This has really gotten pretty dumb, let’s face it.  But maybe all hope is not lost for Tokyo Revengers.  With shows that are not ostensibly ludicrous on purpose – like screwball comedies or really far-fetched sci-fi/fantasy are – sometimes there comes a point where things get so ridiculous that itself becomes the point.  And fun.  I don’t understand the alchemy of why that happens with some series and not others.  And I don’t know if it’s going to happen here.  But I do know that if it doesn’t, this thing is in a whole heap of trouble.  And that would suck, because Tokyo Revengers is going to around as anime for a long time.

To give credit where it’s due, there was no recap this week – the action started right at the opening whistle, and I can’t remember the last time that happened.  After that though, things got loopy pretty quick.  First of all, I find it absolutely hilarious that in a middle of a gang brawl, the combatants freak out when someone gets seriously hurt and call an ambulance.  That may in fact be how it works with gang brawls in Japan, I don’t know – I’m no expert on that subject.  But it’s goddam funny, that’s for sure.

Basically the whole episode and indeed the whole arc comes down to the question of whether you buy Baji killing himself, and for the reasons he stated.  I don’t – hell, I don’t even buy that he gets up and has the strength to scream at Mikey (much less off himself) after that wound and loss of blood.  The whole thing is just silly, and unfortunately for me that makes this entire arc silly.  I could nitpick stuff like Takemitchy just – for no reason – happening to rip his jacket off and drop the shrine amulet at the critical moment to stay Mikey’s hand.  Or Doraken standing around like a statue while all this was going down.  But that’s incidental contact, really – once the cards were on the table, it was obvious the deal was lost.

I don’t have a lot beyond that, really.  This whole brawl was one unintentionally comic development after the other, which at least had the effect of partially numbing me by the time the big clown shoe was dropped by Baji.  While the hope for the meta-effect mentioned earlier is still there, I can’t help but feel like Tokyo Revengers has drifted away from what made it click with this whole Baji arc.  The whole time travel element was pretty much meaningless in this arc once Takemichi made the jump in the first place, and the character progressions lost all contact with realism and relatability.  I assume we’re going to have one more arc this season (before the inevitable anime films and sequel seasons) and it would be awfully nice to leave things on a better note than this