English Dub Review: Megalobox 2 – Nomad “Al principio del fin, la trayectoria del arcoíris dibuja un soportal”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The match between Mac and Liu starts, with Liu seemingly having the upper hand. But once the third round kicks off, Mac’s rumored “Mac Time” kicks in, giving him startling reaction speed that quickly overpowers Liu. His blows are so powerful and fast that Yuri can’t even throw in the towel quick enough to prevent Liu from being put in critical condition. Joe reassures Yuri that Liu won’t die until they have their rematch, though Yuri thinks Joe is just looking for hope where it doesn’t exist again. Things aren’t great with Mac after the match either, as the chip in his brain that supposedly brings about the Mac Time is malfunctioning to the point that he has major blackouts and acts like a dangerous toddler, even to his own son Miguel. When his wife goes to Rosco with these concerns, he tells her that it could just be stress, but Mikio has also been looking into these effects, has told Yukiko about it, and is planning to publish a thesis about it.

OUR TAKE

Wow, this episode had a LOT more going on, mainly to show this big shift in focus and how the characters are all reacting to Mac, including Mac himself. While last episode built him up as some underdog family man who was coming back from major let downs in life, we now know things are bit more complicated and serious than that. He goes from someone barely holding his own to Ivan Drago in Rocky 4, though thankfully Liu doesn’t meet the fate of Apollo Creed, if just barely. Mac is now the Megalobox Champion and thus the one to beat for the rest of the season, though I have a feeling that’s not the only reason that Joe is likely to get involved and face him in the ring at some point. Like with how Joe ended up losing everything trying to reclaim hope he couldn’t get back by running back to the ring, it seems Mac is also trying to reclaim his own hope. It’s for different reasons and it looks like it’s working out for him so far, since he DID just become the champion, but it’s having a major cost that could lead to bigger and more drastic consequences.

And so the, or at least A major question and theme of the season emerges: Can it be dangerous to hope? Having hope is what drives people to keep going another day, but if that hope is put into something that can’t happen, it can become nothing more than a delusion or even an addiction. Yuri feels he was hoping to live out his unfinished dreams through Liu, Liu wanted to escape Yuri’s shadow as the new champion, Mac is hoping to prove his family proud by becoming the champ despite his lack of skill prior to receiving the chip, and as mentioned, Joe was hoping that beating Liu those years ago would somehow stop Nanbu from dying and keep the hope alive for all the Nowhere kids. Not to mention his rigid moralism at the beginning of this season where he wouldn’t take any fixed fights but only kept getting kicked out of rings. But some things truly are impossible to achieve even with all the hope in the world, or even all the technology. And we’ll see in the next few episodes just what Mac’s risks and sacrifices for that hope are really costing him.