Ashita no Joe: Acceptance of Loss

SPOILERS FOR ASHITA NO JOE! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Introduction:

Ashita no Joe is a story following the life of Joe Yabuki and his road to fame as a boxer. In the first major story arc, Joe finds himself in a juvenile center, and while there he meets a man named Rikishi Tooru. They were destined to be rivals and fight in a professional boxing match, which ended with the first major defeat in Joe's boxing career. While Joe may have lost the match, his new friend suffered a very different fate. After learning of the death of Rikishi, Joe feels majorly responsible for the outcome of the match, and goes on a long trail of regret and longing for his friend to come back. Joe Yabuki soon after returned to the boxing scene, but due to the tragic event with Rikishi, Joe no longer can hit people in the head, and the possibility of killing another man in the the ring mentally hurts Joe, however he is not the only man that has a tragic event that holds them back. Meet Kim Yong-Bi.

The Tragedy of Yong-Bi:

Kim, as a child, lived during the time of the Korean War in 1950. His father listed himself in the army, in the process he left his young son and wife to fend for themselves. It was not long until Kim's mother was killed as a result of the war. Unable to even give a proper mourning to his mother, he ran away to the mountains to find some way to calm his hunger. Upon finally finding food, a beaten up soldier grabs him and admits to embrace him. Kim struck the soldier several times with a rock that was near the area, and ended the misery of that man. After some other soldiers show up to the scene, Kim finds out that the man he just killed was his own father. For a long while, Kim let himself starve due to killing another man, being his own father, over food.

The Match with Joe Yabuki:

In his match with our main character, Joe Yabuki, we get to see an interesting connection between the two. Referring to the beginning, when Joe's guilt of killing Rikishi caused him to never hit his opponent in the head showing that Joe never let go of the guilt and pain of killing his friend. Kim is held back by the idea that since the worst has already happened to him, he now has no fear to lose anything, boxing is nothing more than mere child's play. Joe ends up defeating Kim, but not before reminding him that he may have gone through a lot of hardship like himself, but neither of them compare to the hardship that Rikishi felt while putting his life on the line for the man he respected the most. This shows Joe's true acceptance of Rikishi's death and what could happen if you hold onto the past as he and Kim did previously. The one to overcome himself was the winner of this match.

Thank you for taking the time to read. This is one of my favorite series of all time, and I just wanted to shed some of light on the connection between Kim and Joe, as well as, the acceptance of loss.

Debunking Misconceptions - LotGH "Review" by Bacchus8699

The incredible attempts to make this series out to be what it isn't is insane. So this is to the man that claims to have watched a good chunk of the series, but let's see how much truth that holds.

Get ready, Fraulein.

Plot Overview

"They are the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance, two new generation of leaders Yang Wenli for the FPA and Reinhard Von Lohengramm for the Galactic Empire."

There is already something wrong with this. Yang is no leader of the Free Planets Alliance. If he was the leader and told everyone what to do he would have beaten Reinhard much faster along with winning the war at the end of the second season. The leaders of the Free Planets Alliance are the High Council.

BTW, the Free Planets Alliance is not an empire. It's democratic society. Do you know what an empire is?

"Reinhard climbs the ranks to fight against the Goldenbum Dynasty alongside his friend Siegfried Kircheis and unify humanity over one supreme ruler."

Reinhard does not "fight" against the Goldenbum Dynasty with Kircheis. He waits until it is the right time to become the Kaiser, however; he had to build up reputation by winning battles and gaining the trust of the upper members in the Empire. Even when he did these things, the higher-ups still disliked him and even put him on a back burner for a seven year old to become Kaiser.

" Yang himself alongside his friend Julian Mintz has to face off against the struggles in the FPA."

No. Julian did not fight alongside Yang at all. Yang hated the idea of a young boy fighting in a meaningless war to him.

"They do it all in a boring, dreadful, documentary style format."

Guess you don't know what a documentary is. Here, let me help you.

Example of Documentary

Example of Narrative/Storytelling

"You'll be treated to fake history lessons from fake historians..."

The story is set in a FICTIONAL SETTING, with FICTIONAL CHARACTERS! Dude.

Characters

"There's also other characters like Oberstien who's CLEARLY there to manipulate Reinhard. Reinhard is suppose to be some godly strategist, yet can't realize that someone like this is controlling him throughout the show."

Oberstein actually respects Reinhard and literally DIES FOR HIM. You continue to prove that you did not watch the show. A simple Google search would have done you wonders. Oberstein risked his life for Reinhard when an assassination attempt was made on him.

"Other characters are so irrelevant. I would list more of them, but there's like a shitload of characters that they introduce in the fist few episodes of the show"

Irrelevant? Reunthal is irrelevant? Annerose is irrelevant? Mittermeyer is irrelevant? Schenkopp is irrelevant? I could go on all day on why that one is wrong. One gets his own arc. Another is the sole reason Reinhard does what he does and others gets multiple episodes where they are the ones leading the attacks. Hell, there can be episodes at a time where Reinhard and Yang aren't even focused on once.

Theme/Moral

"Yang constantly speaks about this all the time the problem is if you REALLY wanted to learn politics you'd read a book about it."

You think the story is made to teach the audience about the political ideologies that the series talks about, however; the ideologies are just the backdrop of our setting and the motives of the characters that fight and die for these ideologies to be met. You can decide rather it is interesting or not, but to use it as a flaw to the series is horridly inaccurate.

Ending / Current Summary

"Reinhard and Yang both end up dying at the end of the show. Oberstien I believe also dies as well and Julian Mintz has a character defining moment where he defends Yang's death."

