I’m still a little dubious about the whole time travel mechanism in Tokyo Revengers.  On balance you don’t get the sense that this is one of those stories that’s going to diligently apply a set of rules and stick to them – the vibe is more of a “this would be cool, let’s do it” thing.  But even if that turns out to be true (and it’s too early to say for sure) the series remains very engaging on other fronts.  As a sci-fi fan almost literally since I was old enough to read the purist in me wants to rebel, but so far the persuasiveness to suspend disbelief has been strong enough to carry the day.

I was picking up a very weird vibe off Naoto during his initial interaction with Takemichi this week.  Like, is he going to bump him off now that he’s gotten what he needed?  To keep him away from Hina?  But no, it seems as if it was more a case of Naoto’s true feelings about Takemichi coming out – basically, that he’s a huge loser.  Which is probably true, though he did manage to accomplish something pretty remarkable – if fleeting.  One of those things I still don’t get is why Naoto remembers everything that happened.  It’s clear his reality had changed – he’d never called Takemichi before in this timeline.  Occam’s Razor would suggest that he has Reading Steiner just like Takemichi, since he’s a part of the process, so I’ll go with that until persuaded otherwise.

Takemichi’s decision not to see Hina was galling, but not surprising.  Whatever magic he bottles as Takemitchy seems to have spilled into the dust once he goes from child to man-child form.  One could even say there’s a certain selflessness in this move – he’s got no reason to think Hina wants to see him, and certainly doesn’t believe he has anything to offer her.  That’s what makes Takemichi so frustrating – his total lack of self-respect is what keeps him a loser, but this is the essence of who he is, an unremarkable person in a remarkable situation.  I respect the fact that Naoto, socially awkward and judgmental as he is, does at least follow through in trying to bring Hina and Takemichi together.

That was incredibly awkward, but I guess it would be.  It doesn’t help that the reality she’s remembering is different than the one he is.  To wit, in this timeline Takemichi (Takemitchy?) is the one who dumped Hina – hell, for all we know he might actually not be a virgin but have no memory of that.  Takemichi not remembering things from the timeline he currently exists on creates its own set of logical paradoxes for Tokyo Revengers to deal with (if it turns out to be the sort of show that deals with those sorts of things).

As hopeless as he is, I really wanted to punch Takemichi for trying to convince himself Hina was wearing some other necklace that looked exactly like the one he’d given her.  Their drive at last forces him to confront the truth that yes, Hina still has feelings for him (even if it’s hard to be sure why).  Even then, though, he flees to the john rather than confront the issue – which conveniently sets the stage for Hanma (remember him?) to put his plan into motion.  I wasn’t too shocked at this, though Akkun being the means to execute it was a bit a jolt.

So what’s the deal here?  Are Hinata and Akkun’s deaths nexus points which time will find a way to make happen to matter what Naoto and Takemichi do?  It’s also interesting that Kisaki (who’s pulling Hanma and Akkun’s strings) remains aware that Takemichi is messing with history even when his own history is being messed with.  Does he have a Reading Steiner too?  As for Akkun and especially Hinata’s deaths, they were kind of silly – I really don’t think Hina would be having a conversation in that state, much less have the strength to push Takemichi out of the car.  But it was impactful just the same.  Now we’ll see if the rules are the same the second (third) time around…