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is a critically acclaimed boxing manga written by Ikki Kajiwara and illustrated by Tetsuya Chiba in 1968 that was later adapted into an anime series and movie. The title means "Joe of tomorrow" or ''Tomorrow's Joe''. Outside Japan it is also referred to as ''Champion Joe'', ''Rocky Joe'' or ''Joe''. It was adapted into a live-action film starring popular actor/singer Tomohisa Yamashita as Yabuki Joe and Yūsuke Iseya as Rikiishi. The movie premiered in Japan on February 11, 2011. ==Story== Joe Yabuki is a troubled young man who runs away from an orphanage. Wandering through the Tokyo slums, he meets former boxing trainer Danpei. Joe is later arrested and goes to a temporary jail where he fights Nishi, his future best friend and leader of a group of hooligans. He and Nishi then go to a juvenile prison miles away from Tokyo. There Joe meets Rikiishi, a former boxing prodigy, and a rivalry develops between them. They face each other in a match in which Rikiishi dominates Joe until the latter hits him with a cross-counter, resulting in both being knocked out. This inspires the other prison inmates to take up boxing. Joe and Rikiishi vow to fight again. Danpei instructs Joe in the ways of boxing, but then some time later temporarily takes Aoyama, whom most of the prison made fun of for being small, under his wing and "abandons" Joe, without giving him an explanation. This causes Joe to feel mentally broken and becomes jealous and scared of Aoyama because Danpei is teaching him. Joe takes part in the Prison Boxing Tournament, where he faces Aoyama in the semi-finals. Joe, being the aggressive fighter that he is, is unable to hit Aoyama who specializes in dodging and tiring his opponent. During the fight, Joe learns to effectively defend himself by copying Aoyama's guard and sway-back technique and defeats him. This is later revealed to be part of Danpei's plan as he thought he couldn't properly teach Joe defense himself, and needed an opponent whom Joe could instinctively take after. As Rikiishi learns he is scheduled to leave the prison, he challenges Joe to a fight right there and then. Joe cheats by having rocks in his gloves due to exhaustion from his previous match. However, the match comes to halt before its conclusion and the two promise to meet each other again, this time as professional boxers. Upon his release from prison, Joe manages to go up to Bantamweight, but it isn't easy and Danpei has a very tough time getting him a boxing license due to his past record. Joe decides to take the matter between his two hands and purposely provoke a rookie champion boxer named Wolf Kanagushi. Wolf is also a cross-counter specialist and they are thus both considered wolves. Joe challenges Wolf in a locker room brawl in which they both knock each other out. The subsequent media coverage forces the boxing commission to allow Joe to become a pro boxer. Joe quickly raises up and gains popularity for his brawling style, and trademark cross-counter KO wins. Wolf retains a grudge against Joe for humiliating him and, in retaliation, harms the neighborhood kids whom Joe had befriended when those come to spy on Wolf, giving Joe even more motivation to defeat him. Both boxers go under special disclosed training and in the subsequent fight Joe manages to perform a triple-cross counter on Wolf. Joe then earns the right to fight Rikiishi in the professional ring. Although Rikiishi is assured a promising career, he is intent in settling his score with Joe, whom he feels stands in his path. Because Rikiishi is three weight classes above Joe, he has to cut down on lots of weight and go under a super-strenuous weight loss program. The result is that he becomes as skinny as bones. To compensate for the power that he has lost, Rikiishi relentlessly trains in uppercut boxing, throwing uppercuts till they hit the opponents. Eventually the two great rivals fight each other. Rikiishi defeats Joe in the 8th round with an uppercut counter but collapses as he is about to shake Joe's hand due to an extremely hard blow to the temple two rounds before and him landing his head on the ropes. Rikiishi dies from the combined effects of the extreme weight loss on his body and brain hemorrage suffered during the fight. This marks the end of the first story arc. (In real-life, a full funeral in honor of Rikiishi was held in the offices of the Kodansha publishing company.) The story resumes with flashbacks of the match between Joe and Rikiishi as a distant memory. Joe is still shaken up from that match, both mentally and physically. Eventually he returns to his old club and starts training again. Soon after, during matches, his trainer Danpei realises that Joe is having a serious problem with boxing: he is not giving shots to the face. Obviously Rikiishi's death was more of a shock than was first realised. It takes Joe quite some time to get over it and costs him three straight losses. But then he finally conquers his fears when he faces the globally #6 ranked Carlos Rivera. The fight ends with a draw, yet it gives Joe tremendous fame and respect around the world, especially since Rivera was going to face the World Champion Jose Mendoza in his next match. Joe starts to climb up the boxing ladder, but considering he grew a few inches taller, he had to cut weight which proved to be extremely difficult. He finally defeats the Asian–Pacific Champion, Yongpi Kim, a Korean boxer who accidentally killed his father thinking he was a hungry soldier who was returning to his son to get him food during the Korean War. As a result of this, he developed a phobia of blood. Joe has quite a bit of trouble in this match, because he feels an inferiority complex considering Kim is able to handle weight without a problem and Joe feeling weak as a result of the lost weight. After winning the title match, Joe defends his title (twice in the original manga; an unspecified number of times in the anime). The notable anime-original defense was against an American named Leon Smiley who accidentally dies in a car accident after the match, furthering Joe's curse of being many boxers' final match. He wins all defenses, ultimately defending it against the Malaysian fighter Harimau. His unorthodox fighting style is unpredictable but Joe manages to successfully defend his title. He is now given the chance to face the World Champion Jose Mendoza, who defeated Carlos Rivera with a KO punch in the first round, ending his boxing career. Later revealed Carlos had develop permanent brain damage from his fight. Joe faces Mendoza, even though he is at an disadvantage since it was revealed he was punch-drunk. He fights relentlessly without giving up, no matter how many punches Jose hits him with. The match goes back and forth with Joe able to knock down the Champion more than once. In some instances, becoming the newly crowned World Champion is nearly within reach. Meanwhile, Mendoza sees in Joe's eyes the ghosts of other boxers whom he destroyed throughout his career. As the match progresses Joe's body begins to give out with his right eye losing most of its vision early on in the match. The match goes all of its fifteen rounds. It ends with Joe slumped on a stool in his corner of the ring, tired and bruised but with a smile on his face after his greatest title match against the World Champion. He requests that his gloves be removed and gives them to Youko Shiraki, who confessed her true feelings for him before the match. There is much tension in the air as they await the judges' verdict : It goes in favour of Jose Mendoza. He looks fragile and old — his hair has turned white. Joe's coach turns to console him only to find that he has most likely died of his injuries, with a smile on his face. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ashita no Joe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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