Review of Tokyo Revengers

What would happen if we took a mystery driven anime like Erased and the character distinctiveness of Orange and bashed it with the shōnen genre? Time Travel. A genre that you don't see to often within anime. At least in my experience; I can only count on my fingers how many anime Ive seen that are even in the same spectrum as this diamond in the rust. Tokyo Revenges is an anime that broke the gap in a long running series of isekai anime that the anime industry's been shoving down our throats. However, that doesn't make it perfect. Just a breath of fresh air.The story is quite average in the beginning. Typical shonen character, bored with his ever shitty life; dies at the hands of some inanimate object that sends him to a world he's unfamiliar with. Of course, by happenstance; character gains/has a power that saves and/or transports him to a form of safety. Usually this would be another world, but in this case, it was the past. In order give MC a chance to correct a mistake that cost him his life. Main Character Takemichi finds this past to be almost a whole new world to him as he seems to not remember his past (what seems to be) at all. This is rather frustrating considering his future life isn't that eventful. MC then continues through his past to find out it was pretty shitty. Having aspiring dreams only for them to be crushed by the very people he idolizes. Only then to have them re-realized by becoming what can only be considered, a bitch. However, being a bitch has its merits; such a semi-free speech. MC through epic (bitch-hood) preservation; finds out that he can take a beating. This amazing ability would be recognized by his masters, who would then promote MC to super bitch status. Now that the bitchings out of the way. MC grows a pair and decided to save a kid from hoodlums. This kid is pretty special as he is the brother to a the MC's old girlfriend who happen to kick the bucket at the beginning of the anime. MC then engages in what can only be described, as a Vulcan mind melding in the form of a handshake that suddenly transported MC back to the future. MC then realizes he is alive thanks to a key moment he changed in the past that allowed him to live in the future. He then meets the kid who he saved in the past, who is now cop-man in the future. Cop-man is revealed to be a hopped up on cocaine Alex Jones, who believes that MC is time traveler that can save everyone from a fucked up dystopian Soylent Green future. Where everyone's lives suck thanks to a certain group that went ultra rouge in the future due to key people in said group fucking up everyone's lives cause they didn't get daddy's attention. MC also learns that the group he was in in the past is pretty fucked up in the future considering they killed his ex-girlfriend. So MC, under the guidance of Virgil, takes on the quest to save his ex-girlfriend; because we need a plot device other than "because their the bad guys" to move on with this story.

Ok, enough shit posting. The story is honestly not that bad. It trifles with issues of slow pacing and edging the viewers with character development. However, I do admit that while some characters to feel rather shallow at the beginning they soon become rather interesting piece to the story. It was like watching Orange again, with how much I wanted to know how characters were so fucked up. I do feel that their were some excessively annoying parts to the setting that kinda make me scratch my head. Like the fact that apparently parents don't exist in this universe. Typical shonen stuff I know, but it does make the story a little bit more two-faced when you think about the setting being real world Tokyo. Show's kinda got that Jojo feel when you look at the 14/16 year old characters that look like their middle aged men. Not really my problem though. I do find the lack of a plot antagonist or deuteragonist, like a secret detective or something that's been investigating the Gang since olden time to be quite annoying. Like an inside man would have been so cool. Then again the MC and Cop-man seem to be that middle ground.

Animation seems to be a problem some people are angry about. Personally I did not see the Microsoft paint levels of a slide show that most people did. Then again art and music usually come second to me when it comes to sigma tags like "good story" or "character development". Though honestly I found that LIDENFILMS did quite well considering that have the squandered shit post that the Berserk (2016) anime was under their belt. Music sounded good to me. As it should considering its a high cost decently produced anime. Would have like to have heard more jazz considering its still kinda a mystery anime. Like how could you not like some good anime jazz. I think people are just a little angry that its a popular series that has a "cough" couple million bucks underneath it. But I thought that animation kinda fit the theme.

Final thoughts. I usually try to stick away from the popular anime section for a short while and honestly this is one of the few that I caught before it stopped airing. I felt that by the end of it its was definitely a slog to watch through considering it was basically spoon feeding you bits and pieces of new information. However, like the gaming industries likes to say they would rather wait for a finished product, I would rather have all the story in multiple episodes, then the half the story in a few. Something Tokyo Ghoul Part 2 Season 2 seems to have taught everyone.

Would I recommend watching? Hell yes! It's a show that leaves you wanting more. Your like "man, I really wonder if MC actually accomplishes his dream or not by the end of it". Its a slog a times but what good anime isn't? It's got pretty good music and decent visuals considering the studio history. Definitely a plan to watch.

TL;DR: The pacing is an absolute bog; but the characters writing, after a decent while, is quite good. Music could you use some more jazz but has some quite distinctive sounds. Art is good considering the studio. Is not Isekai. Overall an A in my book. Would watch again or buy the manga.

Thanks for Reading.