The age of Joe Yabuki – How old was he at that time

Joe Yabuki did not remember his parents.

He lived in an orphanage as far as he can remember.

His origins are all unknown.

Parents’ names, birthplace, and birthday…

So, can’t we know his age?

How old was Joe when he became a champion?
How old was Joe when he fought against Jose?

Here is a hint about his age.

When he was arrested, the policeman said “Joe Yabuki, 15 years old."
It was a snowing night.

Joe was arrested in the winter of 15 years old.
We can infer how old was Joe in each scene by tracing seasons from 15-year-old winter.

 

How to calculate the age

I assume he was around the end of the 15-year-old, just before 16th when he appeared in Sanya.

There are 2 animations of Ashita no Joe, but all the inference here is based on the seasons in the original comics.

15-year-old Winter – Appearing in Sanya

Ashita no Joe (1) P9  (c)TakamoriAsao ChibaTetsuya 2012

Clues to judge the season

• Danpei was warm with a bonfire.
• When Joe was going to take a camp, Danpei said to him “Recently, it is so cold that sewage freezes."

Other events in 15th Winter

• Joe started boxing training
  
• Joe was arrested for fraud
• Joe met Yoko Shiraki in a courtroom
• Joe met Mammoth Nishi in a juvenile classification home
• Joe met Toru Rikiishi in a juvenile training school

16-year-old Summer – 1st Game against Rikiishi

Clues to judge the season

• The buzz of cicadas

Other events in 16th Summer

• The match against Aoyama
• Rikiishi was released
• Rikiishi returned to professional boxing

17-year-old Spring – Joe was released and went back to Sanya

Clues to judge the season

The morning after his release, Joe was awakened by the noise of Nishi jumping rope and Danpei repairing a bicycle.

Then he said, “It is not an atmosphere where I can devour sleep in spring."

“Sleep in spring" is an idiomatic Japanese expression.

It refers to a comfortable sleep in the warm weather of spring.

Joe was arrested in winter.
His imprisonment was 13 months, but it was extended by his attempted escape.

So it is reasonable that his return was in the spring.

Other events in 17th Spring

• Joe defeated Wolf Kanagushi by the cross counter in surprise
• Joe passed the professional qualification of boxing
• Joe won all matches in cross counter since his debut

17-year-old Autumn – A game against Wolf Kanagushi

Clues to judge the season

• Nishi brought a large quantity of food for Joe and said “It’s autumn of the appetite."

Other events in 17th spring

• Rikiishi challenged severe weight loss.
• In midnight, Mammoth Nishi hid and ate udon.

17-year-old Winter – Rikiishi died

Ashita no Joe (9) P42  (c)TakamoriAsao ChibaTetsuya 2012

Clues to judge the season

• It was snowing at Rikiishi’s funeral evening

Other events in 17th Winter

• Joe left Sanya and became a wanderer
• Joe met Yoko playing in the nightclub
• Joe saw Wolf Kanagushi who became a bodyguard of a gang, Japanese yakuza, and met Goromaki Gondo

 

• Joe went back to Tange boxing club and returned to ring
  He won straight victories by knockouts in body blow
  People said, “He is a messenger from hell"

 

• Yoko became the president of Shiraki Boxing Gym

18-year-old Early summer – A game against Tiger Ozaki

Clues to judge the season

When it was decided that a match against Tiger Ozaki was to be held, Noriko said to Joe, “It was called off last time as well, though we promised to go to Otorisama together."

“Otorisama(お酉さま)" is the Asakusa festival held in May every year.

Noriko complained that the promise in May was canceled as a recent event.

The match against Tiger Ozaki was immediately after this conversation.

Therefore, the match can be estimated to take place around the beginning of summer.

Other events in 18th Summer

• The fault that he could not hit the face was seen through.
• Joe suffered from his vomiting habit.

18-year-old Summer to Winter – belonged to the barnstorming troupe of retired boxers

Clues to judge the season

• When Joe exited Sanya, many of the characters were wearing short sleeves.
• At the beginning of the tour, they were caught in a violent thunderstorm and downpour. This is a weather phenomenon of summers in Japan.
• And when Joe resigned there, members of the troupe were wearing mufflers or coats.

Based on these tree, I guess that the seasons changed from summer to winter during Joe’s tour.

19-year-old Spring – Sparring with Carlos

Clues to judge the season

Soon after Joe came back to Sanya, on the way home from watching the match of Carlos vs. Harajima, he looked strangely happy.

