The True Tears Shed by a 'Relationship-Obsessed' Fan Over 'Tomorrow's Joe': The Ecology of a Devastated Carlos Fan

I recently read the original 'Tomorrow's Joe' manga from start to finish for the first time in my life. I am here now because my brain has been scorched by its overwhelming perfection and the sheer quality of its harrowing story.

I had watched the entire anime during some rerun back when I was in middle school, so strictly speaking, it wasn't my first time and I knew the story. I was moved by how interesting it was back then, but the impact this time was even greater.

As a 'relationship-obsessed' fan, I found many of the dynamics surrounding Joe deeply moving. In particular, the relationship with 'Carlos Rivera' was very fruitful, as there were many things I wouldn't have noticed without a certain level of obsession with these dynamics.

With that said, it was the best work throughout, and I will record the impressions that moved me so much that I simply have to write about them.

Men heading toward ruin, men who drop out and find happiness

Throughout the entire story, I was struck by the depiction of men heading toward ruin—starting with Rikiishi's grueling weight loss—and those who did not.

In this work, those who confront Joe or are deeply involved with him follow one of two paths. Either they become obsessed with boxing and head toward ruin, or they wash their hands of boxing and find ordinary happiness.
The most prominent examples of the former are Rikiishi, Carlos, and Joe himself. The most notable example of the latter is Mammoth Nishi.

Those who fight a serious Joe, starting with Rikiishi, end up broken. And Joe himself was also gradually eroding his own body. Yet, they continued to fight until the very end. They chose to fight.
Rikiishi saw his own glory beyond his fight with Joe. But what awaited him was ruin. And Joe is cursed by the ghost of such a Rikiishi.

Joe was cursed by the fact that he 'killed Toru Rikiishi' and could no longer land a punch to the temple, but he could not quit boxing. The world of boxing, led by Old Man Tange, was the first place he had ever been showered with human love and treated as a human being. It was the first reason for living he had ever found.
Rikiishi died standing on the starting line to glory. Wolf, who had his jaw—his lifeline as a boxer—crushed and could only cling to past glory, and Carlos, who even after having his brain crushed and becoming unable to box, still had'the obsession with the match'smoldering within him.
It was because he had seen them that Joe chose to continue on the path to ruin. And he, too, burned everything up. He declared that reaching ruin was'becoming pure white ash'.

I really love the character Carlos Rivera. It is because his appearance after being broken by Jose is so heartbreakingly beautiful.
He no longer burns brightly and intensely, yet'only the obsession with the match' remains unextinguished. He came all the way to Japan with a broken brain, came to see Joe.
The only thing left in his broken brain was the memory of Joe, which is to say, 'the obsession with the match.' It is not anger or resentment toward Jose, who was the direct cause of him being broken. It is strictlyonly the memory of Joe, with whom he had the greatest match. Can you see this massive emotion?

That is why I truly shed tears from the bottom of my heart during the part where Joe hugs the smoldering Carlos while crying. Joe pitied him, and he cherished him.
This image of Joe hugging him while crying is not just about pity or sadness for Carlos. It is also the sadness of witnessing his own possible future.Carlos is also the image of Joe who could not burn out.

You can see the magnitude of Carlos's existence to Joe from his reaction when Yoko says, 'Poor Carlos Rivera,' to Joe as he tries to head to the ring.

It is precisely because Joe is heading to the ring to burn everything up right now that he has the right to pity Carlos, who could not burn everything up.
That is why Yoko, who only looks at the point of him being a 'punch-drunk,' does not understand the essence of it. She does not understand even a glimpse of the true sadness Joe feels toward Carlos.
It is the best scene where you can see the massive emotions of the wolves who live in the world of men, in the ring.

Rikiishi, who died halfway through his ambition, and Carlos, who became as good as dead while losing his ambition while still alive. Carrying those two souls, Joe will face Jose Mendoza while being cursed.
It is truly wonderful that Carlos stands ringside here, and even Yoko stands there in the final stages. Yoko was a femme fatale who lured men to ruin from beginning to end. But her final encouragement, in that place, becomes salvation. Letting him be ruined until the end leads to Joe's soul's salvation, that is, burning out.
Joe was supported while being cursed by Rikiishi and Carlos. That is why having Rikiishi, through Carlos himself and Yoko, in his corner was also a support.

In the anime, Nishi was by his side, but I will say loudly that this change from the original work is a change for the worse.

Nishi is the most contrasting existence to Joe. This is because Nishi is a man who lives by cherishing exactly what Joe lost and threw away. Before he knew it, he threw away boxing, worked hard at his job, married Noriko, and found ordinary happiness.
Joe had the same right to find such happiness. But he did not choose it. He threw it away himself—not external happiness, but because he chose the salvation of his own soul, which was the fight against Jose Mendoza.
With the happiness Nishi found, Joe could never burn out in his entire life, nor could he exorcise the ghost of Rikiishi. The contrast between Nishi, who found something to protect, and Joe, who fights while throwing everything away, is the best.

That is why I wish for Nishi not to stand by Joe's side in that match; I want him to keep holding onto that happiness just as it is. Nishi has no right to stand at that ringside where Old Man and Carlos, who once could not burn out, are present, and where Yoko is prepared to witness the ruin.

['Those who come with me are wolves']

This phrase is everything. That is why Nishi, who fades out after the wedding in the original work and builds happiness with Noriko, is not allowed to stand in the corner as the future Joe threw away.

Only that scene where the battered Carlos shouts toward the ring is beautiful. The existence known as Carlos really has such massive emotions for Joe that it is truly unbearable.

