Karakter & Staf

Joe Yabuki

Utama

Male

The protagonist of the story. He is known for his long bangs and for always wearing a worn out beige coat and a red flat cap. Not long after birth he found himself in many orphanages and facilities. However, he quickly grew tired of the boring life and frequently escaped, eventually finding his way to the Doya Town the story takes place in. Joe is rude and quick to fight, but he can also be very frivolous at times. Because of his rough upbringing he is a delinquent who likes his solitude, but he later grows to appreciate his new friends and rivals. He is not very good at understanding women, and essentially only treats them nice out of giri. He is a bantamweight and his specialties include the cross counter and the No Guard stance. He has extraordinary punching strength, fortitude, and fighting spirit, often standing up after taking killer blows and has been known to counter cross-counters (a double-cross), possessing a raw, natural talent for the sport. He has even countered double crosses with a triple-cross, implying he has high-level technical abilities. Following his fight with Rikiishi, he begins to better develop his guarding.

Teruhiko Aoi

Danpei Tange

Utama

Male

Danpei is Joe's serious, cautious and responsible mentor who gets him started in his boxing career. He is fond of sake, being overly cheerful when drunk which contrasts with his strict everyday self. He is also very polite when talking to people who hold higher ranks than himself, something that annoys Joe, who doesn't care for such things. Before meeting Joe, it is stated that Danpei used to be a boxer himself. However, after the loss of one of his eyes, we learn that he was forced to give up on his own boxing career, aiming to become a coach instead. But due to his violent, strict, passionate, and even desperate approach to training his boxers(who couldn't take it and abandoned him for better gyms), he became jobless and eventually a homeless alcoholic. After meeting Joe and claiming that he has massive potential for the sport, he gives up on drinking due to the former's aversion to alcoholism (only drinking on special occasions) and vows to train him to be Japan's or even the world's best boxer, with the hope of a better tomorrow for the both of them.

Juukei Fujioka

Tooru Rikiishi

Pendukung

Male

Gym: Shiraki Weight Class: Welterweight Style(s): Hybrid, Brawling Style Stance(s): Orthodox Stance, Brawling Stance Trainer: Shiraki Youko (minimal) Rikiishi and Joe first meet in the juvenile detention center, where Rikiishi was introduced as a boxer who was sentenced to the juvenile detention center because he had punched an member of the audience half to death after they had claimed that the match was rigged in Rikiishi's favor, enraging him.

Toshiyuki Hosokawa

Kanichi Nishi

Pendukung

Male

Nishi is Joe's best friend, sparring partner and later he also becomes Joe's trainer. He is a juvenile delinquent. He first meets Joe in a juvenile jail, where they fight each other and Joe defeats him. Nishi later meets Joe at the correction house where they become friends. Nishi's personality changes drastically from an arrogant juvenile delinquent to calm worker at a grocery store. He takes a liking to boxing after watching Joe's match against Rikishi in the detention center. When Joe comes back to Namida Bridge he is surprised to find Nishi at the Tange boxing gym, Nishi joins the gym to learn boxing and to continue being with Joe. Nishi is an averagely good boxer. He was the only useful sparring partner Joe had in the entire story. Nishi has a crush on Noriko Hayashi, who is the daughter of his boss at the grocery store.

Shirou Kishibe

Youko Shiraki

Pendukung

Female

Yoko Shiraki is a young woman born to the Shirakis, a very wealthy family who is known for their activities in the boxing field. She is the main female protagonist in Ashita no Joe. She is very polite, graceful and kind to other people, always acting exactly as expected from a daughter born to a family with a higher rank, donating to charities from time to time. As so, she clashes in both appearance and personality with most of the other characters who know nothing but poverty and hardship. One of those characters is Joe who is the first to remark that her so called 'kindness' is completely fake, implying her sympathy for the poor is merely a way to make herself feel superior over those who have nothing to eat. She is often very shocked by his actions but as time goes on she comes to be the one who understands him best. She is disliked by Joe as an 'evil woman' who tries to control his life by always having something to do with most the situations he finds himself in later in the series.

Fumi Dan

Carlos Rivera

Pendukung

Male

Carlos Rivera is a Venezuelan bantamweight boxer who ranked #6 in the world. The reason he is called a "A King Without A Crown" is because there is a rumor that the world champion is too afraid to fight him. Yoko Shiraki brings Rivera over to Japan to help Joe recover.

Joe Yamanaka

Wolf Kanagushi

Pendukung

He was an up-and-coming bantamweight boxer. In order to get recognition quickly, Joe targeted the bantamweight rookie champion. Wolf was a confident and brash fighter who was easily provoked by Joe into a fist fight, ending in a double knockout.

Rokuro Naya

José Mendoza

Pendukung

Male

He is the perfect champion who had never lost, fought beautifully and was admired by all. He takes great care of his health and family, and is constantly calm and confident, giving an aura of being truly unbeatable. A recurring theme is his immense physical strength, to the point of leaving big bruises on Joe's body by gripping him, easily forcing him into a handshake, and even bending coins with his fingers.

Masumi Okada

Robert Harry

Pendukung

Carlos Rivera's manager & childhood bestfriend

Michihiro Ikemizu

Mikinosuke Shiraki

Pendukung

Male

Tamio Ooki

Sachi

Pendukung

Female

A young girl from a depressed Japanese neighborhood. She idolizes Yabuki Joe and joins him, along with a band of other kids, in committing petty crimes. She continues to believe in and support Joe throughout the story.

Fuyumi Shiraishi

Kinoko

Pendukung

Junko Hori

Tarou

Pendukung

Kaneta Kimotsuki

Hyoromatsu

Pendukung

Noriko Tsukase

Tonkichi

Pendukung

Hiroko Maruyama

Goromaki Gondou

Pendukung

Takeshi Watabe

Harimao

Latar

The wild man from Malaysia, Harimao, is a force to be wrecking with in the ring, his unorthodox boxing mixed with his strength and agility make a hard opponent to fight, he is also known to be quite the cheater, usually biting and headbutting his opponent when frustrated.

Yong-Bi Kim

Latar

Male

Kim was born on August 2nd, 1945 in Kaesong City. In July 1950, Kim was orphaned from the Korean war and taken in and adopted by his eventual boxing manager and trainer, Colonel Jodal Hyun. Under Hyun's guidance, Kim started boxing in high school. Kim had an accomplished amateur boxing record of 108 matches, 108 victories. He turned pro at the age of 33 and quickly became the OPBF champion within 12 fights in 3 years, and impressive feat for a bantamweight boxer since age affects fighters in lower weight classes much earlier. It is said that two of his opponents were killed in the ring during his first 12 bouts. Before his match with Joe, him and his coach were planning to issue a challenge to the world champion Jose Mendoza, even going so far as to tell the media that's the fight they were training for, not Joe. As a boxer, Kim maintains a very cool and conservative style in the ring. He selects his punches carefully and doesn't push himself to go for a knockout early, instead preferring to let his opponent miss and tire themselves out before getting a knockout in the later rounds. He carefully analyzes and observes his opponents and backed by his confidence carries out each fight with stone cold precision, earning him the nickname "The Human Computer".

Toshio Furukawa