It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Nanbu reveals to Joe the real goal of their training: not to go the distance at Megalonia, but to throw the match against Burroughs to make Fujimaki some cash, just like he used to do. Of course, Joe is outraged by this and rides off in a huff, but that basically makes his, Nanbu, and Sachio’s lives forfeit. Because of this, he also misses a press conference for the other Megalonia finalists, causing another stir amongst the crowds.

Sachio turns out to have been the son of a former Shirato scientist who was killed by their people after working for them. He was hoping to get revenge by being with Joe when he beat Yuri, but that’s hopeless now. Instead, Nanbu takes him to Yukiko’s house during a social event and gives him the option of killing her himself…but he refuses. So, Nanbu leaves him with her for protection, telling her to look into his father’s death and how she owes him that much.

Soon enough, the first day of Megalonia arrives, with Yuri against Pepe Iglesias. The fight is even at first, but Yuri eventually wins, securing his spot in the final match as Joe looks on from the stands. Afterwards, he and Joe find each other and chat a bit about why they’ve come this far. Joe because he’s going further than he ever has, while Yuri to fulfill the dream of the person who believed in him and brought him this far. The next day, Nanbu stops by the house Joe is staying at and hands its owner, Abuhachi, an earpiece for Joe, telling him to wear it if he shows up.

Soon after, Joe rides off to the match.

OUR TAKE

Seems we’ve hit another lull episode, likely our last before the big matches start, and it’s another mental and emotional struggle for Joe and Team Nowhere. I guess I should have expected Fujimaki’s help in the last fight to come at a cost…at least, that’s what I thought this would turn out to be; that he got concerned about the near loss they suffered almost forfeiting to Mikio and decided to fall back on throwing the next fight just to be safe. But as it turns out, this was actually the plan all along, only Joe wasn’t in on it, likely because he never would have given it his all for this long if he had known he wasn’t going to go all the way. Now, after coming this far, he finds out he’s going to have to throw matches again after feeling like he could go as far as he wanted and it’s shattered his faith in both Nanbu and his fight.

Obviously he’s not going to give up, seeing how we have three more episodes left, but it does feel like his last big non-physical battle he has to face before he’s allowed to start punching dudes again. I’ve been really appreciating how much of the conflict in this show has been emotional and psychological, not relying solely on fists flying to solve problems. That’s definitely a component, but if it were the only one, this show would not be nearly as good. There’s tons of ways this show breaks convention with what I would expect in a sports or tournament anime story, so hopefully we can continue that trend in the last handful of episodes.

Another example of this is Joe’s relationship to Yuri, who we once again get to see show off how much of a threat he is by pounding Pepe (who sadly wasn’t much more than a Worf Effect character to get beaten up, which is also what I’m expecting Burroughs to be, unfortunately). He and Joe are on a collision course to face off in the final round, but while there’s clearly some sparks between them, they don’t have any reason to hate each other. Hence why, when they finally get a chance to just sit down and talk in this episode, there isn’t a hint of malice between them, just two people who are dead set on their dreams and see that they can get the best fight possible out of the other. It’s actually pretty refreshing to see this sort of friendliness between two rivals that have no prior history.

I know I said this week was the beginning of the home stretch, but REALLY FOR REAL, it starts next week. And I’m looking to give out at least one more perfect score before it’s all over.

Score 9/10