Futari no Joe

There's better boxing series out there & sadly this may earn itself a bronze. Supposedly, most of the story ideas are from Ikki Kajiwara (from the author of Ashita No Joe) but feels more like an incomplete script. The story of Joe Vs Joe is divided between 3 characters being Joe Yuki, Joe Akamine, & Maki who each suffer from personal trauma of family issues, however the problem with the anime is that it doesn't resolve these issues. While the boxing certainly helps play a part in the story it never becomes great or inspiring like Hajime No Ippo or Ashita No Joe. It certainly contains some seinen elements but doesn't go all the way with it & takes two steps back to a corny battle of "have fun" vs "winning means everything". Shonen these such as can work if expressed properly but due to a lack of a conclusion & some Deus ex Machina, really hindered this short OVA to becoming a touching story of people facing their pasts & learning from it. Not really recommendable, even though I did enjoy some things from it such as the soundtrack & the great English dub as we get to hear Dan Green & a couple of other familiar voices. It's best to stick with boxing classics such as Ashita No Joe & Hajime No Ippo.

In my opinion, it was pretty great. I enjoyed it since it looked an anime I can watch whenever I want to feel calm or find something that I relax and watch. I can understand why some may not like it much since the storyline may be confusing, or doesn't end it well. I have different tastes when it comes to anime, so I might like certain things that others would not. Here, I rate this anime series a 9/10. I am surprised it only had six episodes. I guess if there was more, maybe it would have been better. But, it would have been cancelled if that happened, which will make me mad since I dislike cliffhangers.