>>2693Honestly, not really? It's like asking if Digimon ripped off Pokémon because they're similar in a few ways.
>1. Vaguely similar art style and aesthetics Huh? They look nothing alike. Sure they're about boxing and have two little dudes in boxing shorts for most of the show but it's not like the artstyle is exactly the same. Joe is from 1968 and Ippo is 1989 there's 20 years of difference in the art there.
Joe is mainly about Joe with some snippets of Rikishi, Carlos, Yoko and Danpei and the many random boxers along the way.
Ippo is about a dozen boxers and side characters too (his mother, his friends, his potential relationships) with tons of arcs along the way. There's. Ippo himself, Takamura trying to win all six belts, Mashiba trying to achieve a better life for him and Kumi, Miyata trying to keep to the promise he gave Ippo and more. It's not *just* about Ippo. The latest chapter is about Mashiba right now.
>2. Young man from a disadvantaged background making his way up in the fight game (literally every boxing story at this point) Joe and Ippo are different characters entirely. Joe is an orphan who pretty much ran away from the orphanage to be a vagrant and just happened to be noticed by Danpei and became a boxer through that (and only because of Rikishi being a perfect rival to him). Ippo was a meek kid who was somewhat bullied in school who then grew to love boxing after Takamura saved him from that bullying. He had a loving mother, a decent job and overall a good life. Joe comes from nothing but Ippo has something.
>3. Tragic end where the protagonist ends up punch drunk and is totally fucked over.We don't know how Ippo ends and currently Ippo isn't punch drunk He's retired due to...well, I actually don't know. Takamura refers to him as being "broken" but he's not punch drunk like Joe seemed to be by the end as when Ippo was asked to draw a straight line (which iirc is some kind of test to prove if their motor functions are shot) he passed it. I just think something is going to happen to Ippo to get him back into the ring but no one really knows what. George is probably going to have something occur that will make him go back to boxing again but what that is we don't know.
Overall though, I can agree Ippo has taken things from Joe, much like how the Souls series has taken tons from Berserk but I wouldn't call that a rip off either.