-shittingly intense as you’d expect for something of this magnitude. There’s an appropriate sense of finality to it as well, as everyone is either there in the moment or moving onto the future, like Yukiko is shown to be doing by continuing her application of the Integrated Gear, even without Yuri. She’s also planning a second Megalonia tournament, which might set the stage for a second season, but nothing’s been announced yet.

And yet, while the momentum and afterglow of this whole series is not going to be leaving my body for some time…I do have to say that this ending felt just a bit too neat and tidy for me. As I said, the fight itself was pretty much just a formality, since there wasn’t much in the way of stakes left once the two of them got in the ring. They weren’t enemies, they didn’t have any reason to hate each other, and there was nothing really at risk if either of them lost after all they’d already given up just to be there. This definitely made it one of the more unique final battles that I’ve seen, but that, as well as the flash forwards and lack of tension, didn’t quite make this TKO it could have been. As gratuitous as it might have been, I really feel like I needed to see that last hit and moment where Joe officially won the match and without that…I’m just not totally satisfied.

Still, I can’t stress enough how this was definitely one of the most satisfying conclusions in a short series like this that I’ve had in awhile, even with that seeming fumble. But while a second season may not ever come (nor really need to come, when it comes down to it), what we can do is look back on the whole series in the Season Review, coming soon.

Score 9/10