Tomorrow’s Joe

Ashita no Joe tells the tale of a wandering orphan named Joe Yabuki. He falls into one of Tokyo’s slums and gets into a fight with a local gang and his street fighting skills gets him the attention of a washed up alcoholic boxing trainer. Until he sticks up for Joe when the gang comes back to finish Joe, Joe decides to live with the trainer. Despite the trainer’s generosity, Joe is still committing money making scams and lands him in prison. While serving time, he meets another boxer named Rikiishi Tooru who gets Joe interested in boxing. Upon release, Joe then pursues a boxing career.

---

Joe, a teenage orphan in the slums of the Doya streets, meets Danpei, a homeless, alcoholic ex-boxing coach. Danpei, seeing Joe’s boxing talent, decides to train him. When Joe is sent to a terrible juvenile home for petty crimes, he meets Rikiishi who becomes his boxing rival. Danpei arrives at the home to help Joe to train in order to defeat Rikiishi. When Joe decides to seriously pursue boxing, Danpei cannot get a coaching license because of his reputation as a drunk.

---

Yabuki Joe is a scoundrel, plain and simple. He’s confident, cocky, a con artist and a drifter, and one hell of a fighter too — or at least, that’s what Tange Danpei, the washout and drunk ex-boxing coach believes. Danpei is so sure of Joe’s ability to be a pro boxer that he gives up the drink and works hard to earn money to build a gym; but Joe, on the other hand, has other plans that are not nearly as noble. Can Danpei convince this loose cannon to pick up the gloves and box like a world class champion?