The people who saw him talked.

“Why does he look so happy?"

“When spring comes, adolescent boys fall in love, Joe did as well."

19-year-old Autumn – The second match against Carlos

Clues to judge the season

note: The second match is the game in the baseball stadium 13R match which Joe and Carlos ignored the rule.

• After the match against Carlos, Joe went to the office of Shiraki Gym to get his fight money. Then she said “One month passed from that match"
• Dead leaves flew in the outside of the window on that day

From these two elements, the match was one month ago of the season of the dead leaf.

Other events in 19th Autumn

• Joe said to Noriko “I will burn out leaving only pure white ash."
  Noriko “I don’t seem to be able to follow you."

20-year-old Winter – Weight control

Clues to judge the season

The first time to come up with the topic of weight was at the party held by TV Kanto.

Yoko detected Joe’s secret matter “weight."

• Yoko was wearing a coat
• .

By the way, was this winter Joe’s 19th or 20th?

There is no scene that indicates the season during Joe’s outstanding consecutive victory after the match against Carlos.

However, the new Tange Gym was built and some trainees came in the gym in this period.

So I guess it’s next year of Carlos story.

When Joe had this weight problem, he was 20th.

20-year-old Winter – OPBF Champion Joe Yabuki

Ashita no Joe (15) P191  (c)TakamoriAsao ChibaTetsuya 2012

Clues to judge the season

Joe fought against Kim in the Oriental Pacific title match.

• On the day of the match, Kim and Kim’s coach were wearing the clothes for winter, turtleneck knit or hoodie jacket.

Other events in 20th Winter

• Joe fell senseless
  Danpei doubted him to be a punch-drunker

21-year-old  around Autumn – The match against Harimao

Clues to judge the season

There isn’t any conclusive factor of a judge for the season.

When Joe saw Harimao in the airport, many characters wore short sleeves, but the day of the match, people were in long sleeves and jackets.

There was a match of Harimao vs. Takigawa as well between Harimao’s arrival and the day of the match against Joe.

So I think Harimao came to Japan in summer and fought against Joe in autumn.

Supplement note:

By this time, Yoko showed the construction that once Joe completed the game against Harimao, she transfers the performance rights of the game against Jose to Tange."

And the title match was agreed by Jose in December.

From these things, the match can be supposed autumn.

 

Other events in 21st Autumn

• Yoko began to wonder if Joe was a punch drunker
  
• Carlos appeared at the hall which was holding the match of Joe vs. Harimao.

21-year-old  Winter – Title match against Jose was appointed

Clues to judge the season

• A newspaper announcing the decision of holding the match of Joe vs. Jose was dated December 22.

Other events in 21st Winter

• Nishi and Noriko married.

21-year-old  Winter – White ash

Clues to judge the season

• Yoko had a coat that looks like fur.
• Many spectators were wearing winter clothes.

It was perhaps around January or February.

 

The match against Jose was 4 years after the Rikiishi match, 2 years after the Carlos match, and 1 year after Kim match.

The period from his appearing in Sanya to being white ash was about 6 years.

Growth of Joe in six years

Joe 15 years old

Ashita no Joe (2) P29  (c)TakamoriAsao ChibaTetsuya 2012

Joe 16 years old

Ashita no Joe (4) P199  (c)TakamoriAsao ChibaTetsuya 2012

Joe 17 years old

 

Ashita no Joe (8) P186 (c)TakamoriAsao ChibaTetsuya 2012

Joe 18 years old

 

Ashita no Joe (11) P179 (c)TakamoriAsao ChibaTetsuya 2012

Joe 19 years old

 

Ashita no Joe (13) P164 (c)TakamoriAsao ChibaTetsuya 2012

Joe 20 years old

 

Ashita no Joe (14) P150 (c)TakamoriAsao ChibaTetsuya 2012

Joe 21 years old

 

Ashita no Joe (19) P201 (c)TakamoriAsao ChibaTetsuya 2012

'Ashita no Joe’ is 6 years story of a boy with no birthday, Joe Yabuki.

 

Related : Did Joe die?

Did Joe Yabuki die? It’s unclear but there are some comments by creators

 

I’m sorry for my terrible English.

I have another blog only about Joe written in Japanese.

Every day, many many people seeking information about Joe visit there from all over the world.

I know that the automatic translations from Japanese to other languages are inconvenient.

So I decided to write this blog.

Here is this article written in Japanese.