Tomorrow's Joe [Blu-ray]

Of course it's great that the 'Discothek' label has brought (a semblance of) one of Japan's finest, most beloved animes, "Ashita no-Jo" to the Western World...Originally a HUGE series that was made up of 79 episodes, equaling 40 hours of film, they have creatively re-cut the series into a feature length film, running 2 1/2 hours for this blu ray release. As someone who owns both this film and the complete Japanese series, even I can admit that the series was a little too long and dragged out. In a situation similar to the recent Nicholas Winding Refn mini series, "Too Old To Die Young," it sometimes felt the creator of this series was forced to make the series super-long for whatever reason, resulting in frustration over repetitive scenarios and pointless scenes. In this way, a feature film length version of this incredible boxing epic, truly is welcomed. However......there are changes made by the distributor that should have not have taken place. First off, was it necessary to change the opening song? The upbeat, rock song that opened each episode of the series was perfectly fine, and appropriate for the material. The slow, moody song is a disappointment for any fan looking for the nostalgia of revisiting the series, which is very hard to find nowadays. The voices of the characters have been changed? Why on Earth would they employ all new voice actors, when the original voices were perfectly fine? Background music is likewise gone, replaced by more modern sounding music. again...WHY? "Ashita no Jo" is a product of the early 1970's...why try to hide that fact? Nobody tweaked the music to "Speed Racer/Mach Go Go Go," and that show is very 60's in every way, and a huge commercial success. The worst thing about this blu ray is that they have attempted to change the aspect ratio. Once again, in an effort to make this anime look like current, they have taken the classic, 4x3 picture, and have blown it up so that the black bars on either side are gone. Gone also. are the tops of people's heads and their chins, and most of the background scenery, and in this case, that background scenery is very important for obvious reasons. In short, "Tomorrow's Joe" makes for an enjoyable anime movie, but it can't be compared to the experience have seeing this in it's original form; too much has been changed. I'm grateful to have the series, and i won't be replacing it with this commercialized effort.

This is a compilation movie of the first TV Seires of “Ashita No Joe”. It includes a not too bad lost English Dub version and Japanese with English Subs. The movie takes a lot of the character growth moments away and mainly only important plot points like a “best of” slideshow. The OST is amazing and the craftsmanship of the DVD/Blu Ray is great as usual. This movie is a great entry point to the seires for Western Viewers. I highly implore you to purchase this so we can get more Ashita No Joe in the West. Only gripe would be no scene selection option for this 2 hour movie.

So, it's great to have the movie version (which I believe is a condensed version of the t.v. show--it certainly looks like an old fashioned t.v. screen feature cropped top and bottom for the screen) on blu ray. A step up from the old DVD released as Champion Joe.But Tomorrow's Joe is a classic manga still read today, and it to my knowledge has never been fully translated into English (I've only seen translated panels in books on manga), nor has the t.v. adaptation been made available in this language. Please let us have the full Tomorrow's Joe experience!

I love Tomorrow's Joe and I really hope that more Tomorrow's Joe content comes to the West. The movie is a summary of the first season of the Tomorrow's Joe anime although cut up and squeezed into a span of three hours. The quality is really good besides being made in the 70's and the story is second to none. Some scenes are a bit goofy and nonsensical but that's due to some scenes being cut so there is some instances of inconsistency. Tomorrow's Joe has inspired a myriad of anime and movies so don't miss out on buying this, hopefully the Tomorrow's Joe 2 anime comes out soon.

They butchered this amazing show into this pile of nothingness. Stay away from this and watch the show any way you can.

Great start for anyone who wants to get into Ashita no Joe. It condenses the first Joe anime into a 2 and a half hour movie, though it doesn't get too hard to follow. I hope we get more Ashita no Joe in the West again.

Good stuff my dude

One of my favorite animes! Please dub the series, any anime company, Viz Media, funimation, discotek or whatever!