Ashita No Joe Manga To Finally Get Official English Release In December 2024
Kodansha will release eight sizable hardcover omnibus volumes, with the first one coming out in Dec with a maximum selling retail price of $59.95.
If you think that Hajime No Ippo is the only boxing manga that is worth your attention, then may I introduce to you Ashita No Joe, one of the OG series that kicked off the popular trend of sports manga that everyone knows and loves today.
Kodansha USA’s official site announced, on Feb 22, 2024, that Ashita No Joe will see its English-language debut in print and digital this fall 2024. The publisher will release eight sizable hardcover omnibus volumes of the manga series, with the first one coming out in December 2024 with a maximum selling retail price of $59.95.
The show got pretty iconic, especially with its ending. A theater company held a funeral for a certain character’s death that attracted 700 attendees, and in 1970, when Japanese Red Army personnel stormed an airplane, they yelled, “We are tomorrow’s Joe.”
Kodansha Publisher, Toshihiro Tsuchiya, shares that the key reason behind releasing the official English version is to mark the series’ 50th anniversary. Take a look at his full statement:
“Kodansha believes that the manga market is maturing, as well as looking for past manga classics that have never been translated into English. Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow This work is a true masterpiece that Japan is proud of. This year marks its 50th anniversary since its completion in 1973. Because of this, we think that now is the best time to bring Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow to English-reading manga fans worldwide. We consider it an honor and a labor of love to introduce such an important manga masterpiece to a new generation of fans. And we hope that this new edition will be as much of an inspiration as it was when it originally debuted in Japan.”
About Ashita No Joe:
Ashita No Joe (English name: Tomorrow’s Joe) is a Japanese boxing manga series written by Asao Takamori and illustrated by Tetsuya Chiba. It was originally serialized in Japan in Weekly Shōnen Magazine from January 1, 1968, to May 13, 1973. Kodansha compiled it into 20 tankobon volumes.
Mashi Productions made an anime based on Tomorrow’s Joe’s first 14 volumes. It aired on Fuji TV in Japan from April 1 to September 29, 1971. Between October 13, 1980, and August 31, 1981, Nippon TV aired TMS Entertainment’s second anime series, which began with volume 9 and continued through the series.
Kodansha describes the synopsis of Ashita no Joe as:
A young drifter named Joe Yabuki wanders through the slums of Tokyo, but when the local ruffians try to give him a hard time, he teaches them a rough lesson with his fists. The spectacle sparks a gleam in the eye of an old drunk who happens to be watching – Danpei Tange, a failed boxer and former coach who sees something special in the boy. He pleads with Joe to train with him, but the cocky young fighter brushes him off. Later, though, when Joe is arrested and put in a juvenile detention facility, he realizes that he’s going to need to hone his raw fighting skills if he wants to survive.
Source: ICv2, Kodansha USA site
