Review of Tokyo Revengers

This is a review I’m confident others reading will most likely disagree with. My bold statement going into this is to say Tokyo Revengers is a bad show with good intentions. There’s a few reasons as to why I say this, but it’s easier if I start off with the good and then delve into what ultimately made it a thumbs down for me. TR surprised me in the first couple of episodes. Time travel and gangs, sounds pretty cool and is an interesting concept. As a brief synopsis, Takemichi is the main protagonist that was a loser and stayed a loser his whole lifeuntil one day he gets pushed in front of a train and gains the ability to travel back in time to change his life and a coordinating events that may reflect from that. The story plays out when he hears about his ex Hinata getting killed by the Toman gang, a gang Takemichi used to be apart of, and makes a deal with her brother Naoto to go back in time to change the events that lead up to her death. It’s a little more complicated than that, but the time travel element shouldn’t be given that much thought. The same can be said for the show in general though, putting too much thought will only further illuminate the growing problems that stem from the series as a whole.

Now, there are a few redeeming factors to this series that helped me hold on for the entire run time, the characters, dialogue, and location. Many of the characters are so real and unique that I was surprised to see this many heavy hitters in one series. Hinata, the protagonist Takemichi’s love interest, is a great addition to the team. She’s sweet, kind, cute, and pretty reasonable as things go. I personally always enjoyed her presence and welcomed her for any screen time. Draken and Mikey, two of the gang heads that eventually befriend Takemichi, are also great characters to see and follow. They are to say the least endlessly entertaining have a unique way of carrying themselves. This goes for most of the characters in this series, all of them feel well thought out and executed, regardless of whether they’re good or bad. Unfortunately, the “hero” of the story Takemichi is the only, and I mean only character that is just a complete dud, who not only is weak mentally, but physically and emotionally as well. But more on him later.

As I mentioned before the location and dialogue also lend a hand to the entertainment in the series. Tokyo obviously is nice, but this show does a good job of setting up scenes for situations such as a gang war, meeting of the Toman gang, or even a simple date. The attempt at art is done well, and for how bleak the show is sometimes, it feels surprisingly warm for the calm bits. Don’t get me wrong though, location design is nice and all, but I’ve never seen an art style look so slow and clunky for the action scenes. Even some 80’s anime hold out to the appearance of this, which dramatically drops interest in any of the “gang wars” scenes. I get it, budget…but really? As for the dialogue, the politics are kind of this shows thing, if it was only fighting it would lose its flavor and Takemichi would be completely useless (as if he isn’t already). And as mentioned the art design for the fighting is atrocious so it’s pointless to even watch for that reason. I’m not familiar with Japan’s Yakuza so much but do at least understand the dynamic they were going for in the show in terms of political sway. I don’t know how much sway the yakuza have in terms of police but there are a glaring lack of police present for the entire series. I’ll just say, a middle school gang shouldn’t have any kind of pull in terms of political sway, so not sure where the police are. But outside of that, it was interesting to see the leaders come together in various ways and see how their lives turn out in the future due to certain consequences or rewards from the past.

After reading some of that positive setup with a little criticism, I’ll explain why this show is actually worse rather than better. It only takes one word to dismantle everything good about the series, and it’s “Takemichi”. I briefly eluded to parts about this guy that suck, but I’ve honestly never, ever, ever, ever, seen such a horribly written and played out character. Takemichi is known as a crybaby and a bleeding heart, but mostly a crybaby. What pissed me off most about this character being a crybaby, the shows creators are aware of this fact , MAJORLY, and are counting on the audience to be okay with it. So much so the opening theme song is named “Cry Baby” and the final episode is also called, “Cry Baby”. I’m not sure what universe in which a dud of a male that cries and complains all the time is thought of in any way other than just lame. When I grew up, we made fun of the boys that cried all the time. They weren’t ever cool, and they stayed single most of their lives until they met someone who didn’t know how much of a cryer they used to be. So what’s happening here? Why is this this show centered around this loser, and why is the the concept of crying being touted as some sort of virtue? It’s frankly insulting how far the show runners are pushing it down our throats. What viewer other than some 8-10 weakling has any admirations to be Takemichi?! Besides being a cry baby, which is evident at this point, and useless to fight against, Takemichi is the most uninteresting, lame, weak, idiotic, and somehow luckiest fools I’ve ever seen in a show. He forgets everything, often passing by his only objective and just shrugging “hm why do they look so familiar”…oh maybe it’s because that’s the only person you were told to concern yourself with?! Now he knows he’s an idiot, but it doesn’t change how annoying it is even if the character is aware of it.

