"La desesperación da coraje a los cobardes"

Round 2 – Despair brings courage to the cowardly

Joe’s bike is stolen by an immigrant boy named Mio. Megalo Box 2’s second episode explores immigration and how society responds to it. Mio lives in a community set up in an abandoned amusement park called "casa". Mio sells Joe’s bike and boxing gear to his sister Marla for scrapping. She’s appalled at her brother theft and fears that it will reflect badly on immigrants. Marla offers to help Joe repair his bike. However, Joe collapses from the effects from his drug addiction.

As Joe recovers in the community, a construction crew arrives. The immigrants were paying rent for the land, however, the landowner dies. This leaves the land up for auction. The construction worker rudely tells to “get the hell out of there.” His workers begin to put up for sale signs. The immigrants and construction workers fight. Before Joe can intervene, Chief appears and ends the conflict. He manages to get them to refrain from demolishing the community until the auction completes.

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Only do bad deeds for good

Later Chief’s willingness to throw matches is put into perspective. He needs money to help his community. He tells Joe that he was inspired by him. An undocumented fighter like himself, Joe’s decision to chase his dream was influential on him. Mio overhears this conversation and runs to tell mobster Tetsu. The following day, Joe speeds off as Tetsu comes to meet him. They hope "Gearless" Joe enters the tournament. Tetsu is disappointed that he missed Joe and leaves without incident. However, Joe eventually returns, inspired by Chief’s words. He wants to see "how the dream Chief was talking about ends."

Joe finally discards the drugs down a sink, as he prepares to take on a new challenge. Joe continues to be haunted by his past. This time the "ghost" is Sachio, who in a flashback accuses Joe of being responsible for the death of Gansaku Nanbu. It’s possible that these hallucinations are a consequence of his drug addition. Now that he’s tossed them we will see how that effects him. The anti-immigrant sentiment presented in this episode is an interesting plot point. It isn’t made clear where Chief and the other come from, but they’re clearly not from the country. With a mobster likely rooting against them, can Chief and Joe save the community?