Megalobox

Buy or Die?

24 min

In the run-down slums of a futuristic city, the boxer only known as Junk Dog is making a living throwing fights for the mob in underground arenas. That all changes when he has a chance encounter with the champion, Yuri.

The Man Only Dies Once

24 min

Beaten to nothing by Yuri, Junk Dog insists all the same that he is going to stand in the Megalonia ring. The problem is that entry requires a citizenship he has never had in his life. Nanbu pulls strings in the underworld and comes back with a forged ID, and the name printed on it is Joe.

Gear Is Dead

24 min

Joe enters the rankings at 257 and throws himself into the training needed to climb them. Along the way he picks up Sachio, a sharp kid from the slums who attaches himself to the team. Facing an opponent his patched-together prototype gear cannot handle, Joe strips it off and wins on his fists alone.

Let's Dance with Death

24 min

For his first official bout Joe walks out stripped to the waist, with no gear on him at all. The crowd jeers, and he answers by slipping everything thrown at him on footwork alone. From that night the name on everyone's lips is Gearless Joe.

The Man from Death

24 min

Joe's next opponent is Aragaki, a former boxer who lost both legs and now fights on military gear. He once trained under Nanbu, and it was Nanbu who betrayed him. The fight that follows is aimed less at Joe than at the past his cornerman has spent years running from.

Until the Last Dog Dies

24 min

Battered nearly to pieces by Aragaki's assault, Joe gets back up and takes the win. Afterwards, what has been festering between Nanbu and his old student is finally allowed to settle. At the same time Yukiko announces Glen Burroughs as one of the fighters going to Megalonia.

The Road to Death

24 min

Mikio Shirato works out that Joe's identity is forged and uses it to demand he pull out of their match. Rather than bring the whole thing down on the people around him, Joe stays out of the ring. The loss goes down as a forfeit, and the road to Megalonia closes in front of him.

Deadline of the Dream

24 min

Nanbu digs into it and finds that Mikio's threat was a bluff from the beginning. Joe forces his way into the Megalonia announcement ceremony and demands the rematch in front of everyone there. Yukiko rules that the last place in the tournament will be decided between the two of them.

A Dead Flower Shall Never Bloom

24 min

Mikio comes in wearing gear driven by an AI that reads and anticipates every move. Backed up and out-predicted, Joe drops his guard entirely, giving the machine nothing it knows how to model. The counter he lands in the gap where its calculations fail ends the fight.

The Die Is Cast

24 min

With Joe finally inside Megalonia, Nanbu comes to him about throwing a fight. The debt he owes to Fujimaki has come due, and the price is the semifinal. Joe knocks him down and walks out, and Sachio, who overheard all of it, watches him go.

A Deadmarch

24 min

The semifinal puts Joe in front of Glen Burroughs, who has fought his way up the same bracket. Sachio, who had walked away from all of it, turns up at ringside and shouts him through the fight. Joe wins, and behind it Nanbu settles his debt to Fujimaki by putting out the one eye he had left.

Leap over the Edge of Death

24 min

Before the final, Yuri has the gear surgically taken out of his own body. It is the champion's way of insisting that the two of them meet on equal terms. Blind now, Nanbu keeps working Joe's corner anyway, with Aragaki's hands doing what his eyes no longer can.

Born to Die

24 min

In the Megalonia final, two men who have both given up their gear stand in front of each other. What follows is a long night of nothing but fists. A year later the man who took the title has set the name and the belt aside, and rides through the city delivering packages on a motorcycle.