Megalo Box
- Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Yuri a true boxer who cherishes his sport and respects Joe as a worthy opponent, or a masochist whose obsession with Joe leads him down a path of self-destruction?
- Ensemble Dark Horse: Among the fighters, by far the most acclaimed is Pepe "Spider" Iglesias, the Mexican boxing champion, for his charismatic performance (with surprisingly good Spanish), cool Mexican aesthetic, and an absolutely kickass entrance
. - Hilarious in Hindsight: In early 2018, "Low-fi Chill Anime Study Beats" became a minor sensation (and a subject of memetic mockery) on music streaming platforms due to their ubiquity along with its association with the anime aesthetic. Along came this series, which boasts a critically acclaimed soundtrack in that exact subgenre of hip-hop.
- Ho Yay: Joe and Yuri. The two share intense gazes whenever they meet. After having his Gear removed, Yuri sounds downright warm as he describes his desire to fight Joe.
- Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Quite a few Hispanic communities admitted to loving the series, both for its grit and for its rather nuanced and symapthetic portrayal of a Spanish-speaking community throughout both seasons.
- Narm: Glen Burrough's pre-fight taunt towards Joe in the Japanese version of episode 11. Though he speaks in English, it's evident that his dialogue was written by someone who isn't fluent in the language.Glen Burroughs: You chicken. I will smash you into junk, together with your sleazy gear.
- Special Effect Failure: This is how the Retraux look of the footage by T2 Studio can come off as, with the animation, and in particular the backgrounds, looking more like an early-2000s anime that's been poorly re-scaled rather than the '90s aesthetic they're going for. This article goes into additional detail about it.
- Spiritual Adaptation: The show can be described as a gritty anime adaptation of ARMS.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Being limited to thirteen episodes and having three of those spent setting everything up for starting to compete in Megalonia is an understandable limitation, but the whole "Gearless" part of the Gearless Joe gimmick is thought to really not get enough focus in terms of what Joe has to fight through and work up towards to qualify. Instead, the fights between Samejima and Aragaki are limited to a quick montage to keep the plot rolling, as Joe quickly zooms up the ranks by simply skipping a large portion of them (he starts out at 257th, but quickly jumps to 185th and then 17th by challenging or being challenged by people ranked way above him), and the power of the Gears gets somewhat underplayed as a result by implying each of Joe's opponents up to that point were nothing but chumps with steel fists attached. It can make half of Joe's entire underdog setup feel somewhat undermined when the story focuses more on putting foes on his level, rather than having to go past his limits against implausible odds to beat theirs.
- Aside from that, the fact that the show was promoted as a boxing show with mechanical augments, yet Joe loses his very early on and has to fight his way to the top without them has left some disappointed and feeling that they were a wasted concept. Joe already has an underdog status even with his gear as it's noted to be rather crappy. It's certainly a far cry away from Yuri's extremely fancy gear.
- Tough Act to Follow: To many reviewers, the question is not whether Megalo Box will be good or not; it's whether it will top Tomorrow's Joe, which has been a Cult Classic for 50 years and is considered one of the best Spokon of all times. Not helped by its Everyone Lives ending, compared to the original's tragic deaths of several boxers which inspired two real-life funerals.
NOMAD
- Growing the Beard: Possibly fitting considering Joe's appearance at the start of the season, but NOMAD so far has generally been considered to be superior to the first season due to it's greater focus on character drama and not being constrained to a specific story structure like season 1 was due to being a remake of Tomorrow's Joe.
- Jerkass Woobie: Sachio has become this since the timeskip. He’s inarguably the most aggressive and vindictive of Joe, outright assaulting him and responding caustically to any of Joe's attempts to reconcile. Despite his Jerkass behaviour towards Joe, he does actually feel guilty for pushing him into leaving at Nanbu's funeral. The others note that this is possibly why he took up Megalo Boxing in the first place; he didn't want to cause anyone else to leave, so he tried to become like Joe and provide for everyone.
- Too Cool to Live: Chief, a Cool Old Guy who helps Joe beat his painkiller addiction and whose motivation was to get money so his fellow immigrants could buy and legally own the land they were staying on, dies from the severe head trauma he got during his final boxing match.
