The 12 Best Boxing Anime of All Time

In a futuristic Japan, the sport of megaloboxing is thriving. Megaloboxing has the same premise of regular boxing, except the fighters utilize mechanical limbs to make their moves more powerful and sometimes lethal. 

Junk Dog is a megaloboxer in slums outside of this dystopian metropolis. After a dangerous encounter with the megaloboxing champion Yuri, Junk Dog is determined to enter the megaloboxing world tournament and defeat his rival. But to do so he has to enter the top ranks and develop a new identity in the metropolitan city. Will Junk Dog be able to beat Yuri and become the world's best megaloboxer?

Over 20 years after its initial release, Fighting Spirit - also known as Hajime no Ippo - is still considered one of the most iconic boxing anime of all time. The series follows a timid boy named Ippo. After being tormented by a group of bullies, he’s saved by the rising boxer Mamoru Takamura. Takamura introduces him to the world of boxing and Ippo quickly falls in love with the sport. 

The show documents Ippo’s natural talent for boxing and his athletic journey to the top. The show has multiple installments, including Fighting Spirit: New Challenger and Fighting Spirit: Rising.

Joe Yabuki is an amazing fighter with a terrible temper. Fighting seems to be the only way he knows how to solve his problems. Former boxing coach Danpei Tange spots Joe’s talents following one of his violent confrontations. 

Danpei offers to hone Joe’s skills and train him to be a boxer, and although he refuses at first, he eventually agrees. In Tomorrow’s Joe, the audience accompanies Joe as he grows his professional boxing career and struggles with his hot headed ways.

Although Baki isn’t a boxer himself, the series Baki the Grappler includes many forms of martial arts, and boxing is one of them. There are multiple characters in the series who are boxers, and the sport is explored within the show. If you’re interested in an anime that covers many different forms of hand-to-hand combat, Baki the Grappler is recommended.

Mario Minakami is a young criminal who is sent to a reformative school after being arrested. Once he arrives at the facility, he meets Rokurota Sakuragi, a former boxer and older inmate. The two then team up with other inmates in the compound to learn from Sakuragi and figure out a way to survive a broken system.

This sci-fi anime is set in a world where technology is found everywhere. It made its way into the sport of boxing, with fighters fusing mechanical parts to their bodies and using them in the ring. The stakes on these matches are high, and the outcome results in life or death. Levius is the name of an arena fighter who is willing to do whatever it takes to survive.