Wow. All of that was wrong. Reinhard and Yang die at different times in the series. Two completely different seasons of the anime. If you watched it, you would know that Oberstein does die and it''s a pretty big impact on the series and character defining moment for him. Juilian also never defended Yang's death. That is the whole point of season 4 with his character. He couldn't save Yang.

Cons

"-Character's are not impressive and the strategy is barely there. Yang and Reinhard win because the plot wants them too on some Fairy Tail nonsense"

Do you know what strategy is? The funny part about what you said is, Yang and Reinhard DON'T always win at all. Reinhard loses from time to time, and yet very rare, Yang loses as well.

"-Female characters are pretty useless for the most part"

None of them are useless. Greenhill is literally a high advisor in the FPA after Yang's death and Fraulein has always been there to give her advise on political movements that should be done and both of them were a big part of what made Reinhard and Yang characters. Annerose is the main reason Reinhard progresses on within the Galactic Empire.

"-No interesting villains. Villains in this show are dumb and are merely obstacles for the main characters to take over"

There are no villians in LotGH. It would literally contradict what the story is trying to tell you.

"-Never really tell us much on how their weapons work"

There was a whole episode used to explain everything about the weapons, the history, the government, and the earth. Episode 42 to be exact.

"-Will bore you with whole history lessons from fake ass historians"

Again. FICTIONAL STORIES WITH FICTIONAL CHARACTERS!

Finally

Chode Gayass paints an evil view of the Britannia Empire in an black and white view. LotGH does not paint any form of political ideology in a bad or good light. You get to decide. GITS has no form of moral politics in it, it's about humanity.

Consider this post, along with a majority of my brain cells, destroyed.

A World in Unification: John Lennon's "Imagine" (Updated - 9/19/17)

Context Part One:

The Beatles were, and still are, the most famous band of all time. Starting their short, yet impressive, career in 1960 and finally breaking off in 1970 with eleven studio albums and twenty number one chart toppers. The four members of The Beatles were named Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. After multiple creative differences between his fellow band members, John,along with the other Beatles, went his separate ways onto his own solo careers. In 1971, John Lennon released one of his most critically acclaimed and controversial songs of all time, "Imagine". "Imagine" upon release was ranked #1 in multiple different countries around the world, along with it's commercial success, critics had a lot to say about the record. Rolling Stones stated that "Imagine" was John Lennon's "greatest musical gift to the world" and it also ranked third on Rolling Stones' "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Context Part Two:

Since the song was written in the early 70's, it was during the Vietnam War, where the United States was divided among each other for another time in history. During the Vietnam War, people all across the nation were against the government's actions of sending innocent men and women across seas to fight in a war we did not need to be involved in the first place. Lennon wanted nothing more than to stop all this useless fighting and to just coexist as human beings. His song "Imagine" truly brings to light Lennon's beliefs on the situation at hand as well as a look into the dream world that Lennon wishes we could live, but sadly, do not. 

Stanza #1:

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Lennon quickly moves onto the subject of religion in the first set of lyrics with "Imagine there's no heaven / No hell below us / Above us only sky". For decades, religion has been a issue throughout the entire world for thousands of years. Lennon is telling the listener to try to think of a world without the chains that humanity has been shackled to since we can remember. Without such chains, the world can be unified as human beings, instead of being separated by the religious beliefs that have plagued the minds of billions around the world. It's easy if you try. "Living for today" is a way of saying that there is no need to worry about what might happen in the future or even what happened in the past, just focus on what is facing us in the now. 

Stanza #2:

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

"Imagine there's no countries / Nothing to kill or die for" is saying that without geographical separation, humans can be together or unified as one together instead of being further apart from one another as a race. People have been fighting over land for centuries, but without the claimed ownership of said land, maybe we can grow together as one. Lennon yet again uses the line of "It's easy if you try", he used this form of repetition to stick this idea of change in the listener's mind. Rather it works well or not is all dependent on the listener itself, but it continues to get his point across. Back to the idea of forgetting religion with the lyrics "And no religion, too" Lennon continues to sing more about the ideas that separate instead of bringing us together. In short, religion does not need to be here.

Chorus #1:

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Lennon states that you may find all these ideals pretty unrealistic, some might even say radical for one man to believe such things for all the world. Lennon was aware, however; that he was not the only one who had such beliefs that the revolution of man kind can happen to these extreme circumstances. He wishes for all to join him and they live together on this beautiful earth as one. 

Stanza #3:

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

Lennon brings forth the idea to imagine a world without the need of possessions and that all should share, thus furthering this belief of complete unification. But, can humanity really come to such a agreement so easily? Sadly, the answer is no. People always have and always will continue to keep what they believe to be rightfully theirs to themselves. "If I acquired it, why should I have to share it with everyone" being the biggest defense against the idea. Destroying the idea of greed, then there will be no need for hunger if everyone comes together to help each other out through a brotherhood of man. Trying to imagine all the people sharing the world is a very controversial line. Lennon is initially saying that everyone should be together and share. Being together would mean getting rid of the mess that separates us, religion, greed, power, hunger, money, geographical location, etc.

Conclusion:

After the third stanza, Lennon repeats the chorus and thus ending the song.

To me, the song is just a man that knows exactly what he is saying is completely unrealistic to many people that hold such strong beliefs of religion, country, greed, etc, yet he is only saying to imagine a place like this existing. The world sounds like a place of near perfection to live in, but it's too far from the mentality that many hold.

The song is one of many that has touched my heart in many different ways, but regardless of your personal views or thoughts on the song, one can not ignore the lyrical genius that is John Lennon. "Imagine" is a beautiful song and I hoped you enjoyed reading my analysis of this masterpiece. I have more that I planned to write about.

Enjoy the song as a treat.

Imagine by; John Lennon