The man who could not become a wolf, Jose

Glory as a boxer, the seat of a world champion. In other words, the title of the strongest. Then, a loving wife and child, happiness outside the ring.
The battle with Jose Mendoza, who possesses all of these, is Joe's final destination. He is a man who holds the glory that Rikiishi and Carlos could not attain, and also the happiness that Nishi gained by abandoning boxing.
Jose has everything that Joe does not. Above all, he has something to lose. He has something to protect.

A battle of reason and wildness, yet it seems Joe is not obsessed with winning or losing in his fight with Jose. Joe is obsessed only with burning everything up, not even looking an inch ahead.
His eyesight has been stolen by punch-drunkenness, and his brain is further damaged by Jose's corkscrew blows. Even so, he stands up to Jose just to burn everything up. The souls of the men who could not burn out are what push the back of Joe's soul as he heads toward hell.

That is why Jose fears the eyes of such a Joe, the eyes of a true wolf.

In that scene where he fears Joe and resorts to fouls, it signifies that while Jose is the strongest boxer, he cannot become a wolf.
He is like a human who encounters a wild dog and pulls out a hunting rifle. Jose is the strongest, but he feared being hunted. That is why he reflexively committed a series of fouls. To protect himself, and what he had to protect.
The fact that Joe did not respond with fouls there means he is not just mere wildness. As the completed form of a boxer, he continues to face Jose as a boxer from beginning to end. He insists on continuing to box. All so that he leaves no ashes behind on the ring.

The contrast with Harimau, who was mere wildness, is here. Joe was a true wolf but also remained a boxer. That is exactly what terrified Jose.
And that fear itself means that Jose can never become a wolf. He is the strongest boxer, but that is all. If the match with Joe had continued without a decision, it is unclear how it would have turned out.
That is where the meaning lies. There is no meaning in winning a street fight. To box in earnest and lose on the ring. To have the outcome decided on the ring by the strongest boxer. It is not a fight until one of them drops dead.
That is why Joe was able to burn everything up. It shows just how captivated he was by boxing, and it also conveys how much he cherished it.

In contrast, Jose was terrified throughout the final stages. He was afraid. He was afraid of Joe, who kept standing up as if he had nothing to lose, as if he were immortal.
Because he had something to protect, because he had something he did not want to lose, he could not understand. He was afraid of the wolf in the ring the whole time. That is why he ended up looking so haggard at the end.
I do not know what happened to Jose after that, but even so, one can see that Jose, too, was 'broken' just like the opponents Joe had fought until now.

Because he was the strongest, he caught Joe's eye, and because he was too strong, he could not find relief. If he had been defeated early on, he might have found relief sooner, but because he was the strongest, he won.
As long as he is in the ring, Jose will likely be haunted by Joe's phantom forever. A tragedy born from being too strong despite having something to lose. It was a fight where no one was happy at all.

And finally, Joe hands the gloves he fought Jose with to Yoko, saying, 'I want you to have these.' That is a message from him. A message asking her to affirm this fight, and by extension, his own life lived in boxing.
The remains of a man who fought until the final round and burned everything up. That is what those gloves are. Yoko accepting them is an affirmation of his life.
And the fact that she watched over him until the very end without looking away is also a salvation for Joe. That is why he asked Yoko to accept those gloves. He hands over the gloves that symbolize the world of boxing he lived in. One might even be able to see them as an engagement ring.

For the 'tomorrow'

A series of tragedies involving a man who keeps heading toward ruin and those who face him. The succession of stories where no one is happy at all truly shook my heart.
From the middle onwards, the disconnect between Joe and Tange-no-otchan was emphasized quite a bit. That served as a foundation to make the definitive difference between the two clear as the end approached.

From the very beginning,the old man who looked toward 'tomorrow' and Joe who looked toward 'burning out'—there was no way the visions they reached or anything else could align. After Rikiishi's death, the two remained together without ever realizing their definitive disconnect.
Even so, they continued to fight together until the very end. Because they were together, Joe was able to burn out properly. Even if distorted, they succeeded as partners. This kind of distorted relationship also struck a chord with me as a limit-relationship otaku.

When I watched it as a middle schooler, I naturally loved Rikiishi, who was just too cool. Of course, reading it now, Rikiishi was still the best. He is cool himself, and the rivalry is wonderful.
And yet, the sight of Joe suffering, cursed by the causality of 'having killed his best rival,' was truly painful, but even more so, the relationship with Rikiishi within Joe—who realized after his death that he held feelings even bigger than he had thought and was cursed by them—was tremendous.

But above all, what shook my heart the most reading it this time was, as I mentioned before, the existence of Carlos Rivera.He is the Joe who could not burn out, and the possible form of Rikiishi who kept heading toward glory,
I will say it again, the fact that his brain was broken, he lost everything, and what remained at the end wasa 'delusion of the match,' and that it was the match with Joeis what truly hits the spot for me. As a limit-relationship otaku, I never expected to be able to absorb such heart-shaking, massive emotions, so I could not stop being moved. That is why the tearful embrace of Joe responding to that is the most beautiful thing.

It is not just the contrast with Carlos. The contrast with Nishi, who stepped down from boxing midway, is also beautiful. I admired the skill of the manga as a story, in the development where Nishi, who struggled in the ring together until midway, is the one who gets to have the happiness that Joe could have had as an ordinary person.

The joy of encountering a true masterpiece is beyond words. When I finished reading it to the end, I felt as if I, too, had truly burned out. It made me realize vividly just how much emotion I had poured into reading it.
I am truly glad I picked up this manga. Above all, I am glad I met such an existence as Carlos Rivera, whom I can obsess over. Endless gratitude.

No one is allowed to pity or grieve, no one has the right. So, at least, gratitude.
To the true wolves who lived in the ring, gratitude.