As mentioned clearly before, the other thing Takemichi’s got going for him is being a crybaby. Now, I know I went hard just a few sentences ago on cry babies. But that’s not to say “some” crybaby’s can’t be done well, although it bothers me generally when they’re out in the main characters shoes. To see well done crybabies, check Shinji from Evangelion, or even Devilman Crybaby. They are a good example of when a bleeding heart can benefit others by the finale. The difference being though, is nobody aspires to be shinji or devilman. They are basically sacrificial characters to get the story where it needs to be. In Shinji’s case, had he not chosen what he had, the ending probably would’ve been just a little duller, not any more sad or “disgusting” but different…let’s be honest Rei and Asuka are the real heroes right? Same thing for devilman, his role was to influence the devil only, and Gods role is the hero of the story. Now how much of an influence should it be in Takemichi’s case though? It’s my belief that regardless of what he does, all he’s doing is just changing events enough to create a butterfly effect. Nothing he does matters because all he does is get angry, grits his teeth, builds himself up, then proceeds to get his face smashed for the thousandth time and then stands back up as if he’s accomplished something. All of this usually to buy time for some other better character to save the day. He’s just the epitome of lame, and I have no clue why anyone would want him around, but for some odd reason the creators keep force feeding us their desire to see this loser as a hero or important. There isn’t any redeeming qualities about this guy. What made me hate him most was his main objective to save Hinata. He’s not even smart enough to remember to do that, and insists on taking on more and more people to save when he’s incapable of even saving her!

Episode 12 was the final straw for me for this series. The entire runtime is spent dedicated to Takemichi and Hinata twirling their thumbs and acting like two 12 year old virgins, too embarrassed to even have a normal conversation. It’s because of Takemichi’s cowardly and ridiculous actions that lead to Hinata getting killed all over again, crushed by a car and blown up. I just threw up my hands like “seriously, how hard would it have been to just grow a pair for once in your life”? What’s even worse is Takemichi spends most of the time talking to the old friend that tried to murder “the only love of his life”, rather than immediately running to Hina’s side. Who cares what the the murderer has to say, old friend or not?!

In regards to the plot, it seems the show expects us to forget each time a character makes a declaration that this is their final stand and things will be different from now on. This mostly applies to Takemichi but happens quite often. The quickest example was when Takemichi is trying to save Draaken and keeps getting back up to prevent any more harm to him from the opposing gang, saying things like “I may not be strong, but I’ll keep fighting”. It’s meant to be inspirational but is just all the more sad with how proud he is of getting beat up over and over again while never improving. He does this at least a dozen times in the series. Acts like he’s gained some new ability or new will to fight that will allow him to succeed, and like clockwork he gets knocked out and someone else saves the day. It’s just repetitive, sad, and boring. This is not a story telling device, or not a good one at least, and accomplishes absolutely nothing. Again, the fact that Takemichi is able to change anything at all by getting beat up over and over again is just pure luck. Just tell Hina what’s happening, get her out of there, and move on with your life. I’m not even sure if Takemichi even really cares about Hina, or else you could literally try anything else that doesn’t involve both yours and her involvement in a gang. Anyone else still involved is not your problem. That actually leads me to the second biggest flaw with the series as a whole.

This show’s plot could actually all be circumvented if they would just move out of town, death by gang is a good enough reason. That or just ask an adult, anyone that isn’t in middle school for help…maybe the actual police? I don’t know what the actual solution should be and I’m not so sure it would be interesting. But there’s a much quicker and easier method for sure that doesn’t involve: infiltrating a gang, preventing two leaders from meeting, mending two members friendships, saving a members life, preventing a member from being promoted, stopping a member from killing someone, and then becoming the gangs leader altogether, all while being the most incompetent and weak characters in the show.

What’s saddest about this series, is a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link. And Takemichi might as well be a cheeto trying to hold steel links together. Honestly, I really enjoyed quite a few things about this series. If you’re able to accept everything as is, and are able to see Takemichi as a good character, you’re viewing experience will most likely have drastically differed from mine. I would just rather eat dirt than listen to Takemichi yell, cry, grit his teeth, preach at someone about friendship, or ignore his “way out of his league” girlfriend. Takemichi makes my eyes bleed and is by far my worst character of 2021, or maybe of any show ever. I’d rather see Thanos kill off the entire mcu in a do-over than deal with Takemichi ever again….what a crappy character this guy is. Maybe I shouldn’t vote the show so low because of one element, but making that one element your saving grace was the wrong hitch to tie your horse. I didn’t speak on it much but there are still other flaws, like the same solution being used to solve a new problem over and over again does not make for a good show in my opinion. It’d be different if Takemichi grew stronger, or didn’t suddenly realize the reason he went back in time right before a climactic scene, or any other one of his million faults, but it’s not how it is. And it’s a shame the fighting scenes couldn’t have felt more real or been more interesting, since that’s what this shows foundation is to begin with, so to fail at that as well is just a double let down. I’ll just say, there are some high highs in this show: tense moments, interesting characters, and unique locations. But there are some very very low lows that are a deep drain on the series and take away from anything good. It’s up to you whether you choose to let those lows influence the good parts, unfortunately they cast too large of a shadow for me to be able to focus on anything else. And please pick an admirable or an improve-able character as the protagonist next time. One that will do more than cry and get beat up only. Or at least have some brains, or that will train at fighting. Nobody should look up to Takemichi, nor should they follow his example. I recommend skipping this one and will not be watching season 2 unless they kill off the protagonist, here’s hoping from that last scene - fingers crossed, or they change something fundamentally about the series as a whole.