I find myself almost vastly entertained by Tokyo Revengers, despite the not-too infrequent head scratching developments it brings to the table.  It’s a good pulp novel brought to life, nothing too intellectual or deep.  But it does have a certain emotional profundity and purity to it just the same.  And I think it’s that emotional honesty that papers over the cracks and makes the whole thing work.  What I find myself thinking more often than anything is “I hope it can pull this off”, because I have a very distinct impression this whole premise could collapse like a house of cards.  And with the realization that the adaptation is probably here for the duration, that hope is even more fervent.

Draken has kind of emerged as the lynchpin figure in everything that’s happening, so it’s not surprising we’d get a background chapter on him now.  With that said – was this the first full scene not shot from Takemichi’s perspective?  I may be misremembering but that’s kind of a narrative game-changer if so.  No father at home, abandoned by Mom, raised in a brothel – none of that is far off what you’d expect.  Draken was a giant for his age, a tough kid, feared by his classmates and tolerated by the middle school kids he hung out with.  But everything changes, of course, when he meets Mikey.

Mikey is not too different as a fifth-grader than he is as a middle schooler.  Small, soft-spoken, but with that creeping sense that he’s dangerously unhinged and broken at some very deep level.  Draken adores him immediately, of course.  And Mikey liberates him from his servitude with the loser chuugakusei and shows him a world of broader possibilities.  We know where this is headed of course, though not exactly how it’s going to get there.

Osanai Nobutaka (Takeuchi Eiji) emerges as a key player here.  In the Takemitchy era Osanai was the head of Möbius – in the present he’s a loser groveling at the feet of a bullying construction boss.  Convinced Mikey and Ken would never enter into conflict, Takimichi convinces Naoto that Osanai is vital to solving the mystery of what happened.  This leads to when of those head-scratching moments I keep referring to.  When Osanai refers to “someone” pulling the strings behind the Möbius brawl to drive a wedge into Toman, how can Takemichi and for gosh sakes Naoto not immediately think of the obvious person?  It’s irritating as hell that they don’t, to be honest – smacking of a convenient stupid stick used to drive the plot forward.

Nevertheless, this is where things stand as Takemichi jumps back into the past.  Takemitchy is determined to convince Mikey not to go into battle with Möbius, but being unable to provide any evidence behind his claims, is there any reason for Mikey to change his plans?  In point of fact, when Draken (sensing something perhaps) suggests that maybe Mikey-kun ought to consider what Takemitchy is saying seriously, Mikey reacts as if Draken is betraying him.  Might it in fact be Takemitchy’s attempts to avoid the gang war that starts to tense things up between Ken and Mikey, rather than the war itself?

My strong sense is that there’s more here than meets the eye.  Mikey’s reaction to Draken’s advice suggests that something is already brewing between them.  And if this cutaway represents what I think it does, it strongly hints that Mikey is still alive in the present.  It’s important to remember that while it feels like things are coming to a head, we’re only like 10% through the ongoing manga story – still basically in the prologue stage.