Review of Tokyo Revengers

This is the Tokyo gang life. Yankee, violence, terrain, status, pride. One man sets out to take his re:venge Re:Zero style (we are running out of ideas) on this cursed life that harmed his future, and the futures are many others. Tokyo Revengers is a great shounen product. It is entirely unrealistic, whilst performing a realistic story. I see a few complaints about the logic in this world. Rule 1 of shounen anime: there are no rules, we're here to see madness break loose. Tokyo Revengers is a ridiculously biased story, shamelessly leaving burnt tracks of unbalanced plot points in order to get to the destinationit seeks, that is, this story which is based on infamous Tokyo gangs. So I find no point in complaining about something that (hopefully) is aware of its asinine power levels and time travel logic. In a narrative aspect, Tokyo Revengers is incredible at nailing everything it needs to do as well as it must for an audience of its kind to enjoy. Heartfelt moments. Tense scenes. Nakama power. It's all there and done well. Sure, Tokyo Revengers is standing on a dangerous plane, so it can be hard to take these attributes is presents as serious. It understands what it is but trespasses on the "big boy" land anyway. It is both concurrently serious and not serious. However, I find myself believing that the anime is indeed no different from other big shots out there like KnY and JJK for that matter, what all three have in common is the threat is indeed not something to take lightly, however, light-hearted moments are to be found all around in the anime. Ultimately leaving me with no reason to change any positive thoughts this anime had in relation to its starting theme. The writing is also pretty linear, there are no underlying secrets lingering other than those the plot specifically questions. There is also the consistency of the writing, never really improving or deteriorating any step of the way, in some sense, this may suck for those who want to see the anime "get good" at a particular point, unfortunately, that was never the case here, though, this may change with any future content this anime may have to behold. Overall, there isn't too much to say with the anime in terms of its story, it does what it needs to in the most shounen way for a shounen audience. It's true that the only originality that lies is within the actual theme itself (though not really), but that doesn't matter, at least, to the eyes of many before me, personally was pretty good for what it had for itself, and it was enough to keep me invested even with its love for tropes.

The characters are in the same boat too. Their logic, behaviour, actions, fall under the shounen tropes that reign over the anime. One thing Tokyo Revengers is amazing at, however, compared to other anime I have seen, is the somewhat elaborate detail behind most of its characters. The anime shows the origins of who these people are, and why they have come to be. In some sense, it may have been a domino effect for the anime being what it is with its also profound chemistry. Tokyo Revengers has amazing character chemistry which amplifies any heartfelt moments as the mutual relationships to the characters and those around them is real rather than manufactured, which is also the reason why this anime is realistic in that category, these are real (fictional) people going through real (fictional) events in their lives, and how they respond to it doesn't seem to be far fetched. Really good characters for that matter. I will touch on Takemichi a bit. I think he is a pretty good protagonist for the anime resides in. He has this aura to him that makes him feel as if anyone could be in his position, take up the same path as him, which in turn does make him feel like an idea rather than a person in himself, although, his means to push forward in battle, his means to push forward for his friends, and his mean to push forward to the right things in life gives him his own worthy acclamation to his name he should take pride in. There's also the "crybaby" side of him which is both annoying at times, though loveable.

The audiovisuals are crusty as hell, I can't really find myself describing it better than that. It's a stale relic, brought to life like Dr Frankenstein was in the studio animating himself, old pieces can only hold for so long without any further refurbishment. Whilst this is technically a baseline average for today, that can only be true for the artwork, the animation falters a lot which is a shame to see. Consistent still frames, cheap effects > animation, and choppy products, I can only imagine this anime would be a high-end shounen if it were for such technical faults. The same is somewhat true for audio, however, it wasn't as bad, in fact, I thought it was pretty good for the most part, it's just that the good parts didn't show up a lot.

So, that's that for me, I found myself enjoying Tokyo Revengers. In a universal sense, I would imagine most would enjoy it as well, assuming you are a fan of the shounen genre, this is something to watch. Sure, it would have been better if it had better sakuga and OST since generic shounen is heavily reliant on peripheral audiovisuals to live up to the hype surrounding it. But considering how the story was going, and how interesting it was at times, I find myself believing the majority will love this regardless of its fault in aesthetic.

I'd recommend this anime to most people looking for a good 'shounen' anime. But then again, most recommendations for this are literal relations to similar plot devices found in other anime (Erased, Steins;Gate, [time travel anime]). I have nothing left to touch off with tbh, so I will leave off here for now.

Also, these kids are in middle school lmao. It's crazy.